John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed and Mrs Emma Peel (née Knight)
Very popular British
Spy Drama running from 1961-1969, created by
Sydney Newman and produced by ITC for
ITV. A total of 161 episodes in six seasons. The show singlehandedly started the
Spy Catsuit and
Action Girl tropes.
Its most famous male-female partnership, between 1965 and 1968, was Patrick Macnee (who would later appear in a
Bond film) and Diana Rigg (who would later appear in a
Bond film).
In earlier seasons (1962-1964), the female co-star was Honor Blackman (who would later appear in a
Bond film).
The series was originally created as a vehicle for Ian Hendry (who would not later appear in a Bond film), to capitalise on the popularity he had developed during his previous show,
Police Surgeon. In the
pilot, his character, Dr Keel, was recruited by spy John Steed (Macnee) as a part-time expert assistant in return for Steed's help capturing the murderers of Keel's wife; this was pretty much
the last time in the series any actual avenging took place. This first series was generally a grim-and-gritty crime affair, centering around drug smugglers, arms dealers and endless cases involving stolen diamonds.
A TV strike delayed the start of the second season, so Hendry left to pursue a film career. Steed became the show's central character and the production team started to explore other partnerships. The first, lasting just a few episodes, was Dr. King, a blatant
Suspiciously Similar Substitute. He was followed up by stories that alternately paired Steed up with nightclub singer Venus Smith (
The Chick) (played by Julie Stevens, who has never appeared in a Bond film) and female spy Cathy Gale (arguably TV's first true
Action Girl) (played by Blackman, who, as noted already, would later appear in a Bond film). Cathy, who was mostly written identically to Dr. Keel, proved to be the most popular and Venus was quietly dropped.
This
retooling of the show became a massive smash. With a consistent
Spy Couple format, the show began to move away from more mundane villains and towards science fictional supervillains and
diabolical masterminds.
Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in
Goldfinger, a Bond film) and was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Simultaneously, production switched from videotape to 35mm film. The show became much more stylish and faster-paced and even gained a new theme tune, although it wasn't until the next season that it was produced in colour. Mrs. Peel — whose husband didn't make an appearance until her final episode — set the trend of the
Spy Catsuit and continued the gentleman spy /
Action Girl setup. Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's iconic pairing, helped by the introduction of filmed and colour episodes raising the show in the public's consciousness.
The stories became crazier and crazier — Space plants from the moon! Assassination by laser! Invisible spies! Housecats trained to kill! Politicians hypnotised into becoming children! A
Shrink Ray! — and typified the swinging cool of
1960s Britain.
Eventually Rigg left Steed for the embrace of
George Lazenby's doomed James Bond, and Steed took on his last partner, Tara King. Tara (played by Linda Thorson, who has
not appeared in a Bond film) was a more feminine character, though still an
Action Girl, but the series never survived the loss of Rigg, massive problems behind the scenes and being put up in America against
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. The series finished after just one season with Tara King.
A
Revival was attempted in 1976, with
The New Avengers, starring Macnee and Joanna Lumley (who's better known for
Absolutely Fabulous,
but had earlier appeared in a Bond film) as
Purdey. Oh, and Gareth Hunt, the guy off the Nescafe adverts (but not Bond films, before or after
The Avengers), as Mike Gambit. But the new, gritty tone — matching shows like
The Sweeney and
The Professionals — was too much of a departure and it soon collapsed. This series lasted from October, 1976 to December, 1977. A total of 26 episodes in two seasons.
The show was later
made into a movie starring Ralph Fiennes (who appears in a
Bond film) and
Uma Thurman (who may or may not appear in some future Bond film yet), whose only redeeming quality was
Sean Connery (
who had appeared in many Bond films)
hamming it up as an evil Scotsman. For more on this film, see
The Avengers (1998).
Not to be confused with
the comic or
its film adaptation, the latter of which was renamed
Avengers Assemble for the British market for precisely this reason.
Character tropes include:
- Action Girl: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel, Tara King, and Purdey in the revival.
- Actor Allusion: In one episode, Cathy Gale sends Steed and Peel a postcard from Fort Knox.
- Almost Dead Guy: Countless episodes.
- Anonymous Ringer: The Prime Minister in "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Station".
- Ax Crazy: "Escape in Time", "The Joker", "Don't Look Behind You".
- Bad Boss: "A Touch of Brimstone".
- Badass Damsel: Tara King.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Steed.
- Bench Breaker: At one point, Mrs. Peel gets handcuffed to a wooden chair. When the time comes, she swiftly breaks the chair and beats up the baddies with the sticks. At the end of the episode, as they stroll off across a golf course, Steed asks her what her handicap is. She shows him the chunk of wood still cuffed to one of her wrists.
- Big Bad: The puppeteer in "Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellas".
- Biker Babe: Cathy Gale.
- Boxed Crook: Many episodes.
- Bungling Inventor: Quilby in "The See-Through Man".
- The Chick: Venus Smith.
- Combat Pragmatist: Steed; a producer's write-up to guide writers of episodes specifically stated that "he fights like a cad and uses every dirty trick in the book..."
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: "The Fear Merchants", "Silent Dust".
- Covert Group: Soviet spymaster Ivanov planted many undercover agents in Great Britain, where they wormed close to tactically important persons, ready to assassinate them on cue. This covert network was called "the House of Cards," because select playing cards would activate the moles. British Avengers John Steed, Emma Peel and Mike Gambit thwarted Ivanov and neutralized his moles.
- Cultured Badass: Steed.
- Damsel in Distress: Tara often gets chloroformed or clubbed and kidnapped.
- Diabolical Mastermind
- Doomed Appointment: Countless.
- Double Agent: Merlin - actually a quadruple agent - in "The Morning After".
- Film Felons: "Epic".
- Funny Foreigner: A few, most notably the Russian diplomat in "Fog".
- Hammer and Sickle Removed for Your Protection: The heroes occasionally tangled with The Other Side.
- Heel Face Mole: "The Correct Way To Kill".
- Hot Scientist: "The Man-Eater of Surrey Green", not to mention Mrs. Peel all the time.
- Iconic Outfit: The Spy Catsuits.
- Implacable Man: The Cybernauts in "The Cybernauts", "Return of the Cybernauts" and "The Last of the Cybernauts...?"
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Brodny in "The See-Through Man" and "Two's A Crowd".
- Last Name Basis
- Large Ham: Mother.
- Loony Fan: "Epic", "The Joker", "Don't Look Behind You".
- Mad Scientist: Countless episodes.
- Meaningful Name: When charged with coming up with a new character, the writers were told to create one with "Male Appeal", abbreviated as "M. Appeal".
- The Mole: Many episodes.
- Mooks: Countless episodes.
- The Napoleon: "Escape in Time".
- Old Friend: Countless, generally doomed.
- Part Time Hero: Tara King was the first of Steed's associates to be a professional agent like him; all those that came before were "talented amateurs" who maintained their own careers between outings with Steed. The having-to-balance-heroing-with-real-life side of the trope rarely came up with any of them, though.
- Emma Peel is shown pursuing numerous hobbies that suggest she is rather lonely since the disappearance of her husband. No wonder she always looks happy to be solving mysteries with Steed.
- Plant Aliens: "The Man-Eater of Surrey Green".
- Platonic Life Partners:
- Steed and Mrs. Gale.
- Steed and Mrs. Peel.
- Steed and Miss King
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Steed, naturally.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The clowns in "Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellas".
- Red Scare: "The Correct Way to Kill".
- Right Wing Militia Fanatic: "The Mauritius Penny", "The Eagle's Nest".
- Serial Killer: "Fog", "Game".
- The Stoic: Steed, Mrs Peel and sometimes Tara King generally treat horrible murder with barely a flicker of emotion.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Dr King.
- Technical Pacifist: Steed.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: Countless episodes.
- Throw the Book at Them: During a fight in the village library in "Murdersville", Steed grabs an armful of books off the shelf and hurls them at an attacker..
- The Vicar: Numerous episodes.
- The Voiceless: Mother's bodyguard, Rhonda.
Plot tropes include:
- Alone with the Psycho: "The Joker".
- Amnesia Danger: "The Forget-Me-Knot".
- Animal Assassin: "The Hidden Tiger".
- Aristocrats Are Evil: "Hellfire Club".
- Brainwashed: "The Hour That Never Was", "Pandora".
- Busman's Holiday: "A Chorus of Frogs".
- The Butler Did It: "What the Butler Saw".
- Class Reunion: "The Hour That Never Was".
- Clear My Name: "All Done With Mirrors", "Who Was That Man I Saw You With?".
- Dead All Along: Professor Keller in "The House That Jack Built".
- Deadly Prank: "Hellfire Club", "Game".
- Doppelgänger: Any way you can think of — Magic Plastic Surgery, Latex Perfection, Identical Stranger, Freaky Friday Flip — The Avengers did it at least once.
- Enemy Mine: "The Morning After".
- Enemy Without: In an episode where a man's brainwaves are projected into a series of hapless British spies.
- Fauxtastic Voyage: "Escape In Time", "Pandora".
- Finger Poke of Doom: "The Positive Negative Man".
- Freaky Friday Flip: "Who's Who???"
- Groundhog Day Loop: "Stay Tuned", and kind of, in "You Have Just Been Murdered".
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: "The Superlative Seven".
- Hypno Fool: "The Master Minds".
- Incredible Shrinking Man: "Mission... Highly Improbable".
- Invisible Main Character: Kind of, in "The See-Through Man". Definitely in "Get-A-Way!"
- Killer Robot: "The Cybernauts", "Return of the Cybernauts".
- Knife Throwing Act: "Conspiracy of Silence".
- Man-Eating Plant: "Man-Eater of Surrey Green".
- The Nasty Party: "The Superlative Seven".
- Ontological Mystery: "The House That Jack Built".
- Orgy of Evidence: "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues", had John Steed go up against a killer who planted clues over each of his hits, and then posed as a detective attempting to "solve" each of the murders he himself committed.
- People Puppets: "Return of the Cybernauts".
- Snuff Film: "Epic".
- Ten Little Murder Victims: "The Superlative Seven".
- Thanatos Gambit: "The House That Jack Built".
- The Remake: They used to remake their own episodes. Ones with Cathy Gale were often remade with either Emma Peel or Tara King. They made three episodes with exactly the same plot, one with each of them.
- Justified in that in the 1960s episodes were wiped after being shown.
- Town with a Dark Secret: "The Town of No Return", "Murdersville".
- Treasure Map: "Dead Man's Chest".
- Your Worst Nightmare: "Too Many Christmas Trees", "Death's Door".
Other tropes that appeared on the show include:
- Absentee Actor: Usually the female lead.
- Acquitted Too Late
- Actor Allusion: "Too Many Christmas Trees".
- Acting for Two: Various Doppelgänger stories.
- Alan Smithee: "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station" gives script credit to "Brian Sheriff," alias Brian Clemens and Roger Marshall (when Marshall left the series due to Creative Differences with Clemens, he rewrote Marshall's script - the pen-name indicates the sheriff doing the marshal's job).
- And You Were There: Mrs Peel's husband was uncannily similar to Steed.
- Auction of Evil: "The Girl from Auntie".
- Bound and Gagged/Distressed Damsel: Happens fairly often to the female lead, considering the time period.
- Bloodless Carnage
- Catch Phrase: "Mrs Peel - we're needed!"
- Cat Fight: "The Living Dead".
- Chekhov's Wardrobe: Mrs. Peel's amazing ability to always wear a catsuit if she would be involved in a fight later.
- Clip Show: "Homicide and Old Lace".
- Chained to a Railway: "The Gravediggers".
- Chameleon Camouflage: One episode had a villain escape prison and attempt to murder John Steed with such a gimmick.
- Comic Book Adaptation: In 1968, Gold Key Comics published a one-shot comic book based on the series. However due to the fact Marvel Comics owned the name The Avengers in comics, the adaptation was titled John Steed Emma Peel. In 1990-1991 Eclipse Comics published a 3-issue comic book mini-series (written by Grant Morrison), but it ran into the same problem so it was titled Steed and Mrs. Peel. An Avengers comic strip also ran in one of the UK weekly comic magazines, but there were no problems using the original title over there.
- Continuity Nod: Cathy Gale sends a Christmas card in "Too Many Christmas Trees" from Fort Knox.
- Completely Different Title:
- In France, the show was titled Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir (Bowler Hat and Leather Boots).
- The German title translated as "With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler". That hat must REALLY have made an impression.
- Conveyor Belt-O-Doom: "Epic".
- Cool Car: Emma's Lotus Elan.
- Elaborate Underground Base: "The Living Dead".
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: "The Living Dead".
- Fake-Out Make-Out: Steed and Mrs. Peel in "Escape in Time".
- Falling Chandelier of Doom: "Death's Door".
- Fanservice: Mrs. Peel in "The Girl from Auntie".
- Foot Focus
- Frickin' Laser Beams: The murder weapon of choice in "From Venus, With Love".
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: At one point, Steed infiltrates into a society of radical cat lovers, and the director asks him about his own cat. Steed proceeds to describe in great detail his "beloved pussy Emma", and looks quite amused when the director asks how nice Emma feels purring in his lap.
- Hammer and Sickle Removed for Your Protection
- Hell-Bent for Leather
- Hey, It's That Guy!: The show is a goldmine for this kind of thing.
- Instrument of Murder: One enemy agent in had a clarinet with a blade that would slide out of the bell when the right key was pressed.
- It Must Be Mine: "The Girl from Auntie".
- Jumped at the Call: Both Steed and Mrs Peel clearly enjoy their adventures, even though it occasionally means killing lots of people.
- Limited Wardrobe: Steed.
- Lost Episode: All but two-and-two-thirds episodes of the first season. Videotape was expensive in the early 60's and was routinely reused. The first act of the first episode can be found on YouTube
. - Milkman Conspiracy: Many episodes, and a literal one in "False Witness".
- Missing Episode:
- Most of the first season.
- The episode "A Touch of Brimstone" was initially "banned" by the ABC network in the US, although it was merely one of five monochrome Emma Peel episodes the network never aired — the broadcast schedule for these episodes only lasted 21 weeks, so five of the set of 26 never made it on; all five later aired in syndicated reruns in the US. Even in the UK, the most censor-troubling scene in "Brimstone", of a man attacking fetish-leather-clad Emma with a whip, was shortened; and various rerun syndications shortened it to varying greater degrees. Not until DVD release was the full-length version of the scene presented.
- Monster Clowns: "Look - (Stop Me if You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers..."
- Most Writers Are Male: In this case, all the writers - which explains a lot about Mrs. Peel in particular.
- Musical Pastiche: In "The Winged Avenger".
- Never Found the Body: Mrs. Peel's husband Peter; a pilot found to be alive in the Amazonian jungle years after a plane crash, which signals Mrs. Peel's exit from the series.
- Nice Hat: Steed and his bowlers, complete with a steel plate in the crown for clonking people on the head with.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup
- Nothing Is Scarier: "Don't Look Behind You".
- Of Corsets Sexy: "A Touch of Brimstone".
- Oh Cisco
- Opening Narration: The American screenings of the Emma Peel episodes.
- Parasol of Pain: Steed's umbrella.
- Parent Service: Emma Peel.
- Pretty in Mink: Emma Peel.
- Pressure Point: Emma Peel in "The Living Dead".
- Put on a Bus: Tara King in two episodes.
- Replaced the Theme Tune: It originally had a theme tune by Johnny Dankworth. It also underwent a complete makeover when production was switched from videotape to film, simultaneous with Diana Rigg's arrival, resulting in the more familiar Laurie Johnson theme.
- Re Tool: The show changed dramatically with the introduction of Cathy Gale.
- Re Vision: Mother.
- She-Fu
- Shout Out: In one episode a plot to destroy a train is summed up as such: "Pop goes the diesel?"
- Shrug of God: Steed and Mrs Peel — are they or aren't they? Since they would never have been permitted to address the question explicitly on-screen, it was deliberately left ambiguous. An interviewer once asked Macnee, Rigg, and the series' head writer what was really going on with Steed and Mrs Peel, and got three different and mutually-exclusive answers.
- Spy Catsuit: The original, in fact, and the origin of the trope.
- Spy Couple
- Spy Drama
- Spy Fiction
- Sword Cane: Steed had a sword concealed in his umbrella.
- The Tag: Humorous variety.
- Turned Against Their Masters: "The Cybernauts".
- Virtual Reality Interrogation: Tara King was victim of such a ploy by villains trying to locate John Steed and whoever he was protecting. Another episode had a fake "training seminar" orchestrated by enemy agents. British agents would not crack during the "interrogation simulations", but would later casually discuss the subject matter at the bar...
- We Help The Helpless: The Avengers' scope of action varies from episode to episode — sometimes it's impossible or unusual crimes, sometimes it's purely spy-based, sometimes it's breaking smuggling rings.
- Weaponized Headgear: Steed's steel-lined bowler.
- Will They or Won't They?: There was a palpable sexual chemisty between Steed and Mrs Peel. And between Steed and Mrs. Gale. And between Steed and Miss King. And between Steed and Purdey.
- Whole Plot Reference: "Dead Man's Chest" is basically It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; "The Superlative Seven" is a riff on The Most Dangerous Game.
- You Got Murder
- You Look Familiar
The 1976-77 remake series The New Avengers provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: "Gnaws".
- Apocalypse Hitler: "The Eagle's Nest" featured a group of Nazis attempting to revive the cryogenically preserved body of Hitler.
- Bad Habits: "The Eagle's Nest".
- Bullet Catch: In one episode, the Russians had developed a super-martial arts training program which would enable those who survived to deflect bullets with their hands. The graduate did fairly well, but it turned out he could only deflect attacks from one direction at a time.
- Cat Fight: The episode "Angels Of Death" has Purdey taking on not one but two gorgeous female opponents (played by Caroline Munro and Pamela Stephenson), after Gambit's basic decency prevents him hitting women and they beat the bejasus out of him.
- Dance Battler: Purdey was a former ballerina who practiced a very balletic fighting form, complete with pirouettes and high kicks.
- Death Course: An episode had one of these disguised as a British agent training course. Agents would be shot with harmless little darts to show whether they passed. The villains poisoned the darts.
- Deep Cover Agent: The episode "House of Cards" features a rogue Russian agent activating an old cold war project of deep, deep cover agents, two of whom are old friends of Steed.
- Doppelgänger: "Faces", of the Magic Plastic Surgery variety.
- Evil Former Friend: In "Such Men Are Dangerous", Steed's life is threatened by a revenge campaign from Mark Creighton, a childhood friend (at least to Steed), who viewed Steed as a lifelong rival, and who Steed was forced to shoot when he revealed himself to be a double agent.
- Living on Borrowed Time: An enemy agent in one episode who had a bullet working its way toward his brain, and was desperate to kill Steed before that happened.
- Lock Down: "Complex".
- Instant Sedation: "Sleeper", where a group of bank robbers disperse a powerful knockout drug over London early on a Sunday morning in order to pull off a series of bank heists.
- Older and Wiser: Steed.
- Only One Name: Purdey.
- Revival
- Rodents of Unusual Size: "Gnaws".
- Shooting Gallery: "Target!".
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: "The Eagle's Nest".
0 reviews