History Series / TheAvengers1960s

This [[ReTool retooling]] of the show became a massive smash. With a consistent AgentsDating format, the show gradually began to move away from more mundane villains and smaller-scale urban dramas in favour of pulpier, more bombastic plots centred on international espionage and political corruption (sporadically interlaced with more overtly unrealistic concepts such as witchcraft and [[DiabolicalMastermind]]s), albeit while retaining a relatively emotionally-grounded and hard-edged tone.

[[caption-width-right:300:The series' most iconic couple: Mr. John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed and Mrs Emma Peel (née Knight)]]

This [[ReTool retooling]] of the show became a massive smash. With a consistent AgentsDating format, the show gradually began to move away from more mundane villains in favour of ScienceFiction and supernatural elements, such as witchcraft and {{Diabolical Mastermind}}s, although crime melodrama nonetheless remained the show's primary stylistic centre.

Eventually Rigg left Steed for the [[Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService doomed embrace]] of Creator/GeorgeLazenby's Bond, and Steed took on his last partner, Tara King. Tara (played by Creator/LindaThorson, who has ''not'' appeared in a Bond film, but made up for it by being the only one of the bunch to appear on ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase Star Trek]]'') was a more feminine character, though still an ActionGirl, but the series never survived the loss of Rigg, massive problems behind the scenes and being put up in America against ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''. The series finished after just one season with Tara King. As of late 2020, Thorson is the last living main cast member, with both Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg having passed away earlier that year.

''The Avengers'' is a very popular British SpyFiction series that ran during most of TheSixties (from 1961 to 1969). It was created by Creator/SydneyNewman (a few years before he created ''Series/DoctorWho''), mainly written by Brian Clemens and produced by Associated British Corporation (or ABC, unrelated to the identically-abbreviated Ameerican TV channel) for Creator/{{ITV}}. It had a total of 161 episodes across six seasons and singlehandedly started the SpyCatsuit trope.

The series was originally created as a vehicle for Creator/IanHendry (who would [[DeletedRole not-quite appear]] in [[Film/CasinoRoyale1967 a not-quite Bond film]]), to capitalise on the popularity he had developed during his previous show, the social realist drama ''Police Surgeon''. In the {{pilot}}, his character, the mild-mannered and pragmatic practitioner Dr David Keel, was recruited by charming-but-hard-edged spy John Steed (Macnee) as a part-time expert assistant in return for Steed's help capturing the murderers of Keel's fiancée; this was pretty much [[ArtifactTitle the last time in the series any actual]] ''[[ArtifactTitle avenging]]'' [[ArtifactTitle took place]]. The ensuing first season (featuring Keel and Steed as rotating co-protagonists and collaborators more than a regularly-partnered duo) was generally a grim-and-gritty (and decidedly low-budget) crime affair, centring around drug smugglers, arms dealers and endless cases involving stolen diamonds.

This [[ReTool retooling]] of the show became a massive smash. With a consistent AgentsDating format, the show began to move away from more mundane villains and towards ScienceFiction, {{Mad Scientist}}s and all sorts of {{Diabolical Mastermind}}s.

Following the third season's conclusion in 1964, Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a Bond film) and, following several unsuccessful shootings pairing Macnee with Elizabeth Shepherd, was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Buoyed by the national success of the Gale era, ABC banked on revamping the show to pursue American TV markets and procured a budget increase for the series, enabling the show to convert from videotape to the more cinematographically-versatile medium of 35mm film (and thus compete with its U.S. contemporaries visually). Owing to both Rigg's energetic charisma (and chemistry with Macnee) and its upgraded production values, the show resultantly became much more stylish, faster-paced and irreverent - even gaining a new theme song - 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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup, although the further evolution of Steed into a mannerly, [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman exaggeratedly British gentleman]] (as opposed to the less chaste alpha male of the Keel and Gale eras) gave this era's incarnation of the dynamic a decidedly more parodic flavour. Possibly due to the more international reach of their seasons as co-stars, Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most iconic pairing, with the fifth season's shift to colour accentuating their profile (and the show's popularity) further.

The stories, meanwhile, became crazier and crazier -- Space plants from the moon! Assassination by laser! Invisible spies! Housecats brainwashed to kill! Politicians hypnotised into becoming children! A ShrinkRay! -- and typified the swinging cool of [[TheSixties 1960s]] Britain, particularly to American audiences of the period.

''The Avengers'' is a very popular British SpyFiction series that ran during most of TheSixties (from 1961 to 1969). It was created by Creator/SydneyNewman (a few years before he created ''Series/DoctorWho''), mainly written by Brian Clemens and produced by Associated British Corporation for Creator/{{ITV}}. It had a total of 161 episodes across six seasons and singlehandedly started the SpyCatsuit trope.

Following the third season's conclusion in 1964, Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a Bond film) and, following several unsuccessful shootings pairing Macnee with Elizabeth Shepherd, was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Buoyed by the national success of the Gale era, ABC banked on revamping the show to pursue American TV markets and procured a budget increase for the series, enabling the show to convert from videotape to the more cinematographically-versatile medium of 35mm film (and thus compete with its U.S. contemporaries visually). Owing to both Rigg's energetic charisma (and chemistry with Macnee) and its upgraded production values, the show resultantly became much more stylish, faster-paced and irreverent, 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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup, although the further evolution of Steed into a mannerly, [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman exaggeratedly British gentleman]] (as opposed to the less chaste alpha male of the Keel and Gale eras) gave this era's incarnation of the dynamic a decidedly more parodic flavour. Possibly due to the more international reach of their seasons as co-stars, Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most iconic pairing, with the fifth season's shift to colour accentuating their profile (and the show's popularity) further.

The series was originally created as a vehicle for Creator/IanHendry (who would [[DeletedRole not-quite appear]] in [[Film/CasinoRoyale1967 a not-quite Bond film]]), to capitalise on the popularity he had developed during his previous show, the social realist drama ''Police Surgeon''. In the {{pilot}}, his character, Dr David Keel, was recruited by charming-but-hard-edged spy John Steed (Macnee) as a part-time expert assistant in return for Steed's help capturing the murderers of Keel's fiancée; this was pretty much [[ArtifactTitle the last time in the series any actual]] ''[[ArtifactTitle avenging]]'' [[ArtifactTitle took place]]. The ensuing first season (featuring Keel and Steed as rotating co-protagonists and collaborators more than a regularly-partnered duo) was generally a grim-and-gritty (and decidedly low-budget) crime affair, centring around drug smugglers, arms dealers and endless cases involving stolen diamonds.

The series was originally created as a vehicle for Creator/IanHendry (who would [[DeletedRole not-quite appear]] in [[Film/CasinoRoyale1967 a not-quite Bond film]]), to capitalise on the popularity he had developed during his previous show, the social realist drama ''Police Surgeon''. In the {{pilot}}, his character, Dr David Keel, was recruited by charming-but-hard-edged spy John Steed (Macnee) as a part-time expert assistant in return for Steed's help capturing the murderers of Keel's fiancée; this was pretty much [[ArtifactTitle the last time in the series any actual]] ''[[ArtifactTitle avenging]]'' [[ArtifactTitle took place]]. The ensuing first season (featuring Keel and Steed as rotating co-protagonists and collaborators more than a regularly-partnered duo) was generally a grim-and-gritty crime affair, centring around drug smugglers, arms dealers and endless cases involving stolen diamonds.

Following the third season's conclusion in 1964, Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a Bond film) and, following several unsuccessful shootings pairing Macnee with Elizabeth Shepherd, was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Buoyed by the national success of the Gale era, ABC banked on revamping the show to pursue American TV markets and procured a budget increase for the series - enabling the show to convert from videotape to the more cinematographically-versatile medium of 35mm film - to compete with its U.S. contemporaries. Owing to both Rigg's energetic charisma (and chemistry with Macnee) and its upgraded production values, the show resultantly became much more stylish, faster-paced and irreverent, 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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup, although the further evolution of Steed into a mannerly, [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman exaggeratedly British gentleman]] (as opposed to the less chaste alpha male of the Keel and Gale eras) gave this era's incarnation of the dynamic a decidedly more parodic flavour. Possibly due to the more international reach of their seasons as co-stars, Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most iconic pairing, with the fifth season's shift to colour accentuating their profile (and the show's popularity) further.

Following the third season's conclusion in 1964, Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a Bond film) and, following several unsuccessful shootings pairing Macnee with Elizabeth Shepherd, was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Buoyed by the national success of the Gale era, ABC banked on revamping the show to pursue American TV markets and procured a budget increase - enabling the show to convert from videotape to the more cinematographically-versatile medium of 35mm film - to compete with its U.S. contemporaries. Owing to both Rigg's energetic charisma (and chemistry with Macnee) and its upgraded production values, the show resultantly became much more stylish, faster-paced and irreverent, 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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup, although the further evolution of Steed into a mannerly, [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman exaggeratedly British gentleman]] (as opposed to the less chaste alpha male of the Keel and Gale eras) gave this era's incarnation of the dynamic a decidedly more parodic flavour. Possibly due to the more international reach of their seasons as co-stars, Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most iconic pairing, with the fifth season's shift to colour accentuating their profile (and the show's popularity) further.

Following the third season's conclusion in 1964, Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a Bond film) and, following several unsuccessful shootings pairing Macnee with Elizabeth Shepherd, was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Buoyed by the national success of the Gale era, ABC banked on revamping the show to pursue American TV markets and procured a budget increase - enabling the show to convert from videotape to the more cinematographically-versatile medium of 35mm film - to compete with its U.S. contemporaries. Owing to both Rigg's energetic charisma (and chemistry with Macnee) and its upgraded production values, the show resultantly became much more stylish, 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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup, although the further evolution of Steed into a mannerly, [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman exaggeratedly British gentleman]] (as opposed to the less chaste alpha male of the Keel and Gale eras) gave this era's incarnation of the dynamic a decidedly more parodic flavour. Possibly due to the more international reach of their seasons as co-stars, Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most iconic pairing, with the fifth season's shift to colour accentuating their profile (and the show's popularity) further.

Following the third season's conclusion in 1964, Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a Bond film) and, following several unsuccessful shootings pairing Macnee with Elizabeth Shepherd, was replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel, described as a "talented amateur". Buoyed by the national success of the Gale era, ABC banked on revamping the show to pursue American TV markets and procured a budget increase - enabling the show to convert from videotape to the more cinematographically-versatile medium of 35mm film - to compete with it U.S. contemporaries. Owing to both Rigg's energetic charisma (and chemistry with Macnee) and its upgraded production values, the show resultantly became much more stylish, 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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup, although the further evolution of Steed into a mannerly, [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman exaggeratedly British gentleman]] (as opposed to the less chaste alpha male of the Keel and Gale eras) gave this era's incarnation of the dynamic a decidedly more parodic flavour. Possibly due to the more international reach of their seasons as co-stars, Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most iconic pairing, with the fifth season's shift to colour accentuating their profile (and the show's popularity) further.

The series was originally created as a vehicle for Creator/IanHendry (who would [[DeletedRole not-quite appear]] in [[Film/CasinoRoyale1967 a not-quite Bond film]]), to capitalise on the popularity he had developed during his previous show, ''Police Surgeon''. In the {{pilot}}, his character, Dr David 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 [[ArtifactTitle the last time in the series any actual]] ''[[ArtifactTitle avenging]]'' [[ArtifactTitle took place]]. This first series was generally a grim-and-gritty crime affair, centring 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 SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute. He was followed up by stories that alternately paired Steed up with nightclub singer Venus Smith (played by Julie Stevens, who has never appeared in a Bond film) and female spy Catherine "Cathy" Gale (arguably TV's first true ActionGirl, and played by Blackman, who, as noted already, would later appear in a Bond film). Cathy, who was mostly written identically to Dr. Keel (WordOfGod is that some of her early scripts were actually written for Hendry), proved to be the most popular and Venus was quietly dropped.

Blackman left to pursue a film career (playing Pussy Galore in ''Film/{{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 SpyCatsuit and continued the gentleman spy / ActionGirl setup. Steed and Mrs. Peel became the show's most 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 ShrinkRay! -- and typified the swinging cool of [[TheSixties 1960s]] Britain.

[[caption-width-right:300:Mr. John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed and Mrs Emma Peel (née Knight)]]

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 SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute. He was followed up by stories that alternately paired Steed up with nightclub singer [[TheChick Venus Smith]] (played by Julie Stevens, who has never appeared in a Bond film) and female spy Catherine "Cathy" Gale (arguably TV's first true ActionGirl, and played by Blackman, who, as noted already, would later appear in a Bond film). Cathy, who was mostly written identically to Dr. Keel (WordOfGod is that some of her early scripts were actually written for Hendry), proved to be the most popular and Venus was quietly dropped.

* ThereAreNoPolice: In order to maintain the fantasy feel of the series, one of the guidelines was that there be no policemen about.

* BareYourMidriff: Emma while doing the Dance of the Seven Veils in "Honey for the Prince". The producers insisted that Creator/DianaRigg wear a jewel in her navel so that the programme would pass the American censors, but it kept falling out.

* BellyDancer: Emma disguises herself as one in "Honey for the Prince" and performs "The Dance of the Six Veils".

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: In "The Superlative Seven," Steed is abducted to a secret island with five other men and one woman to participate in a deadly game. Steed survives, of course, as does one other person; no surprise who it is.

Its most famous male-female pairing, between 1965 and 1968, was Creator/PatrickMacnee (who would later appear in a Film/JamesBond [[Film/AViewToAKill film]]) and Creator/DianaRigg (who would later appear in a [[Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService Bond film]]). In earlier seasons (1962-1964), the female co-star was Creator/HonorBlackman ([[RunningGag who would later appear]] in a [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Bond film]]).

* CharacterisationClickMoment: In the first season, Steed was a hard-edged, trenchcoat-wearing operative with ambiguous morality. During the Cathy Gale era, he started to soften a bit, though he had a casually manipulative streak. It wasn't until the Emma Peel era that his familiar sophiscated, dapper gentleman persona kicked in.

** During the first season, Steed's character was a more rough-and-tumble operative than the suave, sophisticated gentleman he became during the Gale and Peel eras. He's also quite manipulative and unscrupulous in the Cathy Gale era, which led to conflict between the two. It wasn't until the Emma Peel era where he truly became the familiar chivalrous gentleman.

** Christopher Lee appears as a military officer interrogating prisoners. In real life he had served in RAF intelligence and did just that to Nazi war criminals.
* AgentsDating: Played pretty much straight throughout, with John Steed and his various female partners in a state of perpetual UST, and often seen in romantic or dating-esque scenarios, though, in keeping with the tone of the series, rarely more than hints were offered, with Steed and Peel (a MindSwap scenario notwithstanding) kissing only once. The relationship between Steed and Tara, despite its MayDecemberRomance aspects, was allowed to be somewhat more suggestive, with the final line of the final episode featuring a character expressing concern about Steed and Tara being unchaperoned while riding a rocket ship into earth's orbit.

* SneezeOfDoom: "You'll Catch Your Death" has villains who send a virus in the post that literally makes people sneeze to death. In the same episode, Tara sneezes while spying on the villains, as she's just escaped from a cold room.

** In "The Frighteners", Steed tells Keel to take the unconscious Moxon to his surgery, saying, "Give the police surgeon the night off?" ''Police Surgeon'' was a series that starred Creator/IanHendry, the predecessor to the show.
** In "Too Many Christmas Trees", Cathy Gale sends Steed and Peel a postcard from [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Fort Knox]].

* AliceAllusion: The chess-themed restaurant in "Lobster Quadrille" contains a cut-out of Alice and in "The £50,000 Breakfast", Emma quips, "Curioser curioser".
* AlienKudzu: In "Man-Eater of Surrey Green", a ManEatingPlant from outer space lands in Middle England and takes several top horticulturists as its prisoners in an effort to germinate and spread across all of the Earth.
* AloneWithThePsycho: "The Joker" has Emma Peel trapped in a house with a psychopath who is obsessed with her, and wants to drive her as insane as he is. The script was recycled from "Don't Look Behind You", which starred Cathy Gale.
* AmphibiousAutomobile: In the coda to "Castle De'ath", Steed and Peel are driving back, when he decides to go fishing. When Peel increduously says, "In ''those'' clothes?" he promptly drives his amphibious car into a nearby loch.

* AnimalAssassin: In "The Hidden Tiger", house cats are turned into man-killers.

* BadSanta: In "Too Many Christmas Trees", Steed suffered from disturbing dreams featuring a creepy Father Christmas.
* BagOfHolding: In "The Town of No Return", Steed and Peel take a train journey, where Steed, in the absence of a restaurant car, produces a carpet bag containing a full tea service, including a stand of small cakes and a boiling kettle.

* BearTrap: In "Silent Dust", Steed steps in a bear trap while being chased by one of the bad guys. He manages to free his foot but passes out shortly afterward.

* BenchBreaker: In "The Thirteenth Hole", 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.

** In "Castle De'ath", a man is being tortured on the rack and the sound of bagpipes drowns out his cries.

* GrandTheftMe: In "Who's Who???", Steed and Emma's minds are switched with those of two enemy agents. They did not switch voices, if only because the plot demanded that the enemy use the heroes' hijacked bodies to infiltrate British security. In an amusing touch, after each commercial break, the episode also includes a "reminder" about the swap to the viewer, but the supposedly helpful voice-announcer merely gets progressively more confused.

** In "Death at Bargain Prices", it gets shot off during a fight.

* HitFlash: {{Parodied}} in "The Winged Avenger", where the villain is clobbered with large-scale comic book panels splayed with such words. Additionally, the background music parodies ''Series/Batman1966'''s TitleThemeTune.

* OneLastSmoke: In "The Living Dead", John Steed is about to be executed and, ever the gentleman, not only declines a cigarette, but lights one for the commander of the firing squad, who is more nervous than Steed.

* OrgyOfEvidence: "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.
* OutOfCharacterAlert: In "Who's Who??", two enemy agents have a machine which will enable them to switch personalities with Steed and Mrs. Peel. After the man has switched with Steed, he goes to Mrs. Peel's to lure her into the trap. As they are leaving, he addresses her as "Emma", something Steed never did. She notices, but shrugs it off.
* OutdatedOutfit: Steed wears a bowler hat and old-fashioned suits, to match his classic cars and generally old-fashiond style. Mrs. Peel, by contrast wore very up-to-date (for the time) Mod fashions and drove an also modern for-the-time Lotus Elan.
* OutfitDecoy: In "Death's Door", Steed gets trapped behind a fence by an enemy agent with a carbine. He puts his bowler on top of his umbrella and lifts it above the fence twice for the agent to shoot: to gauge the man's position and lure him into position for Steed's counterattack.

* ParryingBullets: In "Death at Bargain Prices", a villain throws a knife at Steed, who deflects it with a cricket bat. Naturally, it lands on a dartboard.

* PeoplePuppets: In "Return of the Cybernauts", Paul Beresford seeks revenge on Steed and Peel by forcing a scientist to invent a device that turns them into human puppets while they are still conscious.

* ProductPlacement: In "The Golden Eggs", Steed is cutting a cowboy off the back of a packet of "Wild West Cornflakes" as the titles dissolve. Cathy joins him for breakfast, but the whole scene is played for product placement, the packet taking up the entire screen for several seconds, and remains clearly in view for nearly a minute, until Steed has demolished the box and thrown cornflakes everywhere. It's not a last-minute inclusion either, as it's in the camera script. However, as no such product ever existed in the UK, it's almost certainly a joke.
* ProfessionalKiller: The titular "Mr Teddy Bear", who communicates with clients via his talking teddy bear. Among his victims are Herr General Grantz (killed emulating the Führer - went to hit the table with a microphone while addressing the population of Talona and was electrocuted with several 1000 volts), Herr General Freiber (gassed when opening his safe) and Admiral Mindel (a souvenir hunter who has an American grenade turned into a table lighter; he discovered one night it had turned back into a live grenade). After the war, he disappeared for 5 or 6 years, his current price is believed to be £100,000, with a private or public execution, to the taste of the client. He likes £20,000 beforehand for expenses, the rest on completion. Only one client has ever welched - and was dropped from a helicopter into exhibition square in Zagreb.

* PsychicStatic: In "Too Many Christmas Trees", Steed and Mrs. Peel come under psychic attack. Their defenses include "Green Grow the Rushes, O" and an obsession with socks.
* PsychologicalTormentZone: In "The House that Jack Built", Mrs Peel is imprisoned in a house that is specifically designed to drive her insane as part of a revenge plot.

* RailEnthusiast: "The Gravediggers" gives us Sir Horace Winslip, an eccentric hospital proprieter whose BigFancyHouse, "Winslip Junction", is done up like a railway station - Steed even has to blow a whistle and buy a platform ticket to gain entry. His butler Fred is dressed like a conductor and the drawing room has been decorated with false tracks, platform awnings, a signal box and half a train carriage, where he dines while Fred turns on fans, rocks the carriage, and runs a revolving scenery canvas and gramophone during meals. He even has his own miniature railway. He longs for the good old days of the steam train and has a low opinion of cars, which leads the villains to dupe him into having a signal box he assumes is for disabling cars, when it's really for putting England into a blackout.

* BigRedButton: In "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" the villain proudly shows off the red button that will blow up the railway carriage carrying the Prime Minister of Britain. Later Emma Peel (who wasn't present to hear this) accidentally puts her hand on the button giving everyone an Oh, Crap! moment; fortunately Steed has already disconnected the wires.
* {{Birdcaged}}: In "The Girl From Auntie" Emma Peel gets stuck in a rather feathery outfit and locked in one of these.
* TheBlank: In "Death's Door", Lord Melford has a nightmare about attending a peace conference where he is greeted at the door by a faceless. Steed and Emma later discover he had been drugged and the nightmare staged. During the final fight against the bad guys, Emma shows up wearing the costume and mask used to create the faceless man.

* BloodlessCarnage: The series actually made a point of not showing blood, to maintain the lighthearted tone of the series, despite numerous deaths by gunshot, stabbing, explosion and so on. There were some episodes where a little blood was shown, but they were few and far between. In one episode, we are led to believe a character was mauled to death by a tiger; the victim's clothes are in shreds, but there's no blood at all.
* BotanicalAbomination: In "Man-Eater of Surrey Green", a ManEatingPlant from outer space lands in Middle England and takes several top horticulturists as its prisoners in an effort to germinate and spread across all of the Earth.

* BrandishmentBluff: In "The Frighteners", Dr. Keel threatens a villain with a syringe he claims is filled with hydrochloric acid in order to learn who hired him. It turns out to be filled with witch-hazel.

* {{Bulungi}}: In "Small Game for Big Hunters" it's Kalaya. An old colonel who couldn't face the fact that Kalaya became independent has recreated his Kalayan HQ in rural England. There's a conspiracy to unleash an epidemic of sleeping sickness back in the real Kalaya.
* BusmansHoliday: In "A Chorus of Frogs", Steed is on holiday in Greece when he's asked to investigate the mysterious death of a Greek deep-sea diver and part-time smuggler. .

-->'''Steed'''d: The butler did it!

** In "Who's Who???", a pair of agents who have swapped bodies with Steed and Emma summon a man to Steed's flat so they can kill him, covering it up by playing pop music on the radio.
* CartoonBomb: In "Look - (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers...", a pair of vaudeville clowns kill off a number of folks — one with such a bomb, complete with "BOMB" painted on it in big white letters.

* CatFight: "The Living Dead", between Mrs. Peel and a female guard.
* CatsAreMean: In "The Hidden Tiger", several prominent business men are mauled to death, leading to speculation that a big cat like a lion or a tiger is on the loose. In reality, the VillainOfTheWeek has discovered a way to turn the domestic felines of the country into vicious killers.
* CatchAndReturn: In "Noon Doomsday", Tara returns a throwing knife to its thrower -- to his belly, more precisely, which causes him to fall to his death.
* ChainedToARailway: {{Parodied}} in "The Gravediggers", in which Mrs Peel is tied to the tracks of a ''miniature'' railway.

** In "Never Never Say Die", Steed attacks Dr. Stone's robot duplicate with a chair, but it does nothing.
** In "Epic", Emma playfully hits Steed with what she thinks is a breakaway prop chair that turns out to be real.

** The first episode Creator/HonorBlackman filmed was "Death Dispatch", where Cathy is rather tolerant of Steed's sexist attitude towards her, which would have been unthinkable in her later episodes.
** The first episode Creator/DianaRigg filmed was "The Murder Market", where it's clear that Emma's character hadn't clicked just yet. Instead of her usual bright, razor-sharp wit, she is low-key, almost sultry. Other anomalies include her uncharacteristic, rather Cathy-ish lashing-out at Steed and her awkward catfight with the female baddie.

** In "Lobster Quadrille", there are two chess sets in Steed's flat, a chess shop, chess style tiles at the mortuary and a restaurant in chess style.

* ChristmasEpisode: The aptly-named "Too Many Christmas Trees", where Steed has a nightmare featuring a sinister Father Christmas and there's a Creator/CharlesDickens-themed Christmas party, where one character dresses as [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Jacob Marley]].
* ChristmasInJuly: In "Take-Over", Steed walks into a hostage situation because he is celebrating Christmas in the summer. It turns out he and his friend (whose house the killers have taken over) were in a POW camp in Asia and lost track of the date. Only later did they find out they had celebrated Christmas in summer and decided to make it an annual thing.

** In "Conspiracy of Silence", Steed learns that a circus clown is trying to kill him. Cathy moves in with the clown's wife and learns that the mafia is trying to keep him from interfering with their American drug smuggling connection.

** In "All Done With Mirrors", Steed is accused of selling secrets, so he is placed under house arrest to help flush out the real traitors, leaving Tara to find the culprit.
** In "Who Was That Man I Saw You With?", Tara is accused of working with an enemy agent, prompting Steed to clear her name.

* ConveyorBeltODoom: Mrs. Peel is tied up and put on a conveyor belt to a giant buzzsaw in the episode "Epic".

* CostumeCopycat: In "They Keep Killing Steed!", a group of criminals plan to assassinate a group of [=VIP=]s using technology which changes them into identical copies of attendees. One of the people to be copied was Steed. Steed eventually arranges for ALL the criminals to take HIS identity. They start killing each other.
* CoupledCouples: "Who's Who?" involves a pair of enemy agent lovers who swap bodies with Steed and Emma. The contrast between the heroes' UST-laden platonic relationship and the villains' overtly sexual one is played for laughs
* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: Emma and Steed frequently infiltrate innocent sounding organisations that are a front for (admittedly goofy) dark covert operations.
* CulturedBadass: Steed kicks much ass throughout the series while remaining a refined and well-mannered gentleman, being knowledgable on a wide range of subjects, enjoying fine wines and collecting old-fashioned cars.

* DangerousKeyFumble: In "The Living Dead", Emma Peel is ForcedToWatch from a cell as John Steed faces a FiringSquad. She quickly knocks out the Diabolical Mastermind and takes his keys, but has to try every key before finding the one that opens the cell door, drawing out the suspense as the firing squad is readying to shoot her partner.

* DeadlyGraduation: In "Invasion of the Earthmen", the villain is training students to conquer space, including a survival exercise involving two students where only one is allowed to return. Meanwhile our heroes are infiltrating the school and end up getting into a fight with the students. Steed ties one up, and he watches horrified as the other student approaches him...only to cut him free. Turns out the exercise has been cancelled as everyone has been ordered to kill the heroes instead.

* DeathlyUnmasking: In "Too Many Christmas Trees", Steed fatally shoots "Father Christmas", the mastermind behind an elaborate spy ring. When Steed and Mrs. Peel unmask him, it's revealed to be publisher and party host Brandon Storey.
* DenserAndWackier: The series started off with the intent of becoming a gritty crime drama. Around the time Emma Peel took over as Steed's partner, plots became a lot more cartoony and the lead spies much quippier. By the time the series shifted to colour, the show featured plots like man-eating plants, housecats trained as assassins and an actual shrink ray. Uniquely for this trope, it's the wackier seasons that are more fondly remembered, and any attempts to bring the series back to its 'realistic' roots have been met with hostility.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: In "Thingumajig", Tara plays a bit of the series' theme tune on a church organ.

* DoesNotLikeMen: In "How to Succeed... At Murder!", a group of man-hating and power-hungry Sexy Secretaries form a secret collective to murder their bosses (after confusing them to utter uselessness with impossible filing systems that only the secretary/the soon-to-be boss lady can understand) and take over as the executives of their respective companies, as part of a female world domination plot. Their mantra? "RUINATION TO ALL MEN!"

* DyingClue: A victim writes "COP", so everybody suspects Coppice is the murderer. Mrs Peel proves that the victim was Russian. In the Cyrillic Alphabet "COP" = "sor". Sorrel is the murderer.

** Emma Peel's first scene in "The Town of No Return" has Steed visit her flat and the pair engage in flirtatious banter while fencing. Emma's character is fully on display - classy, sexy, playful, witty and up for an adventure.

** Horatio "King" Kane from "Death at Bargain Prices", a wheelchair-bound businessman who plans to use a department store as part of a plan to hold Great Britain to ransom with a nuclear bomb.
** Dr Clement Armstrong (Creator/MichaelGough), creator of the Cybernauts, moves around in an automatic wheelchair as the result of an unauthorised project.
* ExplosiveLeash: In "Take-Out", the people in a house were held hostage by implanted bombs to prevent them from revealing their plans to kill people at a conference.
* ExtremelyDustyHome: In "Too Many Christmas Trees", a Creator/CharlesDickens enthusiast has his manor house themed to the author's works, down to a recreation of [[Literature/GreatExpectations Miss Havisham's dusty, cobwebbed wedding feast room]].
* ExtrudedBookProduct: "Love All", centred around romance novels of this sort. When visiting the publishing house, Steed learns (though unrelated to the actual plot) that the novels are actually generated by a piano-shaped computer. During the climactic fight, it's accidentally activated and spits out a new manuscript.

* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Steed gets a ''classic'' one in "The Living Dead". Asked by his firing squad if he has any last requests, he responds "Yes - could you cancel my milk?"
* FakeOutMakeOut: Steed and Mrs. Peel fake a kiss while following an enemy spy in "Escape in Time". However, they only face one another in a street corner and don't actually kiss.
* FakeTown: In "House of Cards" a Soviet spymaster has trained sleeper agents to pose as impeccable British citizens. This training includes a very London-like town where the agents are given immersion training in British mannerisms. The regimen is so intense that one trainee makes the mistake of addressing his commander as "comrade," which nets him a bullet to the head.

* FallingChandelierOfDoom: In "Death's Door", a potentially world-changing conference is put on hold when a key delegate pulls out, having had a bizarre recurring dream in which a chandelier falls on his head. He interprets this (with good reason) as a warning not to attend the conference, lest he meet his demise in this manner. The heroes inspect it and find nothing wrong, but the villain still ends up crushed by it.

** In "Pandora", Tara is abducted and taken to a house convinced that it's 1915 and she is Pandora, the deceased wife of a dying old man.
* FeatheredFiend: In "The Winged Avenger", a cartoonist who disguises himself as his own bird of prey-like comic superhero and lacerates people to death, using magnetized boots to climb walls.
* FilmFelons: "Epic" sees a crazed film producer and a pair of washed of actors luring Emma Peel into a studio so they can kill her as part of their new film - ''The Destruction of Emma Peel''.
* FingerPokeOfDoom: In "The Positive Negative Man", just a touch from the villain's finger can literally knock a person through a wall. Of course, he's electrically charged.

** In "The Golden Fleece", three army officers are involved in gold smuggling in order to support pensioned-off soldiers who find it hard to adapt to civilian life. They appeal to Cathy not to reveal the names of the men who have been benefiting from their well-meant crime, and she burns their account book.
** In "Espirit De Corps", a highland regiment plans an armed insurrection. Cathy infiltrates them by doctoring records stating that she's a descendent of royalty.
** "The Danger Makers" features a mad doctor mentally regressing fatigued soldiers nto crazed thrill-seekers as part of a plot to steal the Crown Jewels.
* FryingPanOfDoom: In "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station", while fighting in a railway dining car, a helpful crewmember called Crewe throws a sheet over a mook's head, then offers Emma Peel a frying pan.

* {{Gaslighting}}: In "The House that Jack Built", Emma is trapped in a house that is an elaborate psychological maze, built by a now-dead businessman who had too much free time, too much money, and one hell of a grudge against her. A recorded message he leaves flat-out states that the intention is to drive her insane and eventually to suicide.
* GeniusCripple: "Mother", is a stocky man in a wheelchair (who can get around briskly in his office via a series of ceiling-mounted hand grips).
* {{Ghostwriter}}: "Love All" centred around romance novels of this sort. When visiting the publishing house, Steed learns (though unrelated to the actual plot) that the novels are actually generated by a piano-shaped computer. During the climactic fight, it's accidentally activated and spits out a new manuscript.

** In "Castle D'eath", it gets squashed in a bed.
** In "A Surfeit of H₂O", it gets squashed in a wine press.
** In "Small Game for Big Hunters", it gets stabbed.
** In "From Venus with Love", it gets bleached a lovely shade of white with a laser.
** In "The Fear Merchants", it gets damaged during a fight in a gravel pit.
** In "The Bird Who Knew Too Much", it gets destroyed in an explosion.
** In "Death's Door", it gets shot twice.
** In "Game", it gets cut in half.
** In "Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke [=XR40=]?" and "The Tale of the Big Why", it gets shot twice.
** In "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues", he steps on it when sliding down Tara's fireman pole.
** In "Killer", it gets squashed by Remak.
* HeistEpisode: "The Gilded Cage", where Steed and Cathy plan to steal £3 million in gold from an obscure vault as part of a plan to ensnare a criminal.

** In "The Danger Makers", the leader of the group is electrocuted on the same deadly obstacle course he'd made Mrs. Peel go through earlier. And she sent him there via see-saw.

* HospitalHottie: In "The Gravediggers", [[https://www.dissolute.com.au/the-avengers-tv-series/series-4/fashion/gravenursef.jpg Mrs. Peel goes undercover as a nurse to infiltrate a hospital]]. She also dons a nurse's outfit in "The Master Minds".
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: In "The Superlative Seven", a mysterious invitation that strands him on a remote island, with six companions who are murdered one by one, makes Steed a Little Indian.
* HypnoTrinket: In "Return of the Cybernauts", Beresford gives Mrs. Peel a bracelet, which is actually a mind-control device.
* HypnotizeTheCaptive: In "Return Of the Cybernauts", Beresford gives Mrs. Peel a wristwatch, which is actually a MindControlDevice.
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: There's a moment near the end of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station", after Steed and Mrs. Peel have defeated the villains while on a train, Steed wonders what they should do next, and the character who's helped them suggests they stop the train, adding he's been waiting to do so all his life. He doesn't get to do it.

** In "The Gravediggers", Emma, while posing as a nurse at a hospital, has to endure such a talk from the sister.

** In "The Hidden Tiger", Angora tells Peters that he wasn't hired to think, but to do as he's told.

** In "The Forget-Me-Knot", Emma Peel's husband finally turns up alive. He looks exactly like Steed, leaving viewers to wonder how she dealt with that emotionally all the time they worked together.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: In "Intercrime", Cathy infiltrates a member of a gang by posing as a member, Hilda. Unfortunately, the real Hilda escapes from custody and confronts her. The boss, Felder, decides there's only one way to decide it, and leads them both to Kressler, declaring the real Hilda wouldn't hesitate to carry out the penalty, and produces a revolver. He hands it to Cathy and she's about to shoot him, then turns the gun on the villains - but the gun is empty and she's apprehended.

* ImprobablyCoolCar: Steed favoured Rolls Royces or Bentleys while his female partners drove a white MGB (Cathy Gale); a powder blue Lotus Elan (Emma Peel) and a Cobra (Tara King).
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: In "Mission...Highly Improbable", Steed gets shrunk down to a few inches tall by a shrink ray. He still manages to save the day.

* ItMustBeMine: "The Girl from Auntie" features a villainous firm which collects items like this for...collectors. The "item" they've currently stolen and plan to auction off is Emma Peel.

** In "Intercrime", Cathy infiltrates a crime gang. When her cover is blown, she is told to shoot a man, but turns the gun on the villains, only to discover that the gun is empty.
** In "Who's Who???", Emma attempts to bluff an enemy agent who's swapped bodies with Steed. When she doesn't know his real name, he tries to shoot her, only to discover that Emma took the clip out of the gun.

* JumpingOutOfACake: In "The Hour that Never Was", Steed reminisces about an officer's birthday cake during the war that had a showgirl inside. Unfortunately the icing was so thick that it cut off her air supply and she nearly asphyxiated, which Steed chuckles about.
* JustBetweenYouAndMe: In "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" the villain handcuffs Steed to a pipe so he can explain his EvilPlan with the help of a model train set.

* LastNameBasis: Steed and Gale/Peel only ever address each other by their last names. Steed was only addressed by his Christian name a handful of times - by Mother in "The Forget-Me-Knot", by Mrs. Gale posing as his wife in "Death on the Rocks", by the Lille girl in "The Medicine Men", by his fake girlfriend in "Brief for Murder", by Mrs. Peel in "Murdersville", by his friend Bill and his wife in "Take-Over" and by Hal Anderson in "The Wringer".

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: In "The Town of No Return", OminousPipeOrgan music began while Mrs. Peel was talking about disappearing townspeople to a priest in the church. The priest went on to explain that mice get into the pipe organ sometimes.

* LockedIntoStrangeness: In the episode showing Tara King's backstory, she was originally white-haired, until she saw something so horrifying that it ''turned her hair black''.

* ManEatingPlant: In "Man-Eater of Surrey Green", a man-eating plant from outer space lands in Middle England and takes several top horticulturists as its prisoners in an effort to germinate the Earth. Fortunately for the Earth, Steed just happens to be a herbicidal maniac.

* MeaningfulName: When charged with coming up with a new character, the writers were told to create one with "Male Appeal", abbreviated as "M. Appeal".

* MickeyMousing: Parodied in "The Winged Avenger", which does the same thing in the climactic battle with comic panels, on a parody of ''Series/Batman1966'''s theme.

** "False Witness" features a literal example, with the added twist that the dairy produced was absolutely central to their scheme. The series also featured, on other occasions, sinister cabals of nannies, window cleaners, hoteliers, romance novelists, secretaries, farmers, retired Vaudeville performers, butlers, knitters, a cemetery and a matchmaking service.

* MindControlDevice: In "Return of the Cybernauts", Beresford, who has befriended Emma Peel, offers her a watch as a gift. Unfortunately it essentially turns her into a puppet. It is a relatively dark episode since the villain poses as her friend and there is a hint that Emma is attracted to him.
* MissingFloor: In "Room Without a View", a hotel actually has an unlisted 13th floor which is used to capture and brainwash scientists. No one expects there to be a 13th floor so they don't suspect there are two "12th" floors.
* MobileMaze: In "The House That Jack Built", Mrs. Emma Peel gets trapped inside one of these created by a long time colleague.
* MonochromeCasting: Done deliberately. In order to maintain a fantasy setting for the series, there were strict rules about what could and could not be shown in an episode, one of which was "no coloured people". That said, a few non-white actors appeared in the series.

* MusicalPastiche: "The Winged Avenger" pastiched ''Series/Batman1966'''s ThemeTune in the climactic battle, complete with TheHitFlash, which took the form of huge comic book panels reading "POW!", "SPLAT!" and "BAM!" being smashed into the bad guy's face.
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: In "The Living Dead", after rescuing him from a firing squad, Emma Peel asks Steed if this trope applied.

* OfCorsetsSexy: Mrs. Peel wore one in "A Touch of Brimstone", which was about a resurrected Hellfire Club, in her guise as "The Queen of Sin".
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In "The Town of No Return", Steed and Peel are seperated during a fight by a large door and Steed faces four soldiers. By the time Emma subdues her assailants and opens the door, the soldiers are all unconcious and Steed's hat is wonky.

* PsychicStatic: In "Too Many Christmas Trees", Steed and Mrs. Peel come under psychic attack. Their defences include "Green Grow the Rushes, O" and an obsession with socks.

* ShirtlessScene: The series was known primarily for Emma Peel providing Fanservice but John Steed provided some by way of this. In "Mr Teddy Bear" he goes shirtless as his clothes are being checked for booby traps. In "Castle of De'ath" he strips to a speedo when he goes swimming in the loch. And in "Immortal Clay" he's getting exposition while in a sauna.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The first season was a follow-up to the crime series ''Police Surgeon'', which starred Creator/IanHendry as a physician who helped the police solve crimes. In fact, the series was created to give Hendry a star vehicle following ''Police Surgeon'''s cancellation.

** We learn that prior to transferring to the Coldstream Guards and then the Intelligence Corps, Steed served as a motor torpedo boat commander in World War 2, as did Patrick Macnee.

** Although it appeared only once, the S&M-themed outfit worn by Diana Rigg in the episode "A Touch of Brimstone" became instantly iconic (even if it caused the episode to be banned in some places).

* ParentService: The producers were pretty blatant as to their motives when they brought Diana Rigg onboard as ''M(an) Appeal'', er Emma Peel.

* ReplacedTheThemeTune: 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.

* TonightSomeoneKisses: Fans who love the palpable sexual tension between Steed and Peel probably are all too thrilled when they pull out their DVD of the episode "Who's Who?" for the first time and see an image of their favorite couple engaged in not just one of Emma's playful pecks, but a full-on sexy makeout session. Trick is "Who's Who" is a '''body swap episode'''. Emma and Steed have their minds in the bodies of the villains and are tied up in a warehouse somewhere, while the villains are the ones in Steed's flat, in Steed and Peel's bodies, getting comfy and kissing while they live it up and continue with their evil plot. Of course, since it's just the same sets of actors switching roles, that's STILL Creator/PatrickMacnee and Creator/DianaRigg full-on frenching each other, so do with that what you will. And we'll remind you this is while they are playing villains, and EvilIsSexy.

** We learn that Steed served as a motor torpedo boat commander in the Second World War as did Patrick Macnee (Steed later transferring to the Coldstream Guards and then the Intelligence Corps).

* TheyFightCrime: He's a suave English gentleman spy. She's a classy lady with a preference for catsuits. They Fight Crime, espionage, and unnatural weirdness.