The first episode, A Vintage Year for Scoundrels, laid the premise for the series. His beloved Louise (played by Mary Yeomans) is kidnapped by The Face and his henchmen and Adamant races to the rescue. Little does he know that Louise is secretly in league with The Face and has faked her own kidnapping. After capture he comes face to (leather) face with his nemesis and as he is slowly frozen in to eternity by The Face. He grants Adamant one last wish which is to see Louise at which point her treachery is revealed to Adamant and we see Louise taunting Adamant with her parting words to him 'So clever, but oh so vulnerable'. This scene comes back to haunt him time and time again whenever he is knocked unconscious - which is quite often despite his liberal use of a deadly sword stick.
At this point let me explain a little about the DVD set from which these screen captures are made. Produced by the BBC they are a timeless and incredible collection of still available episodes and background story for this much loved (by me at least) series. However, the DVD only has (most of) Season 1 and only two episodes from Season 2 because back in the 70's the BBC decided to wipe most of the videotapes of Adam Adamant - doh! This is a real pity because in Season 2 The Face was reintroduced and from memory those were pretty good stories. The touching and gripping story 'Black Echo' had Adamant again meeting his now aged Louise and the return of The Face from suspended animation.
Series 1 had Adamant coming to terms with life in 60's London and its alien moral code. The story I most remember was 'Ticket to Terror' but alas this is one of the episodes so disasterously wiped by the BBC. It featured a bizarre story of tube trains being hijacked so that the passengers could be used as slave labour to dig a tunnel in to the Bank of England so it could be looted. Wow! If you buy the DVD you get the camera scripts of all the missing episodes which is a marvelous bonus for fans of the series.
There were some unremarkable bad girls in Season 1. I'll skip to one or two of the more interesting ones. Adrienne Corri played a woman who is involved in a plot to mind control the country using perfumed flowers.There is a nice cat fight between her and Georgina but then again Georgina was often having cat fights with the bad women of the series.
Jennifer Jayne played the villainess in the episode "Allah is not always with you".
In "Death by Appointment" Patricia Haines, who often appeared in 60's TV, played a hit woman working for an upmarket escort agency. By today's tropes Ms Haines is not a very attractive hit woman but her imposing presence always played well for the tough woman roles she often got given.
And now a stalwart of many 60's & 70's shows - the always delightful Annette Andre. I have seen and met Annette at cult TV shows in the past and she is always a delightful and entertaining guest. Anyway, in "Beauty is an ugly word" she played sidekick to the ultimate narcisisist named Sinoda (Peter Jeffry) who values beauty and perfection to the point of fanaticism.
"Black Echo" and "A Secret Sort of Service" are the only 2 episodes available from Season 2. "Black Echo" is the episode where The Face is revived from suspended animation and Adamant meets his beau Louise again, older but no wiser. I love this episode. Whether it is the unrepentant Louise still believing in the promises of the The Face or whether it is Adamant's tender lies to her as she is dying I don't know. Here is Louise (played by Gladys Cooper) with her equally duplitious grand daughter (Judy Parfitt)
The very final episode ever made was a "A Sinister Sort of Service". The Face is using an organisation called 'Surveillance Services" to plan a series of robberies. The fact that 'Surveillance Services' having the initals SS is no coincidence. The whole episode is riddled with Nazi overtones both in the militaristic organisation itself, the uniforms they wear, the iconology and even the accent of the organisation's leader. Frances Cuka played a computer scientist working for 'Surveillance Services' who appears to be helping Adamant but is of course in league with 'The Face'.
There is not much more I want to add apart from the fact this series of DVDs from the BBC are a brilliant set of episodes and extras for anyone who wants to remember this forgotten gem of a TV series. Now, time to read those scripts for the missing episodes.
