THE AVENGERS: The Complete Emma Peel Collection - Blu-ray (Associated British/ABC, 1965 - 67) ViaVision Imprint Television

So indestructible, not even an ever-revolving cast, early obliteration from the North American market - relegated to late night fodder thereafter, due to some objectionable content - or the loss of its first two seasons, presumably lost for all time (and, even more ironically, never to be broadcast in the United States), could expunge The Avengers (1961-69) from memory - an uber-mod/utterly sophisticated, Brit-based fantasy crime-solving franchise to have held its own and left an indelible mark on the pallet of chic good taste in all things. Only Patrick Macnee, as the bowler-brimmed bon vivant of this spy sect endured throughout the show’s decade-long reign; the rest, made up of original partner, David Keel (Ian Hendry), to be followed by an envious cavalcade of witty and elegant mistresses, tricked out in Pierre Cardin’s form-fitted fashion: the slinky sexpot, Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), sleek ice princess, Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and devilishly supple, Tara King (Linda Thorson).

Add to this, John Dankworth’s jazzy titles, later to morph into Laurie Johnson’s more legendary and enduring theme, heralding Diana Rigg’s debut in 1965, and, an almost as exhilarating line-up of vintage automobiles to convey an air of posh sophistication (Steed’s Bentley racing and town cars eventually giving way to a smartly turned-out yellow Phantom Rolls-Royce. Emma Peel drove Lotus and Elan convertibles, while Tara King fancied the AC 428 and Lotus Europa) and…well…The Avengers became one of early television’s true phenomenon. And lest we remember, when its original run came to an end in ’69, The Avengers went on to have renewed life, first, as a Laurent-Perrier champagne advert in France in 1975, then, a spin-off series – The New Avengers, with Macnee and two new partners, Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley). By then, the original series had already crossed over into a lucrative, multi-lingual series of paperback novels, a 1971 stage play, a popular radio series, its own comic strip, and, decades later, the abysmal 1998 big-screen adaptation costarring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman.

Creator, Sydney Newman, later to helm the lucrative, Doctor Who for the BBC, never received any credit on The Avengers, an oddity explained in Patric Macnee’s memoir as Newman, having worked in Canada for the CBC where no such honor was bestowed, never thought to ask for screen credit after making his move to Britain. Over the series’ incredible run, it was inevitable the production team would change. The influence of screenwriter, Brian Clemens carried over the various seasons, but producers, Leonard White and John Bryce, eventually gave way to Julian Wintle in series 4, with Clemens as associate producer and Albert Fennell in charge of production. For series 5, Clemens and Fennell became co-producers, with Wintle as executive producer, while in series 6, with Bryce’s departure, Clemens and Fennell again became the show’s co-producers, Wintle staying on as a consultant, along with Philip Levene. Stunt coordinator, Ray Austin introduced kung fu to the fight sequences during series 4 and 5, a breakthrough later credited to Austin, Diana Rigg and Austin’s mentor, Chee Soo in the Guinness Book of Records.

Despite its initial lack of exposure in the U.S. (in Canada, The Avengers hit the airwaves in 1963, airing from telerecordings of series 2 and 3), The Avengers debut of series 4 and 5 in the U.S. in 1965 necessitated a switch in production, from the 405-line, multi-camera telerecordings (incompatible with U.S. NTSC broadcast) to 35mm film stock – a costlier endeavor. Britain’s more laissez faire approach to sex and violence created no ripples at home. However, in the U.S. it necessitated a late timeslot to satisfy the censors. The Avengers thus debuted at 11:30 pm on CBS, well out of peak prime time, eventually climbing up into the 10 pm time slot on ABC, with its final years broadcast at 7:30 pm, also on ABC. Even then, U.S. censorship was ruthlessly Puritanical, indiscriminately refusing to air several episodes for what it felt was ‘objectionable content’ and thus depriving its viewership of some of Emma Peels’ best episodes, including A Surfeit of H2O, Silent Dust, Quick-Quick Slow Death, A Touch of Brimstone and Honey for the Prince. Virtually all of these banned episodes later resurfaced in syndication as censorship on the small screen began to lapse.

It remains one of those grotesque tragedies from the early years of television history that virtually none of the David Keel Series 1 episodes of The Avengers (save ‘The Frighteners’) survives today. It was standard practice to erase and reuse early videotape without any thought for archival preservation. Even more ironic, none of the Cathy Gale episodes were ever screened in the U.S. until 1991. Series 1 of The Avengers was actually an outcropping of a failed show, Police Surgeon, also to star Ian Hendry. In its first episode from that series, ‘Hot Snow’, Hendry’s Dr. David Keel was joined by Macnee’s John Steed, both investigating the murder of Keel’s fiancée. Macnee was never intended to become a series regular, although as The Avengers evolved, his importance to the franchise was duly noted, his exposure increased, Steed’s more cynical professionalism pitted against Keel’s optimism. Given the popularity of this early incarnation, the curious departure of Hendry – to pursue a film career - after the first series’ wrap-up, was followed by the introduction of one of its most memorable characters, Honor Blackman’s sure-footed/sharp-tongued anthropologist, Cathy Gale. To soften Hendry’s exit, Macnee was billed as the show’s de facto star, working with three new partners on a rotation basis, of which Blackman’s Gale quickly established herself as the most popular and exotic main stay.

Ironically, it was Blackman’s notoriety on The Avengers that also led to her exit from the series; hired by producer, Cubby Broccoli to appear in his third James Bond actioner, Goldfinger (1963), the same year producers of the show were contemplating a big-screen debut for The Avengers to straddle the international market. During Blackman’s run on The Avengers producers had made a concerted effort to morph Steed’s trench-coated spy into the typical English gent from a bygone era, as a counterpoint to Blackman’s leather-clad minx, sporiting a ‘with it’ pert, often steely personality. Blackman’s fashion savvy would carry over into Diana Rigg’s debut in Series 4 and 5. Seeking a worthy successor to Blackman, producers audition over 80 actresses, conducting their search for someone with ‘man appeal’ – the character first named Sa-‘man’-tha Peel, and then, ‘Mantha Peel’. Impressed with neither derivative, producers began referring to their new creation in shorthand as ‘M’ appeal – phonetically morphing into Emma Peel. At this same juncture, international rights to only the first 26 episodes of The Avengers were sold to ABC for a record-breaking $2 million. A prologue was added to the American version, showing Steed and Peel toasting champagne before a waiter suddenly slumps over with a dagger protruding from his back. A voice-over narration explains the premise of the show, ‘Extraordinary crimes explored by extraordinary agents.’

In retrospect, the tone of the Emma Peel episodes is lighthearted. A more tongue-in-cheek approach to crime-solving replaced the earlier focus on serious espionage, while the pair’s sexual tension – to have possessed a hard-edge ambiguity when Blackman ruled the roost, now became playful, if still very proper and above board. Lithe elements of sci-fi/fantasy were introduced into the franchise and Peel’s fashion sense began to mirror the more avant-garde fancifulness of her character’s modern personality. Diana Rigg asserted her own influences on the character’s costume design, encouraging less use of leather and more form-fitted fabrics, to infer an athletic persona. At the end of Series 4, The Avengers switched to shooting in color. Curiously, the first 16 episodes of Series 5, although shot in color, were only aired in B&W in the UK. In the U.S. the remaining Rigg episodes were withheld until they could be immediately succeeded by the first batch of new episodes starring replacement, Linda Thorson. The American prologue was changed: Steed, unwrapping a champagne bottle and Peel shooting the cork away. This intro was adopted for all subsequent U.K. broadcasts. Series 5 also introduced title cards to each new segment immediately following the commercial break, The new episodes began with Emma Peel receiving her marching orders from headquarters via a phone call, telegram, calling card, or gift with a message hidden inside. Several of these episodes were loose remakes from the Honor Blackman era, with a concerted effort to create a more futuristic slant, in keeping with the mid-60’s vogue for a more streamlined and futuristic tomorrow.

Diana Rigg ought to have been in The Avengers for the long haul. Except that, almost from the outset, the actress was displeased with her treatment on the set, discovering her salary palled to the earnings of even the show’s cameraman. Demanding and receiving a raise to place her ‘per episode’ wages on a competitive scale with co-star, Patrick Mcnee, Rigg would nevertheless take a tip from Honor Blackman, leaving The Avengers after only her second series to become Bond girl, the Countess Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). Despite her row with producers, Rigg and Macnee developed a lifelong friendship. Interestingly, Rigg’s exit also marked a swan song for producers, Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell, as the network felt a return to the earlier ‘realism’ of the franchise was in order. Desperate to find a suitable replacement for Rigg, and working under a very tight deadline, newly appointed producer, John Bryce cast his own girlfriend, Linda Thorson as Tara King – a fortuitous decision that not only steered the series in a new direction, but also allowed for a more realistic romantic slant between King and Macnee’s Steed – though, here again, no actual affair du Coeur was ever to fully blossom. While Bryce’s decision to cast Thorson was solid, his directorial skills left much to be desired, and, Clemens and Fennell were swiftly reinstated to carry on the franchise. They wrote a new episode which bade farewell to Emma Peel and seamlessly introduced her successor, and The Avengers was off and running once more. While still a sizable hit in the U.K. in the U.S. the show had come to its glittery end. Without U.S. backing, the costliness of producing The Avengers could not be sustained. The world bid the uber-glossy/frothy franchise with Steed and King blasting off into orbit in May 1969.

There seems to be some confusion about the order of broadcast episodes as featured on ViaVision’s newly released The Avengers: The Emma Peel Collection.  In The Town of No Return, Steed and Emma explore a small town – Bazeley – strangely depopulated, and where several agents have vanished without a trace. In The Gravediggers, Steed and Emma discover a hospital as a front working to destroy Britain's early warning radar system. In The Cybernauts, our dynamic duo discovers industrialists are being killed off with inhuman precision by an assassin not of this world. In Death at Bargain Prices, Peel joins the staff of a department store to investigate a sinister plot involving nuclear terrorism. In Castle De'ath, Steed and Peel unearth a plot to engineer a fishing crisis, and in The Masterminds they foil a troop of renegade intellectuals out to steal a nuclear missile. In The Murder Market, Steed and Emma pose as eligible singles in order to infiltrate an assassination agency. In A Surfeit of H2O, Steed discovers the accidental drowning of two men at a winery may be murder. In The Hour That Never Was, Steed and Emma are baffled by a diabolical dentist. In Dial a Deadly Number, they investigate mysterious deaths in London’s financial district, while in Man-Eater of Surrey Green, they encounter a carnivorous alien plant.

Two's A Crowd has Steed create a double of himself to outwit an enemy spy. Too Many Christmas Trees involves the destructive use of mental telepathy, while Silent Dust embroils the British government in a hostage crisis led by rural thugs with a biological weapon. In Room Without a View, seven scientists vanish without a trace, and, in Small Game for Big Hunters, Steed and Peel must destroy a bioweapon aimed against an African nation. In The Girl from AUNTIE, Peel is impersonated by a villainous art dealer. The Thirteenth Hole explored murder on the golf course, while Quick Quick Slow Death, pits Steed and Peel against a dance school, unattached bachelors, and a curious tattoo. In The Danger Makers, Steed and Peel investigate an unscrupulous psychiatrist, while in A Touch of Brimstone, the pair are hot on the heels of some libertines whose deadly pranks mask a more sinister plot. In What the Butler Saw, Steel realizes a school for service is actually an organization divulging military secrets to the enemy. In The House That Jack Built, Emma inherits a manor that proves to be a maze of mind-bending revenge. In A Sense of History, Steed and Peel go slumming at a university, and, in How to Succeed ....at Murder, the duo discovers secretaries murdering businessmen. The B&W era concludes with Honey for the Prince, arguably, the most fantastic of the franchise in which a genie teleports Steed and Peel into a realm of darkly purposed murder.

The color era kicks off with From Venus with Love, where Peel and Steed are left to ponder why astronomers studying the planet Venus are being murdered. In The Fear Merchants, executives in the ceramics company go mad, leaving Peel and Steed to deduce a form of mind-control being used. In Escape in Time, Steed and Peel contemplate whether time travel is being employed to spare escaped convicts from incarceration in the present. In The See-Through Man, Steed and Peel investigate a Russian spymaster and an eccentric English scientist, while in The Bird Who Knew Too Much, Steed and Emma chase after a missing parrot. In The Winged Avenger, a comic book creation commits murder, while in The Living Dead a deceased Duke haunts a sleepy village. In The Hidden Tiger a mysterious creature is mauling man and beast, while in The Correct Way to Kill, Peel experiences a short-lived romance with a Russian agent. In Never, Never Say Die, a motorist involved in a traffic accident experiences a queer déjà vu. In Epic, a warped movie mogul attempts to murder Peel for his art, while in the Agatha Christie-inspired The Superlative Seven, Steed becomes stranded on a remote island where he and six companions are being picked off one by one. In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station, Steed suspects foul play after the agent following a young couple aboard a train suddenly vanishes. In Something Nasty in the Nursery, government ministers stricken with an experimental nerve gas, revert to childhood, while in The Joker Peel finds herself trapped in a country house. And, in Diana Rigg’s final episode, Who's Who???, assassins target Peel and Steed, posing as their doubles.

All of these episodes have now been culled together in ViaVision’s smartly turned-out, deluxe The Avengers: The Emma Peel Collection. It should be noted StudioCanal is responsible for the immaculate presentation of this vintage TV series. Overall, the quality of these new to Blu 1080p transfers is remarkable, though not without caveats. Occasional edge enhancement rears its ugly head. It’s minimal, but occasionally distracting. There are also some extremely slight age-related artifacts; again, negligible. A few episodes exhibit some slight image instability as well as gate weave. Otherwise, this is a quality affair. The B&W episodes all exhibit a remarkably nuanced gray scale with excellent contrast and accurately reproduced film grain. The color episodes showcase a truly eye-popping spectrum with excellently rendered flesh tones. Contrast here, too, is uniformly excellent. The audio on all episodes is 2.0 mono and sounds terrific.

Extras are far too plentiful to list. I have only had the opportunity to sample a handful of the comprehensively produced audio commentaries with reflections from Macnee, as well as full-on commentaries from Brian Clemens, Richard Harris, Peter Wyngarde, Cyd Child, Robert Banks, Roger Marshall, Gerry O’Hara, and a host of others – again, too many to mention with any real degree of appreciation in a review of this length. In addition to the many commentaries, we also get vintage featurettes, press and promo, and 4 episodes from Series 2 and 3, starring Honor Blackman, who also provides an audio commentary, an intro, and an interview. And then, there is Tunnel of Fear – a rarely seen (and previously thought to be lost) episode from Series 1! The Avengers at 50 is a wonderfully produced program from 2011 celebrating the show’s longevity. It is followed by the BFI’s 2015 Q&A tribute to Diana Rigg, a phone interview with Elizabeth Shepherd (that is rather disappointing), and Series 6’s episode, The Forget-Me-Knot – to officially wrap up Peel’s story and debut Tara King. We only get an excerpt from K Is For Kill the mid-70’s reboot of the franchise as The New Avengers with a guest turn from Rigg as Peel. Add to this a lovingly produced 120-page booklet on glossy paper with handsomely recreated stills from the show, and, well…ViaVision’s box set is the definitive ‘Avengers’. It belongs on every television lover’s top list of ‘must haves.’ Very – VERY – highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

5++