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The Avengers 1965-1966 Episodes 1-26

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 11:08 am
by John
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 5s
The Gravediggers 5s
The Cybernauts 4s
Death at Bargain Prices 5s
Castle De'ath 5s
The Master Minds 5s
The Murder Market 5s
A Surfeit of H2O 5s
The Hour That Never Was 4s
Dial a Deadly Number 4s
Man-Eater of Surrey Green 5s
Two's a Crowd 5s
Too Many Christmas Trees 5s
Silent Dust 5s
Room Without a View 5s
Small Game for Big Hunters 5s
The Girl From Auntie 5s
The Thirteenth Hole 5s
Quick-Quick Slow Death 5s
The Danger Makers 5s
A Touch of Brimstone 4s
What The Butler Saw 5s
The House That Jack Built 5s
A Sense of History 5s
How To Succeed...At Murder 5s
Honey For The Prince 4s

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!"