I can't say I was impressed with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's 1969 TV show The Secret Service. I'm sure we watched it at our house when we were kids. I didn't remember anything about it, even after seeing the shows now. There was only the one series of 13 episodes and they make a big change in the way they produced the program. Gerry wanted to have greater detail in what's on the screen. He had already used live action shots for hand close ups and that sort of thing. Now he's using an even larger amount of live action footage mixed with Supermarionation and live action. Puppets are still used for the puppet close ups and humans for the longer shots. It's kind of odd, not quite unsettling, and it might have contributed to the lack of any further episodes.
The premise is the priest in a rural English village is really a secret agent working for B.I.S.H.O.P., a covert branch of British Intelligence. Father Stanley Unwin is the priest with a secret. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Stanley Unwin was a well known comedian and he voices the priest and occasionally turns up in a long shot. That's him and his puppet above. I haven't seen Stanley in many productions. He has a smallish part as a landlord in the 1961 Carry On Regardless and he's the Chancellor of Vulgaria in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Father Unwin lives with his housekeeper Mrs Appleby and his grounds keeper and verger Matthew Harding. Mrs Appleby is ignorant of the spy biz but Matthew is a spy who assists the Father is a rather special way.
To aid them in their missions the Father has a Minimiser, he shrinks Matthew down to about a foot high, and then packs him into a special briefcase. It's got a seat in it and Father Unwin uses it to secret Matthew into places. In the first episode they sneak him into a plane that has a baddie that's stolen a info packed government computer. Other times the father used his cover to get into someone's house. Since Matthew is a bout a foot high, he has to work hard not to get seen.
Father Unwin drives that Ford Model T car when he's out and about. There are smaller models for the puppets to ride in. The car get attacked occasionally, in one episode Father Unwin is buzzed by a fighter plane. In a later episode the car is fixed up to fly but it turns out to be a dream. The stories are simple, usually someone has stolen something, or they have to catch a spy in the act, that sort of thing. There's a bit of action, a bit of danger, some driving about and a slight bit of humor.
The model work is up the level of quality that the previous TV programs had established. I didn't care for the mix of live action and puppets as much as one or the other. I've done the series and it'll be a while before I need to see them again.
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