The strange deaths of
several astronomers, left bleached white, pose a problem. Whilst
Steed joins the stargazers, Emma chases a bright light, and finds
herself in the hot seat.
Director: Robert Day
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Barbara
Shelley, Philip Locke, Jon Pertwee, Derek Newark, Jeremy Lloyd,
Adrian Ropes, Arthur Cox, Paul Gilliard, Michael Lynch, Kenneth Benda
2.
The Fear Merchants
January
21, 1967
Steed puts out a light Emma takes fright
Four men involved in the
production of ceramics suffer nervous breakdowns in everyday
situations. All have recently turned down the opportunity to merge
with the British Porcelain Company. Steed and Emma investigate the
world of fear, with terrifying consequences.
Director: Gordon Flemyng
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Patrick
Cargill, Brian Wilde, Anette Carell, Garfield Morgan, Andrew Keir,
Jeremy Burnham, Edward Burnham, Bernard Horsfall, Ruth Trouncer,
Declan Mulholland, Phillip Ross
3.
Escape in Time
January
28, 1967
Steed visits the barber Emma has a close shave!
Several notorious criminals have vanished
into thin air. A whisper has been received that the escape chain
starts in London, but, when agent Paxton follows it, he winds up dead
in the Thames with a 300-year-old bullet in him.
Director: John Krish Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Peter Bowles, Geoffrey
Bayldon, Judy Parfitt, Imogen Hassall, Edward Caddick, Nicholas
Smith, Roger Booth, Richard Montez, Clifford Earl, Rocky Taylor
4.
The See-Through Man
February
4, 1967
Steed makes a bomb Emma is put to sleep!
The Ministry has been broken into by, it
seems, an invisible man. A trail leads via inventor Quilby to the
Eastern Drug Company, a front organisation run by Soviet
intelligence. Meanwhile, the crack spies Elena and Alexandre Vazin
are in town. But nobody has seen anything of Alexandre...
Director: Robert Asher Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: David Glover, Roy Kinnear,
Jonathan Elsom, John Nettleton
5.
The Bird Who Knew Too Much
February
11, 1967
Steed fancies pigeons Emma gets the bird
Emma and Steed investigate the mystery of
how top secret things are being photographed from the air. Could it
have something to do with the groovy world of fashion photography and
a parrot called Captain Crusoe?
Director: Roy Rossotti Writer: Brian
Clemens / Alan Pattillo
Guest starring: David Glover, Roy Kinnear,
Jonathan Elsom, John Nettleton
6.
The Winged Avenger
February
18, 1967
Steed goes bird watching Emma does a comic strip...
Is a creature that can walk
up walls clawing to death ruthless and powerful men? Does it have
anything to do with Professor Poole's invention of boots that let you
walk on the ceiling, or with cartoon superhero the Winged Avenger?
Director: Gordon Flemyng /
Peter Duffell Writer: Richard Harris
Guest starring: A.J. Brown,
William Fox, Donald Pickering, Nigel Green, Hillary Wontner
The villain is a Batman parody, and the
episode itself is peppered with spoofs of the Batman TV show.
The strap hanging from the upside-down
Mrs. Peel's outfit is stiff, clearly indicating that it is a prop
attached to make it look like she was upside-down, when she really
was standing upright on a ceiling set.
When Mrs. Peel is fighting the Winged
Avenger, a chair is dislodged from Professor Poole's ceiling-mounted
office. The chair wobbles in mid-air on its way down, indicating that
it is, in fact, being pulled upwards by a wire.
7.
The Living Dead
February
25, 1967
Steed finds a mine of information Emma goes underground
Strange apparitions rise
from the graveyard on the estate of the sixteenth Duke of Benedict.
Did the mine disaster five years earlier really kill his predecessor
and thirty men? When Emma is taken underground, Steed ventures into
the giant secret that hides under the village.
Director: John Krish /
Anthony Marriott Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: Jack
Woolgar, Jack Watson, John Cater, Pamela Ann Davy, Julian Glover,
Vernon Dobtcheff, Alister Williamson, Edward Underdown
8.
The Hidden Tiger
March
3, 1967
Steed hunts a big cat Emma is badly scratched
The mauling to death of
several members of the committee of PURRR (the Philanthropic Union
for the Rescue, Relief and Recuperation of Cats) exposes Steed and
Emma to a diabolical scheme to take over the entire country.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Jack
Gwillim, Stanley Meadows, Ronnie Barker, Gabrielle Drake, Lyndon Brook
Mrs Peel's "pussies galore"
observation references the character of Pussy Galore played by her
predecessor, Honor Blackman.
9.
The Correct Way to Kill
March
11, 1967
Steed changes partners Emma joins the enemy
Foreign agents are being
killed, but not by British agents. Steed thinks it terribly unfair,
and so does his opposite number, Nutski. They make an arrangement,
and Steed and Emma find themselves with Soviet partners in an
investigation of a group of very British killers.
Director: Charles Crichton
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: Peter
Barkworth, Graham Armitage, Michael Gough, Anna Quayle
10.
Never, Never Say Die
March
18, 1967
Steed meets a dead man Emma fights the corpse
An unfortunate motorist
keeps knocking down and killing the same man: a man who's rampaging
through the countryside, bulletproof and intent on destruction. A man
who just happens to be identical to the urbane Professor Frank N. Stone.
Director: Robert Day
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Christopher
Lee, Patricia English, Jeremy Young, John Junkin, Peter Dennis
Emma is seen at the beginning of the show
watching episode #4.3, "The Cybernauts" on TV.
"Never, Never Say Die" features
the series debut of Sir Christopher Lee, who would be back for a Tara
King classic, "The Interrogators." Lee and Patrick Macnee
were lifelong friends for over 80 years (since 1931), who would work
together again in 1990 (as Holmes and Watson, respectively) in two
European television miniseries, "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading
Lady" and "Incident at Victoria Falls."
11.
Epic
April
1, 1967
Steed catches a falling star Emma makes a movie
Three Hollywood veterans,
led by an insane director, decide that Emma would be perfect for
their latest movie, so they kidnap her and film some surreal and
deadly footage.
Director: James Hill
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: Isa
Miranda, Peter Wyngarde, Kenneth J Warren
An unknown person sabotages Mrs. Peel's
car by cutting one of the battery wires. When Mrs. Peel tries to
start the car, the starter motor is heard. The starter motor of a car
runs on the battery, so the starter motor should not have worked at all.
12.
The Superlative Seven
April
8, 1967
Steed flies to nowhere Emma does her party piece
Steed is invited to a
party, and finds himself trapped in a remote-controlled aircraft,
with six fancy-dressed specialists in various combat styles, en route
to a distant island. There, they are pitted against each other in a
deadly test.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: Terry
Plummer, Donald Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, Hugh Manning, James
Maxwell, Gary Hope, Leon Greene, Margaret Neale
Canadian born Donald
Sutherland was just a few years away from superstardom when he guest
starred on The Avengers. In that same year he played the dopey but
loyal Vernon Pinkley in the war film The Dirty Dozen (1967). The film
also starred Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, and Telly Savalas. The
picture was an instant success, and Sutherland played upon this
success by taking another role in a war film: MASH (1970) which
landed Sutherland the starring role of Hawkeye Pierce alongside
Elliott Gould's Trapper John. Hawkeye Pierce would later be played
for 11 seasons on TV by Alan Alda. Alda's film Sweet Liberty (1986),
would also star Linda Thorson who succeeded Diana Rigg as Patrick
Macnee's partner on The Avengers. Donald Sutherland is the father of
Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer in 24, another of
televisions' long list of super secret agents.
13.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to theStation
April
15, 1967
Steed goes off the rails Emma finds her station
in life
When Lucas, an agent
investigating something subversive, gets off his train at the wrong
station he is murdered. Has the crime got anything to do with a mole
at the admiralty, a train ticket and a fiendish plot to kill the
Prime Minister?
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: Michael
Nightingale, Richard Caldicott, Peter J. Elliott, James Hayter
14.
Something Nasty in the Nursery
April
22, 1967
Steed acquires a nanny Emma shops for toys
Secrets known only to a
small group of trusted men have leaked, and the men are having
strange dreams of their childhood, featuring their nannies and a
bouncing ball. Emma checks out the toyshop, Steed explores a school
for nannies.
Director: James Hill
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Dennis
Chinnery, Geoffrey Sumner, Paul Eddington, George Merritt, Clive
Dunn, Yootha Joyce, Trevor Bannister,Patrick Newell, Paul Hardwick
15.
The Joker
April
29, 1967
Steed trumps an ace Emma plays a lone hand
Invited for the weekend to
the home of a fellow Bridge Expert, Emma finds herself trapped in a
house designed to send her mad. Her tormentor is Max Prendergast, a
man she befriended and then betrayed in Berlin some time before. Then
Steed came to the rescue but now he's at home nursing a sprained ankle.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: John Stone,
Ronald Lacey, Sally Nesbitt, Peter Jeffrey
16.
Who's Who?
May 6, 1967
Steed goes out of his mind Emma is beside herself
When one of the Floral
Network of agents is found dead atop a pair of stilts, Steed and
Emma's interest is piqued. That's the idea, because foreign agents
Basil and Lola have a trap prepared for them: a machine that swaps
their minds into the pair's bodies.
Director: John Llewellyn
Moxey Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Freddie
Jones, Patricia Haines, Arnold Diamond, Peter Reynolds, Campbell
Singer, Philip Levene, Malcolm Taylor
This was the final episode to feature the
opening "Mrs. Peel We're Needed!" tag scenes. Reportedly
the American network wanted more room for commercials, so these
usually extraneous sequences were eliminated.
The only episode where Steed and Mrs. Peel
are played by two other actors: Freddie Jones as the former, and
Patricia Haines as the latter.
Untitled
17.
Return of the Cybernauts
September
30, 1967
Steed pulls some strings Emma becomes a puppet
The brother of the late
Clement Armstrong sets a deadly trap for Steed and Mrs. Peel, whom he
blames for his brother's death at the hands of his murderous
creations, the Cybernauts.
Director: Robert Day
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Peter
Cushing, Terry Richards, Frederick Jaeger, Roger Hammond, Aimi
Macdonald, Michael Gough, Redmond Phillips, Noel Coleman
18.
Death's Door
October
7, 1967
Steed relives a nightmare Emma sees daylight
A European peace conference
comes under the threat of sabotage when the British delegates begin
to suffer from premonitions and nightmares. After Sir Andrew Boyd,
who has witnessd his death in a dream, is killed, Steed and Emma must
keep his replacement, Lord Melford, sane and alive.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Michael
Faure, William Lucas, Clifford Evans, Allan Cuthbertson, Paul
Dawkins, Terry Maidment, Terry Yorke
At one point in the episode
our heros find a key dropped by the bad guys with a tag on it with
the address of their secret headquarters. Kind of sloppy planning on
the the part of our villains to leave such an obvious clue. I mean if
you can't hire henchmen who can remember the address of your secret
headquarters maybe you should rethink the whole operation.
19.
The £50,000 Breakfast
October
14, 1967
Steed dabbles in tycoonery Emma in chicanery
The accidental death of a
ventriloquist reveals that he had been carrying a fortune in gems
inside his stomach. Steed stoops to blackmail and Emma goes shopping
for ties in the search through the business community for a rich Borzoi.
Director: Robert Day
Writer: Roger Marshall / Jeremy Scott
Guest starring: Christopher
Greatorex, Richard Curnock, Richard Owens, Yolande Turner, Nigel
Lambert, Jon Laurimore, Cardew Robinson, Cecil Parker, David Langton
20.
Dead Man's Treasure
October
21, 1967
Steed rallies around Emma drives for her life
The search for a small
despatch box containing secret information hidden by a dying agent
leads Steed and Emma into a race (quite literally) for the
'treasure'. In the process they must face foreign agents, new
partners and a car simulator that electrifies its guests.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Michael Winder
Guest starring: Rio
Fanning, Neil McCarthy, Arthur Lowe, Edwin Richfield, Valerie Van Ost
21.
You Have Just Been Murdered
October
28, 1967
Steed chases a million Emma runs off with it
Various millionaires are
withdrawing large sums of money from the bank. Steed suspects
blackmail but none of the men is willing to talk. Then he gets a call
from Gilbert Jarvis, who tells Steed that he, Jarvis, has 'just been
murdered'. Again.
Director: Robert Asher
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Geoffrey
Chater, Simon Oates, Clifford Cox, Leslie French, George Murcell
During the fight in the lake, Mrs. Peel's
hair goes from wet to dry and then back to wet. Also, as Mrs. Peel
follows the baddie back to his leader, the camera dolly is visible in
the lower corner of the screen.
22.
The Positive Negative Man
November
4, 1967
Steed makes the sparks fly Emma gets switched on
When a scientist is found
embedded in a wall, Steed and Emma pursue a man in make-up and
wellies, whose appearance is terribly shocking.
Director: Robert Day
Writer: Tony Williamson
Guest starring: Bill
Wallis, Michael Latimer, Caroline Blakiston, Joanne Dainton, Sandor Elès
23.
Murdersville
November
11, 1967
Emma marries Steed Steed becomes a father
Emma's old friend, Paul
Croft, returns from abroad to retire to Little Storping-in-the Swurf.
Unfortunately, the village seems to be run along very strange lines.
Threatened by yokels, Emma finds herself outnumbered.
Director: Robert Asher
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: John
Ronane, Colin Blakely, Peter Clay, Eric Flynn, Norman Chappell,
Gareth Thomas, Andrew Laurence, Sheila Fearn, John Sharp, Ronald
Hines, Geoffrey Colville
The town where this episode was shot was
also used in The Dirty Dozen, where it is the scene of some of the
war games. The establishing shot is almost identical to the one at
the opening of this episode.
When Mrs Peel awakes in the pub after
being knocked out, she is wearing a purple and blue jumpsuit. She
them leaves with Dr Haynes to go back to Forbes' house. While they
drive there in the car, she is wearing a Red and Black jump suit.
When she arrives at Forbes' house, she is back in the purple and Blue suit.
24.
Mission: Highly Improbable
November
18, 1967
Steed falls into enemy hands Emma is cut down to size
When Sir Gerald Bancroft
and his Rolls-Royce vanish whilst being escorted at a military base,
Steed is called upon to solve the puzzle. But before he can he
experiences that old shrinking feeling.
Director: Robert Day
Writer: Philip Levene
Guest starring: Nigel
Rideout, Nicholas Courtney, Kevin Stoney, Francis Matthews, Jane
Merrow, Noel Howlett
Jane Merrow played Susan Rushton in The
Avengers' "Mission . . . Highly Improbable" in 1967. In
1970 she played Lady Cora Weston in Mission: Impossible's
"Lover's Knot". She did the spoof/homage/ show first.
25.
The Forget-Me-Knot
September
25, 1968
"Always keep your bowler hat on in
times of trouble, and beware diabolical masterminds."
- Emma Peel
Steed's colleague Sean
Mortimer comes to see him in a very confused state. He knows there is
a traitor in the organization but he has been drugged to put him in
an amnesiac state and he can remember little else. Mrs. Peel
investigates but she too falls prey to the drug as she and Sean are
abducted by bikers. It is down to trainee agent 69, Tara King, to
whom Steed is introduced by spymaster 'Mother' to help him save the day.
This was the last episode
to feature Emma Peel and the first, introducing Tara King played by
Canadian actress Linda Thorson. Steed is waiting to see Mother when
the agent who attacked him earlier on the agent training course
appears from behind a curtain and introduces herself as Tara King -
she seems surprised when he doesn't say "Ra boom di ay!"
after hearing her first name, "Everyone does!", she
complains. At the end of the episode Emma is about to be reunited
with her long lost husband Peter Peel, she arrives at Steed's
apartment to say goodbye, saying Peter will pick her up in a few
minutes. She fights back a tear and tells him, "Always keep your
bowler on nice and straight; watch out for diabolical
masterminds", and kisses him tenderly on the cheek. "Emma -
thanks", he murmurs bravely and she gives him one last mournful
smile and leaves. Coming down the stairs, Emma passes Tara on the
landing and tells her, "He likes his tea stirred
anti-clockwise". Tara grins and heads upstairs. Steed is
watching her leave from the window and is astonished to discover that
Peter Peel is the spitting image of himself (Patrick Macnee and his
stunt double, Peter Weston, played the part). Emma waves as the car
drives away and Tara enters saying, "Mother sent me".
"Ra boom di ay!", replies Steed.
Director: James Hill
Writer: Brian Clemens
Guest starring: Linda
Thorson, Patrick Newell, Alan Lake, Douglas Sheldon, Tony Thawnton,
Edward Higgins, Jeremy Young, Beth Owen, John Lee
Emma Peel's final episode,
#7.1, "The Forget Me Knot", had already been filmed prior
to the announcement that Diana Rigg would leave the series. After her
announcement, fresh footage introducing trainee spy Tara King was
filmed and these scenes spliced in with the existing footage shot for
"The Forget Me Knot" in order to set up Steed's replacement
partner. As she had already left the series, Rigg does not appear in
this new footage - King's scenes only feature Patrick Macnee as Steed
- however, Rigg did agree to return to film one brief scene where it
is hurriedly explained that her husband Peter, a test pilot whose
plane disappeared in the Amazon, had returned from being missing in
the jungle and that Emma is returning to him. It is in this tag scene
that the only meeting of Emma and Tara takes place (Emma advises that
Steed prefers his tea stirred anti-clockwise), and is also the only
time Steed calls Mrs. Peel "Emma".
Two changes are made to the
opening credits for this one occasion: no teleplay writer credit is
given, and Steed is shown doing a golf swing with his umbrella rather
than the fighting-stick poses done in every other opening credit
sequence of Season 5.
After
leaving the series, Rigg played Emma Peel in two unofficial German
short films produced for the 8mm market: The Diadem and The Mini-Killers.
Little information has survived regarding these films, though the
films themselves survive.
In 1969, a Spanish/West
German company offer Rigg big bucks (Rigg is on record as saying they
paid her 'not less' than Eon did for On Her Majesty's Secret
Service!) to come and film a series of vignettes in the exotic locale
of Lloret del Mar, Spain, trading on your image as the sophisticated
high kicking Avenger for the Super 8 home projection market. The
films are without any dialogue and accompanied by a 'groovy' trumpet
based Spanish sounding score that occasionally and somewhat cheekily
riffs on Laurie Johnson's 'Mrs Peel, We're Needed' theme from The
Avengers. The lack of dialogue is apparent for two reasons; one
because this is clearly a Euro pudding and two, because the home
projectors weren't equipped for sound! Over the 30 minute running
time of four 'minikiller' episodes, Rigg investigates, battles and
evades a swarthy moustachioed twat, his bald henchman and their
deadly army of toy dolls!
After
leaving the series, Rigg played Emma Peel in two unofficial German
short films produced for the 8mm market: The Diadem and The Mini-Killers.
Little information has survived regarding these films, though the
films themselves survive.
