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Jason King is a 1970s British TV series starring Peter Wyngarde.

It is about a celebrity novelist who keeps getting caught up in adventures featuring glamorous women, exotic locations, and menacing villains — which he then uses as inspiration for his novels. It was a spin-off from the earlier series Department S.

The character Jason King was an influence on several later fictional creations, including Austin Powers and Richard Jeperson of the Diogenes Club. He has been homaged in The Invisibles, The Dark Phoenix Saga, and Rab C. Nesbitt, and was one of the characters parodied in The Comic Strip Presents: Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown.


This series provides examples of:

  • Amateur Sleuth: King is just a mystery writer. But he's pretty good at his "other" job.
  • Casting Gag: Peter Wyngarde playing skirt-chaser Jason King (although Wyngarde's homosexuality was not known to the general public at the time, it was common knowledge within acting circles).
  • Checkpoint Charlie: One episode has a defector being smuggled by faking his death and being taken across the Berlin Wall in a coffin.
  • Costume Porn: Jason King. Lots of tailor-made outfits and fancy rings.
  • The Dandy: Jason King. The man loves himself all the fashionable outfits of the era.
  • Executive Meddling (In-Universe): The first episode has King pitching his TV adaptation to an American network executive, who keeps insisting on changes to make things Hotter and Sexier, or the plot simpler and more exciting.
  • The Fashionista: Jason King. Even the pajama coats he wears are tailor-made!
  • Genre Savvy: King writes mystery novels for a living. He knows plenty of the regular tricks bad guys do, and this helps him solve mysteries.
  • The Pornomancer: Jason King. Girl of the Week, hot secretary (that transcribes the books he writes in his head and then tells her), the works.
  • Porn Stache: Jason King. He's even told they're going out of style in the first episode.
  • '70s Hair: Jason King. Big 'fro and Porn Stache.

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