@@kingscres I was quite young during the original run but only caught occasional episodes and many of those would have been on the first repeat showing of the show whenever that was. For many years it disappeared from view for many of us and old TV shows only lived on in our childhood memories. But in the 80s, there was a cinema in London called The Scala which occasionally showed episodes of the show along with episodes of 'The Prisoner' and 'Danger Man'. This was on a big screen to what I remember being a packed audience. Even though I only ever saw a handful of the episodes in this way, this left a huge impact on me. I still think of each episode as a mini-movie rather than a TV show. Obviously, we can now get the entire series on blu ray in the best imaginable quality but if they ever had a screening like this again, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight I have trouble believing any truly English person would take tea with lemon. Milky tea is redundant; of course theted be milk.
The Avengers from Emma Peel's debut onwards was set in a parallel universe only slightly different to our own....things had been shifted sideways subtly. Like entering a room you know well where one thinng has been altered, and you can't work out what. A Britain that was hyper-British, a 1960s that did not exist then and never would. It's quite brilliant.
You really hit the point... I was trying to find out what made this tv show so strangely alluring. And it is exactly that! A nonsensical, surreal world of hyper britishness. Thanks!
I remember watching that on its first broadcast. I was 11. I used to watch the Honor Blackman series which was sometimes bizarre but generally serious. At this moment we all thought it had gone simply too silly - but by the end we thought it was the best thing ever on tv. Which it still is.
I was a bit too young to have seen the Honor Blackman series when it was broadcast but I saw a couple recently and they are great too. Unfortunately not shot on film so the look isn't as crisp.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight and apart from a few prerecorded fights they were “as live” so each act was recorded straight through. That was normal for taped series until the mid 1970s. Some Avengers were recorded the same day they were broadcast. The first series was actually live.
Ah, at the age of 13 I fell in love with Honor Blackman as Mrs Peel. But I was fickle - when Diana Rigg took over when I was 14 I fell in love with her instead.
Even I as a fifteen-year-old could see how tongue-in-cheek the whole series was. Mrs Peel was definitely cool in my eyes, and Mr Steed made the brolly cool as well.
Diana Rigg was really something. Not only very beautiful, but a terrific serious stage actress (her turn in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" is still remembered). Wherever she went she had real presence.
I still snicker at that extraordinary and iconic opening with Mrs Peel shooting out the champagne cork from the bottle in Steed's hands. How on earth did that get by the censors of the time? Unless you're totally off of it, you know the allusion.
Well worth it in my opinion. Sometimes, you can get a DVD and it just sits on your shelf and you wonder why you thought you bought it. With this, whenever you feel low, they have the power to lift your mood substantially.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight A friend of mine ordered the Mrs. Peel collection and they accidentally sent her two. When she called them to get a return shipping label, they said just to keep it. Guess who got the duplicate? I don't mean to sound mean, but the episodes without her always seemed lacking to me. I've watched the set through like five times in the five years or so I've had it. (Yes, I have a tiny crush on her!)
@@cindydott452 I think a lot of people have that crush... Tiny or otherwise. It's not just her looks either, it's her lightness of step, her wit, her voice dancing around an inquiry lightly, never too serious. That playful flirtation between her and Steed remains a playful flirtation. She's a married woman after all. That's why the charm of the series never evolves into one of those 'will they won't they' stories that writers have often tended to lean into. There really isn't another TV pairing quite like it.
I adored this show as a child during the '60s. At that time, I didn’t understand the wit and innuendos, which makes it fun to watch now. Emma Peele was always easy to worship! ❤
Did anyone see Diana Rigg in Mother Love? The character she played was complex and her performance was frightening and mesmerizing at the same time. Will never forget it.
I loved watching The Avengers as a child. And Diana Rigg was an amazing actor. I saw her on stage in the West End of London in 1992 playing Medea... Probably the most powerful and frightening performance I've ever seen ❤
The upper classes here (UK) *were* probably a lot like this prior to the 1960s-70s if Agatha Christie books are anything to go by! I so wanted to be Emma Peel watching The Avengers (on repeats!) when I was little. She is the classiest of kickass ladies on screen.
I don't know if anyone was ever completely like this. But it's a lovely thought. Mind you. I do remember that everyone would have the kettle on if there was company and tea would never just be a cup of tea. There would be biscuits or cakes. This was as much the case in a working class household as a middle class one. Just less silver and a slightly different accent. And on a train, it would either be the buffet car or a thermos, sadly.
WHAT?!?!? The British are not like this? My world is shattered! 😊 I loved the part when the kettle whistles. I loved this show so much as a child that Mrs. Peele became a role model for me. Intelligent, never saying too much and always a touch of humour. I also learned martial arts’ fighting skills and tended to dress like her. RIP Diana Rigg 🌹
I thought she was fantastic too ! I caught a few episodes of her with my mum & big sister, but my era was Purdey & my sister even had a purdey cut & thought she could kick as good as her😅. But no, Emma will always be the best known Avenger girl.
Here's some exciting trivia. Daleks actually make an appearance in "The Avengers"! In the department store episode, Mrs. Peel ends up working in the toy department. The store had toy Daleks in stock! You saw them in I think two scenes while she was arranging stock.
That is interesting. Terry Nation, the writer behind the Daleks although not their designer, wrote quite a few episodes of the Tara King series... Unless my IMDB is letting me down, I don't think he ever wrote for Mrs Peel though. By the way, when I was a child, I loved the Daleks and couldn't accept them as villains. Whenever one got killed, I was not happy.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight They were never mentioned or even indicated. They were just visible in two shots. (I think two) If Memory serves, Bugs Bunny was also in the episode!
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Another odd thing about the episode, "Death at Bargain Prices" (Aside from the elevator being a nuclear bomb!) was the name of the villain. Horatio Kane. It's spelled differently, but it always makes me think of my favorite character, Horatio Caine, in CSI Miami!
@@cindydott452 I wouldn't be at all surprised if the writers took the name from the show. They probably saw it, heard it and thought it sounded like something people would remember.
John Steed and Emma Peel, no TV couple before or since have oozed such class and elegance. Their witty banter is a far cry from the crude nonsense heard today. Pat MacNee still remains the best-dressed man to ever grace a TV screen, and as for Diana Rigg her beauty is unmatched even after nearly six decades. Gone, but never to be forgotten.
I totally agree. I remember being in America once and thinking how much I wished I could live up to this ideal. I wondered if the Americans watching this show (it was on PBS at the time) knew that this was a far cry from how people actually behaved, and dressed, here. I'm sure they did... But it was nice to think of this as a little dream of how the British might be in an ideal world. The wit and the playfulness, and, yes, the dapper dress sense. The weirdly eccentric villains and the pleasantly eccentric characters who populated the world. It really was wonderful.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight I have a framed picture of both of them, as the Avengers on my wall. Only Peter Wyngarde as Jason King matched Patrick Macnee, for sheer elegance back in the 1960s.
@@robjones2408 I agree... And Jason King, while a different kind of character, had that same love of life. Steed, Emma Peel, Jason King, Simon Templar and others, loved living and so while watching them, we loved living too. It was a pleasure to join them in their worlds for an hour or so.
The Avengers, The Saint, The Prisoner, The Thunderbirds, James Bond... there was some terrific stuff coming out in those days in jolly Britain. Imagine if they had done a crossover episode where The Avengers meet Simon Templar aka The Saint, mrs Peel takes a liking to him much to the chagrin and jealousy of mr Steed and of course mrs Peel ends up saving both of them! That would have been fun to watch!
Thank you. I love Robert Fuest's work. Not only Dr Phibes but also The Final Programme which I might waste seven or eight hours boring people about. He definitely directed a few of the Tara King episodes. I don't know if he worked on the Emma Peel episodes but he was a production designer going right back to the first series. He also wrote 'additional material' for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in 'Not Only But Also'. I think he talks about this on one of the commentary tracks he did. But, you're right, it is such a stylish series. Quite amazing to look at it now and try to put it into context.
@@dreamsofprojectedlightDirecter " And soon the darkness " with one of my favorites Pam Franklin, pity she quit acting very young...The only older British director still around is John Hough , from Hell House, also with Franklin, ...surprisingly good recent interview about that movie on TH-cam, " Hell House : behind the scenes ". Greets.Tom.
@@tombaker4586 I must find that. I love John Hough for his work on Hell House and on Twins of Evil. Thanks for letting me know about this. I also love 'And Soon the Darkness' written, I believe, by Brian Clemens... Who wrote this episode... Full circle.
As a teenager in the 60's, I was totally infatuated with Diana Rigg ! I kept a large scrap book with any press cuttings, and my bedroom was covered in pictures of her ! RIP dear Diana !
She was an amazing actress. I'm sure you've seen most of her work. I thought she was wonderful in Theatre of Blood as Vincent Price's daughter being part of his vendetta against the critics and killing them off in the style of Shakespeare's most gruesome murders.
One of my favorite series.... I own the Whole Mrs Peel era of the show on DVD, 2hich replaced my Videotape collection of the same when it became impossible to get a replacement VHS player.
@@bobtis That's not really what I meant. It is more that while there are many things I recognise, it was never quite like this. You can, if you visit London, visit Fortnum and Mason's or the Ritz in London or any number of hotels and restaurants, enjoy high tea of a similar quality and see many men and women with a lot of style and charm and beauty. But day-to-day life in the UK has always been quite far from this... In fact, at its worst, the UK has some of the most run down areas I've ever seen in a first world country. But it also has some of the most beautiful. I live in the borderlands between Oxford and the Cotswolds and I can honestly say I see much more Avengers-esque looking stuff than I ever saw while growing up in London. On a Sunday, the roads have well re-upholstered vintage cars being taken out for a spin. Local Cotswold pubs have good beers on tap, and in the smallest of villages. people wish you good morning even if you're a tourist just passing through. But British Rail trains don't exist any more... Not that they were quite as nice as this one seems... And bowler hats have, sadly, gone out of fashion.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Thank you for this great reply. I'm very sure things have changed since the 1960's and not for the better. The US is falling apart also. My Mother in law was from Duram marries my Father in law during WW2. I know England is not England anymore. She had great stories, I still want to get there.
@@bobtis And you will have a great time. There are lots of lovely places to visit. Since marrying someone who is not English, I have become a tourist of my own country and found that I actually like it a lot more than I thought.
Speaking of Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer was a perfect fit to play Olenna Tyrell's granddaughter. I wonder who did they cast first, Diana or Natalie?
And Emma Peel reading a “Teachers World” special on Primary Education! Was that cover? Is she moonlighting as a teacher? Is this just random, and she picked it up at the station? There is so much surreal veneer in The Avengers, it’s hard to know anything for sure.
The Avengers was simply great! Patrick MacNee was great in his own right of course ….. but Diana Rigg was MESMERIZING!! :-) in my opinion the best part of the series was the Mrs. Peele era :-)
I watched this show when I was growing up. I didn't understand it b/c I was like 12 years old but, it was SO unusual for American TV. After all it was on ABC
It's amazing to think that there was a time British shows played on one of the main TV channels. When I was in the US in the mid-eighties, all the British stuff was relegated to PBS which some liked to call the Purely British Station. I remember spending an evening watching The Avengers, The Prisoner and Blake's 7 one after the other.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Yes, you are correct! In French it read "Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir". It's my favourite series along with The Persuaders (or Amicalement vôtre).
@@annecy49 That's another delightful series. Those shows are often mocked for being of-their-time but they knew how to keep things light as air. And in that lightness of touch, so much charm.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Yes, and they were wonderfully dubbed in French by great actors. The Persuaders owes a lot of its success in France to the quality of the dubbing and the freedom the actors took. It was very popular in France and I remeber it fondly. As soon as I hear the music, I ran to the living room! Good old times!
@@annecy49 Me too. It would be very interesting to me to hear the French version just to see how close the dubbing actors might or might not have been to the originals. I once saw a film dubbed into Thai where the actor had done a fantastic job of recreating Micheal Caine's voice. Separate issue of course, but good dubbing is often underrated because subtitles are always considered superior by so many. But the good dubs are often great.
This was early days of TV. Most of these jokes were adapted from vaudeville and the stage shows - suddenly the posh people, who could afford TV licenses, but wouldn't be seen dead in any of the old Music Halls, could get access to comedy and humour - cue Monty Python.
It was definitely a bit on the silly side at times but, it was quite the comment on how the elite were perceived at that time. Regardless, a bit of class never really hurt anybody and this show was just full of it. I truly enjoyed watching it. Needless to say, I fell head over heels in love with Miss Riggs! What sane man would not? LOL
For the benefit of any non-British viewers, in 1965 "It'll have to be milk" was actually a kind of slang that meant "fuck your mother, on top of your sister". That's why Mrs Peel reacted like that.
fun fact / trivia- the name 'emma peel' is a pun based on 'man appeal', as in thats they were looking in the character / actress, i think they succeeded rather well,
In another episode there's a scene, also in a corridor coach, where Mrs Peel leans over to a man opposite and says "Would you like a bikkie?". As a child, I thought this was very funny.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight One curiosity: in the titles say "Mrs.Peele". ¿It is the name's correct form, or it's just a mistake or, maybe, is another way to call her, in kindly manner?
I loved the show and have since gotten the entire show on DVD, back to Honor Blackman. I wasnt much of a fan of Tara King. I met Diana Rigg after a show of The Misanthrope. Very nice. I was surprised at how chatty she was. Article Talk
That's a nice thought. I do like the eccentricity and playful surrealism that run through all the above. There are less wonderful things that we could be associated with but it would be nice if these were the things by which we might be thought of more fondly.
I love the moment in 'Duck Soup' where he pulls out a blow torch to light someone's cigar. There is a lot of that kind of humour in 'The Avengers' but they never draw too much attention to it. Like it's just the way the world is. Obviously you take an entire tea set in your bag just in case the buffet car is closed.
I was just trying to remember John Steels' real name, after seeing him on an episode of "The Hardy Boys". I remember watching these two as a young teenager!!
I almost split my gut laughing when he pulled out the pastry tower 😂
High tea would not be complete without it.
Must've bought that valise at Mary Poppins' yard sale.
Same. But no lemon?!
@@dreamsofprojectedlight
No...that's Afternoon Tea...High Tea was different 😅
What an enchanting expression.
How can any man forget Emma Peele?
I remember watching this show on a small black and white TV that could only get three channels.
Yes. I'm afraid I am that age too.
Me too. I loved her but she had no idea. Went to England…did not meet her. Hey, ho.
In New Zealand I’m pretty sure it was just one black and white channel. No arguing about whether we watched the avengers or something else.
@@kingscres I was quite young during the original run but only caught occasional episodes and many of those would have been on the first repeat showing of the show whenever that was. For many years it disappeared from view for many of us and old TV shows only lived on in our childhood memories. But in the 80s, there was a cinema in London called The Scala which occasionally showed episodes of the show along with episodes of 'The Prisoner' and 'Danger Man'. This was on a big screen to what I remember being a packed audience. Even though I only ever saw a handful of the episodes in this way, this left a huge impact on me. I still think of each episode as a mini-movie rather than a TV show. Obviously, we can now get the entire series on blu ray in the best imaginable quality but if they ever had a screening like this again, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
Only Three channels! Young people these days wouldn't believe how tough we had it back in t'day Aye!
This is entirely unbelievable. There's no way Steed would offer lemon but forget to pack it.
This, for me, is the most valid criticism of the scene's realism. The rest I can accept. But... How could Steed be so remiss?
@@dreamsofprojectedlight I have trouble believing any truly English person would take tea with lemon. Milky tea is redundant; of course theted be milk.
@@ViolettaD1485 Mrs Peel was a modern gal so she may have had more outré tastes, such as lemon instead of milk with her tea.
@@ViolettaD1485 Why?It's lovely.
@@susanmccormick6022 😱
THE AVENGERS is a delightful classic. It's one thing to make a classic, but quite another to make a delightful one.
Exceedingly rare.
The Avengers from Emma Peel's debut onwards was set in a parallel universe only slightly different to our own....things had been shifted sideways subtly. Like entering a room you know well where one thinng has been altered, and you can't work out what. A Britain that was hyper-British, a 1960s that did not exist then and never would. It's quite brilliant.
It's like a detective show crossed with a science fiction show with tinges of horror at times
You said it perfectly!
And all done so wondrously tongue in cheek. I loved the Avengers, and still do.
Alas it went downhill terribly once Emma Peel left.
You really hit the point... I was trying to find out what made this tv show so strangely alluring. And it is exactly that! A nonsensical, surreal world of hyper britishness. Thanks!
I remember watching that on its first broadcast. I was 11. I used to watch the Honor Blackman series which was sometimes bizarre but generally serious. At this moment we all thought it had gone simply too silly - but by the end we thought it was the best thing ever on tv. Which it still is.
I was a bit too young to have seen the Honor Blackman series when it was broadcast but I saw a couple recently and they are great too. Unfortunately not shot on film so the look isn't as crisp.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight and apart from a few prerecorded fights they were “as live” so each act was recorded straight through. That was normal for taped series until the mid 1970s. Some Avengers were recorded the same day they were broadcast. The first series was actually live.
As a pre-teen, Emma Peele and Honey West gave me my first sense self. That I could be someone more with no guilt.
Ah, at the age of 13 I fell in love with Honor Blackman as Mrs Peel. But I was fickle - when Diana Rigg took over when I was 14 I fell in love with her instead.
Never ever liked her 🤢🤢
Even I as a fifteen-year-old could see how tongue-in-cheek the whole series was. Mrs Peel was definitely cool in my eyes, and Mr Steed made the brolly cool as well.
I love the way Diana Rigg walks, effortlessly confident
It is the way the middle classes trained their daughters .Class , real class
Diana Rigg was really something. Not only very beautiful, but a terrific serious stage actress (her turn in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" is still remembered). Wherever she went she had real presence.
I love the way Diana Rigg (fill in the blank)s
I lost it when he pulled out the High Tea 😂🤣😂
Loved this show as a kid, still dig them.
I often have that feeling when I look at something from my childhood that it won't live up to my memories of it. But this show never lets you down.
I still snicker at that extraordinary and iconic opening with Mrs Peel shooting out the champagne cork from the bottle in Steed's hands. How on earth did that get by the censors of the time? Unless you're totally off of it, you know the allusion.
@johnashtone7167 that made me laugh. Thanks!!
Broke down and bought the dvd Mrs Peele Collection. All of Dianna Riggs' episodes. What a lady!
Well worth it in my opinion. Sometimes, you can get a DVD and it just sits on your shelf and you wonder why you thought you bought it. With this, whenever you feel low, they have the power to lift your mood substantially.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight A friend of mine ordered the Mrs. Peel collection and they accidentally sent her two. When she called them to get a return shipping label, they said just to keep it. Guess who got the duplicate?
I don't mean to sound mean, but the episodes without her always seemed lacking to me. I've watched the set through like five times in the five years or so I've had it.
(Yes, I have a tiny crush on her!)
@@cindydott452 I think a lot of people have that crush... Tiny or otherwise. It's not just her looks either, it's her lightness of step, her wit, her voice dancing around an inquiry lightly, never too serious. That playful flirtation between her and Steed remains a playful flirtation. She's a married woman after all. That's why the charm of the series never evolves into one of those 'will they won't they' stories that writers have often tended to lean into. There really isn't another TV pairing quite like it.
If you bought the collection why can't you spell her name properly?
@@elemar5 So a typo means he lied and didn't actually buy the DVDs? Did you notice how dumb that sounds?
I adored this show as a child during the '60s. At that time, I didn’t understand the wit and innuendos, which makes it fun to watch now.
Emma Peele was always easy to worship! ❤
What a great show, loved it!
One of the very best.
My absolute favourite show growing up.
Did anyone see Diana Rigg in Mother Love? The character she played was complex and her performance was frightening and mesmerizing at the same time. Will never forget it.
I loved watching The Avengers as a child. And Diana Rigg was an amazing actor. I saw her on stage in the West End of London in 1992 playing Medea... Probably the most powerful and frightening performance I've ever seen ❤
Quite simply the best TV show ever made!
One the best TV series ever made bar none.
The world may be falling apart all around them but the Brits always maintain Tea Time traditions and decorum.. very classy.
M-Appeal. She had so much Man Appeal! Still watch the dvds regularly! Brilliant. The stupider it got, the better it became. Loved it.
Emma Peel, John Steed. When I was a kid who was still at primary school The Avengers was on TV soon after I got home. I loved this show!
Avengers and tea... What could be better?
A pity that it wasn´t aired in Sweden! (of what I know)
@@jourwalis-8875 It might have been... Maybe a long time ago.
When I was a young lad, watching Mrs. Peele made me feel all funny inside, like when we used to climb the ropes in gym class.
She did that for we girls, too.
The upper classes here (UK) *were* probably a lot like this prior to the 1960s-70s if Agatha Christie books are anything to go by! I so wanted to be Emma Peel watching The Avengers (on repeats!) when I was little. She is the classiest of kickass ladies on screen.
I don't know if anyone was ever completely like this. But it's a lovely thought. Mind you. I do remember that everyone would have the kettle on if there was company and tea would never just be a cup of tea. There would be biscuits or cakes. This was as much the case in a working class household as a middle class one. Just less silver and a slightly different accent. And on a train, it would either be the buffet car or a thermos, sadly.
WHAT?!?!? The British are not like this? My world is shattered! 😊
I loved the part when the kettle whistles.
I loved this show so much as a child that Mrs. Peele became a role model for me. Intelligent, never saying too much and always a touch of humour. I also learned martial arts’ fighting skills and tended to dress like her.
RIP Diana Rigg 🌹
That is pretty cool. I love to think of her as a role model. Who wouldn't want to be that cool?
I thought she was fantastic too ! I caught a few episodes of her with my mum & big sister, but my era was Purdey & my sister even had a purdey cut & thought she could kick as good as her😅.
But no, Emma will always be the best known Avenger girl.
The marvellous late Dame Diana.
The picnic looks like something my partner would create for such a journey, no stopping off at MacDonalds for her !
OMG Garry, that wasn't a 'picnic'. That was TEA.
I sat next to Diana Rigg in a cafe in Knightsbridge once. As an Avengers watcher as a child, it was one of the thrills of my life.
Diana Rigg was the best Mrs. Peele. I loved this as kid.
Peel. And she was the only Mrs Peel.
Don't recall another playing Mrs Peel?
There was only one Mrs Peel, the actresses before and after her played different characters
Here's some exciting trivia. Daleks actually make an appearance in "The Avengers"! In the department store episode, Mrs. Peel ends up working in the toy department. The store had toy Daleks in stock! You saw them in I think two scenes while she was arranging stock.
That is interesting. Terry Nation, the writer behind the Daleks although not their designer, wrote quite a few episodes of the Tara King series... Unless my IMDB is letting me down, I don't think he ever wrote for Mrs Peel though. By the way, when I was a child, I loved the Daleks and couldn't accept them as villains. Whenever one got killed, I was not happy.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight They were never mentioned or even indicated. They were just visible in two shots. (I think two)
If Memory serves, Bugs Bunny was also in the episode!
@@cindydott452 Dalekmania was rife at the time. It puts us firmly in that mid-sixties world to see this.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Another odd thing about the episode, "Death at Bargain Prices" (Aside from the elevator being a nuclear bomb!) was the name of the villain.
Horatio Kane.
It's spelled differently, but it always makes me think of my favorite character, Horatio Caine, in CSI Miami!
@@cindydott452 I wouldn't be at all surprised if the writers took the name from the show. They probably saw it, heard it and thought it sounded like something people would remember.
The fencing scene is the greatest character introduction scene in tv history.
Agreed. The chemistry they had in their very first scene... It's incredible. You can't buy things like that, it just happens....
Such a class act
I agree. It's class all the way.
Soon this clip will be kept as a national treasure in order to show future generations how people in England used to look like.
John Steed and Emma Peel, no TV couple before or since have oozed such class and elegance. Their witty banter is a far cry from the
crude nonsense heard today.
Pat MacNee still remains the best-dressed man to ever grace a TV screen, and as for Diana Rigg her beauty is unmatched even after
nearly six decades. Gone, but never to be forgotten.
I totally agree. I remember being in America once and thinking how much I wished I could live up to this ideal. I wondered if the Americans watching this show (it was on PBS at the time) knew that this was a far cry from how people actually behaved, and dressed, here. I'm sure they did... But it was nice to think of this as a little dream of how the British might be in an ideal world. The wit and the playfulness, and, yes, the dapper dress sense. The weirdly eccentric villains and the pleasantly eccentric characters who populated the world. It really was wonderful.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight I have a framed picture of both of them, as the Avengers on my wall.
Only Peter Wyngarde as Jason King matched Patrick Macnee, for sheer elegance back in the 1960s.
@@robjones2408 I agree... And Jason King, while a different kind of character, had that same love of life. Steed, Emma Peel, Jason King, Simon Templar and others, loved living and so while watching them, we loved living too. It was a pleasure to join them in their worlds for an hour or so.
The Avengers, The Saint, The Prisoner, The Thunderbirds, James Bond... there was some terrific stuff coming out in those days in jolly Britain. Imagine if they had done a crossover episode where The Avengers meet Simon Templar aka The Saint, mrs Peel takes a liking to him much to the chagrin and jealousy of mr Steed and of course mrs Peel ends up saving both of them! That would have been fun to watch!
Or Number Six escapes only to find out that the Village was just a little offshoot of Tracy island and that Brains was behind the whole thing.
Never liked Roger Moore in anything he did, except for one film, I think it was called Gold
There was a good bit of music, as well.
I'm as straight as they come and I'm in love with them both!
Great series and very stylish, the director made the bizar " Dr Phibes ".
Great channel.
Tom, Belgium.
Thank you. I love Robert Fuest's work. Not only Dr Phibes but also The Final Programme which I might waste seven or eight hours boring people about. He definitely directed a few of the Tara King episodes. I don't know if he worked on the Emma Peel episodes but he was a production designer going right back to the first series. He also wrote 'additional material' for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in 'Not Only But Also'. I think he talks about this on one of the commentary tracks he did. But, you're right, it is such a stylish series. Quite amazing to look at it now and try to put it into context.
@@dreamsofprojectedlightDirecter " And soon the darkness " with one of my favorites Pam Franklin, pity she quit acting very young...The only older British director still around is John Hough , from Hell House, also with Franklin, ...surprisingly good recent interview about that movie on TH-cam, " Hell House : behind the scenes ". Greets.Tom.
@@tombaker4586 I must find that. I love John Hough for his work on Hell House and on Twins of Evil. Thanks for letting me know about this. I also love 'And Soon the Darkness' written, I believe, by Brian Clemens... Who wrote this episode... Full circle.
Yes it's on TH-cam, and John Hough is very interesting.
@@tombaker4586 This is why I love TH-cam. Look hard enough and you can find almost anything.
As a teenager in the 60's, I was totally infatuated with Diana Rigg ! I kept a large scrap book
with any press cuttings, and my bedroom was covered in pictures of her ! RIP dear Diana !
She was an amazing actress. I'm sure you've seen most of her work. I thought she was wonderful in Theatre of Blood as Vincent Price's daughter being part of his vendetta against the critics and killing them off in the style of Shakespeare's most gruesome murders.
LOL !...always loved this. The Avengers has always been an inspiration to me to be as charmingly oddball as I like!
Greatly enjoyed the episodes as a young un ....
One of my favorite series.... I own the Whole Mrs Peel era of the show on DVD, 2hich replaced my Videotape collection of the same when it became impossible to get a replacement VHS player.
Diana Rigg had a great responsibility in the development of mankind. She made many fathers and sons realise that they had an interest in common.
I would even add that she caused the first massive hair growth on the palms of a generation.😁
Back in 1966 this show made me want to live in the UK. They had so much going music and beautiful women
And I've lived in the UK for most of my life and still have that same yearning for this other UK.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Oh I see not like that anymore? 😭😭😭
@@bobtis That's not really what I meant. It is more that while there are many things I recognise, it was never quite like this. You can, if you visit London, visit Fortnum and Mason's or the Ritz in London or any number of hotels and restaurants, enjoy high tea of a similar quality and see many men and women with a lot of style and charm and beauty. But day-to-day life in the UK has always been quite far from this... In fact, at its worst, the UK has some of the most run down areas I've ever seen in a first world country. But it also has some of the most beautiful. I live in the borderlands between Oxford and the Cotswolds and I can honestly say I see much more Avengers-esque looking stuff than I ever saw while growing up in London. On a Sunday, the roads have well re-upholstered vintage cars being taken out for a spin. Local Cotswold pubs have good beers on tap, and in the smallest of villages. people wish you good morning even if you're a tourist just passing through. But British Rail trains don't exist any more... Not that they were quite as nice as this one seems... And bowler hats have, sadly, gone out of fashion.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Thank you for this great reply. I'm very sure things have changed since the 1960's and not for the better. The US is falling apart also. My Mother in law was from Duram marries my Father in law during WW2. I know England is not England anymore. She had great stories, I still want to get there.
@@bobtis And you will have a great time. There are lots of lovely places to visit. Since marrying someone who is not English, I have become a tourist of my own country and found that I actually like it a lot more than I thought.
I have to admit , as a teenager , I had a poster of Diana Rigg on my wall .
I don’t think I ever lost the “crush”
even to Game of Thrones
Speaking of Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer was a perfect fit to play Olenna Tyrell's granddaughter. I wonder who did they cast first, Diana or Natalie?
The Bosun’s Pipe as the kettle’s whistle is a nice touch.
It is. I love that the makers and the actors and everyone involved seems to be contributing so much to the sheer fun of it all.
I did wonder if anybody else had noticed that
A timeless classic esp the mrs peel episodes, but the entire series is without peer or equal...
I loved Dianna Riggs , impacted my whole life
There was more than one…?
@@mike747436 there are parts of a whole
Diana Rigg
And yet you never learnt her name or how to spell it.
@@barrysteven5964 ever use mobile?
And Emma Peel reading a “Teachers World” special on Primary Education! Was that cover? Is she moonlighting as a teacher? Is this just random, and she picked it up at the station? There is so much surreal veneer in The Avengers, it’s hard to know anything for sure.
I believe this is the episode where Mrs. Peel goes undercover as a school teacher.
@@reachandler3655 Thank you. I had forgotten this. A few have asked this question. Thank you Rea for providing the answer.
The surreality was never a veneer, it was the entire World in which the show took place. Utterly addictive.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight You're welcome
Emma's super fashionable 1960's beret. Luv it.
I used to watch that show to see her outfits. I love her hat!
That old train ride reminds me of the traditional town of Chillingbourne.
It's Mrs Peel, without an 'e' on the end. Tut tut!
A true icon❤
The Avengers was simply great! Patrick MacNee was great in his own right of course ….. but Diana Rigg was MESMERIZING!! :-) in my opinion the best part of the series was the Mrs. Peele era :-)
Emma Peel - absolutely gorgeous!
I watched this show when I was growing up. I didn't understand it b/c I was like 12 years old but, it was SO unusual for American TV. After all it was on ABC
It's amazing to think that there was a time British shows played on one of the main TV channels. When I was in the US in the mid-eighties, all the British stuff was relegated to PBS which some liked to call the Purely British Station. I remember spending an evening watching The Avengers, The Prisoner and Blake's 7 one after the other.
Hilarious. Especially the cake thing.
Magnificent, mesmerizing, murdered England ...
Just love that British wit.
And remember..he stirs his tea anti-clockwise.
😮
Mrs peel’s last ever line, from “forget me not” episode
It's also the correct way to clean glass, according to the Classy Glass Company.
@@hijodelaisla275 good to know,ty
That show was genius.
Aw the Avengers! So classy!
That was quite a ... tea bag Steed had. Did he get a bag of holding from Dungeons and Dragons?
It is quite an amazing piece of light luggage.
Olenna Tyrell looking sharp as always.
A great show!
"..Steed. John Steed, actually.."
🎉
Ah, cette chère Madame Peel ! Quel chic et quel charme !
I think, in French it was called 'Bowler Hat and Leather Boots'. Tres chic.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Yes, you are correct! In French it read "Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir". It's my favourite series along with The Persuaders (or Amicalement vôtre).
@@annecy49 That's another delightful series. Those shows are often mocked for being of-their-time but they knew how to keep things light as air. And in that lightness of touch, so much charm.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Yes, and they were wonderfully dubbed in French by great actors. The Persuaders owes a lot of its success in France to the quality of the dubbing and the freedom the actors took. It was very popular in France and I remeber it fondly. As soon as I hear the music, I ran to the living room! Good old times!
@@annecy49 Me too. It would be very interesting to me to hear the French version just to see how close the dubbing actors might or might not have been to the originals. I once saw a film dubbed into Thai where the actor had done a fantastic job of recreating Micheal Caine's voice. Separate issue of course, but good dubbing is often underrated because subtitles are always considered superior by so many. But the good dubs are often great.
This was early days of TV. Most of these jokes were adapted from vaudeville and the stage shows - suddenly the posh people, who could afford TV licenses, but wouldn't be seen dead in any of the old Music Halls, could get access to comedy and humour - cue Monty Python.
Still without peer in the history of episodic television in any language, in any place.
Fun video, but a shame that you couldn’t get the spelling of Mrs Peel’s surname correct. Twice.
I know... Bizarre... And it wasn't like I'd just been writing about Jordan Peele. This is why we all need sub-editors before we publish.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Been there and done that!
Odd, that
@@jeffreyadams648 I agree.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight Forgiven.
It was definitely a bit on the silly side at times but, it was quite the comment on how the elite were perceived at that time. Regardless, a bit of class never really hurt anybody and this show was just full of it. I truly enjoyed watching it. Needless to say, I fell head over heels in love with Miss Riggs! What sane man would not? LOL
The first clue that something odd was going on at Little Bazeley by the Sea, was when British Rail stopped selling return tickets.
M Appeal = Male Appeal = Emma Peel
Of course! Makes sense.
Actually, _Male Appeal = M Appeal = Emma Peel_ makes more sense.
Best show...
For the benefit of any non-British viewers, in 1965 "It'll have to be milk" was actually a kind of slang that meant "fuck your mother, on top of your sister". That's why Mrs Peel reacted like that.
fun fact / trivia- the name 'emma peel' is a pun based on 'man appeal', as in thats they were looking in the character / actress, i think they succeeded rather well,
Superb!!! 👍👍👏👏🤣🤣😂😂
In another episode there's a scene, also in a corridor coach, where Mrs Peel leans over to a man opposite and says "Would you like a bikkie?". As a child, I thought this was very funny.
I don't remember that... But that is a perfect thing for her to say. I can just hear it.
Was it Spike Milligan who said " I love the England I dream of, not the England I know"
I don't know if it was, but it should have been. Nothing sums up how a lot of us feel when we watch something like this.
So Classy ❤
The mystery of the absente lemon.
I remember this episode! Mostly I remember Emma Peel.
Curious co-incidence: Dianna Rigg (Actress), was born on the same day as Natalie Wood (Actress), - 20 July 1938
I did not know that.
How lovely.
Peel and Steed are the best 🥳
sounds like the kettle has come to the boil. thought that was the steam loco on the front of their passenger train for a moment
"Mother" (wasn't "Mother" yet) appears in a short role. In South America the character was named "Barrilito".
Yes. I had almost forgotten that.
@@dreamsofprojectedlight One curiosity: in the titles say "Mrs.Peele". ¿It is the name's correct form, or it's just a mistake or, maybe, is another way to call her, in kindly manner?
@@zoilaugarte9096 It is a mistake... It should be Mrs Peel. Well spotted.
I loved the show and have since gotten the entire show on DVD, back to Honor Blackman. I wasnt much of a fan of Tara King. I met Diana Rigg after a show of The Misanthrope. Very nice. I was surprised at how chatty she was.
Article Talk
Both gone now. Great show
One of my favorite TV theme songs
It is a great theme.
To me She was the first female action hero!
damn, she was a beautiful young woman.
She really was.
Agent? A GENT! And Steed's not bad either.
Why is Emma reading a magazine called Primary Education? I don't remember her being a teacher.
Hmm... Good point. Maybe someone will have an answer. I haven't a clue.
There indeed once used to be people like this in England. No longer. It's a toilet, now.
At least there aren't any racist twatwaffles out there these days...
Remember when this and the Beatles and Stones were our reaquintence with the British?
That's a nice thought. I do like the eccentricity and playful surrealism that run through all the above. There are less wonderful things that we could be associated with but it would be nice if these were the things by which we might be thought of more fondly.
This scene reminds me of Harpo Marx with his very deep pockets.
I love the moment in 'Duck Soup' where he pulls out a blow torch to light someone's cigar. There is a lot of that kind of humour in 'The Avengers' but they never draw too much attention to it. Like it's just the way the world is. Obviously you take an entire tea set in your bag just in case the buffet car is closed.
I must admit when the cakes came out it reminded me of Mary Poppins
Her name was a deliberate play on words.
Emma Peel
M Appeal
Man Appeal
That hat looks like a phonograph record.
I was just trying to remember John Steels' real name, after seeing him on an episode of "The Hardy Boys". I remember watching these two as a young teenager!!
Who is John Steel?
@@elemar5 He played for the Knicks. Odd place for the question, isn't it?
@@hijodelaisla275 It is, as I have no idea about either of these names you mention.
@@elemar5 I'm even worse off than you; I have no idea what "names" you're referring to.
@@hijodelaisla275 John Steel and Knicks.