I am not six years old and yet I enjoyed 'The Top Secret Life Of Edgar Briggs'. This one-season sitcom was an early vehicle for David Jason, casting him as inept secret agent 'Edgar Briggs'. The character was modelled on 'Inspector Clouseau'; he is clumsy and talks nonsense and yet still manages to come out on top each week. Bernard McKenna and Richard Laing wrote the scripts; they'd previously worked together on London Weekend Television's 'Doctor' series. The supporting cast were, as another reviewer notes, played straight and that was a good thing in my view as it gave Jason a chance to shine more. As the James Bond spy boom had waned by the time of the series, the writers declined to put Briggs in 007-style adventures, and instead spoofed the LeCarre and 'Callan' genre. Good as though it was, the show was unfortunately sabotaged by poor scheduling; it was screened up against the B.B.C. drama 'The Brothers'. Nevertheless, it is now on D.V.D. and we can once again laugh at Edgar's incompetence.
