Extras : Interactive menus, Trailer for DVD 'Cool Spies and Private Eyes'
from Carlton, Picture of original ITC brochure cover
This is
another of the slew of television favourites released by Carlton under the
banner of 'Cool Spies and Private Eyes'. For a pence less than a tenner
you get the first two episodes of 'The Champions' - "They're the tops.
The best. They're the Champions".
They are the ever sun-tanned American Stuart Damon, the gorgeously Italian
Alexandro Bastedo and the big-foreheaded Brit William Gaunt.
They have special powers like jumping quite high and hearing things a long way
off. They use these powers to fight International crime as the agents of
'Nemesis', a Geneva-based crime-busting organisational thingy.
It's a bit silly. These first two episodes were released as a movie, and the
scene-setting Episode 1 ('The Beginning') explains how a kindly
buddhist type makes them superhuman after they crash land in Tibet whilst on a
mission. Episode 2 ('The Invisible Man') stars Peter Wyngarde as a
crazed Bupa plastic surgeon who controls people by putting small electronic
devices in their heads.
The problem for me was that Stuart Damon, eye-shadowed and fake-tanned,
is a distinctly unlikeable figure implanted for the American market (why are
grafted-on Yanks always so terrible at their job?). And, I'm sorry, but
William Gaunt isn't exactly Mr Charisma. Alexandre Bastedo, though, is a
lovely 60's pre-feminist dream of a woman, no doubt an excellent cook, nanny
and male forehead-stroker. If you like the characters, though, perhaps you
might enjoy these opening episodes a great deal.
The picture is 4:3 and is comparable to broadcast standard.
The sound is in mono.
Extras :
Chapters :
8 Chapters for both episodes.
Languages/Subtitles :
English for hearing impaired.
And there's more... :
Bloody crikey! Carlton DVD actually has some extras shocker! Well, there are
character biographies (Character, not actor). Then there's a picture of an
ITC brochure and a trailer for Carlton's 'Cool Spies and Private Eyes'.
Menu :
A static menu with two animated televisions showing excerpts from the episodes.
Overall, a lovely camp Christmas cake of a 60's TV series. Stuart Damon is
suffering from a serious case of Bob Monkhouse tan though.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
