I've been reading James Chapman's book Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s, which gives lots of background information about these series, as well as academic analysis. It covers all the shows Thunderpussy mentioned in post 3, and most of the shows Chris01 mentioned in post 27.
The second chapter is all about the Avengers. I already learned a fair bit from you folks upthread, but I've learned a bunch more from this book, I thought I ought to share some of these fun factoids. Especially since it seems most of us have only ever seen the Rigg episodes.
(You experts correct me where I've got it wrong please, I don't want to be spreading any misinformation.)
The series was invented by Sydney Newman, the same Canadian born producer who also created Doctor Who. But Brian Clemens claims Newman only came up with the name, which sounded cool, and nothing else. A few pages further along Newman is credited with the idea to change Steed's persona into the dapper witty aristocratic type, which started in the second season.
The series was originally the followup to a shortlived cops & doctors show called Police Surgeon, also staring Ian Hendry. At the last minute it was decided to give Hendry's character a new name and make the new show entirely unrelated.
The first season was about Dr David Keel, whose wife is murdered and he becomes involved with a mysterious secret agent John Steed, with most episodes involving a medical angle. Steed at this point is unrecognisable, a tough streetsmart trenchcoat wearing character in the Bogart tradition.
Several of these episodes were broadcast live (like our Climax Mystery Theatre!) and do not survive, and the rest recorded on videotape. Only three and half episodes from the first season survive, I'm not sure that any are on dvd.
There was a actors strike in 1962, and Hendry chose to quit. So the show had to be reconceptualised. The first three episodes of season 2 featured a new doctor character, using up the remaining Hendry-era scripts. Then there was a small number of episodes with nightclub singer Venus Smith (played by Julie Stevens). I have actually seen the first of these online, and although Steed now dresses as we expect him to, he does not behave like the character we all know. Instead, he is very manipulative, charming Venus into saving her country, while concealing much information and risking her life. As Napoleon Plural noted on the previous page, very much like the film Notorious. Stevens does sing two complete songs, including a Duke Ellington cover.
Then the bulk of the second season episodes are with Honour Blackman. She plays a much stronger, smarter more selfreliant character, dressed in leather to give her freedom of movement for her kick-ass fight scenes. The show becomes a phenomenon, and MacNee and Blackman actually record a would be pop single called Kinky Boots to cash in on their growing popularity. The episodes still focus mostly on realistic spy thriller plots, but slowly give way to more science fiction and selfparody. These episodes are mostly written by Clemens. There is also a directive from above for a stylized visual identity to set the show apart from its competitors, with lots of weird camera angles and unique sets (no boring offices or flats).
When Blackman left there was an exceptionally long break (18 months) where the whole production was rethought. This is when they switched from videotape to film. They also brought in a lot of film industry pros to write and direct, and really only Clemens from the original team was kept, and he was promoted. So Clemens' aesthetic for science fiction and selfparody became the official look for the show in the Rigg years.
We've talked plenty about the Rigg years above, so I shall not repeat. The final season with Tara King was not so popular in America, so the show was finally cancelled. The King shows did have the innovation of introducing Steed's boss Mother, and the convention of meeting with the boss in unusual spaces (e.g. the upper level of a double decker bus).
The New Avengers is discussed as being more realistic in approach, with more explicit mention of Cold War politics than was ever in the original, and an updated, very mid70s sense of fashion. Ian Hendry returns in one episode as a villain. The new show was not successful, even in the UK, and the final four episodes were made ultra-low budget in Canada!
The late 1990s film's failure is blamed on Uma Thurman, as the filmmakers felt they needed a big American star amongst all the authentic British talent, and she couldn't do the accent or deliver the British wit. (I was sad to read this opinion, as I like Uma and I think the film had much bigger problems than just her miscasting).
In terms of analysis, Chapman compares the show to Hitchcock's 1930s spy films (as per the show's own publicity), and develops the theme of the "proximity of chaos". We repeatedly see quaint postcard scenes of typical English country inns concealing evil villains headquarters hidden in the tunnels below, and infinite variations thereof. He compares the typical rural settings to Ealing comedies (I don't know what those are?). When in the city there is similar chaos barely hidden beneath the department stores and dance classes. We don't really see modern Swinging London, just the nostalgic archetypic images, with mad scientists' lairs lurking inches behind the facade.
The villainy almost never reflects any realistic sort of Cold War politics. instead the villains are often reactionaries (who fear modern life and wish to take us back to the good old days) or technocrats (mad scientists who wish to limit humanity's choices with all powerful technologies).
Another bit of analyis: he claims the character Cathy Gale was revolutionary, unprecedented, a fictional feminist icon blazing the way for characterizations of female action heros we now take for granted. The action thriller genre is as old as film, but women's roles were traditionally as secretaries, girlfriends, or if the actress was lucky, the femme fatale. Never before could an actress be the action star who singlehandedly saved the day and also saved the hero.
I think he may be right, though there were certainly superheroines in American comic books (but moreso in the 1940s than the 50s or 60s) and the Modesty Blaise newpaper strip had started a couple years earlier. I cannot think of a comparable female character in film or teevee before Cathy Gale.
I saw the same author wrote a book on James Bond films, so I've picked up that one too.
Last edited by caractacus potts (18th Aug 2019 16:23)
Some of the scenes could be right out of an old horror film.
banter with each other.
One fact I