This is the black and white Diana Rigg series and I've no doubt that at the time Avengers fans could have been outraged. No Honor Blackman, a change in theme tune, it's all going to the dogs!
Except it was all actually rather fine, rather classy and just beautifully and perceptively put together. Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg are both superb in all 26 episodes, can't fault a single step of this journey.
These episodes are from the French prints, still in English but with Dutch subtitles that can be switched off. The print quality does vary and the titles have been crudely pasted over with French versions, but otherwise the experience is sound. Actually, the French titles are quite basic and literal and conveyt little meaning much of the time. "The Quick-Quick Slow Death" has style as a title, but the translation, from memory, was something like "Dance of Death" which has none of the quizzical nature of the original. A dead translation.
The other nice thing was that within this series are episodes that we have not seen before. Excellent to see something new!
Now for some ratings:
The Town of No Retrurn
The Gravediggers
The Cybernauts
Death at Bargain Prices
Castle De'ath
The Master Minds
The Murder Market
A Surfeit of H2O
The Hour That Never Was
Dial a Deadly Number
Man-Eater of Surrey Green
Two's a Crowd
Too Many Christmas Trees
Silent Dust
Room Without a View
Small Game for Big Hunters
The Girl From Auntie
The Thirteenth Hole
Quick-Quick Slow Death
The Danger Makers
A Touch of Brimstone
What The Butler Saw
The House That Jack Built
A Sense of History
How To Succeed...At Murder
Honey For The Prince
And for every episode they manage to find a tag scene involving Steed and Mrs Peel and some form of transport....and for most intros a new way for Steed to send the message, "Mrs Peel...we're needed!"