In this definitive 1960s adventure serial, a debonair secret agent and his formidable female partners confront the bizarre and the brilliant.
The constant figure is the impeccably dressed John Steed (Patrick Macnee), an agent for an unnamed British intelligence service. Initially, he is paired with Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry), a physician drawn into espionage after the murder of his fiancée. Following Hendry’s departure, Steed’s primary partner becomes the leather-clad anthropologist and judo expert, Dr Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman). Gale is succeeded by the scientist and martial artist Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), whose partnership with Steed forms the core of the programme’s most celebrated period. In the final series, Steed is assigned a younger, less experienced agent, Tara King (Linda Thorson), and reports to a new superior: the wheelchair-bound, eccentric ‘Mother’ (Patrick Newell).
Beginning life as a comparatively conventional, videotaped crime drama, The Avengers gradually transformed into the definitive fantasy of 1960s British television. The arrival of Honor Blackman established the show’s enduring template: a partnership of equals, blending urbane wit with high-kicking action. The transition to 16mm film for the Diana Rigg era, and later to colour, was a calculated and successful bid for the American market. At its peak, the series constructed a hermetically sealed version of England, a world of country lanes, eccentric aristocrats, and scientific geniuses, conspicuously free of police officers or social realism. The final series, with Linda Thorson’s Tara King, attempted to maintain the formula but suffered from an increasing reliance on self-parody. Its iconography was powerful enough to spawn a sequel, The New Avengers (ITV 1976-1977), though this later incarnation lacked the singular focus of the original.
Broadcast: ABC, 161 Episodes, 7 January 1961 – 21 May 1969
Creators: Sydney Newman, Leonard White
Producers: Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens
Music: Laurie Johnson
Main Cast: Patrick Macnee (John Steed), Ian Hendry (Dr David Keel), Honor Blackman (Cathy Gale), Diana Rigg (Emma Peel), Linda Thorson (Tara King), Patrick Newell (Mother)
