The Champions, The Persuaders! recalled in celebratory book, ITC Entertained The World

By John Freeman on January 11, 2026 • ( 0 )

A welcome nudge from comic creator Nick Abadzis prompts us to draw downthetubes readers attention to the book, ITC Entertained the World by podcast producer Jaz Wiseman.

To be honest, I genuinely thought we’d promoted the book, but after Nick described it as “an absolute must-have for lovers of great design (TV design, certainly, but just great design generally) and TV history.” and “Wonderful stuff”, it would needed checking out.

Released in 2022, ITC Entertained the World delves into the Design and visual style of Lew Grade’s ground-breaking production company. Jaz Wiseman – an expert on the ITC shows made by IT. between 1955 and 1980 such as The Saint, The Prisoner, The Champions, Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation series, and more – opens his archive and explores the design and visual style of ITC TV series.

Fireball XL5 - ITC catalogue card from the 1972 | Via Jaz Wiseman — *Fireball XL5 – ITC catalogue card from the 1972 | Via Jaz Wiseman*

Over several years, Jaz Wiseman has written or contributed to books, magazines on a wide variety of TV series, and produces ITC Entertained the World podcast.

While offering a brief history of ITC, the book’s main focus is to on the promotional and visual material related to those series – press packs, promo photographs, brochures and stills from opening titles. Think of it as an aide memoir to TV series still popular today thanks to repeats on channels such as Talking Pictures, gloriously celebrated across 190 visual-led pages. Well worth checking out!

• ITC Entertained The World – Paperback Edition available here

A still promoting The Champions episode “The Dark Island”. Tremayne (Anthony Nicolls) briefs Craig Stirling (Stuart Damon), Richard Barrett (William Gaunt) and Sharron Macready (Alexandra Bested), watched by the Admiral (Alan Gifford)| Via Jaz Wiseman

• ITC Entertained the World podcast

If you grew up watching The Saint, Danger Man, The Persuaders!, Department S, The Baron, Man In A Suitcase, Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased), etc, this podcast is for you

• Follow Jaz Wiseman on BlueSky

With thanks to Nick Abadzis

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.