Adderly - Plot

Plot

V.H. Adderly (Rekert) is a secret agent for an organization known as the I.S.I (International Security and Intelligence). While on a mission in East Germany, Adderly lost the use of his left hand when an enemy agent, Victor Barinov, crushed it with a medieval mace during an interrogation. Not considered useful any longer as an active agent, at the beginning of the series Adderly is reassigned to the I.S.I.'s tiny Department of Miscellaneous Affairs, located in a small basement office. This is meant to be a sort of "good service" reward for Adderly, as his supposedly cushy Miscellaneous Affairs job is mostly concerned with mundane (but easy) in-house administrative paperwork. However, Adderly consistently finds ways to use his vague, non-specific status as a representative of "Miscellaneous Affairs" to actively investigate anything the I.S.I. has overlooked, and regularly goes above and beyond (or completely ignores) his mundane duties to uncover and neutralize dread plots that the larger organization has failed to investigate.

Miscellaneous Affairs is officially run by the prissy but lovable Melville Greenspan (Welsh), a man fastidiously devoted to bureaucracy and unwilling to allow Adderly the freedom to pursue his outside interests. The only other departmental staff member is Mona Ellerby (Seatle), Greenspan's obviously over-qualified secretary who is addicted to adventure and romance novels. Greenspan's superior is Major Jonathan B. Clack (Pogue), who is in charge of the I.S.I. as a whole, and is responsible for Adderly's reassignment from active field operations to Miscellaneous Affairs.

Through the course of the 44-episode run, Adderly repeatedly demonstrated his ability to perform the duties of an active field agent, even saving the life of Major Clack himself. Unfortunately for Adderly, all he did was confirm to Clack that he was an important asset at his current post. In fact, it is implied that Clack may have deliberately created the Department of Miscellaneous Affairs simply as a way to allow Adderly the freedom and flexibility to pursue various cases which the I.S.I. couldn't normally handle.