Retrospective - The Avengers

This year was the fiftieth anniversary of the classic television series The Avengers. Given it's cult status and the fact it is a virtually iconic programme, it seems appropriate to take a little look back over the series, how it came about, and the impact it ultimately left.

The Avengers had it's origins in a television series called Police Surgeon which starred Ian Hendry as Dr Geoffrey Brent. Though the series was not a huge success, it's creator, Sydney Newman, who was the Head of Drama for the Associated British Corporation, felt that Hendry had star power, and consequently devised another programme which riffed off Police Surgeon, for Hendry to star in. The Avengers was created to be a gritty crime drama, and saw Hendry playing Dr David Keel, a character not too far removed from Dr Brent. Ingrid Hafner, one of Hendry's co-stars in Police Surgeon, moved across to play Keel's secretary Carol Wilson, and the new programme was produced by Surgeon's Leonard White. The first episode revolved around Keel being caught up in the murder of his fiance. He met up with a shadowy spy and the pair effectively avenged her death. From that point on, Keel would help the spy in his investigations, and one on occasion, carry out a mission he stumbled upon alone. Newman cast British actor Patrick Macnee, whom he had worked with in Canada, as the mysterious John Steed, Keel's shady colleague. It was a dark programme, but had some nice moments in it, and was much more successful than Police Surgeon.

Sydney Newman often stated that while he was responsible for creating iconic television programmes, he rarely understood what made them work (famously he created Doctor Who, but objected to the introduction of the Daleks). In the case of The Avengers, his instinct to cast Macnee was dead on, but his feeling that Hendry would be the star was what was wrong. At a time when spies were becoming more and more popular (the Patrick McGoohan programme Danger Man was already hugely successful, and the James Bond movies were just around the corner), it was John Steed that became the draw card for the programme. Quite aside from the love of spies the world was getting, there was no doubt that Patrick Macnee's natural charisma helped bring an already interesting character well and truly to life. As the first season continued, plans were made to change the format of the programme, but a strike saw the first season end prematurely. Oddly enough, this allowed the production team to implement their new changes even more effectively.

For season two, the decision was taken to reduce the number of episodes that would see Steed team up with Keel, and the remaining episodes would have a new partner for the spy introduced - a sultry lounge singer by the name of Venus Smith. Singer Julie Stevens was cast as Venus, and her episodes would include a short musical interlude where Stevens would show off her skills. However the strike saw Ian Hendry seeking other work, and when production was about to resume on The Avengers, Hendry's movie career was firmly in place. Jon Rollason was cast as Dr Martin King, a character who was Keel in all but name. However, Rollason was clearly not working for the programme, or for Patrick Macnee, and so a decision to recast was quickly made. However, with time not on their side, the character would still be just Dr Keel. Except for one small point which would change the direction the series would take forever - with little time to cast, Leonard White decided to cast someone who had already auditioned for him - Honor Blackman. The new character was Dr Catherine Gale.

This small casting decision meant a number of things. Firstly, with the striking out of women's liberation, a character who was female but playing a male part with only very minor adaptions was effectively the most liberated woman on television. Cathy Gale was an equal to John Steed in all things, and though writers started to change the character to be more "female", both Blackman and Macnee fought for the character to remain as powerful as she was. Cathy Gale would rescue John Steed as often as he rescued her; she would be more effective with a gun than Steed was, and as Steed became more of a dandy, she seemed less interested in fashion as well. On top of that, in her skin tight leather outfights, she was sexy to boot.

The character of Venus Smith was altered as filming progressed, making her a younger nightclub singer to better contrast with Cathy, and while Steed seemed quite taken with Cathy Gale (who showed little interested in him), Venus was smitten with Steed. But the chemistry between Macnee and Blackman was undeniable, and so as the seacond season drew to a close, changes were made. The character of Venus was dropped from the programme, and Steed's handlers (mysterious men with the codenames "1-10" or "1-12") were also written out. Steed's image in the second season - more businessman with bowler hat and umbrella than the trenchcoated archetype of the first season - impressed and remained the image that Steed would keep.

The third season saw Steed and Cathy partaking in adventures that started to become a little more surreal than the crime dramas of the previous seasons. Steed and Cathy flirted more, and Cathy even stayed in Steed's flat while work was done on hers. The decision was taken for Cathy to lose her gun, and instead she became an expert at judo, giving her more chance to tackle the villians hand to hand. This ensured that at all times Cathy and Steed were equals in their adventures, and the programme became progressive in a way that no other television programme had been at that time. But all good things come to an end, and as the movies beckoned Honor Blackman (well, Goldfinger beckoned, anyway), Cathy disappeared at the end of the season.

As the fourth season headed into production in a simliar vein to the third, a new character was created to join Steed on his adventures - a woman with man appeal or m-appeal, who was consequently named Emma Peel. New producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell cast Elizabeth Shepherd in the role, but after a production began it became apparent she was very wrong for the role. As such, recasting was required and Diana Rigg became the new Emma Peel. If lightning could be said to strike twice, it most certainly did on The Avengers, for the brilliant chemistry that Macnee and Blackman had was equalled, if not surpassed, by the chemistry between Macnee and Rigg. Emma Peel became the archetypal Avengers girl. Dressed in her leather catsuits, with a wry smile and a lot of flair, Mrs Peel took the show to new heights of popularity. While Steed seemed determined to pursue Cathy, his relationship with Emma was more recipricol; there was often the suggestion that there was perhaps more intimacy between the two than with Cathy, though nothing like this was ever made explicit (well, in the television show, anyway). More and more science fiction elements started to creep into the programme, with the Avengers going up against a robot army called Cybernauts at one point. Even on the production side things amped up a bit, with the series moving onto film for every episode. Additionally, the jazz theme that had been composed by Johnny Dankworth was replaced this season by Laurie Johnson's Avengers Theme which is the far more memorable of the two themes.

The fifth season brought colour with it, as well as a new wardrobe for Mrs Peel (Rigg not really liking the leather she had had to wear in the previous season). The stories became even more fanciful than before, and Steed's calling on his partner became a regular gag, creating the famous catchphrase "Mrs Peel, we're needed." A comic like tagline was also introduced to the beginning of the episode, although mid season both the "we're needed" scenes, and the taglines were dropped. This came after a production break and many actually split the fifth season into two seasons because of this. But the image and memories of The Avengers that most have were cemented in this season - outlandish adventures in an almost fairytale sixties England, with no blood and obscurely anagrammed organisations. This was the very definition of the sixties; of swinging London.

James Bond beckoned again, however, and Diana Rigg went off to marry George Lazenby, leaving The Avengers to search for a new leading lady, but this wasn't the only problem behind the scenes. Clemens and Fennell were fired and replaced by John Bryce, who had succeeded Leonard White. The network executives had decided the series had gotten too far from reality and hoped Bryce would return it to the way it had been during his time. Bryce decided to go against the thirty-something women that had been so popular, and cast his girlfriend, twenty year old Canadian, Linda Thorson as Tara King, another agent from Steed's department. With two agents on screen, it seemed only natural to introduce their boss as well - a corpulent man in a wheelchair named Mother (Patrick Newell), aided by his Amazonian assistant Rhonda (Rhonda Parker). Three episodes were filmed (the first being a double episode), but once the networks saw the blonde Thorson in action, Bryce was fired and Clemens and Fennel were called back. Thorson was turned into a brunette, Rigg came back for an episode to hand over to Tara, and the filmed episodes were hacked up and remade. Long time script editor Dennis Spooner noted that in this season things went really over the top. But the US had had enough of The Avengers and removed their financial back from the series, meaning it was no longer possible to make it. As such, when Steed and Tara went into space in the final episode, it would be the last we'd see of them - though Mother assured us they'd be back. And he was right.

It would be impossible to understate the impact The Avengers has had on popular culture - be it little things like bringing Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg to the attention of the producers of the James Bond films, or more notable things like Patrick Macnee effectively reprising the role of Steed in the Oasis music video for "Don't Look Back In Anger", or Marvel being inspired by an infamous episode of The Avengers to create the Hellfire Club and Jason Wyngarde (Peter Wyngarde appeared in the episode in question, and was most famous for playing the character Jason King in Department S).

In 1975, Macnee and Thorson reprised their roles for French champagne advertisement, and this inspired Fennell and Clemens to remake the series. The New Avengers debuted in 1976, and saw Macnee reprise the role of Steed, joined by Joanna Lumley as Purdey and Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit, as there was some concern that Macnee was not in the best physical condition to do all the stuntwork required. Disturbed by this, Macnee began a fitness regieme that meant he was in very good condition for the second season. The New Avengers was less like the series that spawned it, and more like a 70's action show. However, money again became a problem for the series, and though it was regarded as a success, without cash, the second season was the final season of The New Avengers. In 1994 there was a great deal of interest in the video release of the programme, and Clemens and Fennell moved ahead with a new programme that would see the return of Purdey and Gambit, but for reasons that remain unknown, this never actually happened.

In 1998, a movie version of The Avengers came to the big screen with Ralph Fiennes as Steed and Uma Thurman as Mrs Peel, going up against Sean Connery as Sir August De Wynter. Patrick Macnee made a cameo as Invisible Jones, Steed's contact, and Jim Broadbent played Mother. The movie was not well received. The original film (almost two hours in length) was cut down by a half an hour, confusing audiences. Feeling like an attempt to mix all eras of the series, the movie never seemed to have an identity of its own, and while the series rested strongly on the chemistry between Macnee and his associates, none of this was present between Fiennes and Thurman.

But ultimately, it was all irrelevent. Even today there is still a great deal of love and nostalgia for the original The Avengers, and the DVD boxed set that was released this year is not only a brilliant collection of the original episodes (well, those that remain - a lot of the first season has been lost), but a testament to the love of the original series that there is. Someone once said that if ITV wanted to best the BBC's Doctor Who, it would need to bring back The Avengers. Despite my fan-ness for Who, I would love to see The Avengers return with the same level of love and care that the return of Doctor Who has. Until then, I'm sitting down tonight to continue my viewing of my fiftieth anniversary box set.

"Mrs Peel...we're needed!"