Actors - The Avengers

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	Actors - The Avengers

The Avengers is a British 1960s television series featuring secret agents in a fantasy 1960s Britain. The programmes were made by TV company Associated British Corporation, and the series was created by their then-Head of Drama Sydney Newman.

Programme premise and overview

Over the course of its run, The Avengers was marked by different eras as different co-stars came and went. The only constant throughout the series was the presence of John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee.

With Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry)

The Avengers began with a medical doctor named Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) investigating the murder of Peggy, his office receptionist and wife-to-be, by a drug ring. A mysterious stranger named John Steed, who is investigating the ring, appears on the scene, and together they set out to avenge her death in the show's first two episodes. Afterwards, Steed asks Keel to continue partnering with him on an 'as-needed' basis to solve crimes.

The Avengers was a successor (but not, as sometimes stated, a direct sequel) to Hendry's earlier series Police Surgeon, in which he played a similar character. While Police Surgeon did not last long, viewer letters had praised Hendry's work in it. Hendry was considered the star of the new series, receiving top billing over Macnee, and Steed did not even appear in two episodes. All but two of this season's episodes are now presumed 'lost.'

In the first season broadcast in 1961, Steed began as a secondary character, the protagonist being Keel; as the season progressed, Steed began to be established as a co-star, carrying the final episode solo. While the two stars used wry wit while discussing the crimes and dangers, the series benefited from the interplay—and, often, the tension—between Keel's idealism and Steed's hard professionalism. As seen in the surviving episode The Frighteners, Steed also had a group of helpers scattered among the general population who provided information, not unlike the "Baker Street Irregulars" of the classic character Sherlock Holmes.

The other regular character appearing in the first season was Carol Wilson (Ingrid Hafner), the nurse/receptionist who replaced the slain Peggy. Carol assisted Dr. Keel and Steed in various ways in their cases, without being a part of Steed's 'inner circle' in the way that Keel was. Hafner had also played opposite Hendry, as a nurse, in Police Surgeon.

With Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman)

Production of the first season was cut short by a strike. By the time it was settled and production could begin on the show's second season, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to series star and Steed became the focus of the series, initially working with a rotation of three different partners.

Dr. Martin King (Jon Rollason), a thinly disguised rewriting of David Keel, saw action in only three episodes, as he was created to be a 'transition' character between Dr. Keel and the two new female partners. He appeared in three unused script stories left from the first season. Rollason would later appear in a regular role on Coronation Street.

Nightclub singer Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) appeared in six episodes. She was a complete "amateur", meaning that she did not have any crime-fighting professional skills as did the two doctors. She was excited to be participating in a "spy" adventure alongside secret agent Steed. Her episodes featured her singing performances. Stevens was better known in Britain as a host of various children/teen-age television programs.

The first episode of the second season introduced Steed's third new partner—and the one who would change the show into the format it is most remembered for—anthropologist Dr. Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), who was self-assured, good at judo, and quick-witted. Widowed during the Mau Mau years in Kenya, she was the "talented amateur" who saw her aid to Steed's cases as a service to her nation.

Gale was unlike any female character ever seen on British TV and became a household name. Reportedly part of her charm came from the fact her earliest appearances were episodes in which dialogue written for David Keel was simply transferred to Cathy. By the third season, she became Steed's only regular partner. The series established a level of sexual tension between the characters, although as part of the evolving format of the series, writers were not allowed to let the characters go beyond flirting and innuendo.

During the first season, hints were dropped that Steed worked for a branch of British Intelligence, and this was expanded in the second season. Early on, Steed would receive orders from a series of different superiors, most notably men referred to only as "Charles" or "One-Ten". By the third season, however, Steed is seen working on his own, the origins of his orders remaining a mystery.

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Actors - The Avengers

Programme premise and overview

With Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry)

With Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman)

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