Learning more about them gives pleasing insights into Post-war England’s class structure, social expectations and the changing face of entertainment. The Great Mephisto, Stephens’ best friend in The Magic Men, is still a Top-of-The-Bill performer who combines charisma and craft to deliver illusions to two audiences daily.īoth men are well drawn and their relationship is easy to believe in. Stephens, the policeman investigating the killings was a young but senior member of The Magic Men, although he was not a magician. The people targeted by the killer all seem to have links to a wartime unit of the British Secret Service, nicknamed “The Magic Men”, which was tasked with using illusion to convince the Germans that Norway rather than Normandy might be the focus of the Allied invasion of Europe. It successfully draws upon the restless nature of a generation of men trying to adjust to civilian life after serving in World War II and on the then-dying sub-culture of Variety show performers who peddled their songs and magic tricks in shabby theatres and at the end of piers for a week at a time in towns across the UK. “The Zig Zag Girl” is a period, very English, serial killer piece set mostly in post-war Brighton.
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