The Avengers (TV series)

File:AvengersBook1.jpg

The most famous incarnation of The Avengers, John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) appear on the cover of a 1994 reprint of an Avengers novel co-written by Macnee.

The Avengers is a British 1960s television series featuring secret agents in a fantasy 1960s Britain. The programmes were made by TV company Associated British Corporation, and the series was created by their then Head of Drama Sydney Newman.

Program premise and overview

Patrick Macnee played secret agent John Steed throughout the series, complete with bowler hat and umbrella (both of which turn out to be full of tricks). In the first series in 1961, Steed was himself a secondary character, the protagonist being Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) - all but two of these episodes are now lost. The Avengers was a successor (but not, as sometimes stated, a direct sequel) to Hendry's earlier series Police Surgeon, in which he played a similar character. Hendry was considered the star of the series, receiving top billing over Macnee and Steed did not appear in several episodes.

Production of the first season was cut short by a strike. By the time it was settled and production could resume, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to series star and Steed became the focus of the series, working with a rotation of different partners such as nightclub singer Venus Smith and Dr. Martin King, a thinly disguised rewriting of David Keel.

One of these rotating partners was Mrs. Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), who was self-assured and good with her fists and quick witted. She was unlike any female character ever seen on British TV. Reportedly part of her charm came from the fact her earliest appearances were episodes in which dialogue written for David Keel was simply transferred to Cathy. In short order, she became Steed's only regular partner.

Patrick Macnee as Steed and Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale.

Honor Blackman became a TV superstar in Britain with her leather boots (nicknamed "kinky boots") and her high-kicking fighting style. It was not surprising that she would be tapped to appear opposite Sean Connery in the Bond film, Goldfinger, but this required her to leave the series.

A new female partner appeared in 1965: Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg). The name of the character derived from the phrase "M Appeal" or "Man Appeal". Rigg's character retained the self-assuredness of Cathy Gale, combined with superior fighting skills and fashion sense.

The classic Avengers episodes are generally considered to be those featuring Macnee and Rigg. This era was characterised by a futuristic, science fiction bent to many of the tales, with mad scientists and their creations causing havoc in their wake. However, earlier eras of the show had a much more hard-edged tone, with the Blackman episodes including some surprisingly serious espionage dramas (when viewed through the prism of the later, better-known period). Steed and his associate were charged with solving the problem in the space of an hour-long episode and thus preserved the safety of 1960s Britain on a regular basis.

There was also a notable fetishistic undercurrent in many episodes (most notably the B&W Rigg episode "A Touch of Brimstone", in which Mrs. Peel, dressed as a dominatrix, becomes the "Queen of Sin"), and Macnee and Blackman released a novelty song called "Kinky Boots". (Some of the clothes seen in The Avengers were designed by the clothing designer John Sutcliffe, who also published the AtomAge fetish magazine).

The relationship between Steed and Gale differed noticeably from that of Steed and Peel, with a layer of conflict in the former that was rarely seen in the latter -- Gale on occasion openly resenting being used by Steed often without her permission. There was also a level of sexual tension between Steed and Gale that was absent when Emma Peel arrived. In both cases, the exact relationship between the partners was left ambiguous, although they seemed to have carte blanche to visit each other's homes whenever they pleased and it was not uncommon to see an episode in which Steed spends the night at Cathy Gale's/Emma Peel's home, or vice versa, although nothing "improper" is ever suggested.

The arrival of Rigg coincided with the show's sale to US television. Previously the series had been shot on 405-line videotape, with very little provision for editing and virtually no location footage. This meant that to all intents and purposes the Blackman episodes were shot live in the studio. A number of these episodes were wiped; those that survive are in the form of 16mm film telerecordings (see below).

The US deal meant that the producers could afford to shoot the series on 35mm film. In any case, the change was essential because British videotapes were incompatible with US standards. The transfer to film meant that episodes could be shot like movies, giving the show much greater flexibility. After two filmed seasons in black and white, The Avengers began filming in colour in 1967, although it would be two years before British viewers could see it that way.

Rigg was never happy with how she was treated on the show (she discovered at one point that she was being paid less than the cameraman) and she left in 1967 to pursue other projects (including, like Blackman, a Bond movie). No farewell episode had been shot, and despite now being out of contract, Rigg agreed to return to film an episode that explains Emma's departure. This episode, that would go to air as the first episode of the 1968 season, also introduces Emma's successor, an inexperienced agent named Tara King, played by a newly minted Canadian actress named Linda Thorson. Thorson played the role with more innocence in mind and at heart; and unlike the previous partnerships with Cathy and Emma, the writers allowed subtle hints of romance to blossom between Steed and Tara.

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A 1970s New Avengers paperback features Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt), Purdey (Joanna Lumley) and the ubiquitous John Steed (Patrick Macnee).

The revised series continued to be broadcast in America. The episodes with Linda Thorson as Tara King proved to be highly rated in Europe and England. In the United States, the ABC network which carried the series, chose to air it opposite the number one show in the country at the time, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Steed and Tara couldn't compete with it, and the show was cancelled in the U.S. Without this vital commercial backing, production could not continue in Britain either, and the series ended in 1969.

In the 1970s the series was revived as The New Avengers, with Macnee reprising his role as Steed, this time with two new partners, Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley). This time the series was produced independently by original series producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell, with French and later Canadian backing. Two seasons totalling 26 episodes were produced. Fans are divided on the merits of the revival, with many suggesting the show lost its magic in the 1970s, and the final half-dozen episodes, titled The New Avengers in Canada as they were filmed and produced there, are generally considered extremely poor.

A recent newspaper report suggested that Macnee himself was responsible for tracking down the original negatives of both series for remastering, because he was tired of seeing inferior copies. If this is true, he is to be congratulated, especially since there seems to be no financial incentive.

The Avengers series five title sequence was lovingly parodied in the title sequence for In Bed With Medinner.

North American audiences saw the Cathy Gale episodes of the series for the first time in the early 1990s when they were broadcast on A&E. No David Keel episode of the series has ever been shown outside of Britain, and to date only one complete episode from the show's first season is known to exist, the rest having been "wiped" years ago (a copy of a second episode was recently found in the United States but it is not known if it is complete). Most of the Gale-era episodes survive and have been released to DVD, as have the complete episodes of Emma Peel, Tara King, and The New Avengers.

Episodes (The Avengers)

Season 1 (1961)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
1-01	7 January 1961	Hot Snow
1-02	14 January 1961	Brought to Book
1-03	21 January 1961	Square Root of Evil
1-04	28 January 1961	Nightmare
1-05	4 February 1961	Crescent Moon
1-06	11 February 1961	Girl on the Trapeze
1-07	18 February 1961	Diamond Cut Diamond
1-08	24 February 1961	The Radioactive Man
1-09	4 March 1961	Ashes of Rose
1-10	18 March 1961	Hunt the Man Down
1-11	1 April 1961	Please Don't Feed the Animals
1-12	15 April 1961	Dance with Death
1-13	29 April 1961	One for the Mortuary
1-14	13 May 1961	The Springers
1-15	27 May 1961	The Frighteners
1-16	10 June 1961	The Yellow Needle
1-17	24 June 1961	Death on the Slipway
1-18	8 July 1961	Double Danger
1-19	22 July 1961	Toy Trap
1-20	5 August 1961	The Tunnel of Fear
1-21	19 August 1961	The Far Distant Dead
1-22	2 September 1961	Kill the King
1-23	9 December 1961	Dead of Winter
1-24	16 December 1961	The Deadly Air
1-25	23 December 1961	A Change of Bait
1-26	30 December 1961	Dragonsfield

As of 2005, the only episodes known to still exist in their entirety from the first season are "Girl on the Trapeze" (which does not feature the character of John Steed) and "The Frighteners." The first 20 minutes of the premiere episode, "Hot Snow", have also been rediscovered.[1]

Season 2 (1962-1963)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
2-01	29 September 1962	Mr. Teddy Bear
2-02	6 October 1962	Propellant 23
2-03	13 October 1962	The Decapod
2-04	20 October 1962	Bullseye
2-05	27 October 1962	Mission to Montreal
2-06	3 November 1962	The Removal Men
2-07	10 November 1962	The Mauritius Penny
2-08	17 November 1962	Death of a Great Dane
2-09	24 November 1962	The Sell Out
2-10	1 December 1962	Death on the Rocks
2-11	8 December 1962	Traitor in Zebra
2-12	15 December 1962	The Big Thinker
2-13	22 December 1962	Death Dispatch
2-14	29 December 1962	Dead on Course
2-15	5 January 1963	Intercrime
2-16	12 January 1963	Immortal Clay
2-17	19 January 1963	Box of Tricks
2-18	26 January 1963	Warlock
2-19	2 February 1963	The Golden Eggs
2-20	9 February 1963	School for Traitors
2-21	16 February 1963	The White Dwarf
2-22	23 February 1963	The Man in the Mirror
2-23	2 March 1963	Conspiracy of Silence
2-24	9 March 1963	A Chorus of Frogs
2-25	16 March 1963	Six Hands Across a Table
2-26	23 March 1963	Killerwhale

Season 3 (1963-1964)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
3-01	28 September 1963	Brief for Murder
3-02	5 October 1963	The Undertakers
3-03	12 October 1963	Man with Two Shadows
3-04	19 October 1963	The Nutshell
3-05	26 October 1963	Death of a Batman
3-06	2 November 1963	November Five
3-07	9 November 1963	The Gilded Cage
3-08	16 November 1963	Second Sight
3-09	23 November 1963	The Medicine Men
3-10	30 November 1963	The Grandeur That Was Rome
3-11	7 December 1963	The Golden Fleece
3-12	14 December 1963	Don't Look Behind You
3-13	21 December 1963	Death a la Carte
3-14	28 December 1963	Dressed to Kill
3-15	4 January 1964	The White Elephant
3-16	11 January 1964	The Little Wonders
3-17	18 January 1964	The Wringer
3-18	25 January 1964	Mandrake
3-19	1 February 1964	The Secrets Broker
3-20	8 February 1964	Trojan Horse
3-21	15 February 1964	Build a Better Mousetrap
3-22	22 February 1964	The Outside-In Man
3-23	29 February 1964	The Charmers
3-24	7 March 1964	Concerto
3-25	14 March 1964	Esprit de Corps
3-26	21 March 1964	Lobster Quadrille

Season 4 (1965-1966)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
4-01	2 October 1965	The Town of No Return
4-02	9 October 1965	The Gravediggers
4-03	16 October 1965	The Cybernauts
4-04	23 October 1965	Death at Bargain Prices
4-05	30 October 1965	Castle De'ath
4-06	6 November 1965	The Master Minds
4-07	13 November 1965	The Murder Market
4-08	20 November 1965	A Surfeit of H2O
4-09	27 November 1965	The Hour That Never Was
4-10	4 December 1965	Dial a Deadly Number
4-11	11 December 1965	Man-Eater of Surrey Green
4-12	18 December 1965	Two's a Crowd
4-13	25 December 1965	Too Many Christmas Trees
4-14	1 January 1966	Silent Dust
4-15	8 January 1966	Room Without a View
4-16	15 January 1966	Small Game for Big Hunters
4-17	22 January 1966	The Girl from AUNTIE
4-18	29 January 1966	The Thirteenth Hole
4-19	5 February 1966	The Quick-Quick Slow Death
4-20	12 February 1966	The Danger Makers
4-21	19 February 1966	A Touch of Brimstone
4-22	26 February 1966	What the Butler Saw
4-23	5 March 1966	The House That Jack Built
4-24	12 March 1966	A Sense of History
4-25	19 March 1966	How to Succeed ... at Murder
4-26	26 March 1966	Honey for the Prince

Season 5 (1967)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
5-01	14 January 1967	From Venus with Love
5-02	21 January 1967	The Fear Merchants
5-03	28 January 1967	Escape in Time
5-04	4 February 1967	The See-Through Man
5-05	11 February 1967	The Bird Who Knew Too Much
5-06	18 February 1967	The Winged Avenger
5-07	25 February 1967	The Living Dead
5-08	4 March 1967	The Hidden Tiger
5-09	11 March 1967	The Correct Way to Kill
5-10	18 March 1967	Never, Never Say Die
5-11	1 April 1967	Epic
5-12	8 April 1967	The Superlative Seven
5-13	15 April 1967	A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station
5-14	22 April 1967	Something Nasty in the Nursery
5-15	29 April 1967	The Joker
5-16	6 May 1967	Who's Who?
5-17	30 September 1967	Return of the Cybernauts
5-18	7 October 1967	Death's Door
5-19	14 October 1967	The 50,000 Pound Breakfast
5-20	21 October 1967	Dead Man's Treasure
5-21	28 October 1967	You Have Just Been Murdered
5-22	4 November 1967	The Postive-Negative Man
5-23	11 November 1967	Murdersville
5-24	18 November 1967	Mission: Highly Improbable

Season 6 (1968-1969)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
6-01	25 September 1968	The Forget-Me-Knot
6-02	2 October 1968	Game
6-03	9 October 1968	The Super Secret Cypher Snatch
6-04	16 October 1968	You'll Catch Your Death
6-05	23 October 1968	Split!
6-06	30 October 1968	Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?
6-07	6 November 1968	False Witness
6-08	13 November 1968	All Done with Mirrors
6-09	20 November 1968	Legacy of Death
6-10	27 November 1968	Noon Doomsday
6-11	4 December 1968	Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) - But There Were These Two Fellers...
6-12	11 December 1968	Have Guns - Will Haggle
6-13	18 December 1968	They Keep Killing Steed
6-14	1 January 1969	The Interrogators
6-15	8 January 1969	The Rotters
6-16	15 January 1969	Invasion of the Earthmen
6-17	22 January 1969	Killer
6-18	29 January 1969	The Morning After
6-19	5 February 1969	The Curious Case of the Countless Clues
6-20	12 February 1969	Wish You Were Here
6-21	19 February 1969	Love All
6-22	26 February 1969	Stay Tuned
6-23	5 March 1969	Take Me to Your Leader
6-24	12 March 1969	Fog
6-25	19 March 1969	Who Was That Man I Saw You With?
6-26	26 March 1969	Homicide and Old Lace
6-27	2 April 1969	Thingumajig
6-28	7 April 1969	My Wildest Dream
6-29	16 April 1969	Requiem
6-30	23 April 1969	Take-Over
6-31	30 April 1969	Pandora
6-32	14 May 1969	Get-a-Way
6-33	21 May 1969	Bizarre

This unusually long season of 33 episodes is sometimes divided into two separate seasons by some sources.

Episodes (The New Avengers)

Season 1 (1976-1977)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
1-01	22 October 1976	The Eagle's Nest
1-02	29 October 1976	House of Cards
1-03	5 November 1976	The Last of the Cybernauts?
1-04	12 November 1976	The Midas Touch
1-05	19 November 1976	Cat Amongst the Pigeons
1-06	26 November 1976	Target
1-07	3 December 1976	To Catch a Rat
1-08	10 December 1976	The Tale of the Big Why
1-09	17 December 1976	Faces
1-10	21 December 1976	Gnaws
1-11	7 January 1977	Dirtier by the Dozen
1-12	14 January 1977	Sleeper
1-13	21 January 1977	Three-Handed Game

Season 2 (1977)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title
2-01	9 September 1977	Dead Men Are Dangerous
2-02	16 September 1977	Angels of Death
2-03	23 September 1977	Medium Rare
2-04	30 September 1977	The Lion and the Unicorn
2-05	7 October 1977	Obsesson
2-06	14 October 1977	Trap
2-07	21 October 1977	Hostage
2-08	28 October 1977	K is for Kill Part One: The Tiger Awakes
2-09	4 November 1977	K is for Kill Part Two: Tiger by the Tail
2-10	11 November 1977	Complex
2-11	18 November 1977	Forward Base
2-12	25 November 1977	The Gladiators
2-13	17 December 1977	Emily

The final four episodes of Season 2 were aired under the title The New Avengers in Canada.

Spin-offs

Books and comics

A number of original novels were based upon the series in the 1960s, including two that were co-written by Patrick Macnee himself, and one 1990 release, Too Many Targets by John Peel that featured appearances by all of Steed's partners. The first three novels were only published in the UK, while the 1968-69 novels were only released in the US. Several of the 1968-69 novels feature Tara King, however the covers often featured Emma Peel instead.

Novels

The Avengers, Douglas Enefer, 1963 (only 1960s original novel to feature Cathy Gale)
Deadline, Patrick Macnee and Peter Leslie, 1965
Dead Duck, Macnee and Leslie, 1966
The Floating Game, John Garforth, 1967
The Laugh Was on Lazarus, Garforth, 1967
The Passing of Gloria Munday, Garforth, 1967
Heil Harris!, Garforth, 1967
The Afrit Affair, Keith Laumer, 1968
The Drowned Queen, Laumer, 1968
The Gold Bomb, Laumer, 1968
The Magentic Man, Norman Daniels, 1968
Moon Express, Daniels, 1969
John Steed - An Authorized Biography Vol. 1: Jealous in Honour, Tim Heald, 1977 (UK release only)
The Saga of Happy Valley, Geoff Barlow, 1980 (An unauthorized novel, with character names changed to John Steade and Emma Peale, and sold only in Australia)
Too Many Targets, John Peel, 1990
The Avengers, Julie Kaewert, 1998 (film novelization)

In addition, a short story by Peter Leslie entitled "What's a Ghoul Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" appeared in The Television Crimebusters Omnibus, edited by Peter Haining, 1994.

The New Avengers spawned a series of novels mostly based upon episode teleplays (sometimes more than one per novel). Only a few were published in the US:

House of Cards, Peter Cave, 1976
The Eagle's Nest, John Carter, 1976
To Catch a Rat, Walter Harris, 1977
Fighting Men, Justin Cartwright, 1977
The Cybernauts, Cave, 1977
Hostage, Cave, 1977

Very few Avengers-related comic books have been published in North America, due in part to the fact that the rights to the name "Avengers" are held by Marvel Comics for use with their long-running superhero team. Nonetheless, Gold Key Comics published one issue of John Steed and Emma Peel in 1968, and a several-issue miniseries entitled Steed and Mrs. Peel appeared in the early 1990s under the Eclipse Comics imprint.

Film

Primary article: The Avengers (film)

Plans for a motion picture based upon the series circulated during the 1980s and 1990s, with Mel Gibson at one point being considered a front-runner for the role of Steed. Ultimately, a 1990s movie based on Rigg and Macnee's characters from the TV series, starring Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes respectively, received poor reviews from critics and fans alike.

Radio series

Between 1971 and 1973 the TV series scripts were adapted (in English) for South African Radio SABC, the Tara King episodes had the character effectively renamed Emma Peel. Donald Monat played Steed, and Diane Appleby, Mrs Peel. The stories were adapted into between 5 and 7 episodes of approximately 15 minutes each (including adverts) and stripped across the week.

Currently 19 complete serials survive, all from original reel-to-reel off-air recordings, as well as three episodes of "Escape In Time", from a mixture of sources.

Stage play

There was also a stage version of The Avengers at one point.

External links

The Avengers Forever, an extensive fan site
Avengers on the Radio
The Authorised Guide to The New Avengers
The Avengers at IMDb
The New Avengers at IMDb
Documentary Avenging the Avengers at IMDb