- My Satellite Setup
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- My Location
- Wirral, NW UK
Sixties classic spy/adventure/sci fi series comes to Talking Pictures TV tomorrow (Sunday 28th December) at 4:00pm.
This hit the British TV screens originally at 8:00pm on a Thursday, immediately after Top of the Tops IIRC.
This first episode - 'The Vulcan Affair' - is actually the pilot episode and is interesting for many reasons. It seems to exist in three versions. The TV episode length is in black and white although a colour version version does exist. This TV version shows jumps in the story in several places places where bits of a longer version has been hacked out which makes following the story somewhat bitty.
Originally Leo G. Carroll's Alexander Waverly was not there and a character called Mr. Allison headed the organisation. The programme was called 'Solo' and the enemy organisation was called W.A.S.P. not THRUSH. Illya Kuryakin appears in quite a small role in the pilot. It was a little later when the producers realised how popular the character was and he moved to become more of a co-starring character. Much like Spock in Star Trek in fact. Even to one of the studio executives wanting the character removing entirely at the beginning!
James Bond creator Ian Fleming was involved in the creation of the series. He contributed the name 'Napoleon Solo' but was forced to withdraw after legal proceedings were threatened by Eon Productions.
I would imagine that the episodes will also be available to stream from TPTV Encore although I can't confirm this.
Enjoy.
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