The Protectors (1972–1974) User Reviews

Stylish, Sexy and Fun to relive the 70's

[desmondorama · 8/10 · 24 September 2007]

How could you not resist singing along to Tony Christie's wonderful rendition of "Avenues & Alleyways"? I love this series not for the plots that went nowhere, but for the great cast of Robert Vaughan, Nyree Dawn Porter (deceased) in a pseudo-Italian accent and the very handsome Tony Anholt (deceased) who looked decorative, spoke with a French accent and was always elegantly attired). A special mention needs to be made for Yasuko Nagazumi who plays Harry Rule's talented and elegant personal assistant. Check out her hairstyles and creative costumes!

This series epitomised the stylish early 70's when men wore fitted suits, silk neck-scarves and sexy shoes, when women wore outrageous dresses, make-up and very high, creative hairstyles.

Another Gerry Anderson production (I'm a fan of his work, especially UFO), this series was very much like "The Persuaders", set all over continental Europe and featuring some interesting guest stars of the day. The locations alone are worth watching for.

Watch this series just for the fun and the retro memories. Don't take the story lines too seriously - it was just the early 70's; and that's what mattered!

Protect and Rule

[Lejink · 7/10 · 22 August 2011]

Different to most of the competing cops and capers shows around at the time, "The Protectors", a rare Gerry Anderson project not involving puppets or science fiction, had episodes only clocking in at 25 minutes or so and thus, as I remember it, failed to secure a real prime-time TV slot on original release in 1972. However this gave it the benefit of appealing to casual viewers who didn't have an hour to spare to watch say, "The Persuaders" or "Mission Impossible" to name but two.

Yet there's something to be said for the brevity of the individual programmes as there's less padding and more directness in the story lines and there's little time to be bored. Yes, most of the shows I've seen seem to rewrite the same four or five plot-lines, and seem to invariably include some foreign intrigue, overseas locations, a kidnapping, a daring rescue, a punch-up and some cliff-hanging finish before the end credits roll and that great theme tune, bellowed out by Tony Christie.

Obviously over so many shows there is some variation in the quality of the writing but the direction, probably of necessity, is uniformly brisk and to the point. The casting of the leads is very pleasing, I loved Robert Vaughn in "Man Fom U.N.C.L.E." and while he's not the lean mean (lady)-killing machine he was back in the 60's, as team leader Harry Rule, he commits well to his part and rarely looks bored. Nyree-Dawn Porter is still the beautiful English rose she was in "The Forsyte Saga", certainly not faded and is surprisingly adept in her role as the stylish and resourceful Contessa Di Contini, while Tony Anholt does well enough as third wheel Paul Buchet, suave Frenchman, although his accent occasionally crosses back over the Channel.

I'm working my way through an old DVD box-set I bought ages ago and am quite enjoying the task. My teenage heart at the time was in thrall to the more escapist shows of the era like "The Champions", "Department S" or "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)", but I'm happy to commit 25 minutes of my time to Harry and the Contessa, any day of the week.

An Enjoyable 70s Adventure Series, Just A Shame the Episodes Were Not Longer

[By-TorX-1 · 7/10 · 22 November 2020]

The Protectors is an effective globe-trotting action series from the 1970s about an intrepid group of investigators lead by Harry Rule, with consistent help from the Contessa di Contini and Paul Buchet (although poor Paul sometimes just pops up for a scene or two). Each episode sees the group take on villains and solve crimes, but the 25-minute episodes do mean that things are a bit abrupt. Indeed, some episodes lack clear resolution, introduce villains late into the drama, and the feel of others is a bit like flipping the channel 25 minutes in on a 50-minute drama and then picking up on the action as it isn't always clear why the team are on the case. Robert Vaughn is as cool as usual and Nyree Dawn Porter wears some eye-catching 70s hats, but more time per episode would have been a good thing.

Seventies GORGEOUSNESS!

[robertconnor · 20 January 2006]

What opulence! The cars, the clothes, the interior designs, the DOG! Could a seventies show BE any more seventies? From the sublime Jensen Interceptor, to Anholt's neck scarves and Nyree's exquisite trouser suits, from Vaughan's eyebrow acting to the fantastic multi-Euro locales (did an episode ever NOT feature a European airport?)... pure snazz! Who cared that 30 minutes weren't enough? Who gave a damn about the back projections, Nyree's dodgy accents (Italian? British? KIWI??)...? This is a deluxe show, where EVERYONE has a drinks bar inside a big globe, and no matter what is going on, there's always time for a scotch - "drink?" And the yellow car in the opening credits? A FIAT 850 Coupe... so now you know.

Altogether now, "All the low are living high!" Groovy!

I remember Sunday afternoons and this show,still disappoints.

[ib011f9545i · 6/10 · 5 January 2019]

I recall loving the theme tune of this series and not loving the thing itself. I was 11/12 when this was on tv and so I bought the dvd the other day as part of my mission to watch ITC productions I watched when much younger.

I have watched The Baron and Department S and Man In A Suitcase. I know The Saint,The Champions and Randall and Hopkirk well.

I expected to like The Protectors but I am not enjoying it much. The plots are usually poor and the lead characters are unimpressive.

As many critics say the 30 minute format is a fatal flaw,even the best stories need time to develop,there is no time in 30 minutes.

The positive things about this series is the locations and the look of the show,I want to live in the flats they live in.

The locations seem to mostly be Spain,the South Of France and Malta. Malta looks fantastic in this series.

I am going to stick with this series in the hope it gets better,looking forward to guests stars such as Hannah Gordon but so far I am not liking it as much as The Saint or The Champions.

The Protectors

[gorytus-20672 · 6/10 · 19 November 2021]

November 2021

Oddly i have never heard of this series before, as i have been aware of The Man From Uncle all my life, but as it stars Robert Vaughn and fresh from seeing the excellent Randall and Hopkirk Deceased series, i thought i would buy the series on dvd and give it a go.

It had the capacity to be a decent enough series but the series suffered in a big way, that is the episode running time is too short at 25 minutes. All the others shows had episodes that were twice as long, with these being so short there was very little time to get to know the characters or inject much humour.

Another thing i found was there didn't seem to be an initial episode showing who these heroes were and how they got together, they just seem to randomly solve a case here or there.

Still, its not bad and i wouldn't put anyone off watching them but it falls short of shows like The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk and The Saint.

6ish out of 10.

Nice job!

[perwilvil · 9/10 · 29 July 2007]

I have seen various ITC shows in reruns on television, but not this one until recently. I wasn't expecting much after seeing another short-lived ITC show, The Baron (awful), but this one really shines. The production values on this show really show, with some fantastic cars (Citroen SM, Rolls Royce Slver Shadow, and Jensen Interceptor), stylish clothes, and actual location shooting. Granted some of this is 1970's kitsch, but it looks pretty glamorous compared to the excellent Saint series, which in my opinion was compromised somewhat by its lack of location work. Even big budget American shows like Mission:Impossible shied away from location work. It was always filmed at the studio, and the sets always looked familiar . . . but not The Protectors. The half-hour format format really lends itself to tight stories without excessive dialog. And Gerry Anderson really pulled together some great talent on this one, particularly the writers. One of the let downs is Robert Vaughn, who is okay, but doesn't seem very interested in what he is doing. Nevertheless, he is head and shoulders above Steve Forrest in the Saint ripoff, the Baron, though significantly short of the stylish Roger Moore. Its a shame this show didn't last longer as ITC had a good formula on its hands.

Much nostalgia

[uriahms · 10/10 · 18 January 2008]

I couldn't agree with you more Observer 2. There was no television in our home and we had to go watch TV in the window of our neighbor. I must have been about 4 or 5 years old and all I could remember was that theme music the dum-dum-de-dum-dum part. And the lyrics were so vague in my memory until a couple years ago I download the theme song and wow!!! It all came back to me. I remember Harry Rule and the pretty contessa with her long hair and the fast cars and guns and hair raising adventure! I am desperately searching somewhere where I can see an episode! Great show! Does anyone know where I can watch online? I would greatly appreciate a link! Thanks

As Antiseptic and Sterile as Its Heroine

[aimless-46 · 3/10 · 19 January 2007]

"The Protectors" was a British television show (ITC) back in 1972-74. It was an attempt to capture the spirit of "The Avengers" and "The Saint", and to capitalize on Robert Vaughn's fading "The Man From UNCLE" popularity.

The best part of the show was its catchy "Avenues and Alleyways" theme song played at the beginning and ending of each 24-minute episode. New viewers will find even 24 minutes too long as the low budget and lack of talent (both writing and acting) doom things from an entertainment perspective, unless you can find unintended humor in the idea of an action adventure show in which action and adventure are conspicuously absent.

Vaughn plays Harry Rule, a member of a three-person team of freelance troubleshooters based in Europe. A fair amount of each 24-minute episode is taken up by scenic "establishment" shots to make it appear that the show was produced on location in a variety of exotic European locales.

Harry appears to be the leader of the group, if only because he has the most screen time. Tony Anholt plays the gadget guy (today he would be the team nerd). He is definitely a third wheel, rarely starring in an episode and by the second season rarely even appearing.

My theory is that "The Protectors' target audience was nursing home residents with bad hearts, who wanted to see a secret agent type show but could not survive exposure to things like action, suspense, humor and hot romance.

Which is about the only way to account for the casting of Myree Dawn Porter as a character called the Contessa di Contini. Despite her exotic name, the Contessa was about as antiseptic and sterile as a wax figure. It is likely that the character was meant to be a slightly more sophisticated version of Emma Peale, but the Contessa avoids all action and contributes nothing in the humor, parody, or seduction departments.

Since the popularity of this type of show requires a fair degree of sensual energy, the nursing home explanation is the only way to account for the casting of an actress in her late 30's, especially one clearly showing a lot of mileage. She was certainly no Alexandra Bastedo ("The Champions") and the show's frequent close-ups of her face were not a good idea.

If you have nothing better to do than watch this series, watch for the absence of young attractive actresses (a staple of every Saint and UNCLE episode) as villains or heroines. Apparently Porter had a contract clause specifying that no "featured" actress could be younger than her; and they wonder why these things don't get better ratings.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Some shows age like wine; this aged like milk

[lotekguy-1 · 4/10 · 12 May 2022]

I tried for nostalgia, but only found disappointment. I must differ from those who thought these should have been hourlong episodes. The writing was so poor, with such predictable plots, that they really couldn't sustain 24 minutes, at least from today's perspective. That may seem unfair, but between basic cable and streaming options this show is competing for our time with too many choices from too many eras to justify more than a one or two-episode trip down memory lane. The Saint, The Rogues (a lesser-known gem) and The Avengers (episodes with Diana Rigg's Mrs. Peel) come readily to mind as vintage light crime fare with longer legs. Though I meant that figuratively, the appeal of Ms. Rigg in her '60s chic wardrobe is undeniably eternal.

They almost did it . . .

[P_Cornelius · 27 June 2005]

This series almost works. Almost. But thirty minutes (or, rather, 25 minutes of runtime) just aren't enough. I always thought Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter had the beginnings of a strong on-screen chemistry. But it never really happened. And it wasn't just because of the background presence of Gerry Anderson, whose sci-fi series cast with humans (UFO and Space: 1999) often rivaled his puppet populated sci-fi series, such as Fireball XL5, for stiffness and lifeless performances. No, it was mainly a matter that just as soon as Harry and the Contessa began even the mildest of banter the producers had to move the story along to get in all the action scenes and wrap things up at the end of a half hour.

Otherwise, the makers of the series seem to be flying by the seat of their pants throughout. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. There are lots of interesting and even novel, for the time, camera shots and action sequences. All in all, not a bad way to spend a half hour. For all its faults, there is more imagination in the shooting of The Protectors than there is in most of the static drama series on TV today.

All style, no substance

[Livewire242 · 4/10 · 25 February 2012]

It's unmistakably a Gerry Anderson show. But what works in Captain Scarlet (half-hour format, colourful props, outlandish action scenarios) utterly fails when you attempt it in live action. The stories are all terrible--I would even venture to say that they are below the level of quality found in Captain Scarlet. I watched as much of the series as I could handle, but couldn't get all the way through. Maybe it improves after season 1. I wasn't willing to stay with it that long. When you compare it to other shows in the same genre from the same era, such as Mission: Impossible or The Man From Uncle, it just doesn't hold up.

Waste of Time Pretty Nostalgia

[Miles-10 · 4/10 · 29 December 2009]

This TV show had regulars Robert Vaughn as Harry Rule, Nyree Dawn Porter as Contessa Caroline di Contini and Tony Anholt as Paul Buchet, attractive, professional "artists" (as actors on this show are always styled), who wore stylish (for the early seventies) clothes and appeared to be in an exotic European locale in every episode. John Hough's commentary on the pilot episode for the DVD instructively informs us that Gus, as Harry's Dog, just wouldn't hit his mark when cued, and he ended up mainly in the opening credits. It was just as well. With only 25 minutes to tell a story, Harry had no time for a love life let alone a dog. He may not always have had time to change outfits, either: at the beginnings of episodes five and six, Vaughn appears to be wearing the same yellow turtleneck and sport coat.

Vaughn and his co-stars apparently wished they could development their characters' personal lives more, but it was rightly more important to focus on the action. Not that I feel that I missed very much by not seeing any of this series until recently. Now, having watched the first six episodes, I will probably never watch another episodes. This might be unfortunate since somebody thinks the 19th episode of the first series is especially good. I'll have to survive. But that does remind me that the actor—sorry—artist, Derren Nesbitt, who appears in both the 19th episode which I haven't seen as well as the 4th episode, which I have, had me going with his accent. I thought his character, Brad, was British, although I wasn't sure, until two things happened at once: he asked a French garage attendant for "gas" instead of "petrol" at the same time that a radio report—in English—announced that police were looking for an American fitting Nesbitt's physicals description. The attendant, who didn't seem to speak English, understood the news report and the description. Hmmm. At least we found out that Brad was supposed to be American.

In the Avenues and allyways .....

[jack-smales · 3 October 2003]

I hope I never grow up enough to think this show is awful.I can see why people think it is dated,but I like it.The first episode is one of the best,it was very exciting. The theme tune is great as well as catchy.I often find myself humming it. Gerry Anderson fans might like it,but I think other people will think it is terrible.

It is one of my favourite Gerry Anderson shows.

Strong adventure premise

[occupant-1 · 12 January 2002]

Rather than the glib UNCLE show, this effort for Robert V. had a believable conceit - a small group of bodyguard/detectives hires themselves out to whomever can afford them (without crossing their moral scruples). CEOs and governments were frequent customers of The Protectors, never mob or terrorist elements. As with the best in series television, a good premise and tight chemistry in the cast usually overcame mediocre scripts.

Opening theme...

[Observer-2 · 3 April 2002]

Don't ask why some things stick in one's head 30 years later, but the opening theme of "The Protectors" went like this:

In the avenues and alley-ways Where the soul of man is easy to buy, Everybody's wheelin', everybody's dealin' All the lower living are high.

Every city's got 'em, Can we ever stop 'em? Some of us are gonna try...

Dum-dumm-DE-Dum-dum..

For the cosmic two cents that it's worth.

Shows like this should have 50 minute episodes.

[vonnoosh · 8 August 2021]

I like just about every show Ive seen in this genre except this one and The Adventurer. Both shows have 25 minute episodes and the format stinks. You get action sequences, splashes of plot and a rapid conclusion. The characters end up developing as much as those supermarionation figures and not even important ones at that. I suppose the tv action adventure genre of the 60s did run its course in terms of public interest and marketing by the early to mid 70s led to these half hour shows which are easier to sell but they sacrifice alot in quality. Not being around to view these in their original context now makes this show avoidable.

For those who feel the need for more old time TV action thrillers but have seen I Spy, The Avengers, The Saint, Danger Man, The Man From UNCLE, Missi9n Impossible and Persuaders too often, I recommend The Champions more than this and The Adventurer. Half hour long episodes just do not work, this isn't Batman.

Perhaps the last of the half-hour adventure series.

[TomReed · 12 December 1999]

I remember seeing this series in Saint Louis, running as the last thing Sunday night. As an old fan of "The Man from UNCLE," I was curious to see Robert Vaughn playing an older, cynical, grouchier version of Napoleon Solo. Vaughn's personal liberal sentiments occasionally showed through, in one episode involving a military intelligence case. His Harry Rule character showed nothing but contempt for the way the military operated and its goals.

On the other hand, there was a small amount of goofiness. One episode I recall had Rule and his Italian costar stopping a neo-Nazi plot. Instead of contributing the gold they seized that was intended to revive the Third Reich to a charity cause, they stuck it in a Swiss bank. Not precisely heroic behavior.

One other note: Faberge, the perfume company, made the series (it was "A Brut Production") and the show contained a lot of "barter" spots for the Brut line of men's care products.

Silhouhette

[berryhair776 · 14 March 2006]

Those that remember the show....Does anyone have an idea who the mystery silhouette is at the end of the opening sequence of the show? The Tony Christie theme song rocks. Can't keep it out of my head even 30+ yrs later. Does anyone know the words to it? Is there a DVD set even thought it was one season. 70s British TV....AHHHHHH, what memories. Bring back Secret Agent, The Prisoner, The Thunderbirds, the Persuaders(Great theme song I might add) and my all time favorite......Benny Hill....Thank god for the BBC America Channel. Back to The Protecters...Robert Vaughn is doing a show thief show now(God bless him)..What are the others doing?

Mostly Harmless

[thekennelman · 9 March 2004]

There have been a few Hollywood-star-comes-to-Britain crime series, if that counts as a genre. Walter Pigeon's ‘Bulldog Drummond' being an early and excellent example. ‘Man in a suitcase' ‘The Persuaders' & ‘Dempster and Makepeace' were others of more variable quality. This is the most forgettable of the lot. Inevitably the star soaks up the budget, and everything else looks shabby because of it. At the time us hormone fuelled teenagers were more interested in Nyree Dawn Porter and overlooked the tatty and wobbly interiors, inferior locations and duff direction and editing. These days however it looks dated and weak and even Robert Vaughan cannot lift it. I always let the opening titles run before switching over however, to see that yellow car (an Opal?) rolling lazily over and over almost in time to the theme music.

Unusual for Gerry Anderson, run-of-the-mill for everyone else.

[Victor Field · 15 November 2001]

Gerry Anderson wasn't involved in "The Protectors" from the beginning, which is why it's the most atypical of his shows - it's set in the present (i.e. the early 1970s), it's very firmly rooted in the real world (plots notwithstanding), and while it involves a peace-keeping organisation, the Protectors don't have any uniforms or outlandish vehicles. The trouble is, while all this means it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst his work, it's all very average action stuff.

It's a lot easier to fault the writers (including Gerry's soon-to-be-ex-wife Sylvia Anderson with "...With A Little Help From My Friends") than Robert Vaughn and the late Nyree Dawn Porter; if not for them and for a terrific theme song ("Avenues and Alleyways") it wouldn't really be worth watching. Then again, compared to Anderson's subsequent live-action shows - "Space Precinct." Why? - it's a classic.