Stars: Peter Wyngarde, Joel Fabiani

Summary: Peter Wyngarde stars in this British television series as Jason King, the head of Department S, an elite group of three Interpol investigators with wildly disparate styles who solve the crimes no one else can. King is the prototypical 1960s dandy, a flamboyant detective whose over-the-top clothing and demeanor make Austin Powers look tame. His partners, Stuart Sullivan and Annabelle Hurst are far more pragmatic, often leading to competition between the three to see which one can crack the case first. A truly suspenseful and gripping series at the time of its release, DEPARTMENT S retains its original appeal, but also suffers a bit because its swingin' 1960s feel has rendered much of its content campy, though it does add to the series's entertainment value. Contains the first two episodes of the series: Six Days and The Trojan Tanker.

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The hit of the 1969-1970 season, Department Swas an attempt on the part of television company ITC to create a "with-it" follow-up to the The Saintand Man in a Suitcaseseries which were starting to look staid by then. The department of the title is notionally part of Interpol, a group managed by the first of many black TV top cops (here Denis Albana Peters), and assigned all the bizarre cases The Avengershadn't handled. Often they would come up against modern variations on the classic "locked-room" or "paradox" mysteries so favoured in crime fiction, mysteries which verge on the sort of phenomena The X Fileswould later specialise in (except no aliens appear in Department S).

The supposed leads are Action-Man-type Stewart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani) and English-rose computer whiz Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nichols), but the break-out character is the flamboyant Jason King (Peter Wyngarde), a mystery writer and puzzle-solver notable for his Fu Manchu facial hair and an enormous wardrobe of safari suits, ruffled shirts, flared trousers and velvet jackets. King was the only male character on TV to be as fashion-conscious as the Avengersgirls, and his preening peacock attitudes--along with the scripts' above-average mysteries--made this essential viewing for the Age of Aquarius.

Volume One includes the following episodes: "Six Days", in which a missing airliner turns up but the passengers have no idea that they've lost six days, with Peter Bowles; and "The Trojan Tanker", in which a mystery woman is found in a luxury suite concealed inside an oil tanker, with Simon (Doomwatch) Oates. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	4:3 Full Frame
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Character Biographies
Subtitles:	None
Year:	1968
Release Date:	July 10, 2000
Runtime:	100 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	37115 00753
Keywords:	Days, Action, Six, General, Department, Trojan, Tv, Adventure, S, Episodes, Vol, Tanker
Genre:	Action/Adventure