A new 'The Avengers' on ITV1?

emtiem · March 2006

From Sunday's The News of the World:

"Sexy star Saffron Burrows and Gosford Park hunk Jeremy Northam will reprise 60s super spies Emma Peel and John Steed in a one off special of The Avengers for ITV"

There's something that sounds not-incredibly-made-up about this to my ear, and I've got to say I like the casting. If it is just a one-off... I quite like the idea!

Hardyboy · March 2006

Well, it would have to be better than that pairing of Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman. . .not to mention Sean Connery in a teddy bear costume. (Oops! I mentioned it!)

Nikolai_Diavolo 05 · March 2006

What about that spin-off series? The New Avengers? I've never seen it, but I saw the DVD Set for sale at Borders. It's like Steed training two new agents or something?

Lady Rose · March 2006

Nikolai_Diavolo 05 wrote:

What about that spin-off series? The New Avengers? I've never seen it, but I saw the DVD Set for sale at Borders. It's like Steed training two new agents or something?

It only ran for two seasons. It had the original John Steed but this time he was accompanied by the lovely Joanna Lumley as Purdey and Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit.

I really enjoyed it, but I didn't know any different then ... I was too young for the original series

Infact I missed out on a few originals ... I was brought up on The Return Of The Saint and The New Avengers .

As for this one off, could be interesting. Northam would be a great Steed.

emtiem · March 2006

Yeah- The New Avengers is quite fun, but it should never have really been called The Avengers as it feels very different; Pat Macnee has even said it would have been better if he hadn't been in it and it was just Lumley and Hunt, I think.

Moore Not Less · March 2006

emtiem wrote:

Yeah- The New Avengers is quite fun, but it should never have really been called The Avengers as it feels very different; Pat Macnee has even said it would have been better if he hadn't been in it and it was just Lumley and Hunt, I think.

Indeed, the New Avengers is quite fun and does have a different feel to the original Avengers. A lot of it is due to the introduction of "action man" Mike Gambit as the third lead character which changed the dynamics.

Joanna Lumley is very good as Purdey. At the time, in terms of publicity she was definitely the star of the show. A good deal of it was due to her hairstyle as I remember.

MBE_ · March 2006

Hardyboy wrote:

Well, it would have to be better than that pairing of Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman. . .not to mention Sean Connery in a teddy bear costume. (Oops! I mentioned it!)

Northram should be a fine Steed since unlike Fiennes he has a sense of humor on screen. The question is what former Bond can they get to fill that Teddy Bear suit becasue one Bond actor humiliating himself was just not enough.

)

MBE

FelixLeiter ♀ · March 2006

I've always wanted to see the Avengers. I asw this 'must see TV' before on ITV about it and I thought it looked and sounded really good. I hope I get round to seeing it eventually. If not, I'll see this.

RogueAgent · March 2006

I've never had the pleasure of seeing Northam in the lighter sense although I do like him. I felt that Fiennes was too terminally glum to pull off the jovial, yet dangerous Steed.

I'm sure Burrows will do fine as Peel but I always had my heart set on Liz Hurley to fill those catsuits. IMO, she was made for it.

I'm so jealous that I won't get a chance to see this over here...

jetsetwilly · March 2006

RogueAgent wrote:

I'm sure Burrows will do fine as Peel but I always had my heart set on Liz Hurley to fill those catsuits. IMO, she was made for it.

Hurley could fill the catsuit very well. Of course, the image would be dispelled the minute she opened her mouth and revealed her cosmic lack of acting ability, but she'd look great anyway...

emtiem · March 2006

FelixLeiter007 wrote:

I've always wanted to see the Avengers. I asw this 'must see TV' before on ITV about it and I thought it looked and sounded really good. I hope I get round to seeing it eventually. If not, I'll see this.

If you have freeview you can catch it on Thursday evenings at 7pm on BBC4. It's great!

Napoleon Plural · March 2006

I'd rather have a Scot as Steed in a funny kind of way, how about the suave, facetious doctor in No Angels... I could see him as Steed, rather than some stereotypical English guy.

The thing about Macnee is, he was really a great guy and that came across more than anything. Not terribly keen on Burrows either, mind you, weren't they both in Engima, the code-breaking movie with Jeremy Northam?

Moonraker 5 · March 2006

Moore Not Less wrote:

Indeed, the New Avengers is quite fun and does have a different feel to the original Avengers. A lot of it is due to the introduction of "action man" Mike Gambit as the third lead character which changed the dynamics.

Joanna Lumley is very good as Purdey. At the time, in terms of publicity she was definitely the star of the show. A good deal of it was due to her hairstyle as I remember.

I'm more familiar with The New Avengers, growing up with the repeats in the 80s. Great programme, and I have to say (controversially) I think it had a cooler theme tune, though still by the master of TV themes Laurie Johnson.

Given the high quality productions the BBC are rolling out at the moment, with the likes Doctor Who, Hustle and Life On Mars, ITV1 looks rather pathetic and feeble at the moment, with a high degree of throwaway bubble-gum for the eyes.

If it's of the same quality as the above, I think it would be a stormer of a come back.

Both actors named would be great in the roles, but the female character should be completely new. John Steed has to be the male character, but we had Cathy Gale, Emma Peel, Tara King and Purdey - there's no need to 'ape' one of these, a new female character lead should be created.

John Drake · August 2008

Here's a rare excerpt from the 1st series with Ian Hendry as the main star. Steed is a sidekick here. There's no babes in catsuits and it's set in a much more urban environment. Fascinating to watch, and hard to believe it's the same show as the later incarnation.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YMPGOB4lv7M

A new 'The Avengers' on ITV1?

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