BBC Radio 3: Night Waves – The Avengers

The Avengers was (along with Have Gun – Will Travel) one of my mom’s favourite shows. I can really see the appeal. “It starts with a frenzy of bongos!” Indeed, BBC Radio 3’s Matthew Sweet hosts a wonderful intellectual celebration of The Avengers for the “flagship arts and ideas programme” Night Waves. Recorded for the fiftieth anniversary retrospective, this is a must listen for fans of the series. The show is currently available via the Listen Again system (or whatever they’re calling their limited time streaming system these days). And, just like the show they’re celebrating this retrospective is “extraordinarily sophisticated and extraordinarily playful”.

Night Waves – The Avengers at 50
1 Broadcast – Approx. 45 Minutes [DOCUMENTARY/DISCUSSION]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 3
Broadcast: April 20, 2011
Matthew Sweet dons his kinky boots to investigate the phenomenon that was The Avengers, 50 years after it first hit Britain’s television screens. As well as its regular cavalcade of cyborgs, spies and megalomaniacs, The Avengers seemed to present a new action figure: the liberated single female who, week after week, proved to be deadlier than the male. But, asks Night Waves, how progressive was the series’ sexual politics? Was Diana Rigg in her leather cat suit a male fantasy or a feminist icon? And did Honor Blackman always play second fiddle to Patrick Macnee? Matthew has assembled a crack team of thinkers to ponder these mind-bending questions: fans Bea Campbell and Sarah Dunant; historian Dominic Sandbrook; and one of the masterminds behind The Avengers, screenwriter Brian Clemens.
Presenter/Matthew Sweet, Producer/Stephen Hughes

[Thanks Eric!]

Posted by Jesse Willis