The Leicester Mercury – March, 2000

They sought it here, they sought it there, but nowhere could the starry cast of the Scarlet Pimpernel find a firm promise from the BBC that the swashbuckling series would return-until now.

The Beeb has finally announced that Richard E Grant will ride again as the dashing double-dealer Sir Percy Blakeney, a fop at home in England and a fearsome foe of the evil-doers across the channel in revolutionary France.

The Pimpernel’s arch enemy Chauvelin, will not be around for a re-union. Actor Martin Shaw is stil filming a second series of ITV’s hit medical drama Always and Everyone.

Grant will also be without his screen wife, Elizabeth McGovern, who has been killed off in childbirth, leaving our hero free to dally with winsome wenches at home and abroad.

In the first episode he rescues the beautiful Annette De Martignac, played by Emily Bruni. Also cast are Nicholas Gecks as Citizen Didier and Jonathan Coy as the Prince of Wales.

The new series is being filmed once more on location in Prague – where the biggest problem these days is trying to keep out of the way of other film crews. It is due to be screened later this year.