If the 1950s saw Lew Grade's ITC concentrating on the classic swashbucklers, 1960s ITC was mostly about the action-adventure TV series. A personal Top 10 follows... No. 10 The Baron. Very loosely based on John Creasey's books. Texan Steve Forrest portrays antique dealer/ undercover agent John Mannering. He is, arguably, a little bit stiff and the series is far better IMO when Sue Lloyd is on hand to add a sparkle.

Woodward: "Once I read Armchair Theatre's Callan script, I knew there and then that I had to do it. It had obviously been offered to someone else - you know that when you receive it late on - but actors are nearly always second choice. I didn't care about that." 1/ "When you start something and it's turned into a series you have mixed feelings. You want it to succeed. On the other hand, you don't want to get trapped in a character. The script was so good I knew that if it was turned into a series that it would be successful." 2/

1955. Patrick McGoohan is cast by Orson Welles in his West End production of Moby Dick, alongside Christopher Lee, Kenneth Williams, Joan Plowright, Gordon Jackson, Peter Sallis, Wensley Pithey and Welles himself. It was an experience he would never forget. In his own words... 1/
“I still regarded the theatre as the only serious way of making a living as an actor and went to audition for a part in Orson Welles’ production of Moby Dick, which he was staging for a limited run of three weeks. I walked into the Duke of York’s theatre one Thursday morning. 2/

Michael Bond: “One day in 1966 the phone rang. It was Doreen Stephens, the then Head of BBC Children’s Television. They were thinking of revamping Watch With Mother and did I have any ideas?” 1/ “A few days earlier I'd been gazing out of the window and happened to glance at the herb bed, and in much the same way that one can often see pictures in the glowing embers of a fire, it struck me that the leaves of parsley blowing in the breeze looked not unlike a lion's mane.”

70s Columbo guest actor killers. My personal top ten. No 10. Robert Conrad as a fitness fanatic and gym franchise con man. Wins the physical battle with Columbo but no match for the lieutenant when it comes to mind games. 70s Columbo guest actor killers. My personal top ten. No 9. Robert Vaughn as the head of a second-hand car franchise who is sartorially elegant but finds himself all at sea once the lieutenant digs deep during the boat...sorry, ship's cruise to Mexico.

"The very best caviar" was how the Guardian at the time described BBC's 1979 adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Nevertheless, the complex drama split opinion among both critics and viewers. I've never tasted real caviar but this thread covers the TV version. 1/ John Irvin: “The dialogue left a lot of space for silence. It gave a chance to see what’s going on behind the mask. A spy story is a succession of masks. It’s poker – the silence is when you are trying to read the other’s mind.”

Ken Loach: It was basically a story about one boy and his bird but with plenty to say about working-class culture and aspirations of that time. We'd all seen the social realism films of the late 50s and early 60s and we felt that there must be another way forward from there. 1/ Tony Garnett: Too many of the films made at that time were too didactic and wore their politics on their sleeve. The joy of working on Barry's material was that the characters really lived in their own right. 2/

TV star cars. Jim Rockford's Pontiac Firebird. Gold with tan interior. The car was certainly more luxurious than his trailer park home...





TV star cars. Jim Bergerac's late-40s Triumph 1800 Roadster. Avengers writer Robert Banks Stewart offering a nod to John Steed's vintage motors. It looked great, even if actor John Nettles described it as a death trap.

Roger Ebert: "The Third Man was made by men who knew the devastation of Europe at first hand. Carol Reed worked for the British Army's wartime documentary unit, and the screenplay was by Graham Greene, who not only wrote about spies but occasionally acted as one." 1/ Ebert: "Reed fought with David O. Selznick, his American producer, over every detail of the movie; Selznick wanted to shoot on sets, use an upbeat score and cast Noel Coward as Harry Lime. His film would have been forgotten in a week. 2/

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring - today considered to be one of the most important environmental science books - was the inspiration for Dad's Silent Dust. Carson explored the devastating effects which man-made pesticides were having on the natural world. 1/ Carson noted that the disappearance of birds was almost Nature's early warning system that environmental damage was reaching seriously high levels. She was made acutely aware that the US government, the military, and chemical companies were opposed to her writing the book. 2/

The Danger Makers, filmed in November 1965, was partly influenced by Dad's teenage experiences in the Malayan jungle while doing his military service. It was clear that some soldiers craved danger as a form of adrenalin. "Once you’ve tasted danger, you’re hooked. You need it." 1/ Roger decided to create a plot which revolved around senior officers taking life-threatening risks: chicken-running, Russian roulette etc., before the reveal that a Home Office psychologist is behind it all, drawing on the soldiers' almost drug-like need for danger. 2/

The Village's iconic props. Number 1. The telephone booth. Described in the script as "not unfamiliar but not exactly like the ones we are used to...the dial is without numbers or letters or exchange disc." The distinctive adapted Albertus font on Village signage was perfect. 1/ The Village's iconic props. Number 2. The Hotline. Works on every level: a reminder that Number 2 him/herself is not the top dog but a mere rung on the ladder; as a piece of sculptural art it has a satisfyingly Swinging 60s feel; and it sits there like a red-hot question mark. 2/

Angela Browne recalling her memories of co-starring opposite Patrick McGoohan: “I just adored him and he was so kind to me. I was a kid. I was 21. And he took over the lighting I remember. There was a scene where I had to be lying there, rescued from some terrible situation. 1/2 I was lying there thinking, ‘What a lovely man!’ Between takes he was saying, ‘Get more light there! Get more shadow there! He was actually lighting it, at a time when he wasn’t in charge of anything. He was just the actor.” 2/2

Rich Matheson: "To me, fantasy at its best consists of putting one drop of it in a mixture which is, otherwise, completely realistic. And, once that drop of fantasy has been put into the mixture, I try to forget that I am writing a fantasy and write as realistic a story as I can" William F Nolan: "Chuck Beaumont was the perfect Twilight Zone writer, more than Matheson or Rod Serling, even. Matheson is very much of a realist who can mentally lose himself in those worlds...Chuck actually lived in the Twilight Zone."

Roger Moore displaying his autumnal brown leather in a publicity still for Greensleeves, arguably one of the best UK episodes of The Persuaders! A country house trap, subterranean tunnels to explore, some fencing to keep TC happy and a fabulous guest cast. That guest cast included: Rosemary Nicols, Cy Grant, Carmen Monroe, Clifton Jones, Andrew Keir and Tom Adams. Harry Pottle created wonderful sets for the manor house and tunnels.

If you find yourself heading for the North Norfolk coast this summer, as I did today, a tiny detour to the sleepy village of Wighton takes you into genuine Avengerland. The village high street and church became the fictional Little Bazeley in The Town of No Return. 1/3 Although the seaside railway station was a studio set, Wighton did in fact have a 'halt' which, bizarrely, closed the same month that Patrick Macnee and Liz Shepherd filmed in Norfolk.

A reminder that before the car-revving testosterone of Overture (The Persuaders!) came The Ex-King of Diamonds (The Saint), with Stuart Damon as Texan Rod Huston. In the later series, Tony Curtis was originally pencilled in to play a Texan too, Chuck Kirk. Bob Baker: "This episode was made for the purpose of trying out the format for The Persuaders! We wanted to have a friendly antagonism, a buddy movie. It is an unusual story for The Saint because he shares it entirely with his co-partner."

Remembering James Dean, in other people's words. Humphrey Bogart: "Dean died at just the right time. He left behind a legend. If he had lived, he'd never have been able to live up to his publicity." Joe Hyams: "[Dean] was one of the rare stars, like Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift, whom both men and women find sexy".

Diana Rigg wearing a 'Chemin', a black-and-white panelled Op art coney fur coat. Available for 22 guineas in the high street as part of the Jean Varon Avengers Collection. Both George Harrison and John Lennon's wives bought a Chemin after watching Mrs Peel in The Thirteenth Hole. Fashion designer John Bates gets his first on-screen credit, having created this distinctive double-pocket outfit for Emma Peel, although viewers would never see it in its vivid pink reality.

Look-in magazine, self-styled as the 'Junior TV Times', which ran from 1971-1994. Features on pop music, children's hobbies, sport, but with TV at the heart of the magazine, including comic strip versions. Used to get seriously excited when this arrived each week! Flicking through past editions reminds me that many of those US and UK action-adventure series were aimed at family audiences.

In July 1967 Nicola Pagett was part of a star-studded cast filming arguably the darkest tale to come out of the 1960s action-adventure genre. Burden of Proof offers disturbingly real torture scenes, including a near garrotting. The off-camera torture is even more uncomfortable. The script questions the credibility of developing world democracies and also asks implicit questions about diplomatic territory and immunity. How can it be acceptable that an innocent man is tortured and murdered while law enforcers are tied up by red tape?