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The Avengers 6.31: Requiem   Is this the least inspired Avengers episode? It certainly had me on the verge of giving up the will, with its crude, jigsaw, memory-association plot that seemed to consist entirely of filler in aid of a reveal that was transparently obvious from the first. Tara: Doctor, come to congratulate me on my miraculous recovery? Wells: I think you’re about to have a relapse. Even if you bought into the idea that Brian Clemens might actually have done away with Mother, everything about the villains’ plot to deceive Tara is so barefaced (having to drug her for any trips from

The Avengers 6.30: Homicide and Old Lace   It seems Homicide and Old Lace (originally titled Tall Story) generally gets the short straw as the most vilified Avengers episode. However, as with the much-decried Invasion of the Earthmen, I was able to find quite a bit to enjoy here. Even the rather deathless main body of the piece, a salvaging, of a sort, of The Great Great Great Britain Crime, can boast Gerald Harper (2.4: Death Dispatch, 4.15: The Hour That Never Was) as an idiot. Mother: I put the word out – find out all you can about Intercrime. Harriet: That’s seven words. Mainly, though, I just enjoyed the

The Avengers 6.29: Thingumajig   Not up to the high standard of Terry Nation’s previous two teleplays, alas, Thingumajig is a rather standard-issue affair of something killing off archaeologists in a cave under a church. Indeed, it’s most intriguing aspect is its title. Still, it features Iain Cuthbertson, which is in its considerable favour. Steed: If it turns out to be a poltergeist, vicar, you shall exorcise it. The murderous culprit is more Cybermat than Dalek, a little black box that slides around the place – somehow, it’s able to climb stairs, so more manoeuvrable than a Dalek – making scratching

The Avengers 6.28: Pandora   Pandora seems to be a somewhat divisive episode, with complaints ranging from it being atypical to rather dull. I might agree on the former, tonally, as it bears more semblance to a horror tale than an Avengers. That said, it recalls both 5.2: Escape in Time and Avengers girls isolated and in peril in a strange house yarns (3.7: Don’t Look Behind You, 5.15: The Joker). As to it being dull, I tended to being lukewarm on those previous excursions, but I found this one wholly compelling. That said, I do have a couple of gripes. It’s appalling to cast John Laurie (2.11: Death

The Avengers 6.27: Who Was That Man I Saw You With?   Jeremy Burnham’s last contribution to the show is a likeable but slight framing tale, but this time, rather than Steed or Mother, all the evidence points to Tara King. There’s also a rather crucial issue, in as much as it bears little scrutiny that someone as innocuous would be the trigger to destroy the country, even when the dastardly plan has been explained. Dangerfield: You know, most people’s feet are so ugly. Mine are so elegant. The conceit is that Tara has been assigned to test the impregnability of defence

The Avengers 6.26: Fog   Jeremy Burnham’s teleplay offers an overtly Ripper-esque villain (the deliciously named Gaslight Ghoul) and John Hough serves up appropriately fog-shrouded visuals aided by a very faux-Victorian London set; Fog is arguably pretty thin when it comes down to it, but it’s an appealingly atmospheric yarn, and one with negligible interest in anything approaching a real-world setting, which is very much in its favour. I guess you could argue that element is represented by the Russian delegation for the Disarmament Committee, whom Steed meets at the station and who are the targets of the recreated Ghoul’s attentions. Except that, once

The Avengers 6.25: Stay Tuned   Steed being hypnotised, such that he repeatedly awakes and prepares for holiday, as if for the first time, sounds like a premise ripe with Groundhog Day potential. And it is, in an episode that generally seems to be a very popular, but for me Tony Williamson can’t quite bring it together. Tara: You’ve already been on holiday for three weeks. I think part of the problem is perhaps that there’s insufficient intrigue over Steed’s situation, and the déjà vu repetitions fail to effect an engaging rhythm. Much of the early proceedings are taken up with Steed and

The Avengers 6.24: Take Me to Your Leader   Terry Nation hits another bullseye – or near enough – with Take Me to Your Leader, in which he shrewdly uses a similar “trail of suspects” approach to previous winner Legacy of Death. Steed and Tara are required to navigate a suitcase – one that provides the bearer with instructions – to its owner when – in theory – it’s required to be passed from enemy agent contact to enemy agent contact in relay. It isn’t perhaps as uproarious as his previous teleplay, but more than makes up for it in inventiveness. Andrews: Who

The Avengers 6.23: Love All   Another quality episode from Jeremy Burnham, with a plot simultaneously both daft and clever (so very Avengers), but the biggest standout is the terrific performance from his wife – and later Children of the Stones lead – Veronica Strong, first seen as an aging, fag-ash cleaning lady with a strange knack for attracting men in the Ministry, and then as her “real” self, a dazzling beauty. Tait: They were anathema to him, Steed. Sheer anathema. Mention women’s suffrage and he’d go purple in the face. Martha appears to be the real name of Strong’s character as well as

The Avengers 6.21: The Morning After   This one seems to get something of a mixed reaction, which rather surprises me. Along with the not-dissimilar-in-premise 4.15: The Hour That Never Was, it was one of the highlights of my first-run Avengers experience, and revisiting the series stands up even better than its Season Four counterpart. Much of that is down to John Hough’s superb location work and sure feel for suspense, but Brian Clemens also ensures the plot maintains a sense of mystery, while the odd couple/ Midnight Run/ The Defiant Ones handcuffed pairing of Macnee and Peter Barkworth (1.22: Kill the King, 3.16: The Medicine

The Avengers 6.21: The Interrogators   After the dual-role disappointment of 5.10: Never, Never Say Die, the show finally does right by Christopher Lee in the role of Colonel Mannering (!), “Head of Interdepartmental Security”, operating a beast of all scams on the intelligence network. It’s a seriously-inclined episode from Richard Harris, rewritten by Brian Clemens (and directed by Charles Crichton), but with just enough of the eccentric to add flavour. Mannering: Oh, forgive me. Lieutenant, would you care for a cup of tea? Casper: Ah, thank you, sir. Mannering: Milk and sugar? Casper: No sugar. Mannering: No sugar. If there’s a flaw, it’s that Minnow

The Avengers 6.20: The Rotters   David Freeman’s sole contribution to the series feels like he’s been writing The Avengers for years. Most particularly, the Mrs Peel era in which bad guys (rotters, even) bump off a list of parties connected to some eccentric enterprise or group. Which came first, the punning title or the plot? It scarcely matters, since they’re equal of each other. Director Robert Fuest, meanwhile, continues his domination of the season’s best visuals. George: You know, I despise the working classes. They’re so… Kenneth: Working Class? George: Quite. If hit men Kenneth (Gerald Sim, 2.1: Mission to Montreal, 3.19: The Wringer, 4.4: Dial a

The Avengers 6.19: Killer   One of the series’ infrequent “Steed-gets-another-partner-for-an-episode” outings (see also 4.19: The Girl from Auntie). And while, on the plus side, Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney (Jennifer Croxton) mercifully avoids the overt flirtation of Tara, she also lacks the sense of fun and energy Thorson brings to her role. As a result, Lady Diana only ever seems like a stand-in, marking time, where other eccentric one-offs (5.19: Dead Man’s Treasure, 3.24: The Charmers) were more indelible. Steed: Why didn’t he wait? Mother: Why can’t any of them wait? Killer – for a series that prides itself on amusing titles, this one is unforgivably bland –

The Avengers 6.18: Wish You Were Here   Wish You Were Here counts as one of the season’s best so far, combining an appealingly eccentric premise from Tony Williamson – a guest house prison with no obvious barriers to leaving – with strong direction from Don Chaffey. I have to admit, though, like a bit of a lemon, the obvious The Prisoner parody aspect – it was even the working title – escaped me until afterwards. Probably because this is tonally so different. If there’s a flaw in the construction, it’s that it’s very obvious quite early on that Maxwell (Robert Urquhart, 4.16: Castle

The Avengers 6.17: They Keep Killing Steed   Great title. If only Brian Clemens’ teleplay was up to the same standard. Which isn’t to say the episode is terrible, just that it’s another doppelganger Avengers. Only this time, instead of one Steed there’s a selection. Ray McAnally (5.23: The Positive Negative Man) returns, overplaying again with a silly accent. He’s better value here, but still far from one of the series’ most iconic guest stars. Baron Von Curt: It was a privilege being married to you. Indeed, young Ian Ogilvy nearly takes such honours, rocking a shock of blonde hair as Baron Von

The Avengers 6.16. Legacy of Death   There’s scarcely any crediting the Terry Nation of Noon-Doomsday as the same Terry Nation who wrote this, let alone the Terry Nation churning out a no-frills Dalek story each season for the latter stages of the Jon Pertwee era. Of course, Nation had started out as a comedy writer (for Hancock), and it may be that the kick up the pants Brian Clemens gave him in response to Noon-Doomsday’s quality loosened a whole load of gags. Admittedly, many of them are well worn, but they come so thick and fast in Legacy of Death, accompanied by

The Avengers 6.15: Noon-Doomsday   Noon-Doomsday isn’t exactly bad, but it’s incredibly slack, ripping off High Noon so redundantly that Brian Clemens had every right to tear Terry Nation a new one (he promptly went away and ripped off The Maltese Falcon instead, to miraculously better results). The effect is not dissimilar to watching a New Avengers episode where, for long sections, nothing much happens while simultaneously taking itself all-too seriously. Hyde: Do you intend to dine with him the moment he’s up and about? Tara: Yes. Hyde: Then I predict a remarkable recovery. In this High Noon, Steed’s laid up with a broken leg in a safe house in the

The Avengers 6.14: False Witness   Season Six has found something approaching form over the past four or five episodes. You wouldn’t mistake them for peak-Avengers fare, but they’ve hit a certain groove, especially since Mother has joined as regular. False Witness is a story played mostly straight, and succeeds on those terms, yet its (absurd) premise – a drug that compels the victim to respond to “yes” as “no” and “no” as “yes” and any variations of the same – could easily have been played entirely for laughs. Notably too, it’s another Jeremy Burnham teleplay; he earlier took to the series like

The Avengers 6.13: Game   If you’re casting around for villain seeking revenge… look no further than Peter Jeffrey (4.9: Room without a View, 5.15: The Joker). In The Joker, he wanted payback against Mrs Peel. This time, Steed’s on his list. Jeffrey’s a formidable presence even in a limited role, of course, and Game – a disappointingly spartan title – can at least boast variety of content, particularly during the finale. Steed: It’s odd, though. Who would send me a game of Snakes and Ladders? Monte Bristow’s motivation is the court martial he received years before – in 1946, for black marketeering – from six

The Avengers 6.12: Super Secret Cypher Snatch   More idyllic location filming in this one, most notably in the form of Mother’s temporary base in a field, as second-unit man John Hough graduates to main man and provides a wealth of striking visuals. Not enough, unfortunately, to make a silk purse from Tony Williamson’s rather uninspired teleplay (Williamson’s prior contributions to the show included the high of 4.6: Too Many Christmas Trees and the low of 5.23: The Positive-Negative Man). Hough would go on to direct three more episodes (and a New Avengers) as well as embarking an interesting big-screen career (such pictures as Twins

The Avengers 6.11: All Done with Mirrors   One I rated much more highly prior to this revisit. Leigh Vance’s teleplay for All Done with Mirrors (he’d later pen the screenplay for mid-70s Michael Caine thriller The Black Windmill) nevertheless has some appealing conceits, while Ray Austin (who would also helm half a dozen New Avengers) offers some memorable visuals. As the title suggest, the plot revolves around reflective surfaces. They’re employed in a “retrometer”, as a means for eavesdropping on and communicating with subjects in line of sight, sound being projected along a beam of light, with all the covert possibilities that suggests.

The Avengers 6.10: You’ll Catch Your Death   Jeremy Burnham’s first teleplay, originally titled Atishoo, Atishoo, All Fall Down, which might have given the impression it’s zanier than it is (equally, it might have been used to more sinister effect, as nursery rhymes often are). There’s plenty of eccentricity in the supporting cast, though, which lifts this one considerably above the past couple of episodes. Not least of the eccentrics is found in the arrival proper of Patrick Newell’s Mother, having previously been seen in the cobbled-together The Forget-Me-Knot. His location is suitably offbeat, filmed in one of Elstree’s concrete-lined water tanks,

The Avengers 6.9: Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?   Another like My Wildest Dream, Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40? is equipped with a decent-enough premise but rather falls down by having nowhere interesting to take it. We don’t know precisely why the titular computer has been sabotaged until quite late in the proceedings, but we could have guessed (it’s assumed that Pelley was feeding George top-secret equations, hence the “PELLEY… TRAITOR” message, but he was actually telling George he was held captive, for the purpose of revealing that old reliable: “full details of the seek and destroy mechanism of

The Avengers 6.8: My Wildest Dream   Philip Levene’s teleplay is translated effectively to screen by former production designer Robert Fuest, in his, er first, for the show, but the director can’t rescue the back half of the story, which entirely fizzles. Written for the John Bryce regime, My Wildest Dream’s serious tone and corresponding lack of eccentric insulation shows unflatteringly. At least it can boast a formidable guest star in Peter Vaughan, clearly enjoying himself. The element of living one’s murderous fantasies vicariously – and then not so much – was touched upon in a broader and more satisfying fashion

The Avengers 6.7: Look – (Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers…   Well, it took a while, but The Avengers finally rekindles the sparkle of the best Rigg era episodes thanks to a Dennis Spooner teleplay (his first credit since the first season). It’s one that spreads itself just about as broadly as it’s possible for the show to go – Look – (Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers… was purportedly rejected for the Rigg run for just that reason – but which is also nigh-on perfect in pace, structure

The Avengers 6.6: Have Guns – Will Haggle   The spot-the-stitched-together-with-sticky-tape sequence of early Season Six episodes salvaged by Brian Clemens reaches its penultimate chapter with this Tara-sporting-blonde-wig number. Have Guns – Will Haggle isn’t nearly as bad as its reputation suggests, but it’s still rather uninspired and routine. The title’s probably the best thing about it, in fact. A John Bryce production – Invitation to A Killing, set to be Tara’s first, ninety-minute outing; there’s little enough material here for fifty – it was rewritten by Clemens, but with Donald James retaining his credit (conversely, director Robert Asher’s replacement on the

The Avengers 6.5: Get-A-Way   Another very SF story, and another that recalls earlier stories, in this case 5.5: The See-Through Man. I that one, Steed states baldly “I don’t believe in invisible men”. He was right there, but he’d have to eat his bowler here. Or half of it, anyway. The intrigue of Get-A-Way derives from the question of how it is that Eastern Bloc spies have escaped their incarceration, since it isn’t immediately announced that a “magic potion” is responsible. And if that reveal isn’t terribly convincing, Peter Bowles makes the most of his latest guest spot as Steed’s self-appointed nemesis

The Avengers 6.4: Split!   The opening teaser can go a long way to cementing an Avengers as a good ’un in the memory, but it can conversely be just about all there is to a story. Such is the case with Split! in which, once you’ve seen Mercer (Maurice Good, 1.10: Hunt the Man Down, 3.7: Don’t Look Behind You, The New Avengers’ Forward Base) hear the name Boris, undergo a personality change (the clawed hand!) and shoot his Ministry of Top-Secret Intelligence (the name’s probably the funniest part of the episode) colleague Compton (Iain Anders), it’s pretty clear what’s up. The only variable is quite how

The Avengers 6.3: The Curious Case of the Countless Clues   Like Invasion of the Earthmen, this is a John Bryce-produced episode. And like Invasion of the Earthmen, it’s rather underrated. The Curious Cast of the Countless Clues includes its own heightened element amid the seriousness in the shape of Sir Arthur Doyle (Peter Jones, the Voice of the Book, of course, and previously Dr Adams in 4.17: The Thirteenth Hole), and a plot that plays out like a rather more feasible version of 5.21: You Have Just Been Murdered, also written by Philip Levene. In this one, a couple of enterprisingly disreputable types, Gardiner (Kenneth

The Avengers 6.2: Invasion of the Earthmen   Some have labelled this one of the show’s nadirs, but I really can’t see it. Sure, the episode has many obligatory, patented Terry Nation SF teleplay clichés, including some quite ridiculous logic, it’s fair share of visual clunkers and a patchy quality betraying its troubled production even to those unaware. But for good stretches, Invasion of the Earthmen is also a quite serviceable more serious-minded episode, even if that’s in direct contrast to the absurdity of its diabolical mastermind’s scheme. The disarray of the early sixth season was a direct consequence of Thames sticking

The Avengers 6.1: The Forget-Me-Knot   I’d best clear up one thing right away. I like Tara King. Maybe it was my age when I first saw her (eleven or twelve) or being simultaneously made aware of how unbeatable Mrs Peel was, and thus hers was a period I could “have” for myself in some way, but I didn’t perceive the assumed drop in quality. Plus, I liked her slightly dappy, make-do quality. Of course, I can see “objectively” that the relationship with Steed isn’t a patch on that of Emma or Cathy, but its biggest failing is not that it isn’t

The Avengers Season 3 Ranked – Worst to Best   Season Three is where The Avengers settles into its best-known form – okay, The Grandeur that was Rome aside, there’s nothing really pushing it towards the eccentric heights it would reach in the Rigg era – in no small part due to the permanent partnering of Honor Blackman with Patrick Macnee. It may not be as polished as the subsequent incarnations, but it has the appeal of actively exploring its boundaries, and probably edges out Season Five in the rankings, which rather started to believe its own hype.  The White Elephant Steed’s yoga, comprising watching a

The Avengers Seasons 1 & 2 Ranked – Worst to Best   I didn’t get around to providing a worst-to-best ranking of the first three seasons when I revisited through them, so this is to remedy that. Obviously, there’s a slim surviving selection from Season One, but I opted not to include it with Two. Both represent a show gradually finding its direction, first with the pairing of Keel and Steed, the gradual evolution of the latter from mysterious hard guy to the laidback toff we know, and then the patchy partnering with King and Venus before the groundwork for The

The Avengers Season 5 Ranked – Worst to Best   Season 5 is arguably The Avengers season where the show achieved its greatest visibility – now in full colour, Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg returning as its most formidable partnership – but also one that experienced a slight slip in quality from what is rightly regarded as the previous year’s pinnacle. There’s little in the way of outright turkeys here – it has that much in common with Season 4 – but fewer outright gems too.  The See-Through Man Brodny! That wacky Russian, he’s so funny. No, not really, although there’s no

The Avengers 5.24: Mission… Highly Improbable   With a title riffing on a then-riding-high US spy show, just as the previous season’s The Girl from Auntie riffed on a then-riding-high US spy show, it’s to their credit that neither have even the remotest connection to their “inspirations”. Besides the cheap gags (in this case, the episode was based on a teleplay submitted back in 1964). Mission… Highly Improbable follows in the increasing tradition (certainly with the advent of Season Five and colour) of SF plotlines, but is also, in its particular problem with shrinkage, informed by other recent adventurers into that area. Doctor Who went

The Avengers 2.23: The Positive-Negative Man   If there was a lesson to be learned from Season Five, it was not to include “man” in your title, unless it involves his treasure. The See-Through Man may be the season’s stinker, but The Positive-Negative Man isn’t far behind, a bog-standard “guy with a magical science device uses it to kill” plot. A bit like The Cybernauts, but with Michael Latimer painted green and a conspicuous absence of a natty hat. Steed: Let’s start with the man who got plastered, then. Cynthia: Who got pl… We assistants do not approve of levity, Mr Steed. There’s one feature of Tony

The Avengers 2.22: Murdersville   Brian Clemens’ witty take on village life gone bad is one of the highlights of the fifth season. Inspired by Bad Day at Black Rock, one wonders how much Murdersville‘s premise of unsettling impulses lurking beneath an idyllic surface were set to influence both Straw Dogs and The Wicker Man a few years later (one could also suggest it premeditates the brand of backwoods horrors soon to be found in American cinema from the likes of Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper). SIGN: Welcome to Little Storping In-the-Swuff. Voted the best kept village in the country. Please help us keep it that

The Avengers 5.21: You Have Just Been Murdered   Slender in concept – if you’re holding out for a second act twist, you’ll be sorely disappointed – You Have Just Been Murdered nevertheless sustains itself far past the point one might expect. This is largely thanks to shock value that doesn’t wear out through repetition, a suitably sinister performance from Simon Oates (Steed in the 1971 stage adaptation of the show), and a cartoonish one from George Murcell (1.3: Square Root of Evil) as Needle, of the sort you might expect Matt Berry to spoof. Jarvis: I can’t explain now, but I’ve just been

The Avengers 5.20: The £50,000 Breakfast   Another week, another remake. This one reworks one of my favourites of Season Two, Death of a Great Dane, but the results are almost entirely uninspired. Indeed, it jostles for one of the weakest episodes of this season. At least with The Joker, there was a bit of polish and an arguably improved casting decision to propel the proceedings. Here, about the only positive I can come up with is that veteran Cecil Parker is on good form as acquiescent major domo Glover, even if his best lines (“I look forward to being excessively rude

The Avengers 5.19: Dead Man’s Treasure   One of my very favourite episodes, such that I even like aspects others find profoundly irritating. What makes it such a hit? It might partly be a fondness for the comedy race/rally genre (Monte Carlo or Bust leads that small but distinguished pack), or possibly it’s the supremely jaunty Laurie Johnson incidental score that accompanies the jaunty jalopies. The summery scenery adds something too (Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots notes it had more location filming that any other British film series episode produced during the ’60s); the concoction as a whole is irresistible. Pretty much everything comes

The Avengers 5.18: Return of the Cybernauts   Avengers sequels not featuring Brodny are a rarity, and as obvious a no-brainer as this follow-up to last season’s crowd-pleaser is, it rather underlines that the show was never at its best when returning to past glories (not least by churning out straight remakes). Return of the Cybernauts at least boasts a couple of elements that put it above its predecessor, however, even if the improvement is very much relative. Steed: You like Beresford, don’t you? Mrs Peel: Yes. Don’t you? Steed: He has a good line in claret. Particularly the ’29. Mrs Peel: Nothing to dislike is there?

The Avengers 17: Death’s Door   By this point, it goes without saying that, with Sidney Hayers calling the shots, Death’s Door is very stylish. Which is an enormous boon to the dream sequences, taking a conscious leaf out of Spellbound‘s book for how to do these things; if Too Many Christmas Trees previously plundered the manipulated mental state in not wholly dissimilar fashion, Philip Levene ensures this one keeps ticking along, with a proper howdunnit for Steed and Emma to solve. Sir Andrew: I can’t go in. If I do, I’ll be killed. The British delegates at a vital European peace conference (more than that,

The Avengers 5.16: Who’s Who???   As much as the series would fall back on remakes of earlier episodes when the producers were in a tight squeeze and pushing deadlines, necessity could also be the mother of invention. While The Prisoner made the worst possible fumble of the old body-swap scenario with Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Who’s Who???, borne from the twin challenges of Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg wanting time off (her departure from the series was announced during filming), is largely a success. Dr Krelmar: The mind. The soul. The entire psyche. From one body to another. And vice versa.

The Avengers 5.15: The Joker   It seems this remake of Don’t Look Behind You, the second redo of the season following The Correct Way to Kill reduxed as The Charmers, is generally highly regarded in relation to its Cathy Gale era original. I have to admit, I can’t really see it, and coming after last season’s also-leading-Avenger-lady-trapped-in-an-isolated-house near-remake (The House That Jack Built), it comes across a bit like flogging a dead horse. What The Joker has in spades is production value, cleverly directed by sure-hand Sidney Havers and draped with a level of plushness the Cathy Gale era couldn’t muster. It isn’t enough, though.

The Avengers 5.14: Something Nasty in the Nursery   Once Upon a Time, the penultimate episode of The Prisoner, sprang to mind more than once while rewatching Something Nasty in the Nursery, what with its regressed adults and distorted guitar twangs announcing the sinister. It’s very nearly a great episode, the only thing letting it down being the lack of any rug pull or shift in perspective beyond the initial setup. Mr Goat: I can guess why you’re here. Steed: You can? Mr Goat: An aura of proud fatherhood surrounds you. What it has in spades is style: very much of a woozy, psychedelic lilt

The Avengers 5.13: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station   Continuing a strong mid-season run, Brian Clemens rejigs one of the dissenting (and departing) Roger Marshall’s scripts (hence “Brian Sheriff”) and follows in the steps of the previous season’s The Girl from Auntie by adding a topical-twist title (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum came out a year earlier). If this is one of those stories where you know from the first who’s doing what to whom, the actual mechanism for the doing is a strong and engaging one, and it’s pepped considerably by a

The Avengers 5.12: The Superlative Seven   I’ve always rather liked this one, basic as it is in premise. If the title consciously evokes The Magnificent Seven, to flippant effect, the content is Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, but played out with titans of their respective crafts – including John Steed, naturally – encountering diminishing returns. It also boasts a cast of soon-to-be-famous types (Charlotte Rampling, Brian Blessed, Donald Sutherland), and the return of one John Hollis (2.16: Warlock, 4.7: The Cybernauts). Kanwitch ROCKS! Jessel: You are convinced? Kanwitch: Partially convinced. Jessel: I can create super beings. It really works.  Kanwitch: If your protégée beats all

The Avengers 5.11: Epic   Epic has something of a Marmite reputation, and even as someone who rather likes it, I can quite see its flaws. A budget-conscious Brian Clemens was inspired to utilise readily-available Elstree sets, props and costumes, the results both pushing the show’s ever burgeoning self-reflexive agenda and providing a much more effective (and amusing) “Avengers girl ensnared by villains attempting to do for her” plot than The House That Jack Built, Don’t Look Behind You and the subsequent The Joker. Where it falters is in being little more than a succession of skits and outfit changes for Peter Wyngarde. While that’s very nearly enough,

The Avengers 5.10: Never, Never Say Die   An episode that sets out its store of intrigue quite nicely, and hums confidently along, but ultimately reveals itself holding the least plausible of decks. Never, Never Say Die sounds like a Bond title and tends to be a fairly highly-regarded episode, however; I can only assume much of that is based on its illustrious guest star, Christopher Lee, strutting his stuff in dual roles; both Professor Frank N Stone (hur-hur) and his monster, a part he has, of course, played before. Steed: When I was here last, the professor was not at his best. At one

The Avengers 5.9: The Correct Way to Kill   You wouldn’t get away with this kind of thing today. The Correct Way to Kill is an undisguised remake of third-season episode The Charmers, right down to its choicer dialogue. Looking at them side by side is neither revealing as a shot-for-shot exercise (Gus van Sant’s Psycho), nor for the changes resulting from a switch to colour and upping the budget (The Man Who Knew Too Much, although there were additional substantial changes there, of course). Instead, both versions have their positives and negatives, but for me, this new one never quite manages

The Avengers 5.8: The Hidden Tiger   Another of the season’s apparent run-on ideas, as the teaser depicts a character’s point-of-view evisceration by aggressor unknown. Could this be the Winged Avenger at work? No, it’s, as the title suggests, an attacker of the feline persuasion. If that’s deeply unconvincing once revealed, returning director Sidney Havers makes the attacks themselves highly memorable, as the victims attempt to fend off claws or escape them in slow motion. Sir David: Whoever did that, Mrs Peel, was wild, inhuman, bestial. Havers previously made a mark with three Season Four episodes, adding bags of style to

The Avengers 5.7: The Living Dead   The Living Dead occupies such archetypal Avengers territory that it feels like it must have been a more common plotline than it was; a small town is the cover for invasion/infiltration, with clandestine forces gathering underground. Its most obvious antecedent is The Town of No Return, and certain common elements would later resurface in Invasion of the Earthmen. This is a lot broader than Town, however, the studio-bound nature making it something of a cosy “haunted house” yarn, Scooby Doo style. Mrs Peel: Do you believe in ghosts, Steed? Steed: Someone does. Others to mention in the same breath are Castle De’ath (apparently spooky goings-on

The Avengers 5.6: The Winged Avenger   Maybe I’m just easily amused, such that a little Patrick Macnee uttering “Ee-urp!” goes a long way, but I’m a huge fan of The Winged Avenger. It’s both a very silly episode and about as meta as the show gets, and one in which writer Richard Harris (1.3: Square Root of Evil, 1.10: Hunt the Man Down) succeeds in casting a wide net of suspects and effectively keeps the responsible party’s identity a secret until late in the game. Peter Roberts: He’d been clawed to death, as though by some bird. Some huge, obscene bird. The first victims are

The Avengers 5.5: The See-Through Man   I’m sure Warren Mitchell and Patrick Macnee had a fine time bouncing off each other whenever the former won a guest spot on the show, but the return of Brodny in The See-Through Man is about as welcome as bringing back Harry Mudd in Star Trek‘s Mudd’s Women. Additionally, and quickly becoming something of an over-used device, there are suggestions of pure science-fictional goings-on, ones reduced to something much less remarkable (see also Escape in Time and From Venus With Love). Indeed, the most impressive element here is the Russians’ invisible man costume. I did wonder, though, hearing Steed

The Avengers 5.4: From Venus with Love   Not the return of Venus Smith (although you can readily imagine the rumours a title like that would provoke today), From Venus with Love is the best of the season so far, which is to say the avenging business still isn’t quite on top form, but there’s a winning line in amiable quirkiness running through the proceedings. And, as an added bonus, it’s another of the series’ relative rarities that keep its cards close to its chest regarding who is doing what and how until quite late in the game. It’s also further evidence

The Avengers 5.3: The Bird Who Knew Too Much   A step up from the first two below-par episodes, there nevertheless remains a pervading sense that Season Five isn’t yet firing on all cylinders. The plotting isn’t quite smart enough, even at its most playful, and the eccentricity is all a bit learnt. But The Bird Who Knew Too Much does at least move along at a pace, and features a couple of – well, one in particular – truly nasty psychopathic hitmen, which makes for a jarring but effective contrast when one of the characters is a bird enthusiast named Twitter.

The Avengers 5.2: Escape in Time   I suppose one couldn’t expect The Avengers to deliver a genuine “Could-it-be-possible?” element to a time-travel plot, but Escape in Time doesn’t offer even a modicum of suspense or intrigue regarding how the scheme is being achieved; as soon as one of the intended victims escapes “1680” and shows up at Steed’s flat (not even ten minutes in), it’s clear we’ll have to look elsewhere for satisfying plot twists. Thyssen: I can send a man back, through the centuries, back to an era where before he never even existed. Unfortunately, there aren’t really any. The side-streets-contact routine is

The Avengers 5.1: The Fear Merchants   The colour era doesn’t get off to such a great start with The Fear Merchants, an Avengers episode content to provide unstinting averageness. About the most notable opinion you’re likely to come away with is that Patrick Cargill rocks some magnificent shades. I do, however, love the new opening titles, my favourites of the show: Sergio Leone stopping off in Kensington with a few days to kill. The show’s boosted production values may not extend to disguising the Macnee and Rigg body doubles/stunt people – although, there seems to be a sight gag in a hospital

The Avengers 1.20: Tunnel of Fear   As Alan Hayes observes (in the booklet accompanying the DVD release of this recently discovered Season One episode), there’s a more than passing kitchen-sink element to Tunnel of Fear. You could almost expect it to form the basis of a Public Eye case, rather than one in which Steed and Dr Keel get involved, were it not for the necessary paraphernalia of secrets being circulated via a circus fairground. Also rather upsetting the show’s later assured form, Patrick Macnee may have been an easy scene stealer from Ian Hendry in The Frighteners, but I’m not sure he’s

The Avengers Season 4 Ranked – Worst to Best   Season Four is generally held up as the pinnacle of The Avengers, and it certainly maintains the greatest level of consistency in the run. Nevertheless, as I noted a few reviews back, one viewer’s classic is another’s ho-hum with this show, perhaps because it doesn’t elicit the same kind of exhaustive fandom to establish any level of consensus as some series. There follows my Worst to Best ranking of the season, told mostly in pictures. The index for full episode reviews can be found here.  Two’s A Crowd There are no outright dodos in

The Avengers 26: Honey for the Prince   The last of the season, and the last black-and-white episode, Honey for the Prince isn’t quite as strong as I’d remembered. It’s also a tad problematic in places. That said, Brian Clemens’ teleplay maximises the accompanying quirkiness, the guest cast includes a particularly memorable turn from Ron Moody as Ponsonby Hopkirk, the director of QQF (Quite, Quite Fantastic Incorporated), and there’s an even more memorable Dance of the Six Veils courtesy of Mrs Peel (it would have been seven, but she was “poorly educated”). Who is also again memorably in early-hours, post-party form this

The Avengers 24: How to Succeed…. At Murder   On the one hand, this episode has a distinctly reactionary whiff about it, pricking the bubble of the feminist movement, with Steed putting a female assassin over his knee and tickling her into submission. On the other, it has Steed putting a female assassin over his knee and tickling her into submission. How to Succeed… At Murder (a title play on How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying, perhaps) is often very funny, even if you’re more than a little aware of the “whacky” formula that has been steadily honed over the course

The Avengers 2.24: A Sense of History   Another gem, A Sense of History features one of the series’ very best villains in Patrick Mower’s belligerent, sneering student Duboys. Steed and Mrs Peel arrive at St Bode’s College investigating murder most cloistered, and the author of a politically sensitive theoretical document, in Martin Woodhouse’s final, and best, teleplay for the show (other notables include Mr. Teddy Bear and The Wringer). If you cast your eye over reviews of the series, positions seem to be about as varied as the number of episodes (Avengers Forever and dissolute.com are in stark disagreement on this one, for example).

The Avengers 4.23: The House That Jack Built   The House That Jack Built was okay when it was Don’t Look Behind You, and certainly didn’t need repurposing again (although this time more directly copying the original) as The Joker.  This is a near-solo Emma outing, and very much played straight. Which is fine, but it doesn’t really have all that much in the way of intrigue, instead hoping some splendidly psychedelic sets will be enough to hold the attention. Steed: By the way, I should have a look in the cellar. Might see if the old boy’s laid any wine down there. In fact,

The Avengers 4.22: What the Butler Saw   In the same vein as The Girl from Auntie and Quick-Quick Slow Death, What the Butler Saw positions ingenious comedy at the forefront of a plot that, as with the previous season’s Death à la Carte, allows Steed to impress others with his phenomenal taste and etiquette. Brian Clemens screenplay also encourages a few clever twists along the way, although this does mean the ultimate reveal of the villain is rather an anti-climax. Still, that’s about all that’s up with What the Butler Saw. It’s a wonder it took the series four seasons to uncover a cadre of death-dealing butlers, but

The Avengers 4.21: A Touch of Brimstone   An episode that sings from start to finish, and certainly a contender for the all-time-best Avengers. Also one with a wee bit of infamy attached, as its sadomasochistic elements precluded it from a screening in America (it wasn’t banned), and ITV trimmed it slightly before showing it. It still carries a frisson, and not only because of Diana Rigg’s “Queen of Sin” costume; Brian Clemens’ teleplay is a perfectly formed descent into risky business, just suggestive enough without going over the deep end. As is more commonly the case than not, our duo are onto

The Avengers 4.20: The Danger Makers   A bit of a plod this one, enlivened by a couple of scenes, admittedly, but not enough to salvage The Danger Makers. The title pretty much tells you the score, as military personnel, dismayed by the lack of conflict in peacetime, create thrill-seeking exercises for themselves. Unfortunately, the thrill seeking only intermittently extends to viewer enthralment. Robertson: There are very few wars nowadays. They’re rapidly becoming push-button affairs. No, your concept of military life is changing, Mrs Peel. The military man is becoming defunct, obsolete, a dodo. On the plus side, veteran film director Charles

The Avengers 4.19: Quick-Quick Slow Death   Coming straight after The Girl from Auntie, it’s impossible to ignore the similar “villains cover their tracks by whacking wacky eccentrics” structure, but since I’m a sucker for such Avengers tales, it scarcely matters. Robert Banks Stewarts writes, but particular laurels are due James Hill for his deft touch during the musical climax. The episode’s main thrust concerns a dance school “for infiltrating foreign agents into the country”, in which the students are offed and replaced with trained operatives. This eventually explains the dual Arthur Peevers, the one found dead in the teaser, in a pram

The Avengers 4.18: The Girl from Auntie   I’ve mentioned that a few of these episodes have changed in my appreciation since I last watched the series, and The Girl from Auntie constitutes a very pronounced uptick. Indeed, I don’t know how I failed to rate highly the estimable Liz Fraser filling in for Diana Rigg – mostly absent, on holiday – for the proceedings (taking a not dissimilar amateur impostor-cum-sidekick role to Fenella Fielding in the earlier The Charmers). I could watch Fraser all day, and it’s only a shame this was her single appearance in the show. Steed: Six bodies in an hour

The Avengers 4.17: Small Game for Big Hunters   I wonder if Death at Bargain Prices’ camping scene, suggestive of an exotic clime but based in a department store, was an inspiration for Small Game for Big Hunters’ more protracted excursion to the African country of Kalaya… in Hertfordshire. Gerry O’Hara, in his second of two episodes for the show again delivers on the atmosphere, making the most of Philip Levene’s teleplay. Steed: Had a spot of bother with the natives. A full-blown savage, with a very unfriendly disposition. Mrs Peel: Oh, come now, Steed. It’s also an episode big on the colonial critique,

The Avengers 4.16: The Thirteenth Hole   A strange one this, for the first twenty minutes The Thirteenth Hole looks as if it’s going to be the most generic of all oddball Avengers scenarios – super villains up to murderous acts on the golf course, and Steed and Mrs Peel must investigate – but turns things around for a highly entertaining last half as Steed engages in a tournament filled with dirty tricks (many of them courtesy of Mrs Peel, aiding and abetting him). Steed: Poor Ted. Never had the chance to swing his steel-shafted handle-to-head niblick. He was shot with a rifle at long

The Avengers 4.14: Castle De’ath   A splendidly atmospheric episode from the pen of John Lucarotti, his last for the show, brought to vivid life by James Hill, his first, Castle De’ath is one of the highlights of the fourth season, incorporating as it does some surefooted misdirection as Jock McSteed and Mrs Peel investigate a death in the loch. Steed: I think there’s more behind these walls than just a ghost. Mrs Peel: What are you going to do? Steed: I’m going fishing. Mrs Peel: What, in the loch? Steed: No. In the moat. The title might suggest Castle De’ath is broader than it is, for while there

The Avengers 4.14: The Hour That Never Was   Roger Marshall pens and Gerry O’Hara directs a memorable episode, big on location work and atmosphere, and small on guest cast members. At least, for the majority of its duration. When Steed bashes the Bentley, swerving to avoid a dog, he and Mrs Peel head off for his old RAF base on foot, his car clock having stopped at 10.59. He tells Emma he’s driven the stretch of road a hundred times (“Well, since you know it so well, it’s remarkable you couldn’t stay on it”), amid further anecdotes about his

The Avengers 4.13: Silent Dust   Revisiting Season Four, several episodes have fallen slightly in my estimation, but Silent Dust (along with Dial a Deadly Number) is one that has gone up. The plot isn’t all that, continuing the horticultural (and pesticide) theme of Man-Eater of Surrey Green, but it has a great supporting cast, and in Avengers terms that’s often the difference between a hit and a dud. Juggins: And what if they don’t pay up? Omrod: Oh, they will. After we destroy Dorset. The prologue shows birds dropping dead (so decisively, they look taxidermised, although much more convincingly than the plastic bat on a wire that

The Avengers 4.12: Man-Eater of Surrey Green   Most remarked upon for Robert Banks-Stewart having “ripped it off” for 1976 Doctor Who story The Seeds of Doom, although, I’ve never been wholly convinced. Yes, there are significant similarities – an eccentric lady who knows her botany, a wealthy businessman living in a stately home with an affinity for vegetation, an alien plant that takes possession of humans, a very violent henchman and a climax involving a now oversized specimen turning very nasty… Okay, maybe they’re onto something there… – but The Seeds of Doom is really good, while Man-Eater of Surrey Green is just… okay. Sir Lyle: For all we

The Avengers 4.11: Two’s A Crowd   Oh, look. Another Steed doppelganger episode. Or is it? One might be similarly less than complimentary about Warren Mitchell dusting off his bungling Russian agent/ambassador routine (it obviously went down a storm with the producers; he previously played Keller in The Charmers and Brodny would return in The See-Through Man). Two’s A Crowd coasts on the charm of its leads and supporting performances (including Julian Glover), but it’s middling fare at best. Steed: Oh, come now, Mrs Peel. If I had a twin, I’m sure mother would have mentioned it. If I had a double you’d know in thirty

The Avengers 4.10: A Surfeit of H20   A great episode title (definitely one of the series’ top ten) with a storyline boasting all the necessary ingredients (strange deaths in a small village, eccentric supporting characters, Emma even utters the immortal “You diabolical mastermind, you!”), yet A Surfeit of H20 is unable to quite pull itself above the run of the mill. Of course, in the such glorious days as these of HAARP and – alleged – weather control, an evil corporation (Granny Gregson’s Glorious Grogs Incorporated, its factory engaged in the fermentation of intoxicating liquors; selling various invidious varieties of vino,

The Avengers 4.9: Room Without a View   If The Gravediggers’ eccentricity feels entirely natural, Room Without a View’s seems plastered onto a standard issue spy plot, one that wastes the talents of the majority of its cast and leaves Steed polishing off the best table leavings. Even the premise of Roger Marshall’s teleplay is the sort of thing we’ve heard every other week, with seven physicists having disappeared “over the past year or so”, accompanied by then-topical references to the Brain Drain. One of boffins has resurfaced, though, Dr Wadkin (Peter Madden, coming on like Father Jack), who “suddenly popped up

The Avengers 4.8: The Gravediggers   Do you dig The Gravediggers? Yeah, it’s all right. Actually, it’s more than all right. While the series has been up to its eyeballs in eccentricity prior to this, this episode furnishes us with the particularly eccentric eccentric living in his own private fantasy world, and as part and parcel of this, stylistic conceits entirely take precedence over any notions pertaining to logic or naturalism. It’s an episode that revels in its absurdity. It’s also Mac Hulke’s penultimate contribution to the show (his last came four years later), and one wonders how much of the wackiness was

The Avengers 4.7 The Cybernauts   This seemed like the best thing ever when I saw it on Channel 4 in the mid-80s, but the truth is, it’s rather threadbare beneath the unusual (for the show) sci-fi trappings. Of course, those trappings were exactly its appeal: the closest the series came to Cybermen (and a year before they set foot on the South Pole). Nu-Who’s Rise of the Cybermen arguably owes more to this Avengers story, with its clanking killer(s) and crippled genius initiating huge scientific advances (including “Computers no bigger than a cigarette box”) and planning to take over the country, than Gerry

The Avengers 4.5: Death at Bargain Prices   Great title, and the best episode of the season so far. Brian Clemens fashions a fine, larger-than-life teleplay brought effectively to the screen by Ealing man Charles Crichton, mustering strong support from returnees André “Quatermass” Morell (Death of a Batman) and TP McKenna (Trojan Horse). Mrs Peel: I think it’s the plans for a nuclear bomb. Steed: How can you tell, Madame Curie? Mrs Peel: Thermodynamics, Mr Magoo. I say larger-than-life. It’s loopy in the extreme. Having reach the final third without revealing just what the diabolical masterminds are up to, we discover Horatio “King”

The Avengers  4.4: Dial a Deadly Number   Dial a Deadly Number features a number of memorable scenes and abundant witty dialogue, as well as a return by the then-in-everything Peter Bowles, but despite strong direction from series stalwart Don Leaver, it’s difficult to care very much about who’s doing what to whom in Roger Marshall’s teleplay. The title suggests something Hitchcockian, but the reality is more mundane, revolving around the then very contemporary, nay futuristic, use of bleepers, and their corruptibility as a means of murdering company CEOs. That there needs to be a means of conveying the signal to the

The Avengers 4.3: The Master Minds   The Master Minds hitches its wagon to the not uncommon Avengers trope of dark deeds done under the veil of night. We previously encountered it in The Town of No Return, but Robert Banks Stewart (best known for Bergerac, but best known genre-wise for his two Tom Baker Doctor Who stories; likewise, he also penned only two teleplays for The Avengers) makes this episode more distinctive, with its mind control and spycraft, while Peter Graham Scott, in his third contribution to the show on the trot, pulls out all the stops, particularly with a highly creative climactic fight sequence that avoids

The Avengers 4.2: The Murder Market   Tony Williamson’s first teleplay for the series picks up where Brian Clemens left off and then some, with murderous goings-on around marriage-making outfit Togetherness Inc (“Where there is always a happy ending”). Peter Graham Scott, in his first of four directing credits, sets out a winning stall where cartoonishness and stylisation are the order of the day. As is the essential absurdity of the English gentleman, with Steed’s impeccable credentials called on to illustrious effect not seen since The Charmers. Mr Lovejoy: Now, do you have a preferred marriage partner? Steed: Well, broadly speaking, female. Emma

The Avengers 4.1: The Town of No Return   The Avengers as most of us know it (but not in colour) arrives fully-fledged in The Town of No Return: glossier, more eccentric, more heightened, camper, more knowing and more playful. It marks the beginning of slumming it film directors coming on board (Roy Ward Baker) and sees Brian Clemens marking out the future template. And the Steed and Mrs Peel relationship is fully established from the off (albeit, this both was and wasn’t the first episode filmed). If the Steed and Cathy Gale chemistry relied on him being impertinently suggestive, Steed and Emma

The Avengers 2.26: Lobster Quadrille   Not so much a damp squib to go out on as a slightly charred lobster. Quadrille is okay, but far from the best of season send-offs. It’s not such a spotlight episode for Cathy either, since she spends a good deal of time tied up, with much of the proceedings lent to Steed’s overt flirtation with Katie (Jennie Linden, Barbara in Dr. Who and the Daleks). It does, however, grant Mrs Gale a proper leaving scene, loaded with Bond references (or should that be innuendos?) Although, in fairness, the climax revolves around the question of who died in a

The Avengers 3.24: Esprit de Corps   If the final Cathy Gale outing doesn’t make for the most indelible departing shot, this penultimate instalment is one that can stand proud. Although, while Cathy has a decent role (as the next in line to the Stuart throne, no less), it’s Steed who wins the best plot line, paired with the wonderful Roy Kinnear and presented to a firing squad. Kinnear would show up three more times, including in the series finale, a sign that they were fond of a certain kind of comic turn that underlined the show’s inimitability (see also

The Avengers 3.24: The Charmers   Steed’s identification as the perfect gentleman has been a gradual process for the show, although it may now seem it was never anything but. Signposts on the way include the in-awe butler of The Gilded Cage, but The Charmers fashions probably his most legendary representation to this point, in a Brian Clemens script, as he visits a charm school for killers and is instantly recognised as the peak of the proper. This is also Warren Mitchell’s second appearance, as Russian boss Keller. His very broad appearances as Brodny would be forthcoming, something of The Avengers equivalent of Harry Mudd,

The Avengers 3.23: The Outside-In Man   The Outside-In Man sees the return of Ronald Radd from Season Three’s Bullseye, this time as Steed’s boss Quilpie, but the standout turn comes from James Maxwell (Wade in the later The Superlative Seven, Jackson in Underworld) as the mysteriously returned agent Mark Charter, who has spent five years in prison but is miraculously released just as the traitorous Sharp, whom he had been sent to kill when he was caught, is on a visit to Britain as an ambassador for Aburain. Helen Ratner: You don’t know what it’s like to be made a widow. Cathy: Yes, I do.

The Avengers 3.22: Trojan Horse   The incongruous mix you get in some of these pre-Peel episodes is having a rather eccentric premise played straight. So here there’s the scarcely credible notion of a racetrack as a front for hit men (I mean, why? Did Malcolm Hulke decide by picking potential locations out of a hat?), and it trickles along reasonably agreeably thanks to TP McKenna’s debonair performance, and an extremely frisky one from Lucinda Curtis, but it fails to edge above run-of-the-mill. McKenna (too many series to note, but he’d appear in two more Avengers, and in Season 25 of Doctor

The Avengers 3.21: Mandrake   Bill Bain directs a Roger Marshall teleplay for his second funereally-themed episode of the season, and if the title conjures anticipation of occult occurrences along the lines of Warlock, Mandrake’s probably a bit of a disappointment on that level. What it does well is set up the soon-to-be-familiar device found later, of dastardly goings-on in an innocuous rural setting. Likewise, it shows off a plan from the villains that is, actually, quite smart in terms of avoiding being fingered for the crime, if less so in expecting their ruse to get very far, cumulatively. Since the bounders

The Avengers 3.20: The Little Wonders   More memorable for Steed (undercover, naturally) planting a smoocher on a surprised Mrs Gale than its plot of Mafia-esque “clergymen” electing their new leader. This isn’t bad, and Macnee’s having a lot of fun as the Vicar of M’boti, but you can’t help feel it should have been a lot more lunatic. Beardmore: What if he’s a phoney, and doesn’t know Harbottle was playing a double game? The mob organisation is known as Bibliotek, and Steed is replacing the deceased Reverend Harbottle who, we learn, has been involved with another group led by Sister

The Avengers 3.19: The Wringer   A first-rate little screws tightener, as Steed not only comes under suspicion but is also found guilty of treason. He’s accused of exposing the Carinthia pipeline (a route for spies on the Austro-Hungarian border), leading to the deaths of six agents. While The Wringer is guilty of a sin common in the series – having the villains discuss their plan and reveal themselves early on, when there might be more to gain from keeping motives and machinations unclear – there’s much to enjoy here, including Steed coming under full-on psychotropic conditioning and a marvellously deranged performance

The Avengers 3.17: The White Elephant   The temptation is to say John Lucarotti sold us one, here, so I’ll resist. A real bore, unfortunately, with none of the nascent elements (eccentric characters, unlikely scenarios, curious businesses) amounting to anything interesting, as Steed and Mrs Gale investigate the disappearance of the titular pachyderm. Most indicatively, Steed watching a daffodil grow (he’s practicing yoga, it seems; “It’s a very good method of improving the concentration”) is much more engaging than the plot proper, in which he once again puts Cathy undercover (as resident zoological director) and in danger at Noah’s Ark

The Avengers 3.16: The Medicine Men   First broadcast on the same date as that more universally known medicine man (courtesy Joseph Lister), Doctor Who, this Mac Hulke script’s serious tone isn’t entirely justified by an unconvincing fiendish plot, as Steed and Cathy investigate imitation products (patent soap, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics) produced by Willis-Sopwith Pharmaceutical Company. It’s one of those episodes where the jigsaw piece elements don’t really fit with each other, and lacks sufficient sparkle to make you want to tie them all together. The opening takes place in a Turkish bath, but its only connection to anything is that the

The Avengers 3.15: The Gilded Cage   An engaging episode on several fronts, from JP Spagge and his scene-stealing major domo to the significant detail that our villains keep keeping one step ahead of Steed and Cathy. It’s also a tour de force for the latter, with Honor Blackman first under the illusion that she’s been banged up for murder and then finding herself out-on-a-limb, trying to walk the tightrope of convincing the bank robbers she really is intent on robbing the bank. Cathy: How can I go through a whole trial and not remember anything? That’s because Steed, who has procured the

The Avengers 3.14: The Secrets Broker   Wine seems to go down quite well in The Avengers (2.11 Death of a Great Dane, in which Cathy gets a bit blotto), and if The Secrets Broker isn’t quite of that vintage, it does involve a winning ruse (spiritualist séances as a cover for the passing of secrets) and several first-rate performances, from Patricia English, Avice Landone and the inimitable, irrepressible Jack May. Steed: I’m, uh, going to a wine tasting party. Cathy: Do you really think you’ve got the palate? May is Waller, the ringleader, but the group’s steeliest and most imperious member is Landone’s Mrs Wilson, effortlessly

The Avengers 2.13: Second Sight   An unhinged performance from Peter Bowles aside (seriously, someone should have reined him on that manic laughter, although it’s one of the few things here that will keep you awake), Second Sight is a definite plod. Even the gruesome premise, of corneas transplanted from a live donor to give a rich man sight, proves to be a complete red herring; the facts involve altogether more pedestrian diamond smuggling. There are a few twists along the way, including that Maren Halvarssen (a strong performance from John Carson, who played Ambril in Snakedance and was also in A Chorus of Frogs)

The Avengers 3.12: November Five   November Five is extremely involved, but all for naught really, as it fails to engage. None of Eric Paice’s more down-to-earth offerings have really caught fire, and this one marries an array of apparently disparate elements to uninspired and confusing effect. There’s assassinated MP Dyter (Gary Hope, who would later appear in The Superlative Seven), knocked off at the moment the East Anglia bi-election results come in, who turns out to be one of the ringleaders behind a ransom plot involving a stolen nuclear warhead, and still alive. He’s bumping off other accomplices (Major Swinburne, played by David

The Avengers 3.11: Build a Better Mousetrap   This really oughtn’t to work, seeing as it finds The Avengers flirting with youth culture, well outside its comfort zone, and more precisely with a carefree biker gang who just want to have a good time and dance to funky music in a barn all night long. Not like the squares. Not like John Steed… who promptly brings them on side and sends them off on a treasure hunt! Add into the mix couple of dotty old dears in a windmill– maybewitches – up to who knows what, and you have very much the

The Avengers 3.10: Death of a Batman   Like the previous episode, Steed and Cathy become embroiled in Death of a Batman through coincidence rather than express intent; Steed’s former batman dies, leading to Steed attending the reading of the will and discovering the deceased had £180k to his name. Rightly suspecting something is up, they investigate dodgy goings-on involving André Morell (the pit Quatermass) as Lord Basil Teale and the ever-loving Philip Madoc as Van Doren, bankers undertaking insider trading in order to buy electronics firms. This is another episode where the title suggests something slightly more flamboyant the revealed content.

The Avengers 3.9: The Undertakers   Mac Hulke is back, and – surprise, surprise – brings an underlying political theme along to his teleplay. It’s a good one, but despite some decent performances (Lally Bowers, in particular, is hilarious) it doesn’t quite make the most of its conceit. Steed: Is he going into retirement for the rest of his life? Mrs Renter: Yes, that’s what retirement is. The rotters this time have a ruse to enable the wealthy, or potentially wealthy, to avoid death duties by pretending their spouses are not yet deceased but rather have gone into retreat (and meditation, in

The Avengers 3.8: The Grandeur That Was Rome   Well, the title’s magnificent. The Grandeur That Was Rome, writer Rex Edwards’ only contribution to the series, looks as if it ought to be one of the broader, archer episodes, but it never quite finds its intended absurd footing. It’s not that it’s trying too hard, more that it isn’t eccentric enough for its design. Like its predecessor, there’s a topical theme in the mix, with discussions of the deleterious effects of chemicals poisoning soil in the pursuit of increased productivity, the economics of it all (“Consumers want their food cheap, so

The Avengers 3.7: Don’t Look Behind You   Better known for what it isn’t, the Emma Peel remake episode The Joker, than in its own right, Don’t Look Behind You is an intermittently effective old-dark-house riff in which Cathy receives an invite from medieval costume expert (tenuous!) Sir Cavalier Rasagne (Steed comments that he sounds like an opera) and is soon subjected to spooky goings-on. The problem is, atmospherics can become exasperating if they’re allowed to go on and on and on. And they do, an interlude with Kenneth Colley aside. When explanations and unveilings are eventually forthcoming, Cathy’s phantom menace is revealed

The Avengers 3.6: Man with Two Shadows   How many Avengers episodes feature doubles? It sometimes seems as if you can’t move for tripping over them, but Man with Two Shadows is actually only the first. It’s fairly ho-hum for most of the duration, before improving dramatically during the last twenty minutes. That’s the point at which it becomes clear that, following an attempt on his life, Steed has emerged victorious and is posing as his double (because they can’t kill Steed can they?) Cathy: The real Steed is dead. This man has taken his place. What that also means is that Cathy doesn’t know

The Avengers 3.5: Death a La Carte   An episode with a seemingly frivolous premise (murder in the kitchen), is furnished with surprisingly robust plotting despite itself. That said, writer John Lucarotti, in his pre-penultimate teleplay for the series, more than delivers on the humorous potential (and title). Which makes this very much Steed’s show, posing as chef Sebastian Stonemarten and enjoying himself immensely. Dr Spender: (observing the Emir having a drink) You shouldn’t, you know. Emir Abdulla Akaba: So you have been telling me for years. Dr Spender: And so has your religion. Part of the fun here, even though it isn’t

The Avengers 3.4: The Golden Fleece   The first sub-standard episode of Season Three, not even especially memorable for the presence of frequent guest-star Warren Mitchell (his first of four on the show, two as recurring Russian doofus Brodny). The Golden Fleece is another where the bad guys aren’t really such bad guys, concerning a trio of army veterans involved in gold smuggling as a means to benefit servicemen in need. Unfortunately, that rather tepid motivation says all too much about the flaccid quality of the Roger Marshall and Phyllis Norman teleplay (directed by Peter Hammond). Captain Jason (Mitchell), Major Ruse (the

The Avengers 3.3: The Nutshell   Philip Chambers first teleplay (of two) for the series, and Raymond Menmuir’s second (also of two) as director, The Nutshell is an effective little whodunit in which Steed (again) poses as a bad guy, and Cathy (again) appears to be at loggerheads with him. The difference here is how sustained the pretence is, though; we aren’t actually in on the details until the end, and the whole scenario is played decidedly straight. Set mostly in a bunker (the Nutshell of the title), quarter of a mile underground and providing protection for the “all the best people”

The Avengers 3.2: Brief for Murder   Now, this is much more like it. Brief for Murder comes courtesy of the reliable duo of writer Brian Clemens and director Peter Hammond. John Laurie, in the second of four Avengers appearances, is on inimitable form as one half of the Lakin brothers, a legal duo who have met with spectacular court room success after years of obscurity. It seems the only thing previously stopping them was their approach; I had half-expected some diabolical mastermind or intricate device bolstering them. But no, they’ve simply hatched the idea of defending those for whom they have planned crimes

The Avengers 3.1: Concerto   Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke deliver a run-of-the-mill spy romp, distinguished mainly by how ludicrous the villain’s final gambit is. However, Concerto is somewhat salvaged by a surprisingly fun turn from Nigel Stock as Zalenko, a Russian opposite number to Steed. It’s a good thing Stock is having a good time, as his accent is pretty pokey. At first, it appears as if Zalenko will merely be a buffoonish incompetent (which wouldn’t be a surprise given Stock’s form, playing Watson to Peter Cushing’s Holmes, a particularly ineffectual Number Six in The Prisoner, and, of course, Mr Pickwick) as

The Avengers 2.26: Killer Whale   The Avengers explores the delightful world of intestinal slurry, as Steed and Mrs Gale enter the fetid domain of ambergris smugglers. Killer Whale can certainly boast a distinctive subject for criminal plot, but unfortunately the proceedings are less than remarkable, an unholy clash of fashion and boxing. This one, written by John Lucarotti (his third of six for the series, he was also a contributor to some of the best William Hartnell historical Doctor Whos) begins with the unlikely coincidence that Cathy is hanging out with a wannabe professional boxer just when Steed is becoming suspicious of a

The Avengers 2.25: Six Hands Across a Table   Following Steed as a focus for assassination in Conspiracy of Silence, now Cathy knows the suspected parties in Reed De Rouen’s second and final script for the series. There have been a few fairly astute tales set in the business world during this season, and Six Hands Across a Table is by no means bad, but it’s definitely a case of the cast injecting life into the material. Philip Madoc is back after The Decapod, and he yet again emerges from the proceedings in one piece (this definitely isn’t Doctor Who). His role is that of

The Avengers 2.24: A Chorus of Frogs   What appears to be an absurdly complex plot (a scientist experimenting on a luxury yacht, which features a team of deep-sea divers – and at least one smuggler – who keep getting bumped off) rather fails to catch fire, despite a memorable performance from Eric Pohlman as the yacht’s host Mason (“Perhaps you’d like to look in a few cupboards” he offers, when Steed bursts in demanding to know Venus’ whereabouts). Steed: My name is John Steed, and I’m a stowaway, and I’m very sorry… It’s the most comfortable ship I’ve ever stowed away

The Avengers 2.23: Conspiracy of Silence   Closer to a conspiracy of slumber, as some clown tries to kill Steed, but not in a remotely entertaining fashion. He doesn’t even pratfall. One might suggest this is a significant turning point for the show, with (one of) the lead now sufficiently iconic that an episode can revolve around this fact, but the truth is considerably more mundane, as Cathy is called upon to pose as a journalist (a common cover for her) and investigate not-terribly-interesting goings-on, amounting to a Conspiracy of Silence, beneath a big top. The Italian Mafia want Steed dead

The Avengers 2.22: Man in the Mirror   None of the Venus Smith episodes are exactly masterpieces (although School for Traitors is a cut above), but Man in the Mirror might be the weakest of a largely tepid bunch. In common with most of her appearances, Venus’ involvement in the case is somewhat hapless, this time even more so than normal, as Steed’s latest lure into some dubious business involves suggesting she takes snaps of his dog in an amusement arcade. The Man in the Mirror is a government employee (a cypher clerk) believed to have committed suicide the week before (Steed found a helpful funfair ticket

The Avengers 2.21: The White Dwarf   Malcolm Hulke’s first solo contribution to The Avengers has a great “What if?” premise, running along more jaundiced lines than the apocalyptic The Day the Earth Caught Fire a few years earlier. An astronomer has forecast the re-entry of a white dwarf into Earth’s solar system, spelling destruction for the planet. When he shows up dead, Steed and Cathy are called into investigate, but rather than furnishing us with a classic doomsday scenario, Hulke offers a tale of greed via stock market manipulation. Cathy: Do you know what the return of the white dwarf would mean? It would

The Avengers 2.19: School for Traitors   Just when you thought all Venus Smith stories were faintly rubbish, a good one comes along, albeit our gorgeous chanteuse is just as daffy as ever, oblivious or indifferent to Steed dropping her in it at every turn. It might not be up there with the excellent fourth season A Sense of History, also set at a university, but School for Traitors makes engaging use of its fertile setting for spy yarns. Steed: If he was murdered he wouldn’t have time to write to you, would he? Venus: But he didn’t write to me. Steed: Precisely. Steed

The Avengers 2.19: The Golden Eggs   Another episode revolving around the money to be made from science, although this time the criminal masterminds are after a deadly virus. Science, like all things, being right up Cathy’s alley, she’s front and centre of The Golden Eggs (they aren’t hers, just to be clear). Peter Arne is the bad guy again (2.16 Warlock) and just as much fun as he was there. Directed by Peter Hammond and scripted by Martin Woodhouse, The Golden Eggs adopts a curiously untypical short scene structure when Cathy is finding out about the virus from Dr Ashe (Donald Eccles, Krasis in The

The Avengers 2.18: Box of Tricks   There are some decent ideas in Box of Tricks, with Steed looking into the leakage of NATO secrets from the vicinity of wheelchair-bound General Sutherland (Maurice Hedley). Not least the dual-play title (the magician’s and the conman’s). Unfortunately, the two ideas don’t really connect and the results aren’t terribly involving. It’s also, even for The Avengers, slightly difficult to swallow the connections drawn by Peter Ling (his final of three scripts for the series; Ling also wrote The Mind Robber for Doctor Who) and Edward Rhodes. I can’t see any good reason – other than it seemed like an

The Avengers 2.17: Immortal Clay   A low-key, quasi-domestic setting for this one, in which Steed and Cathy investigate murder at a pottery. Immortal Clay’s heightened element involves the invention of an unbreakable ceramic, worth a fortune to future manufacturers of space shuttle thermal protection systems (or, as suggested here, high speed rockets and aircraft). Written and directed by established contributors to the series James Mitchell and Richmond Harding respectively, the episode isn’t so big on intrigue, but quite well represented in supporting characters. Paul “Jim Hacker” Eddington is the most recognisable cast member, as pottery manager Richard Marling, but the

The Avengers 2.16: Warlock   A genuinely supernatural episode, one of the series’ big no-nos, for some fans. Accordingly, your appreciation for Warlock will likely rest entirely on whether you accept its premise. I regard it as one of the highlights of the second season, although the common verdict appears to be that it’s something of a disappointment. Peter Hammond was one of the series’ best directors, and he pulls out the stylistic stops to make the most of Doreen Montgomery’s teleplay. Montgomery had a long career as writer for the big screen from the late ’30s to the late ’50s; this

The Avengers 2.15: Intercrime   Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke return, showing how to engineer a plot revolving around a syndicate of international criminals and not make it pedestrian. In many respects Intercrime is a standard issue piece for the series at this point, but it succeeds thanks to all the inter-Intercrime intrigue, making the bad guys’ machinations as interesting as Steed and Cathy’s. Intercrime have impressive credentials. They’ve pulled off twelve major robberies in the previous few weeks, most recently snatching three quarters of a million pounds and a couple of Modiglianis. Their behaviour doesn’t exhibit the hallmarks of British criminals, and anecdotally

The Avengers 2.14: The Big Thinker   With a plot revolving around a super computer, one would be forgiven for thinking we might be due a proto-Proteus, a WOTAN, a Colossus or a Joshua. Instead, The Big Thinker is all about a big performance, and Anthony Booth more than delivers as abrasive, narcissistic, angry young Dr Kearns, plugging the gap where the teleplay falls short on outright intrigue. Cathy: I see what you mean about the boy wonder… Are you always like this, or haven’t you had breakfast? Booth has the dubious claim to distinction of playing Sidney Noggett in the Confessions… movies during the

The Avengers 2.13: Traitor in Zebra   Traitor in Zebra does what it says in the title (excepting that there are no stripy horses involved), as Steed poses as Commander Steed and Cathy as Dr Gale in order to discover who has been passing on details of a satellite tracking missile defence system at (not Ice Station) Zebra naval base. Steed: Rather suits me, don’t you think? Cathy: Admirably, but, er, you don’t keep hats on between decks. Richmond Harding directs, having delivered several quality episodes this season (The Mauritius Penny, Mr. Teddy Bear) while John Gilbert garners his only writing credit on the show.

The Avengers 2.12: Death on the Rocks   More death in the title, and more diamonds too. Unfortunately, Death on the Rocks is a much less enticing affair than Death of a Great Dane, a standard undercover job in which Mr and Mrs Steed infiltrate a diamond ring (well, not a literal diamond ring). Cathy’s endless font of knowledge is once more referenced (“You lived in Africa – you probably know more about illicit diamonds than I do”), and a background subplot features her apartment being redecorated by a less-than-bright workman, terrified by the head of a blue wildebeest (conservationist Cathy is

The Avengers 2.11: Death of a Great Dane   Death of a Great Dane’s opening suggests a much broader episode than proves to be the case, the kind of eccentric set up one would expect of later period Avengers; Gregory (Leslie French) attends a rain-lashed funeral, reminiscing that he was with the deceased for four years, at which point it is revealed this is a pet cemetery. If the remainder is straighter, the teleplay by Roger Marshall and Jeremy Scott is nevertheless replete with witty plotting and dialogue, superbly delivered by a fine cast. Mrs Gale: Did he always travel on a

The Avengers 2.10: The Mauritius Penny   As the title suggests, The Mauritius Penny ostensibly revolves around stamp collecting, but revealed beneath its philatelic trappings is a particularly diabolical plot to wrest power in England and Europe. As such, it’s very much looking to the way the series will go. It’s also blessed with a fine cast including Richard “Slartibartfast” Vernon and Alfred “Public Eye” Burke. This was Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke’s first work on the series, preceding their most celebrated ’70s contributions to Doctor Who; either together or solo they would contribute nine scripts. Perhaps unsurprisingly from Hulke, England is depicted

The Avengers 2.9: The Removal Men   Steed goes undercover to bring a gang of assassins to book, one of whom happens to be Edwin Richfield, who popped up in my festive viewing of Too Many Christmas Trees a few weeks back and also features in the earliest fully surviving episode, Girl on a Trapeze. The Removal Men is resolutely unremarkable, not helped by Julie Stevens’ Venus Smith being virtually redundant, except to get Steed in the soup. Mind you, Richfield’s Bug Siegel (really?!) is rightly suspicious of Steed from the start, in contrast to his rather genial boss man Jack Dragna (Reed De Rouen).

The Avengers 3.18: Dressed to Kill   Before The Avengers unwrapped its Christmas episode (Season Four’s Too Many Christmas Trees), it saw in the New Year. Both are inventive, but Dressed to Kill has the edge, a fancy dress whodunnit set on a train (well, mostly a station; Badger’s Mount, no less), in which Steed and Cathy Gale attempt to root out a typically far-fetched plot to instigate the apocalypse. Steed’s “very good” Christmas party is interrupted when business calls; Britain’s early warning radar stations picked up a missile which then faded away (“The third World War broke out… Another few seconds and you

The Avengers 4.6: Too Many Christmas Trees   Festive celebrations take a sinister turn in this fourth season episode, as Steed is haunted by uncannily predictive dreams. It is, of course, a nefarious plot, but less lightweight than many a series’ seasonal indulgence, despite featuring its fair share of gags and meta-referencing. Most celebrated is the Christmas card Steed receives from Cathy Gale, offering him best wishes for the future (“Oh, how nice of her to remember me”), followed by “What can she be doing in Fort Knox?” Albeit, Too Many Christmas Trees was broadcast fifteen months after the release of Goldfinger, in

The Avengers 2.8: Bullseye   Another Eric Paice teleplay, and an improvement over The Decapod although, where that had a decent twist, the whos, whys and whats of Bullseye lead to something of a shrug. Its greatest asset is Ronald Radd’s stock-market tycoon Henry Cade, a Gordon Gekko a quarter of a century before Wall Street, revelling in buying up, stripping down and selling on his assets without conscience or regard for those who may lose out. Cathy: I feel if I hold on a little longer someone’s going to go up to three pounds. Young: If you hold on too long, someone’s going to put a

The Avengers 2.7: The Decapod   A title suggesting some variety of monstrous aquatic threat for Steed and Julie Stevens’ Venus Smith. Alas, the reality is much more mundane. The Decapod refers to a Mongo-esque masked wrestler, one who doesn’t even announce “I will destroy you!” at the top of his lungs. Still, there’s always Philip “Solon” Madoc looking very shifty to pass the time. Madoc is Stepan, a Republic of the Balkans embassy official and the brother-in-law of President Yakob Borb (Paul Stassino). There’s no love lost between him and his ladies’ man bro, and dark deeds are taking place with

The Avengers 2.6: Mr. Teddy Bear   Inevitably, the odder the early “straight” episodes are, the more they feel like classic Avengers. Mr. Teddy Bear boasts a choice premise, requiring that Mrs Gale engages the titular assassin to kill Steed, and then approaches the ensuing plot from a pleasingly skew-whiff angle. Which means, yes, there’s a talking teddy bear. Sean Connery doesn’t show up dressed as a giant one, though. The real star is Martin Woodhouse’s incredibly witty script, showing how relatively run-of-the-mill much of The Avengers has been up to this point. This was his first of seven contributions to the show (the last

The Avengers 2.5: Propellant 23   With a title that invokes Robert Anton Wilson’s most celebrated of occult numbers, one might have expected dark dabbling to ensue. But Propellant 23 is a remarkably low-key affair, its action revolving around a Marseilles airport and Steed and Cathy’s quest for a flask of Chinese rocket fuel. The plot is propelled by who will get their hands on said item first, since the man (Meyer, played by Frederick Schiller) carrying the flask dies of a (suspected) heart attack on arriving at the airport. As a result, the various parties engage in some fairly clumsy

The Avengers 2.4: Death Dispatch   So Mrs Gale is needed. I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of Honor Blackman’s performances, perhaps because many of her roles tend to the stern or austere. But she’s congenial and relaxed throughout Death Dispatch, and has instant and inviting chemistry with Macnee. The plot is merely so-so, but they carry the proceedings with aplomb. Said plot involves One Ten (Douglas Muir) directing Steed to replace a diplomatic courier stabbed in the back during the opening scene (he dies instantly, which is lucky); the aim is to “Give the murderer a second

The Avengers 2.3: The Sell-Out   The final Dr King episode has a lot more going for it on paper than it’s able to pull off. It has the potential to be something of a Tinker Tailor-esque affair, complete with four possible suspects for the informer (including Steed, “But then, I’m Caesar’s wife”), but it ends up rather static and disinterested. Still, King’s departure is properly foreshadowed and the supporting cast includes some strong performers. Steed is assigned to protect French UN negotiator Monsieur Roland (Carleton Hobbs), but is under suspicion himself from One Twelve (Arthur Hewlett of State of Decay, the old

The Avengers 2.2: Dead on Course   The premise of Dead on Course feels much like archetypal (later) Avengers fare; dastardly goings-on in an isolated village are a mainstay of the series. For the most part this keeps the episode afloat, but it lacks the quirkiness of the show’s future format and so draws attention to the daftness of the scenario by playing it all a little too straight. And with this title, a few years later and it would involve murderous intrigue on a golf course. Still, there’s a fair bit of intrigue in Eric Paice’s teleplay; this isn’t one where it’s clear early

The Avengers 2.1: Mission to Montreal   The first episode of Season Two is a stodgy affair, notable mainly for one of three appearances by Dr Keel-a-like Dr Martin King (utilising scripts written for Keel in the first series, before it was known Ian Hendry would not be returning). In Keel’s absence, Steed becomes the welcome lead, but you wouldn’t know it here aside from his handling the concluding fisticuffs. Mission to Montreal finds King (Jon Rollason essaying another healthy-smoking medical practitioner) and Steed engaged in a bog standard “secure the stolen microfilm” case, the only distinguishing aspects being its

The Avengers 1.15: The Frighteners   This is more like The Avengers most people know, with its larger-than-life (albeit with down-to-earth ambitions) criminal types and the bowler-hatted presence of one John Steed. More parlance, this time deriving from the title, as The Deacon’s criminal gang put the frighteners on the beau of rich businessman’s daughter. There’s a twist of sorts, in that the boyfriend (Philip Gilbert as Jeremy de Willoughby) is an absolute stinker. Director Peter Hammond would direct a total of nineteen episodes for the show and would go on to be a regular fixture of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes.

The Avengers 1.6: Girl on the Trapeze   Ironically, the first complete Avengers episode is Steed-free (one of only two from the season; the finale is Keel-free). Keel gets embroiled in a case of his own instigation when he witnesses a girl jump from a bridge into the drink. This leads him to an Eastern European circus and an inevitable stock footage extravaganza of gymnastic routines and lions and the like. The clowns are 100-percent new, however. The plot revolves around a defecting scientist (whom we never see), and the daughter Edwin Richfield’s manager Stefan plans to use as collateral to ensure

The Avengers 1.1: Hot Snow   The first twenty minutes of The Avengers do not make for the most auspicious debut. It’s so far from the camper fantasy trappings of the show’s colour era, it may as well be a different programme. That’s not really the problem. Well, the problem is chiefly that there isn’t a whole episode by which to judge Hot Snow. But it’s also that this could be any old detective fiction yarn. There’s very little to mark out what we see here as unique. Certainly nothing as arresting as the high strangeness of the first episode of Doctor Who, or the