Editing Adam Adamant Lives! (section)

==Main character==
The main character originally went through a number of possible names: "Cornelius Chance", "Rupert De'Ath", "Dick Daring", "Dexter Noble", "Aurelian Winton", "Magnus Hawke" and even "Darius Crud" before [[Sydney Newman]] settled on Adam Adamant, named after the generic mineral term [[adamant]]ine which, since medieval times, has commonly referred to diamond. In the opening episode, "A Vintage Year for Scoundrels", Adam Llewellyn De Vere Adamant is a [[swashbuckler|swashbuckling]] Edwardian [[gentleman]] adventurer who, in 1902 (when [[Edward VII]] had been on the throne just one year), goes to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend Louise. In fact, he is lured into a trap, whereupon he is captured and condemned to be frozen forever in a block of ice by his nemesis, the Face, whose identity is concealed behind a leather mask and who speaks in a sinister whispering voice. The Face grants him one last request, and Adamant asks to see Louise; in his last moments of life before being frozen, he learns to his horror that Louise had faked her kidnapping and had been working for the Face all along.

Adamant is found in 1966, when a building is being knocked down, and he is revived. On emerging from a hospital and collapsing on the London streets, he is rescued by [[Georgina Jones]] and taken to her flat.  Adamant immediately became embroiled in the criminal world of the 1960s when Georgina is threatened after almost being witness to the murder of her grandfather by [[protection racket]]eers at a disco. Though in many ways a typical [[Swinging London|swinging sixties]] woman, Georgina had grown up idolising Adamant through tales of his turn-of-the-century exploits. She tries to get involved with all his cases, despite his efforts to stop her, and often manages to get a job at the scene in question at a moment's notice. The part was played by Ann Holloway in the untransmitted pilot episode, but was recast with [[Juliet Harmer]] as it was felt that Holloway's performance did not fit the series. During the second episode, "Death Has a Thousand Faces", the events of which are set in [[Blackpool]], he acquires a manservant in the form of former music hall artiste and [[Punch and Judy]] man William E. Simms. The character was originally to have been played by John Dawson, who hurt his back lifting an actress during rehearsals for "The Sweet Smell of Disaster" and was unable to continue.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} The part was recast, going instead to [[Jack May]].

Adamant is an expert swordsman, carrying a [[swordstick]] with which he cold-bloodedly kills any enemy who deserves it. [[John Steed]] of ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' and [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] used similar weapons.<ref>The TV series ''The Avengers'' and "Whose Body?" by Dorothy L Sayers{{full citation needed|date=November 2017}}</ref> Adamant was a colonel, and a member of the volunteer strength of the 51st [[Yeomanry]] since 1895, though he is listed on their official records as being "missing, presumed killed" since 1902. He is also a good boxer, and occasionally demonstrates proficiency in [[jujitsu]], which had been introduced to England several years before he was frozen.

Though there is no indication of where his money comes from or how he supports himself, Adamant rebuilt his old home, the long demolished 26A Albany Street, on the top of a [[multi-storey car park]] which he had bought at 17 Upper Thames Street in central London. It is accessed by a lift hidden on the other side of a sliding wall, activated from the outside by pressing a hidden call button. He also purchased a [[Mini Cooper S]] with the personalised number plate ''AA 1000''. The car was a special conversion: a "Mini de Ville" by Harold Radford Coach Builder LTD.<ref name=mini>Mini Special about the car in the DVD{{full citation needed|date=November 2017}}</ref> He occasionally does jobs for the British Government, as in "More Deadly Than the Sword". When he is knocked unconscious, Adamant often dreams of how he was caught by the Face and Louise. He continues to be taken advantage of by women in the 1960s, owing to his out-of-time naïveté.

The Face returned to the show in the second series, beginning with the episode "A Slight Case of Reincarnation". He joins Adamant in the present day, having also been frozen in 1902. His accomplice Louise aged naturally, watching over him during the intervening years, before reviving him. Throughout the second series The Face would assist Adamant's antagonists, but routinely escaped before facing defeat himself. In the final episode, Adamant celebrates his 100th birthday in the final episode, "A Sinister Sort of Service", [[Centenarian#United Kingdom and Ireland|receiving a telegram from the Queen]].