Subversive Champagne - Rodney Marshall

2014 edition, now covering 26 episodes. "We highly recommend Subversive Champagne. It isn't every day that a book comes along that says something new about The Avengers and makes you approach the series from a fresh perspective, but this is one of those books that is both thought provoking and enjoyable. It's written by Rodney Marshall, son of Avengers writer Roger Marshall, and you really should buy it!" (The Avengers Declassified) Subversive Champagne re-examines the 1960s cult television series, The Avengers, through a close analysis of 1 video tape episode and 25 filmed episodes. The book examines how The Avengers - during the classic Emma Peel era (1964-1967) - was continually shifting the boundaries of audience expectation, defying both genre classification and viewers' traditional desire for closure and simplicity. Subversive Champagne centres on 18 episodes from the monochrome Peel Season 4 - widely acknowledged as the artistic pinnacle of the series. It is in this era - caught between video-tape and colour film - that The Avengers was undergoing arguably its most profound stylistic and thematic transitions, from mild eccentricity to something genuinely experimental. The author extends his journey into the exhilarating but 'uneven' colour Season 5, adding chapters on 7 more episodes, thus allowing us to explore the entire Emma Peel era. Entertaining froth or groundbreaking art? Rediscover the most iconic show in television history. Episodes featured: Season 3: Mandrake Season 4: The Town of No Return, The Murder Market, The Master Minds, Dial A Deadly Number, Death at Bargain Prices, Too Many Christmas Trees, The Cybernauts, The Gravediggers, Room Without A View, A Surfeit of H20, Man-Eater of Surrey Green, Silent Dust, The Hour that Never Was, Castle De'ath, The Danger Makers, What The Butler Saw, The House That Jack Built, Honey for the Prince. Season 5: Epic, Something Nasty in the Nursery, The Joker, Who's Who?, Death's Door, You Have Just Been Murdered, Murdersville.