Actors - The New Avengers

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	Actors - The New Avengers

The New Avengers was a British secret agent fantasy adventure television series produced during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series, The Avengers
which was created by Sydney Newman, and the new version was developed by original series producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell.

A joint UK-France-Canada production, the series picks up the adventures of John Steed (again played by Patrick Macnee) as he and his team of "Avengers" fight evil plots and world domination. Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt), a top agent and crack marksman, and Purdey (Joanna Lumley), who was a trained martial artist.

Overview

As he did for most of the original series, Steed is once again acting without a direct superior (in many ways his character takes on the duties of "Mother" from the Tara King era of the 1960s show). Steed is seen as the mentor to Gambit and Purdey, taking on a paternal role towards them (especially in the episode Hostage). Gambit is the athletic action hero, while Purdey, aside from being the show's resident fashion plate, incorporates the wit and fighting skills of her predecessors. The verbal interplay between Gambit and Purdey, with her humorously keeping his romantic advances at bay, hearkens back to the Steed/Gale era of the original Avengers.

One reason for the addition of Gambit was the question of whether Macnee, at age 53 when the series began production, could handle the potential stuntwork and action scenes. Macnee was able to increase his role's visibility as the series progressed, losing weight to improve his athleticism and to 'keep up' with his new partners.

The first season featured several episodes using science fiction themes similar to those of the classic "Emma Peel" Avengers era. The new trio had to deal with suspended animation (The Eagle's Nest), biological warfare (The Midas Touch), robotics (The Last of The Cybernauts?), mind transfer (Three-Handed Game), and even giant rats (Gnaws, a title patterned after the hit movie Jaws). Second season episodes, with the exception of the artificially-intelligent super-computer of Complex, dealt with more realistic plots.

An attempt to get Diana Rigg to appear as Emma Peel in the new series was unsuccessful; however, archival footage of her from the 1960s was used in order to allow the character to make a cameo appearance in the episode K Is For Kill Part One:The Tiger Awakes. Ian Hendry, who played Steed's original partner, David Keel, also guest-starred in one episode, To Catch A Rat, playing a different role. Obsession features two of the stars of the Brian Clemens/Albert Fennell British crime-fighting action series The Professionals--Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins.

Two seasons totalling 26 episodes were produced, which were aired on CBS in the United States, CTV in Canada, ITV in Britain, RTÉ in Ireland and in syndication elsewhere.

Fans are divided on the merits of the revival, with many suggesting the show lost its magic in the 1970s, and the final four episodes, titled The New Avengers in Canada as they were filmed and produced there, were heavily criticized.

Episodes

Season 1 (1976-1977)

Season 2 (1977)

The final four episodes of Season 2 were aired under the title The New Avengers in Canada.

Spinoffs

The New Avengers spawned a series of novels mostly based upon episode teleplays (sometimes more than one per novel). Only a few were published in the US:

House of Cards, Peter Cave, 1976
The Eagle's Nest, John Carter, 1976
To Catch a Rat, Walter Harris, 1977
Fighting Men, Justin Cartwright, 1977
The Cybernauts, Cave, 1977
Hostage, Cave, 1977

DVD release

The complete series is available on DVD in both the UK and North America, with A&E releasing the Region 1 edition.

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