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'The Avengers' is one of the most successful television shows ever made in Britain, and stands up extremely well forty years later. It starred Ian Hendry originally as 'Dr.David Keel', a medic turned investigator after his fiancée is killed by the underworld. His partner 'John Steed' was played by Patrick Macnee. Initially, Steed was a trenchcoat-wearing spook no different from a thousand others, but as the series progressed he evolved into the suave, bowler-hatted, umbrella-carrying secret agent we all know and love, the quintessential gentleman spy. When Hendry dropped out, they replaced him with Honor Blackman as the karate-chopping 'Mrs.Cathy Gale'. The show took off.
Honor left after two seasons to co-star in the Bond classic 'Goldfinger'. After a false start with Elisabeth Shepherd, the producers sensibly cast Diana Rigg as 'Mrs.Emma Peel'. Of all the actresses to have played his sexy sidekicks, she was the one who made the greatest impact. Her arrival coincided with a move onto film, and the plots got wilder!
The pair would be called on to solve the most outrageous crimes imaginable, bringing them into contact with fiendishly clever diabolical masterminds.
The new-look 'Avengers' was a smash hit in the U.S.A. precisely because it made no attempt to pander to American tastes. From the very moment the classy opening titles and marvellous Laurie Johnson theme tune burst onto the screen, it has a polish that positively dazzles.
Where else would you get to see Ronnie Barker training cats to become assassins, a fight where the protagonists wear anti-gravity boots, bird seed spilling out of a dead man's chest, Clive Dunn killed by a 'Jack-In-The-Box', Paul Eddington regressing to childhood after touching a bouncy ball, John Cleese as a collector of eggs bearing the faces of clowns, a computer that writes romantic fiction, invisible spies, Venusian death-rays, rain-making machines, man-eating plants from space, amnesia-inducing milk, guns that destroy nothing except wood, British Rail ticket collectors out to take over the country, miniaturisation machines, underground cities, a village where for a price you can commit murder and the locals provide you with an alibi, and an assassination bureau masquerading as a dating agency. Nowhere except 'The Avengers'.
If you've never seen an episode, give it a whirl. You'll like it.
Rigg left in 1967 and the unknown Linda Thorson took her place as 'Tara King'. The Thorson series is in my view the highpoint of the show. But in America it was badly scheduled and ended after 32 episodes.
'The Avengers' returned in 1976 as 'The New Avengers', teaming Steed with Gareth Hunt's 'Mike Gambit' and 'Joanna Lumley's 'Purdey'. Two seasons were made.
The Rigg shows were repeated by Channel 4 in 1982 at the ungodly time of 12.55 a.m. on Sundays. However, it proved so popular it was eventually promoted to peak-time Sunday evening. Recent repeats have taken place on Sky's now-defunct Granada Plus, and B.B.C.-4.
In 1998, 'The Avengers' was made into a movie starring Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, and Sean Connery. Though not well received at the time, it has developed something of a cult following. A campaign is presently underway to secure a Director's Cut D.V.D. release.
I loved 'The Avengers' as a boy, and love it still. It gets better the further away from the '60's we get.
score 10/10
ShadeGrenade 24 February 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1605982/ |
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20-4-2021 01:06:06