The Avengers (TV series)
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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.
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Programme premise and overview
Over the course of its run, The Avengers was marked by different eras as different co-stars came and went. The only constant throughout the series was the presence of John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee.
With Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry)
The Avengers began with a medical doctor named Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) investigating the murder of Peggy, his office receptionist and wife-to-be, by a drug ring. A mysterious stranger named John Steed, who is investigating the ring, appears on the scene, and together they set out to avenge her death in the show's first two episodes. Afterwards, Steed asks Keel to continue partnering with him on an 'as-needed' basis to solve crimes.
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. While Police Surgeon did not last long, viewer letters had praised Hendry's work in it. Hendry was considered the star of the new series, receiving top billing over Macnee, and Steed did not even appear in two episodes. All but two of this season's episodes are now presumed 'lost.'
In the first season broadcast in 1961, Steed began as a secondary character, the protagonist being Keel; as the season progressed, Steed began to be established as a co-star, carrying the final episode solo. While the two stars used wry wit while discussing the crimes and dangers, the series benefited from the interplay—and, often, the tension—between Keel's idealism and Steed's hard professionalism. As seen in the surviving episode The Frighteners, Steed also had a group of helpers scattered among the general population who provided information, not unlike the "Baker Street Irregulars" of the classic character Sherlock Holmes.
The other regular character appearing in the first season was Carol Wilson (Ingrid Hafner), the nurse/receptionist who replaced the slain Peggy. Carol assisted Dr. Keel and Steed in various ways in their cases, without being a part of Steed's 'inner circle' in the way that Keel was. Hafner had also played opposite Hendry, as a nurse, in Police Surgeon.
With Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman)
Production of the first season was cut short by a strike. By the time it was settled and production could begin on the show's second season, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to series star and Steed became the focus of the series, initially working with a rotation of three different partners.
Dr. Martin King (Jon Rollason), a thinly disguised rewriting of David Keel, saw action in only three episodes, as he was created to be a 'transition' character between Dr. Keel and the two new female partners. He appeared in three unused script stories left from the first season. Rollason would later appear in a regular role on Coronation Street.
Nightclub singer Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) appeared in six episodes. She was a complete "amateur", meaning that she did not have any crime-fighting professional skills as did the two doctors. She was excited to be participating in a "spy" adventure alongside secret agent Steed. Her episodes featured her singing performances. Stevens was better known in Britain as a host of various children/teen-age television programs.
The first episode of the second season introduced Steed's third new partner—and the one who would change the show into the format it is most remembered for—anthropologist Dr. Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), who was self-assured, good at judo, and quick-witted. Widowed during the Mau Mau years in Kenya, she was the "talented amateur" who saw her aid to Steed's cases as a service to her nation.
Gale was unlike any female character ever seen on British TV and became a household name. 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. By the third season, she became Steed's only regular partner. The series established a level of sexual tension between the characters, although as part of the evolving format of the series, writers were not allowed to let the characters go beyond flirting and innuendo.
During the first season, hints were dropped that Steed worked for a branch of British Intelligence, and this was expanded in the second season. Early on, Steed would receive orders from a series of different superiors, most notably men referred to only as "Charles" or "One-Ten". By the third season, however, Steed is seen working on his own, the origins of his orders remaining a mystery.
Another change during the Gale era was the transformation of Steed from a rather rough-and-tumble trenchcoat-wearing agent into the stereotypical British gentleman, complete with Savile Row suit and bowler hat and umbrella, both of which turn out to be full of tricks, most notably a sword hidden within the umbrella handle and a steel plate concealed in the hat. Blackman became a TV superstar in Britain with her leather boots (nicknamed "kinky boots") and her high-kicking fighting style.
The Avengers had not yet been shown in America—not even by syndication. This was partly due to its 'live-studio' look, which American television had left behind several years earlier. The very 'Britishness' of it was another 'strike' against it. In addition, the more relaxed standards of British media would have required some moments to be censored in America; in Mr. Teddy Bear, Steed is seen stripping down to his underwear for decontamination, and in Death Dispatch Gale is seen talking to Steed on the telephone while wearing nothing from the waist up but a black-lace brassiere.
After two seasons in this format, a movie version of the show was in its initial planning stages by late 1963. The early story proposal would have paired Steed and Gale with a male/female duo of American agents, to make the movie appeal to the American market which had not seen the show. Before the project could gain momentum, Blackman was tapped to appear opposite Sean Connery in the Bond film, Goldfinger, requiring her to leave the series.
Arrival of Emma Peel (Diana Rigg)
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". The character, whose husband went missing while on a South American exploration, retained the self-assuredness of Cathy Gale, combined with superior fighting skills, intelligence, and fashion sense.
After more than 60 actresses had been auditioned, the first choice to play this role was actress Elizabeth Shepherd. However, after shooting one-and-one-half episodes, Shepherd was released, as her on-screen personality did not seem as interesting as that of Blackman's Cathy Gale. Another 20 actresses were auditioned before the show's casting director suggested that producers Brian Clements and Albert Fennell check out a televised drama featuring the relatively unknown Rigg. Her screen test with Macnee showed that the two immediately worked well together, and a new era began in Avengers history.
The classic Avengers episodes are generally considered to be those featuring Macnee and Rigg. By contrast to the Cathy Gale episodes, two definite stylistic changes were seen.
First, many episodes were characterised by a futuristic, science fiction bent to many of the tales, with mad scientists and their creations causing havoc in their wake. The duo dealt with giant alien carnivorous plants (The Man-Eater of Surrey Green), being shrunk to doll size (Mission . . . Highly Improbable), pet cats being electrically altered into 'miniature tigers' (The Hidden Tiger), killer automatons (The Cybernauts and Return Of The Cybernauts), mind-transferring machines (Who's Who???), and invisible foes (The See-Through Man). The series also poked fun at its American contemporaries with episodes such as The Girl from A.U.N.T.I.E. and Mission ... Highly Improbable.
Earlier seasons 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). In either format, Steed and his associate were charged with solving the problem in the space of an hour-long episode, thus preserving the safety of 1960s Britain on a regular basis.
Second, there was a lighter comic touch evident, both in Steed and Peel's conversations and in the ways they reacted to other characters and situations. The harder edges of the previous seasons almost completely disappeared, as Steed and Peel visibly enjoyed 'topping' each other's witticisms.
Each of the Steed/Peel episodes began with a comic visual 'tag line,' with a caption displayed on-screen using the format of "Steed [does this], Emma [does that]." For example, the episode Death At Bargain Prices dealt with trying to prevent an atomic bomb from being detonated inside a London department store. The opening caption informs the viewer that "Steed fights in Ladies' Underwear" (a double-meaning involving the store's department, and the bizarre idea of Steed wearing such clothing).
Comedy was also evident in the names/acronyms of the organizations Steed and Peel encountered. In The Living Dead, two dueling groups examine reported ghost sightings—FOG (Friends Of Ghosts) and SMOG (Scientific Measurement Of Ghosts). The Hidden Tiger features the Philanthropic Union for Rescue, Relief and Recuperation of Cats—PURRR—led by folk named Cheshire, Manx, and Angora.
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"). Tight-fitting fashion for both Gale and Peel was one of the notable features of the shows; Macnee and Blackman had even 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).
Another fashion aspect of the show from this point on was its automobiles. Steed's signature cars were 1926 and 1928 Bentley racing/town cars, and Peel drove a light-blue Lotus Elan S2 model. (Some of this began in the Gale episodes, as Gale occasionally used a Triumph motorcycle.) From the Rigg episodes onward, special automobiles would be a hallmark of the show, including Steed's Rolls-Royces. During the first Emma Peel season, each episode would end with a short, comedic scene of the duo leaving the scene of their most recent adventure in a variety of unusual vehicles.
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.
Image:TVGuideavengers.jpg The arrival of Rigg coincided with the show's sale to U.S. television. This made it one of the first British series to be aired on prime-time American television, alongside traditional U.S. shows. A change was made to the opening credits of the first Emma Peel season with the addition of a brief prologue explaining the concept of the series and introducing the characters. The decision of the U.S.'s ABC to schedule The Avengers was made easier by the "British Invasion" of pop music and fashion, dating from the huge success of The Beatles and the music groups which followed them into the American market.
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 films, 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.
Departure of Emma Peel and the introduction of Tara King (Linda Thorson)
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 film). 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. At its end, the news breaks that Emma's husband, Peter Peel, has been found alive and rescued, and she ends her role with Steed to be with Peter.
This episode, that would go to air as the first episode of the 1968/69 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. Tara also differed from Steed's previous partners in that she was a full-fledged (albeit inexperienced) agent working for Steed's organization; his previous partners had all been (in the words of the prologue used for American broadcasts of the first Rigg season) "talented amateurs". Image:Steed-tara.jpg Another change returned the series to its roots by having Steed once again take orders from a British government official, this time the wheelchair-bound "Mother" (Patrick Newell, who had played a different role in a previous episode), who was in fact an obese man. Mother's headquarters would shift from place to place, including one episode in which his complete office was on the top level of a double-decker bus; several James Bond films of the 1970s would make use of a similar gimmick for Bond's briefings.
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 the UK. 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 and 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 May 1969. The final scene of the final episode ("Bizarre") has Steed and Tara, champagne glasses in hand, accidentally launching themselves into orbit aboard a rocket, as Mother breaks the fourth wall and says to the audience, "They'll be back!" before adding in shock, "They're unchaperoned up there!"
Production team
The production team changed during the series long run, particularly between the third and fourth seasons, but the influence of Brian Clemens was felt throughout. He wrote the second episode and became The Avengers' most prolific scriptwriter. Succeeding producers Leonard White and John Bryce, Clemens became associate producer towards the end of the third season, with Albert Fennell credited as "In charge of production".
Johnny Dankworth composed The Avengers' original theme tune, a syncopated jazz number, which was reworked for the third season. When Diana Rigg joined the series, the new title sequence was accompanied by a fresh theme by Laurie Johnson, a catchy, brassy tune designed to promote the "English eccentricity" of the show. Johnson also provided incidental music, and subsequently collaborated with Clemens on numerous other projects.
The New Avengers
Main article: The New Avengers
The sustained popularity of the Tara King episodes in France led to a 1975 French television commercial featuring both Thorson and Macnee reprising their roles. The commercial's success spurred financing interest in France to create new Avengers episodes.
As a result, 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 new series aired on ITV in the UK, CTV in Canada, and CBS in the United States in 1976 and 1977. The final four episodes were almost completely produced by Canadian interests and were filmed in that country; they carried the title The New Avengers in Canada.
Rebroadcasts and DVD
North American audiences saw the Cathy Gale/Venus Smith/Dr. King episodes of the series for the first time in the early 1990s, when they were broadcast on A&E. Until recently, no David Keel episode of the series had ever been shown outside of Britain; to date only a couple of complete episodes from the show's first season are even known to exist, the rest having been "wiped" years ago (an incomplete copy of the first episode was recently found in the United States, containing only the first 20 minutes, up to the original commercial break). All of the Gale-era episodes survive and have been released (or are, as of this writing, scheduled to be released) to DVD, as have the complete series of Emma Peel, Tara King, and New Avengers episodes. BBC Four in Britain currently broadcasts episodes of the fifth series on a regular basis at 7.10pm every Thursday evening.
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.
In early 2006, A&E issued a new "megabox" collection of the complete Emma Peel era (with the DVD's now packaged in "slimline" cases); a bonus disc was included in the new edition, featuring the first DVD release of the two complete first-season episodes, plus the extant 20 minutes of the premiere. A&E has yet to announce whether similar "megabox" reissues will occur with the Gale and King episodes.
Episodes
Season 1 (1961)
Unless noted in the table below, all episodes in this season featured both Dr. David Keel and John Steed.
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)
Those episodes featuring either Dr. Martin King or Venus Smith are noted in the table; all other episodes feature Cathy Gale.
NOTE: The episode Death of a Great Dane was later re-made during Season 5 as The 50,000 Pound Breakfast.
Season 3 (1963-1964)
NOTE: The episode Don't Look Behind You was later re-made during Season 5 as The Joker.
Season 4 (1965-1966)
Season 5 (1967)
Season 6 (1968-1969)
This unusually long season of 33 episodes is divided into two separate seasons by some sources.
NOTE: In the episode Killer, Tara King is only seen departing for, and returning from, vacation. Steed's fellow agent for this episode is "Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney" (played by Jennifer Croxton).
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 (making him one of the first actors to write licensed spin-off fiction of their own shows), 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, but 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 Magnetic 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 (Features appearances by every one of Steed's partners)
- 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.
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 superhero comic of the same title (Marvel also holds the rights to the New Avengers title). Nonetheless, Gold Key Comics published one issue of John Steed and Emma Peel in 1968 (subtitled The Avengers only on the indicia page), which included newly-coloured and reformated Avengers strips from the British weekly comic 'TV Comic'. A three-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 1960s, 1980s and 1990s, with Mel Gibson at one point being considered a front-runner for the role of Steed. Ultimately, the 1998 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 for radio for broadcast in South Africa, which did not have television until 1976. 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 on the SABC.
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 British stage version of The Avengers in 1971. It starred three actors who had previously appeared as guest stars on the series itself — Simon Oates as Steed, Sue Lloyd as new partner Hannah Wild and Kate O'Mara as villainess Madame Gerda.
See also
- Get Smart
- I Spy
- Honey West
- James Bond
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- The Saint
- "Don't Get Me Wrong", a music video by The Pretenders that featured footage from The Avengers
- "Mayor of Simpleton", a music video by XTC that played off of The Avengers
Bibliography
- The Avengers by Dave Rogers (ITV Books in association with Michael Joseph Ltd., 1983)
- The Avengers Anew by Dave Rogers (Michael Joseph Ltd., 1985)
- The Complete Avengers by Dave Rogers (Boxtree Ltd., in Great Britain, 1989; St. Martin's Press, in America, 1989)
- The Avengers Companion by Alain Carrazé and Jean-Luc Putheaud, with Alex J. Gearns (Bay Books, 1998)
- The Avengers Dossier: The Definitive Unauthorised Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping (London: Virgin Books, 1998).
External links
- Museum of Broadcast Communications
- The Avengers Forever, an extensive fan site
- Avengers on the Radio
- Encyclopedia of Television
- British Film Institute Screen Online
- {{{2|{{{title|The Avengers (TV series)}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- Documentary {{{2|{{{title|The Avengers (TV series)}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Databasede:Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone
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