Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Julian Wadham, Anthony Howell, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Dan Starkey. Lobo Chan, Richard Cordery, Ozzie Yue, Lourdes Faberes, Karina Fernandez, Adrian Lukis, Elizabeth Morton, Matthew Cottle.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, especially when it is the prime target for an assassination attempt on British soil of a foreign head of state.

The fourth box set of the highly popular adaptations of The Avengers lost episodes series sees both Dr. Keel and John Steed take a bit of a back seat in the opening chapter and one that with all the best will in the world feels as though it is still feeling the after effects of the falling out between the two characters at the end of Volume Three.

In Kill The King initially the focus is more sharply taken by the appearance of a Major Harrington, voiced with particular style by Adrian Lukis and the entourage that shadows the King of the far Eastern country as he prepares to sign a deal allowing Britain Oil mining rights in his Kingdom; despite what most of his population think who believe that the King should be looking closer to home for friends.

It is in this cold war fringe party to which Kill The King leads the fourth box-set into and whilst Anthony Howell’s Dr. David Keel is relegated to just the odd couple of lines and Steed, voiced as always by the immaculate Julian Wadham, more of a hands on consultant, the audio drama does concede to acknowledging that the bitter jealousy and rivalry between East and West was more damaging in its outlook than the skirmishes between the United States of America and Europe, it does have the weight of not having its two main stars really get to grips with the problem at hand firmly thrust to the forefront of the listener’s waning enjoyment.

There is no doubting the hard work that the great John Dorney put into adapting this particular story, it certainly has all the hallmarks of a classic spy story woven through it with the amount of alleys into which the supposed double cross could be taken, it just seem as though it is hardly Avengers material; a story into which the very essence of the programme and audio drama has been left on the sidelines waiting for the tale to catch it up.

Not every tale told is an ear-catching one but they still deserve to be heard none the less.

The Avengers: Kill The King is available to purchase as part of The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 4 Box set and can be purchased from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall.