I was happily reading Kim Newman's Man From the Diogenes Club yesterday evening when I sneaked a peek at the acknowlegements towards the rear of the book. Kim is nothing if not honest about giving credit to his sources and influences, which is one of the reasons I like him.

There aside from the expected nods to Conan Doyle, The Nightstalker, Department S and Jason King was Ace of Wands! A kids series from the 1970s that I had completely forgotten about until now. The hero, Tarot, was a stage magician who was also a psychic investigator. He had long hair, groovy clothes, an E-type Jag and a pet owl called Ozymandius. He also had a female side kick with whom he shared a psychic link. The stories were mostly supernatural or to do with aliens or mad science, but this was the 1970s way before The X-Files.

Or was the reason I liked it so much (given that I was about 13 and full of rampaging hormones at the time) down to the female side kick rarely wearing a bra under her T-Shirt

After a bit of digging I discovered that the video tapes of the first two series of the show have been wiped by ITV, but the third (where Tarot got a new set of assistants) is still around. Wonder if it looks so good today?

I think after what the BBC have done with Dr Who its time to dust Ace of Wands off for a new series ITV instead of bollocks Torchwood rip offs like Primeval.