Here in Blighty, ITV 4 have started showing re runs of The New Avengers, and I being a bit of a cult TV nut have been tuning in.
I decided to dig out my meagre New Avengers stuff that I'd picked up at the time.
First off my Purdey TR7 - Dinky intended to bring other New Avengers cars out but sadly they never appeared. I would have liked Steed’s Jaguar 5.3 coupe for starters.
The obligatory annuals.
The paperbacks - very important in pre video tape times.
Although the original series is considered quite avant-garde with a strong fantasy element mixing spy stories with science fiction, the New Avengers tried to concentrate more on the straight forward spy story making it less of a parody of the former series.
That being said The New Avengers still had quite a few sci-fi aspects - In ‘The Eagle’s Nest’, Nazi monks try to bring Hitler back to life through cryogenics, while the episode ’Last of the Cybernauts’ dealt with cybernetics. The episode, ’Gnaws’ featured a giant rat roaming the sewers. This was apparently based on the Thunderbirds episode ’Attack of the Alligators’.
The New Avengers aired in 1976 and unlike the premise of the original series which, with the odd exception tended to deal with bizarre situations in London and the Home Counties, the new series had French and Canadian backers so several of the stories were actually filmed abroad.
Patrick Macnee returned as the impeccable, John Steed. Producers considered, wrongly that as Macnee was now the rip old age of 53 he would need a younger male side kick to do the action stuff.
Enter Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit, an ex mercenary and a bit rough round the edges.
The lovely Joanna Lumley played Purdey - an ex ballet dancer turned spy and pretty much the main reason most blokes tuned in.
I think she fancied me!
Never seen a single episode, but deffo on my to-do list - just because of, yes, Joanna Lumley!
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact the Dinky Jaguar XJ 5.3 Coupe exists, scarce though
http://tinyurl.com/cn49u85
Ended at £5400. On display at least in Brighton Toy and Model Museum, if you're not planning to get one ;-)
Cheers Arto
Absolutely love this series. Much more so than the original. Got the DVD bidder and the TV Times special.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely worth a watch , Arto.
ReplyDeleteI always suspected the Jag existed. Presumably these scarce ones were liberated when the factory closed, eh.
At over five grand for one I might just leave it - it would .br cheaper to buy a real coupe and stick some wheel arches on it. ; D
Cheers for the info, Arto
Glad to hear you're a fan, Kev . With regards to the original I must say I like that too. It's a shame the way The New Avengers seemed to be sidelined in favour of the more popular Professionals, which ultimately meant no third series.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a nice Board game from this series and I'm sure there were some plastic toys sets like cap firing pistols and the like. I always thought the guy who played Gambit might have been offered the James Bond role. He reminded me of George Lazenby. What did everyone think of the film with Ralph? Fiennes?
ReplyDeleteAvenger story , terrible casting !
DeleteI had no idea this series was being rerun! By chance, I just rewatched the first year on DVD and I'm planning to start the second batch soon. Speaking as someone for whom the Macnee/Rigg episodes were a crucial formative influence on my childhood...I have to say, the Macnee/Lumley/Hunt version was better. Tighter scripts, better directing, all around win. It felt like everyone who'd returned from the original were determined to show the world what they could really do.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference in mood, and a difference in the kinds of activities Steed and company undertake. Whereas Steed operated as a lone wolf with no visible superiors and assisted by talented amateurs in most of the original series, in the new bunch he's got to answer to the chain of authority and his assistants are themselves government agents. (I've worked out in my head an imaginary backstory that covers this transition, because a fan's mind works that way...)
Glad you posted about this!
My pleasure, Richard.
DeleteI think it might be wise to do a little post on the Rigg series just to whip up those nostalgic juices for everyone and see what folk think about that series.