1968
1h

Summary After a plane carrying three Agents crashes in the Himalayas, they are rescued by an advanced civilisation secretly living in Tibet who grant them enhanced versions of the ordinary five senses, and intellectual and physical abilities. View more details

1968
1h

The Champions

Directed : Unknown

Written : Unknown

Stars : Anthony Nicholls Alexandra Bastedo Stuart Damon William Gaunt

All cast & crew

7.5

Details

Genres : Thriller Adventure Sci-Fi

Release date : Sep 24, 1968

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Language : English

Filming locations : Betchworth Quarry, Betchworth, Reigate, Surrey, England, UK

Production companies : Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Details

Genres : Thriller Adventure Sci-Fi

Release date : Sep 24, 1968

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Language : English

Filming locations : Betchworth Quarry, Betchworth, Reigate, Surrey, England, UK

Production companies : Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Photos

Alexandra Bastedo and George Roderick in The Champions (1968)

Alan Chuntz and Terence Mountain in The Champions (1968)

Alexandra Bastedo in The Champions (1968)

William Gaunt and Juba Kennerley in The Champions (1968)

Episodes

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Episode 1 • Sep 24, 1968

The Beginning

Sharron MacReady, Craig Stirling and Richard Barrett work as agents for international law enforcement bureau Nemesis, based in Geneva, Whilst returning from a mission in China with bacteriological material stolen from the Chinese, their plane is shot down over the Himalayas. They survive and are nurtured by a Tibetan tribe, presided over by an elderly lama, who give them super-human strength, telepathic powers and augmented hearing. This allows them to best their pursuers and return to Geneva, though they keep their promise to the old lama not to divulge to their boss Tremayne - or anybody - how they have obtained their new strengths.

Episode 2 • Oct 01, 1968

The Invisible Man

Surgeon John Hallam has perfected an 'invisible man', a device which is transplanted into the ear and 'tells' people to obey instructions. He uses it on banker Sir Frederick Howard, telling him to melt down thirty million dollars' worth of gold from the City of London. Howard is evasive with the Nemesis agents and is later killed, having served his purpose. Hallam and accomplice Sumner transport the gold to the continent. The pursuing Craig gets captured by them and wakes up at a roadside in Holland. He has an 'invisible man' implanted in him and he has to obey its instructions...

Episode 3 • Oct 08, 1968

Reply Box No. 666

A young explosives expert called Semenkin is found murdered in his Jamaican hotel room whilst posing as a French businessman. In his pocket is a newspaper advertisement reading 'Wanted:A Parrot that Speaks Greek. Reply Box 666' though the sixes have been altered to eights. Realizing it is a secret code, Tremayne sends Craig to the Caribbean to assume the dead man's identity. He falls in with a group who are looking for something, but when his cover is blown he is shot and thrown into the sea.

Episode 4 • Oct 15, 1968

The Experiment

Sharron is met at an airport whilst on holiday by Major Cranmore who invites her to a large house apparently to pit her super-human skills against a like-minded - literally - group of people in a series of tests. Craig and Richard trace her to the house following the death of an intruder in the Nemesis headquarters. They have been lured there and the purpose is for the Champions to do battle with the other group of super-powered people. The outcome will decide whether Dr. Glind will attempt his bid for world domination.

Episode 5 • Oct 22, 1968

Happening

The Champions are Down Under and Richard has infiltrated a terrorist group who have planted a radioactive device in the Simpson Desert. He attempts to arrest them whilst in a helicopter but falls out and when he comes to he has lost his memory. He comes across a derelict bar, meeting an old prospector, Banner B. Banner, who has refused to move out despite government warnings of nuclear testings, He is then bitten by a snake but Sharron links up with him telepathically and saves his life. When he regains his memory he sees that the group have got hold of the nuclear device and are planning to detonate it, in the process obliterating large occupied areas. He has three minutes to stop them. . .

Episode 6 • Oct 29, 1968

Operation Deep-Freeze

A party of scientists from the Scott Base in Antarctica, sent to investigate an explosion, goes missing, as do two subsequent search groups and Richard and Craig are sent to investigate.They find the body of one of men from the search parties shot dead in the snow and send a telepathic message back to the main base. They are however captured by a crazed Latin American dictator,Gomez, who is behind the nuclear explosions and who aims to hold the major governments to ransom with threats of nuclear detonation. He locks the lads in a deep freeze room but they are able to tele-communicate with Sharron back at Nemesis headquarters by transferring their feelings of extreme cold to her.She tells Tremayne to send a message to the main Scott Base but he is reluctant and it looks as if it is down to her to save her colleagues from an icy death.

Episode 7 • Nov 05, 1968

The Survivors

The murder of three students in their tent by a lake in Austria is the latest unsolved case of homicide in the last fifteen years in that area and the Champions investigate. The popular view is that treasure stolen by the Nazis is hidden in the lake but local official Franz Reitz dismisses this. Craig and Richard are shot at as they prepare to investigate the lake, but later find a map leading them to a disused iron mine, which they enter. They meet an old man who tells them that Nazis who wished to continue the war hid a cache of weapons in the mine, but then all three are trapped by an explosion, causing a rockfall. Sharron overcomes Reitz and uses her powers to shift the rocks and joins her colleagues and the old man in the mine. They are confronted by Reitz's twin brother, a deranged colonel and sole survivor of the Nazi troop who wished to continue fighting the war. Another explosion traps the Champions in the tunnel and yet again they must bring their powers into play in order to escape.

Episode 8 • Jun 09, 1968

To Trap a Rat

Junkie Jane Purcell crashes her car after getting a fix, making her the twelfth drug addict in London to collapse in the wake of being fed a lethal new drug. Sharron poses as an addict and, having successfully tagged along with the recovered Jane, locates the main dealer, shadowing him to the zoo, where he meets up with a peanut seller. The drugs are actually hidden in the peanuts. Craig, realizing that this is the Mr. Big, gets to meet him but he is walking into a trap, involving a foreign embassy. As ever, a Champion must be rescued by colleagues.

Episode 9 • Nov 19, 1968

The Iron Man

The Champions are required to prevent an assassination attempt on the life of the vain, womanizing El Caudillo,who is known as the Iron Man, former ruler of South American pocket state La Revada, now in exile in the south of France. So as not to alert him to their true purpose the trio pose as new domestic staff. Sharron's super powers detect and foil the presence of a sniper but the would-be killers send El Caudillo a box of cigars,which are poisoned. He is about to light one. Will the Champions sense the danger?

Episode 10 • Nov 26, 1968

The Ghost Plane

Several American military aircraft have been attacked in the East by 'the Ghost Plane', believed to belong to the Chinese and which flies at an almost impossible speed. A newspaper cutting provides the Champions with a lead that takes them from an Alpine ski resort to a Cambridge laboratory, the workplace of Dr. Newman, an aircraft designer whose plans for a high speed plane were shelved by the British and who is now selling them to the Chinese. Sharron discovers that the components are being shipped out disguised as car parts and will be sufficient to make two hundred and fifty Ghost Planes. She is caught and locked in a freezer from where she must exercise her telepathic powers to alert her fellow Champions to her plight and the progress of the aircraft.

Episode 11 • Dec 03, 1968

The Dark Island

An American submarine crew find a rocket launcher on a small Pacific island and are attacked by Oriental soldiers. A plane flying over the same island is shot down and so the agents of Nemesis investigate. Sharron and Craig pose as ship-wreck survivors and are taken prisoner by the island overlord Max Kellor and his band of Chinese warriors. Richard meanwhile lands by parachute and discovers a slave army working at a rocket site. The missile is pointed towards America and the plan is to make the Americans think the Russians have fired it. Richard is also captured and must pretend that he does not recognize the other Champions if they are to escape and save the world again.

Episode 12 • Dec 10, 1968

The Fanatics

The assassination of a Middle Eastern dignitary in London is the latest in a series of attacks on high-profile figures conducted by a group known as the Fanatics. Richard infiltrates the group by posing as a known killer called Carson. The real Carson then escapes from prison, and the other two Champions race to join Richard at the group's headquarters and aid him in the confrontation. The name of the next intended victim is contained in a securely-locked safe, but Sharron manages to use her powers to reveal that the target is actually Tremayne. They may not always agree with him, but the Champions rally to save their boss from being rubbed out.

Episode 13 • Dec 17, 1968

Twelve Hours

Sharron and Richard are acting as bodyguards to visiting Eastern European president Drobnic and his wife and travel to Holy Loch in Scotland to inspect the submarine HMS 'Weatherby'. A gang of saboteurs have planted a bomb on board, which explodes, killing the captain and injuring the president as well as sending the submarine down to the bed of the loch. Craig senses that his colleagues are in trouble and travels to Scotland to hunt down the saboteurs. Sharron, who is medically qualified, has to save the president's life whilst Richard assumes the responsibilities of the captain. Unless the 'Weatherby' can be refloated, there is only enough oxygen to last for twelve hours so Craig had better work fast.

Episode 14 • Dec 31, 1968

The Search

At Holy Loch in Scotland a team of Nazi frogmen infiltrate a nuclear submarine, overpowering its crew. The demand is simple; unless five million pounds is paid as a ransom nuclear devices pointed at London will go off, destroying the city. To activate the devices a nuclear physicist is required and, when Dr. Mueller goes missing, it seems likely that he has been kidnapped for that purpose. The Champions manage to locate him and, posing as his associates, board the submarine with him. Alas, he too is a Nazi sympathiser and part of the plan, who gives the Champions away. The ransom is paid but the weapons are still focussed on the capital and, with only minutes to spare, the team from Nemesis must prevent the worst from happening.

Episode 15 • Jan 07, 1969

The Gilded Cage

After his file is stolen from the Nemesis headquarters Richard is abducted from his flat in Geneva, rolled up in a carpet and bundled into a van, though fortunately Craig turns up at the flat and notes the registration number of the van. When Richard wakes up he is in London, in a beautiful apartment but with iron bars over the windows. For company there is a young woman called Samantha.Richard meets his abductor who tells him that, unless he can crack a code for him in twelve hours, Samantha will be killed. Mercifully for Richard, Craig has side-stepped the red herrings designed to put him off the trail, and is on his way to rescue his colleague.

Episode 16 • Jan 14, 1969

Shadow of the Panther

Having contacted Tremayne from Haiti to report disturbing behaviour scientist Ralph Charters dies, apparently of fright, with his hair turned white. Sharron is sent to his hotel the Kimberley, which is playing host to a gathering of international worthies, some of whom seem superstitiously alarmed by Dumballa, a local practitioner of voodoo, who performs a cabaret act called the Shadow of the Panther. Sharron teams up with journalist David Crayley, who tells her that the bigwigs seem to tell him anything he asks as if they were in a trance, but later he too appears to have succumbed to the voodoo when he fails to recognize Sharron. By the time Craig and Richard arrive on the island, Sharron also appears to be in a very zombic state. How can they get her and the others ,back to normal and defeat the exponents of the voodoo?

Episode 17 • Jan 21, 1969

A Case of Lemmings

In Paris three Interpol agents each separately and inexplicably commit suicide in public by different means and Nemesis is brought in to investigate. Sharron recalls a newspaper cutting with reference to a Mafia Don, whose enemies all committed suicide. His name is Del Marco and the Champions fly to Rome to visit his casino. Sharron gains his confidence when she tells him she is being followed by a man, who is Craig. Craig confronts Del Marco, claiming he is out for revenge against him following the murder of his brother. Craig is seen off the premises and one of Del Marco's henchmen shakes his hand. He is wearing a glove soaked in a poison which will induce a desire to commit suicide by the recipient of the handshake and Craig climbs to the top of a high building to throw himself off. Richard and Sharron have to communicate with him to avert disaster.

Episode 18 • Jan 28, 1969

The Mission

On the face of it Winthrop House Mission in rural Surrey is a home for down-and-outs, run by Dr. Pederson, but it is in fact a cover. Pederson helps criminals escape by performing plastic surgery to give them new faces. Sharron and Craig pose as gangsters requiring this service but when Craig recognizes Pederson as an ex-Nazi who performed operations in Dachau, he aims to kill them both. Fortunately Richard is on hand, masquerading as a down-and-out to telepathically communicate the plan to his colleagues.

Episode 19 • Feb 04, 1969

The Interrogation

On return from a mission to Hong Kong Craig is captured and subjected to a brutal cross-examination from a pitiless interrogator who keeps asking him about the 'Retford Case'. He finds out that he is actually in the Nemesis head-quarters and the man is a Nemesis agent anxious to find out how he came by his super-human powers. Sharron and Richard are unable to help because they dare not expose their secret and,when Tremayne eventually calls off the questioning, all three Champions feel hostility towards him.

Episode 20 • Feb 11, 1969

The Silent Enemy

The entire crew of the submarine 'Keppel' are found dead at their posts. All have died of cardiac arrest. The Champions join a fresh crew to re-trace the voyage but in the Atlantic they lose radio control.They find an uncharted island which is being used for illegal nuclear tests by a country whom the U.N. denied nuclear weapons. The 'Keppel' crew were killed because they came across it. Richard and Craig join a landing party but they are all gassed, except the two Champions, who are taken to be experimented on by mad scientist Minoes.The lads escape but must flee the island before it is engulfed in poison gas.

Episode 21 • Feb 18, 1969

The Body Snatchers

Two journalists find the body of missing military expert General Patterson frozen in suspended animation in a Welsh research establishment. Villainous project financier Squires and his guards kill one but the other, Frank, escapes and calls in his friend Richard. Frank is also murdered by Squires after explaining what he saw and Richard breaks into the building. Scientist Inga tells him Squires has her father as a hostage whilst she freezes, then revives, Patterson to sell to a foreign power, but then Richard is caught and frozen though he is helped to escape by Yeats, a humane henchman of Squires, sickened by the killings. Sharron and Craig then arrive to help Richard prevent Squires from completing his plan.

Episode 22 • Feb 25, 1969

Get Me Out of Here!

Whilst on a philanthropic visit to her home island of San Dios medical researcher Professor Anna Maria Martes is placed under house arrest as the corrupt government want her to continue her work on the island, allowing them to take the credit. She is on the verge of an important breakthrough and the Champions are sent to rescue her. Craig makes contact but is spotted and Anna Maria is taken to jail, allegedly for her own safety. The Champions cripple the jail's generator and, using their night vision to see in the dark, break in and spring her. They have still to get her to the escape boat moored on the coast but help comes from an unlikely source.

Episode 23 • Mar 04, 1969

The Night People

A poacher is killed by white-robed figures he sees round a fire near Trennick House in Cornwall. Sharron investigates, posing as a student of architecture ,but her cover is blown and she is captured by local landowner Trennick who sends an impostor to meet the boys when they come looking for her. Trennick's wife, curator of the local witchcraft museum, tells Craig that witchcraft is still alive in the area but Richard discovers that the supposedly supernatural meetings are a cover for illegal uranium mining with a view to sale to the Russians to aid them in the space race. First,however, he and Craig must rescue Sharron.

Episode 24 • Mar 11, 1969

Project Zero

Dr. Travis is shot by the post master in a remote Scottish village as he tries to ring the police and his body later found dumped in London. He is one of several scientists who have disappeared after going to work on something called Project Zero, allegedly under government auspices but actually a rogue project headed by one Dr. Voss. Richard infiltrates the group by posing as a computer expert and travels to their Scottish base, followed by Sharron and Craig,but his cover is blown and a collar of explosives put around his neck. He is rescued by the other Champions, who discover that the Project is making a fission gun, which will detonate nuclear warheads. The Champions lead the captive scientists in an attack on the control room but Voss and his staff escape in a plane and use the fission gun to fire on the Champions.

Episode 25 • Mar 18, 1969

Desert Journey

The cobalt-rich Arab country of El HaMi is on the verge of civil war and must stay united to prevent invasion. The best hope of stability is to restore the Bey, in exile in Rome,but he is reluctant to leave his playboy life-style and Sharron knocks him out so that she and Craig can fly him into El HaMi. A wireless operator at the landing stage warns the Bey's enemies of his arrival, and the journey is continued in a truck across the desert. The Bey is shot by a sniper and tribesmen host the trio but when the Bey learns that Said, his supposed aide, has paid them to kill him, he resolves to resume his rule. The travelers still have to reach the capital, however, and face another attempt on the Bey's life.

Episode 26 • Mar 25, 1969

Full Circle

British agent Paul Westerman is remanded in prison on suspicion of having stolen a micro-film from the Columbrian embassy, jeopardising an arms treaty, but noone can find the film. Craig goes to jail as his cellmate and the two men escape, thanks to Richard, disguised as the padre. They are caught by Mr. Booker, who is being paid by Columbrian ambassador Garcian to secure the film but means to double-cross him and keep it for himself. Craig and Westerman swap identities and Booker tortures Craig to get the film. If there ever was a film. . . Fortunately Richard is on his way to help.

Episode 27 • Apr 01, 1969

Nutcracker

After a trip to the dentist government minister Lord Mauncey enters a secret vault and attempts to steal the F File, which contains the country's most important defence information. He is gassed before he can leave and captured by Major Duncan, head of M7. Duncan calls in the Champions to see if they can steal the file, proving the need for a better security system. Mauncey does not know why he entered the vault and he is then killed. Richard enters the vault but memorizes the file's contents before escaping, though he is pursued by heavies, who take him to the man who wants the file. Craig traces a link between Duncan and Mauncey having the same dentist, after Mauncey is hypnotised, as Dauncey was, by the dentist. He has then to get to where Richard is being held before he spills the beans.

Episode 28 • Apr 15, 1969

The Final Countdown

After twenty-five years in prison for war crimes Nazi Field Marshall von Splitz is released and evades observers. He and his followers are anxious to trace an atom bomb, jettisoned from a stricken Heinkel in the last days of World War Two. Having questioned and killed two former Luftwaffe pilots they find it in a lake in Germany and intend to detonate it, playing West against East to start another war. The Champions also locate it, after speaking to an ex-R.A.F. pilot who downed the Heinkel and have a race against time to get to the chateau where the bomb has been taken and is slowly ticking...

Episode 29 • Apr 22, 1969

The Gun-Runners

A cache of Japanese arms from WW2 is unearthed in a Burmese jungle before gun-runners kill the recovery force, planning to sell their spoils in Bangkok to international arms trader Huntington.The Champions are sent to intercept the shipment but fail. It is allegedly bound for Brussels but ends in Africa where the Champions foil an uprising.

Episode 30 • Apr 29, 1969

Autokill

George Brading, a Nemesis agent, goes missing for two days and when he re-surfaces, shoots an American officer in the Nemesis headquarters. Some time afterwards, he dies, presumably of poison. His widow tells the Champions that just before he disappeared, his brief-case went missing. Tremayne also tries to kill a doctor and he too has had his brief-case taken. Richard acts as decoy by having his wallet stolen. He is taken to a police station by a bogus officer where he learns, first hand, that both George and Tremayne were drugged with a mind-altering substance that turned them into assassins. Now he is programmed . . .to kill Craig. Craig must find the antidote to the drug before it is too late.

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