MARTIN JOHNSON

Along with the Beatles, the Mini, and the hula hoop, the 1960s was also memorable for the cult TV series Mission Impossible, in which the hero – Jim – was regularly required to parachute behind enemy lines, impersonate the commander-in-chief of some warmongering banana republic, blow up all their weapons and save the free world. All before breakfast.
Jim got his instructions via a tape recorder, and instead of lobbing it into the waste-paper basket and muttering, as any normal person would have done: “Is this some kind of wind-up&hel...