ITV's The Avengers, The New Avengers, The Saint, Return Of The Saint (Page 1 of 2)

The ultimate DVD Box of Return Of The Saint with an amount of Special Features that is quite grotesque:

And here the first review of Ian Ogilvy's The Saint:

The Judas Game (10th September 1978) Series 1, Episode 1

The Judas Game was the first episode of The Return Of The Saint, and in many ways signified the direction the series was going to take. This Saint lives in a complicated, political world, and while in many ways he is still a knight in shining armour, he is also a hardened professional – almost like a mercenary. In this episode Templar is coerced by MI6 into undertaking a dangerous mission. The white knight element is still there, because Templar has had a relationship with the girl (Judy Geeson) he is sent to rescue, but also it is suggested that Templar is the best man for the job, which in fact suggests his skills are better than all of the agents on the MI6 payroll.

The Judas Game starts on a cliff-face and Simon Templar is doing some mountaineering with his climbing partner, Algernon.

It quite interesting how similar this scenario seems to the PTS in The Living Daylights that was filmed 9 years later.

This pilot episode truly is amazing and I am tempted to put it as my No 1 even of all the 24 episodes. Duel In Venice, or The Arrangement may challenge that once I get to re-watch them.

Judy Geeson is a cult favourite actress of mine. There is a, I think, little known cult show called "Star Maidens", a German/British co-production. It's a Sci-Fi show and Geeson has the female lead in it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The Judas Game is solid entertainment, with some nice location footage filmed in Monte Argentario in Italy. The action sequences too, are expertly handled, with some Bondian fireworks, where Templar opens the gate to the inpenetratable fortress with a bazooka. Score high marks for adventure and fun. What more can a fan ask for.

thanks 006 for starting this thread
cant believe we never had an Avengers thread before, but I know we didn't cuz I've looked

theres a currently available boxset of both Riggs seasons on 16 dvd's, quite reasonably priced for sheer quantity of entertainment, I recommend all get a copy
I'm currently near the end of Riggs second season, the colour one
the show gets increasingly stylised by this point, and the two characters seem completely aware they are characters in a teevee show ... beautiful visuals and very funny repartee, but I preferred the slightly more serious b&w season

006 you will want to know both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing appear in the colour season, I believe Lee's character is even named Frank N. Stone or something similar

the Honour Blackman episodes are harder to find (though I know they are also on dvd) and much more expensive

we all know Blackman, Rigg, and MacNee each appeared in a Bond movie
but I recently figured out one more connection: Ralph Fiennes played Steed in the dreadful 1990s movie, opposite Uma Thurman as Peel and Sean Connery(!) as the megalomaniacal supervillain
(thereforwe also need to see Uma Thurman in an official Bond film)

...I mean, I got the irony of Connery as Bondstyle villain when I saw the film twenty years ago, but I never guessed this new Steed would one day be the new M and had forgotten all about his part in the silly movie when he finally did appear in in Skyfall

Last edited by caractacus potts (17th Aug 2017 21:56)

The Murder Market (12th November 1965) Series 4, Episode 7

James Bond Connection: Peter Bayliss appearing in this episode, plays Benz in From Russia With Love, Russian security agent who is on the train with Kerim Bey before they get killed by Grant.

This is quite a remarkable episode. First of all it was the second episode filmed and for those first two episodes it was Elizabeth Shepherd that played Mrs. Peel! Only during the filming of The Murder Market it became clear that it wouldn't work out with Shepherd and she was replaced with Diana Rigg. How's that for a twist of television fate!

It was aired seventh episode and you could almost never tell it was the first one for Diana Rigg.

Steed and Peel investigate a murder-for-hire organisation fronting as a matchmaking bureau.

There are some hilarious moments in this one. Steed has very funny dialogue as he poses as a rich bachelor that wants to get a partner. "Togetherness" an agency for finding a partner is a nice variation of Strangers On A Train.

Some truly memorable scenes in Murder Market, like Steed killing Mrs. Peel! or Emma lying in a coffin and later dancing around it.

With as many great episodes that series four has to offer it's rather difficult to pick favourites.
Still, this is another Top 10 worthy outing of the 26 series four episodes.

Personally I love it for the hilarious impersonation as a wealthy, spoiled rotten bachelor by John Steed. Patrick Macnee is just priceless and has a great comedic talent.

When Mr. Lovejoy (who runs Togetherness) asks Steed what he works, Steed replies:
"Work?....Tried it once, it didn't work out. Too much like work."

FUN FACT
In Germany this episode was never aired until 2003.
The reason for leaving it out in the late 60s was this: The TV station ZDF that showed The Avengers told German newspaper "Der Spiegel" that it was unsuitable to show this episode because Mrs. Peel is lying in a coffin then leaving it to dance besides it. What if someone who has lost a loved one recently is seeing this?

Another  classic episode. Love how after a rousing  nazi chant, Steed quietly
answers " Rule Britianna ?  " 

The Master Minds (6th November 1965) Series 4, Episode 6

This was the second episode filmed with Diana Rigg and aired as sixth one on TV.

Government minister Sir Clive Todd is wounded as he and other ministers try to steal top secret documents. He has no idea why he did it and hypnosis is suggested. All concerned belonged to a club for people with high I.Q.s called RANSACK, who are about to meet at a school. Steed and Peel join the club in order to expose the mastermind behind the next heist - the theft of a plane from an R.A.F. base

Steed goes to the school and finds Holly Trent (Patricia Haines), the school games mistress, conducting archery lessons.
I loved the character of Holly Trent in her archery outfit! I remember having a crush on her and only learned decades later that she was married to Michael Caine! Sadly Haines died at 45 because of lung cancer.

No matter if Emma Peel poses as a nurse or an archery expert she simply looks fabulous in any dress.

Mass hypnosis is used on the club members which only Steed seems to be unaffected of. It's revealed pretty early why, but it's still a nice mystery.

Want to see Peel on a trampoline? Look no further, here you go!

Another great episode with lots of fun moments. Maybe not Top 10, but personally I love this one as well.

Some hilariously bizarre typical moments like one of the Professors at the school always standing on his head or hanging upside down a rope.

The end fight between Emma Peel and the Mastermind takes place behind a movie screen. You see the silhouettes fighting and on the screen you see the war plane film that is shown to the club members repeatedly. At one point the film moves backwards and it creates quite a bizarre scenery.

There's a fantastic episode ( series 2, I think with Steed and Cathy Gale ) , The jist of the story was
A couple of old experienced  barristers  would help plan a murder for you. Getting you to do certain
things, so that when the case would come to trial. They would have set up so many  loopholes and
evidence  that couldn't be used due to previous trials etc. So you would be found innocent and .....
.... get away with murder.   

One of my favourite episodes. I went to visit the main filming location for the episode a few months back.

" What attracted you to a long running series ?"
" The Money "   

  Sir Roger on brilliant form 

were these pseudo-wine reviews describing the villains?
I took it as Steed and Peel each describing the other ... flinty apparently means unyielding, and Peel is that, and ever since watching this episode I always think "that dude is venerable and devious" while watching Steed work his charm

I was wondering why I'd never seen an Honor Blackman episode over the decades, then they started showing them on True Entertainment. The sound isn't quite right so you have to strain to hear the dialogue, also the opening theme is different, quite downbeat and depressing so you just don't want to watch it. Steed seems more a sinister figure, generally ungallant and landing Cathy Gale in it, a bit like Cary Grant with Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. It's all a bit grim and I rarely manage to get through one, though you can see the building blocks of the better, later series is there. It must have been good at times, as it was a big hit in its day.

tonight I watched Return of the Cybernauts

this is the one with Peter Cushing
he is in the midst of successfully seducing Mrs Peel, contradicting the hints we saw in the previous episode that our heroes get it on during the commercial breaks. But Steed is jealous.
This episode is played almost completely straight, unlike most of the rest of this season, where most of them are comedic and self-aware. This is especially appreciated in this case as the story is good and Cushing gives a good performance: charming, sinister, and a little bit twitchy. I think they even skip the usual "Mrs Peel we're needed" bit this time.

it begs comparison with the Christopher Lee episode a few shows previous, which I thought was much too silly and a waste of a Christopher Lee appearance

also features The Lovely Aimee McDonald (At Last the 1948 Show) in a brief cameo. She gets the only funny bits in the episode "I've got the most lovely bikini, its ever so revealing, did you know I almost got arrested twice for wearing it?". Basically the same routine she did in ...1948.... Its almost like in choosing to play the episode so straight, they then give us the now expected comedy content in a short concentrated dose with a cameo from an almost-Python. I know Aimee is also in one of the later Saint episodes: Vendetta for the Saint

so did British audiences in the 1960s get confused with Cybernauts on one channel and Cybermen on the other?