Each year, at the Edinburgh Festival, an award is given out in the name of James MacTaggart, who died in 1974. This respected writer/producer/director - 'The Wednesday Play' was among his credits - must have been quite a catch for Verity Lambert in 1966. His 'Adam Adamant Lives!' episode - 'Wish You Were Here' - no longer exists in the archives, but the script was made available on the D.V.D. set. Simms' mother ( Hilda Barry ) is charged with disturbing the peace - she had repeatedly a hit a man called Saville ( no, its not Jimmy. This version was played by Peter Birrel ) over the head with her umbrella. Simms temporarily leaves Adam's employ and travels to Southend to find out what happened. Saville worked for 'Sonia' ( the late Marion Mathie, a future wife of Leo McKern's 'Rumpole Of The Bailey' ), owner of the Fundrome Theatre. Simms gets a job there as entertainer. Saville had been running a scam designed to con sweet old ladies out of their pensions - rigged amusement arcade machines. Receiving a postcard from Simms that reads simply 'wish you were here', Adam thinks Simms might be in danger and heads to Southend...
Having saved the country from the fiendish machinations of The Face, here Adam is faced with a somewhat less Earth-shattering menace; a crook called 'Lord Hawksmoor' ( the late Michael Gwynn ) who poses as a benevolent Robin Hood-type character while secretly swindling people. There is a lot about the script to like, such as some witty exchanges between Adam and Hawksmoor, but overall it feels more like an episode of some other series, such as 'Z-Cars'. Adam does not even get to fight anyone. Georgie also gets a job at the Fundrome, though, as a stripper! A top-name writer does not always guarantee a top-drawer script, as 'Dr.Who' will testify to; in 1984, Anthony Steven gave the world the atrocious 'The Twin Dilemma', from which the Colin Baker era never really recovered. There is, however, an amusing coda to 'Wish You Were Here' in which Adam discovers he has been driving about London without a licence!
Having saved the country from the fiendish machinations of The Face, here Adam is faced with a somewhat less Earth-shattering menace; a crook called 'Lord Hawksmoor' ( the late Michael Gwynn ) who poses as a benevolent Robin Hood-type character while secretly swindling people. There is a lot about the script to like, such as some witty exchanges between Adam and Hawksmoor, but overall it feels more like an episode of some other series, such as 'Z-Cars'. Adam does not even get to fight anyone. Georgie also gets a job at the Fundrome, though, as a stripper! A top-name writer does not always guarantee a top-drawer script, as 'Dr.Who' will testify to; in 1984, Anthony Steven gave the world the atrocious 'The Twin Dilemma', from which the Colin Baker era never really recovered. There is, however, an amusing coda to 'Wish You Were Here' in which Adam discovers he has been driving about London without a licence!
