The New Avengers (TV series)

''For the comic book featuring the superhero team the Avengers, see: The New Avengers (comic).

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)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title	Guest cast
1-01	22 October 1976	The Eagle's Nest	Peter Cushing, Derek Farr, Frank Gatliff
1-02	29 October 1976	House of Cards	Peter Jeffrey, Mark Burns, Annette Andre, Jeremy Wilkin, Frank Thornton, Lyndon Brook
1-03	5 November 1976	The Last of the Cybernauts?	Robert Lang, Oscar Quitak, Basil Hoskins, Robert Gillespie, Gwen Taylor
1-04	12 November 1976	The Midas Touch	John Carson, Ronald Lacey, Ed Devereaux, Pik-Sen Lim
1-05	19 November 1976	Cat Amongst the Pigeons	Vladek Sheybal, Basil Dignam, Peter Copley, Kevin Stoney
1-06	26 November 1976	Target	Keith Barron, Frederick Jaeger, Robert Beatty, Roy Boyd, Deep Roy, John Paul, Malcolm Stoddard
1-07	3 December 1976	To Catch a Rat	Ian Hendry, Barry Jackson
1-08	10 December 1976	The Tale of the Big Why	Derek Waring, Jenny Runacre, Roy Marsden
1-09	17 December 1976	Faces	David de Keyser, Edward Petherbridge, Richard Leech
1-10	21 December 1976	Gnaws	Julian Holloway, Jeremy Young, Patrick Malahide
1-11	7 January 1977	Dirtier by the Dozen	John Castle, Shaun Curry, Alun Armstrong, Brian Croucher
1-12	14 January 1977	Sleeper	Keith Buckley, Sara Kestelman, Prentis Hancock, Mark Jones
1-13	21 January 1977	Three-Handed Game	Stephen Greif, Tony Vogel, Ronald Leigh-Hunt

Season 2 (1977)

Episode #	Original Air Date (UK)	Episode Title	Guest cast
2-01	9 September 1977	Dead Men Are Dangerous	Clive Revill, Gabrielle Drake
2-02	16 September 1977	Angels of Death	Terence Alexander, Michael Latimer, Caroline Munro, Pamela Stephenson
2-03	23 September 1977	Medium Rare	Jeremy Wilkin, Jon Finch, Neil Hallett, Sue Holderness
2-04	30 September 1977	The Lion and the Unicorn	Maurice Marsac
2-05	7 October 1977	Obsession	Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins
2-06	14 October 1977	Trap	Terry Wood, Ferdy Mayne, Robert Rietty, Stuart Damon, Larry Lamb
2-07	21 October 1977	Hostage	William Franklyn, Simon Oates, Michael Culver
2-08	28 October 1977	K is for Kill Part One: The Tiger Awakes	Pierre Vernier, Maurice Marsac, Diana Rigg (archival footage)
2-09	4 November 1977	K is for Kill Part Two: Tiger by the Tail	Pierre Vernier, Maurice Marsac
2-10	11 November 1977	Complex	Cec Linder
2-11	18 November 1977	Forward Base	Jack Creley, Marilyn Lightstone, Maurice Good
2-12	25 November 1977	The Gladiators	Louis Zorich
2-13	17 December 1977	Emily	Jane Mallet

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.

External links

The Authorised Guide to The New Avengers
The Avengers Forever, an extensive fan site
Documentary