The Champions heads for the silver screen

Guillermo del Toro - director of acclaimed Pan's Labyrinth - is on board to take the helm of a celluloid adaptation of UK cult classic The Champions, the BBC reports. Alexandra Bastedo, Stuart Damon and William Gaunt Those of you who remember when it was all fields round here will doubtless recall how the minxacious Alexandra …

[Steve]

And about time too

Won't be the same without Alexandra Bastedo though. Wonder who they'll choose? Oh, god, no, not... PH? Or even worse, Billie Piper?

[Robert Ramsay]

the Avengers

I must be the only person in the world to have enjoyed the Avengers film.

I thought they got the style of it pretty right - and let's face it, it was never going to be about the "substance", was it?

Plus it managed to embarrass me in a German Cinema.

Uma Thurman: "Rain - it's underrated"

Sher Shean: "Take India for example - you can get twelve inches in one night."

I laughed out loud at this blatent innuendo. I was the only one.

I told one of my German mates, and he said "They didn't really mean *that*, did they?"

[Philip Cheeseman]

I love this show

About time. Just don't chop and change the script about like you did with Avengers Hollywood (The original script was fantastic from what I've read).

[Dan]

the trouble with the avengers

and most of the other remakes of old classics, is that they try to make them too *big* - overembelish them and lay on shit loads of naff cgi - completely losing the charm, style and identity of the original. am i missing the point? is it not possible to develop a complete original idea, rather than mess with a classic?

mind you, if anyone can make a decent go of it, its del Toro.

[Damian Gabriel Moran]

what next?

Saphirre and Steel? If Hollywood are struggling (what with a writers strike and all) how about we convince some studio of the market for a big budget remake or re-visioning of Chorlton and the Wheelies? I can see it now, Keanu Reeves cast as Chorlton, "Woah, ello funny lady!" let's face it, his accent could not be any worse than it was in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[Philip Alexander]

Who else but..............

If it can't be PH then it just HAS to be Victoria Beckham!!!!

I've already got my coat on!!

[JB]

UK Classic

I think they should think a little more laterally, make a big-screen Hollywod version of Pot Black or Indoor League - just theink of the reation of all those American teenagers to some seriious bar-billiards action!

[Robin Strong]

We are the Champions?

You mean it's not the one with Ron Pickering where all the kids jump in the swimming pool at the end of the show? I must have the wrong programme...

[Andrew Moore]

My fading memory...

Couldn't they also change into specific animals too- or was that another series?

[Tersono]

Just keep that fabulous theme and I'll be happy....

About the only decent thing that Hatch ever wrote....

[Peter Gathercole]

Repeats

Are currently on ITV4 in early evening. A bit cheesy but still worth a watch.

[Stu]

Uhhh?

Am I the only one here who thinks The Champions was shit?

It was a clear case of milking the super-spy genre with rather unclear supernatural elements thrown in, spy dramas being huge at the time. Sure it had that sixties innocent charm but the eps were executed formulaic-ly (is that a word?) poorly.

I'm not going from a distant memory, I think it's ITV3 or 4 thats showing it right now, along with Space 1999 and UFO, which were all kind of sad Star Wars wannabes themselves. The Champs was merely a juggled around James Bond thriller.

All of them have aged like a fine wine with the cork knocked out 20 years ago.

Oh well, whatever Del-Toro can make of it.

<FlameWar enabled='true'>

[hugo tyson]

Animal shape shifting was...

...that woman in Space 1999 series N. When they ran out of ideas and tried to make it whimsical. The Champions were just tough and strong and telepathic.

Totally agree, fab theme music. When do we get a remake of Blake's Seven? Oh yeah, that was Babylon-5 wasn't it.

PS Chuck Norris won't blend.

[Anonymous Coward]

Title

Nothing to do with changing into animals (someone doesn't have Freeview :-))

The idea was that after the accident the Himalyan priests that healed them enhanced them to achieve the best humans have been known to achieve. So anything that hasn't been done by someone, they weren't supposed to be able to do.

[Nano nano]

Location, location ...

But pleeeeeze can they keep it reasonably Europe-based rather than having to drag it off to the US like with so much else. The recent Bourne did quite well for interesting locations but even that arrived in the US eventually.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dah, dah-dah,

dah-dah-dah dah dah-dah, dah... oh, I've lost my place. It was very brassy.

"I think it's ITV3 or 4 thats showing it right now, along with Space 1999 and UFO, which were all kind of sad Star Wars wannabes themselves" - those two shows predated Star Wars. UFO was the 1960s, I think. Space: 1999 started off as a "2001" wannabe and ended as a very poor Star Trek imitation.

I have no idea what they were thinking, or smoking, when they developed UFO. It wanted so badly to be The Spy Who Came In From the Cold but with giant rockets, and Gabrielle Drake in tight, tight shiny suits and a pink wig, and sometimes a string vest. Not necessarily a bad thing.

The best thing was the ending credits sequence, which was genuinely eerie.

I choose Paris Hilton as my avatar, but only because Gabrielle Drake is not available.

[Anonymous Coward]

Animal shape shifting was...also...

Manimal. The wiki is only a few clicks away.

[Fragula The Furry]

Iconic!

Yaaay.. Except they will probabyl cast Sharon and Richard with brassy americans, set it in L.A., and generally make a huge mess of it.

Champions was one of my favorites as a kid.. And Ms.Bastedo didn't just work for adolescents... I was only /Seven/ and she worked for me!!!

UFO was utterly great, and should be made as a cinema epic, but /please/ by a British studio.

IMO UFO was Gerry Anderson's greatest. Better even than the mighty Thunderbirds, and, take away the dates (It's made in 1969, set in 1984) I think has aged rather well. Yaayy Gabrielle Drake, but the string vest wearer was one Georgina Moon. I don't recall G.D. wearing one.

Space 1999 was the pits. Daft premis, crappy plots and dated the moment it was released.

So, Bartender.. We demand to have your finest Gabrielle Drake, and Alexandra Bastedo avatars, we want them here, and we want them now!

[Mr Larrington]

@dan

"the trouble with the avengers [...] and most of the other remakes of old classics, is that they try to make them too *big* "

No, mate, the trouble is that Hollywood is utterly bereft of Ideas these days. The person responsible for the concept of remaking "The Long Good Friday" will be first to be nailed to the floor the day after I lead the panzers down Whitehall.

Nobody goes 'ome until I find 'oo dunnit, and why.

[Nano nano]

G Drake....

Saw her naked once in "La Ronde" at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre ...