Yes, it had a budget of 50p, yes they were always running round the same quarry in Somerset pretending they were on a different planet than last week, but it was still great. And right at the helm, making it greater, was Paul Darrow as Avon, the best good / bad guy in TV sci-fi.
Put it this way, no one in our school wanted to be Blake. We all wanted to be Avon. He didn't take shit from anyone, didn't trust anyone and didn't depend on anyone. He was Mr. Cool.
And Darrow was shameless in his enjoyment of the role, somehow managing to be both camp and deadly serious at the same time.
Plus he & Servalan always had that thing going on...
Paul was also keen on connecting with the fans, as for instance regularly writing for the Blake's 7 magazine:
And of course, the mag ran a Blake comic strip. OK, it was written on the level of Look-In's many TV adaptations, but you did get Ian Kennedy and then Steve Dillon on art. And something of the essence of Avon can be glimpsed here, even if a comic strip can in no way match Darrow's delivery with a line.
