Season 1 episode 20, Tunnel of Fear, original broadcast date 5th August 1961.

Never really watched the show but it's lovely stuff still turns up.

Woah. The Avengers is really Mrs Peel/Tara King for me, but have seen some of the Honor Blackmans and the first Hendry episode. Another Hendry episode tuns up after all this time...I'm rather delighted and am not even a hardcore fan!

eta Well, I've seen a Hendry episode, anyway. Apparently there's only a part of episode 1 that has been recovered; I've seen a later episode of Season 1, 'The Frighteners'. Said I wasn't hardcore!

http://ianhendry.com/the-avengers-19...fter-55-years/

been enjoying nightly episodes on True Entertainment. The glimpses of London in the 60s, real and not so real locations, There really was /still isn't any other programme like it.
So out there. and good fun. And can play spot the actor who became famous.

Was Patrick McNee as John Steed the most suave and sophisticated hero to ever grace our tv screens? Definitely elements of James Bond there. The chemistry with his female emancipated co-stars was something wonderful to behold.
I never liked S1 as much as the later more fantastic episodes though, when the series hit its stride. Don't forget it gave us two equally successful sequel or spin off series too.

The only two characters whom I can think of that can a hold a candle to Macnee as Steed are Roger Moore's Lord Brett Sinclair & Gerald Harper as Adam Adamant. But yes, Patrick had the field to himself for most of the sixties and latter part of the seventies. Also agree about his relationship with his female co-stars, there was a unique frisson to it that came over well.

Hope they release it soon but what are they going to do with the discovered Jimmy Saville Top of the Pops episodes?

Edit him out I suppose, we still have the performances.

Back to the 'Gers, I'm more a lustee of Linda Thorson to be truthful, I don't think the spindly 7 stone Emma Peel could really overpower a Russian bodyguard but the rippling chest and muscled thighs of Linda could easily make mincemeat of any Eastern European bad guy.

For me it has to be Honor Blackman all the way

Thank you for this.

I had no idea that Ian Hendry had been in, or so involved with this. He was a heart-throb of my Mom's, and I can see why. Lovely man. (As they might say today, ''He's gorge!''!

I'm of the Emma Peel generation, and I adored her independence. To me, as a young girl, she was the 'coolest' woman on tv.

The trouble with the repeats on True Entertainement is that they only show the Emma Peel and Tara King episodes and never bother with the Kathy Gale/Martin King/Venus Smith episodes which are all still in existence

I'm old enough to have watched the Hendry ones and even at the time I thought they seemed cheap and 'studio bound'. For me, The Avengers burst into life with the first filmed series which was Diana Rigg in B/W, then the next series in colour. It had real class and looked good. Downhill with Linda Thorson. I can't say I'm too excited about a find from series 1 (apart from the fact that old telly is always interesting).

I find it fascinating how much of this "lost material" turns up years later. Either stuffed away and forgotten about in someone's loft, found in another country's TV archive, or held in the hands of a private collector for many years.

I still believe there is much lost material still out there waiting to be rediscovered.

There seems to be a reluctance by some TV channels to broadcast B&W episodes of a series. Especially B&W 405 line episodes - later B&W went to 625 lines - or "lost episodes" that have been recovered on "inferior" medium.

I fear it is more to do with "broadcast standard" material. Although channels such as GOLD have shown recovered, fairly poor quality Steptoe and Son episodes. The Horror Channel have showed inferior quality Dr Who episodes from the 60's - again obviously recovered.

I remember C4 showing quite a few Kathy Gale episodes late at night during the early 90s

Steptoe ones they mainly showed colour.

I have the box set and adore the B&W episodes.

I agree, the b&w Diana Riggs are probably the best of the lot. They had a little old school atmosphere that was lost in the colour series.

I suppose Moore's Simon Templar has been completely forgotten? More debonair one cannot get.

strange that because as a young boy I thought she was the hottest.............

The original series was called Police Surgeon, so a 60s Quincy MD, or CSI..... There are some episodes left as they were shown IIRC on the original Bravo channel. Saturday nights on ABC = The Avengers Then it changed to Sundays

As your moniker says, those spy movies and TV series were the best

I have got to say Emma Peel was so gorgeous and probably Steeds best sidekick

LOL

And that's exactly why she was so 'cool'!

Could've had anyone she wanted, but no; she retained her independence! (Apart from the 'frisson' with Steed, as another poster mentioned previously) And the fact that she was 'Mrs' Peel, rather than a girlish 'miss'. I adored her (I'm straight btw )

I was only a kid really, during her era, but I was also taken with the slightly surreal plots/atmosphere (as I was with The Prisoner) but perhaps I'm misremembering.

Edit: I agree owen 10

I always considered Moore's 'Saint' as a bit too suave and debonair, almost sissy.