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Four Cult Hits Converge in A&E's 'The Spy Collection'
by Reg Seeton
 The late 1960s and early 1970s were filled with some of the most bold and fearless shows on television. Although the era saw a lot of covert drama on TV in North America, with shows like Mission Impossible, it was actually the UK that was leading the way with secret agent organization based shows that followed in the footsteps of others like Danger Man, The Avengers and The Saint. Now available on DVD thanks to A&E, four legendary cult classics get new life on home video in The Spy Collection, which gives fans a variety of episodes and special features from The Prisoner, The Persuaders, The Champions, and The Protectors.
Perfect for any fan of cult covert ops, here's a rundown of what retro goodness you'll find in A&E's new 14-Disc Spy Collection:
The Prisoner
When you hear the term "ahead of its time" in regard to television, The Prisoner is it. Starring late British actor Patrick McGoohan, and running 17 episodes from 1967 to 1968, The Prisoner was so far ahead of its time that when you watch it today it's still hard to piece together. However, it’s not difficult to understand is the symbolic undertones that spoke directly to the many counterculture clashes of the late 1960s. The story follows a retired, information rich British secret agent who's unwillingly sent to a mysterious island where he's given the name "Number Six" and spends his captive time trying to discover the identity behind the dictatorial "Number One," the organization behind his imprisonment while attempting to escape his bizarre prison home called "The Village." Orwellian in nature, The Prisoner is more about government intervention and control over a population of numbers and the stark reality of how quickly your rights can be taken away. Interestingly, The Prisoner also shed light on the problem of identity theft, which has now become an epidemic in today's society. 40 years later, at a time of similar political upheaval, it's much easier to understand the relevancy of The Prisoner, which may be a clue to why we'll be seeing a remake of The Prisoner on AMC in 2009.
The DVD:
'60s secret agent fans will find three episodes of the cult series - "The Arrival," Free for All," and "Dance of the Dead" - that chronicle Number Six's arrival on the island, his run for election, and his efforts to save an old friend from the powers of the Village. The true bonus of The Prisoner part of The Spy Collection is that fans get a lot of extras that were spread throughout segmented A&E episode "volume" sets of The Prisoner, which means that you get more special features while bypassing most of the series. From an alternate version of the second episode of "The Chimes of Big Ben" and rare footage of the "Foreign File Cabinet" to "Original Broadcast Trailers" and an "Interactive Map of the Village," and more, the extras are more than enough to introduce you to The Prisoner but not even close to what's required to comprehend the significance of the series.
The Persuaders
 If you read the inside description of The Persuaders and look at the front cover image of Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, it all makes perfect sense - "They're a pair of playboys with nothing in common but trouble..." Running from 1971 to 1972, with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore as the colorful and vastly different crime solving duo of Danny Wilde (Curtis) and Lord Brett Sinclair (Moore), The Persuaders infused investigative drama, high-stakes action, and humor that brought Americans and Brits together in a show that allowed them to laugh at their cultural differences through its characters. Featuring a title sequence that clearly established the back stories of Wilde and Sinclair, with a memorable theme from the legendary John Barry (Indecent Proposal, Dances with Wolves), The Persuaders also boasted two of the coolest cars of the time, as the New York streetwise Curtis took a regular seat behind a Ferrari Dino 246 GT while the upper class Moore drove an Aston Martin DBS. Although The Persuaders didn't become a hit in the U.S. market, the series went on to garner a massive cult following in Europe after it ended in 1972.
The DVD:
Out of the 24 episodes aired of The Persuaders, fans receive a variety of 13 episodes across 4 discs. As for bonuses, Roger Moore, production exec Johnny Goodman, and producer Robert S. Baker revisit the episodes "Overture" and "The Time and The Place" on two highly interesting commentary tracks while two Tony Curtis and Roger Moore biographies and a photo gallery round out The Persuaders segment of The Spy Collection. If you're a retro fan of The Persuaders, this is the perfect collection of episodes to revisit the series, with reflective shop talk from Roger Moore.
The Champions
 If there's any series that made the United Nations look cool, it's The Champions, which ran for a total of 30 episodes from 1968 to 1969. Starring Stuart Damon of General Hospital soap fame as Craig Stirling, Alexandra Bastedo as Sharron Macready and William Gaunt as Richard Barrett, The Champions centered around the secret United Nations law enforcement organization known as "Nemesis" that tracked world villains using everything from their unique intellectual capabilities and combat skills to remote viewing and ESP. The series plot kicked off when Stirling, Macready, and Gaunt were involved in a plane crash in the Himalayas and rescued by a mysterious culture that gave them all special powers. Another series ahead of its time, The Champions dealt with stories involving cryogenics, weapons trading, nuclear testing, drug trafficking, advanced military experiments, and tortuous interrogation techniques. The short-lived series went on to be a cult hit along with its secret agent counterparts. A covert wing of the U.N. working for world peace would be a great TV remake in an equally relevant era.
Interestingly, the series featured a few notable guest names that North American fans are familiar with, including Star Wars "Darth Vader" actor David Prowse in the second episode "The Invisible Man" and Donald Sutherland in Episode 16 entitled "Shadow of the Panther."
The DVD: As compared to the extras on the discs for The Prisoner and The Persuaders, the four discs of The Champions only contain photo galleries and filmographies of the cast. However, the bonus is that fans receive half of the series, with 15 episodes.
The Protectors
 The diamond in the Spy Collection is the 1972-74 series, The Protectors, an action thriller that was created by the great Gerry Anderson who was also the brainchild behind such awesome cult shows as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons, UFO, Space 1999, and Terrahawks. Starring Robert Vaughn of Man from U.N.C.L.E. fame, Tony Anholt (later in Space 1999), and Nyree Dawn Porter (The Saint, The Forsyte Saga) as global private eyes working for the organization known as The Protectors, the series became a UK hit for two seasons and featured a wide array of captivating locations to give the show a "life in the fast lane" feel that fit with the jet-set feel of the early '70s. Like The Persuaders, the characters of The Protectors were known for their luxurious lifestyles while driving only the best of European sports cars that money could buy, which included a Citroën SM and Jensen Interceptor, two cars that many celebrities of the era had in their personal garages. Although The Protectors found an audience, it couldn't find funding for a third season and was sent on a one-way mission into television history.
The DVD: Although fans of The Protectors receive 25 episodes, mainly from the first season, the "less is more" mentality shines in the extras. The diamond in the rough is the commentary track found on the very first episode, "2000 FT to Die," by director John Hough who went on to direct such memorable '70s films as The Legend of Hell House, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry and Escape to Witch Mountain plus others like The Watcher in the Woods and American Gothic. It's a fascinating trip down memory lane with Hough who also served as 2nd Unit director on The Champions before getting his own solo director's chair.
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