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Customer Reviews of The Avengers '62: Complete Set

This Is (Almost) Where It All Began
Fans of "The Avengers" have been drooling over the teasingly impending release of this set for a few years now. A&E did a good job of releasing all the episodes of "The Avengers" from 1963 onward (including the mid-'70s series, "The New Avengers"), but there was the one major omission; how "The Avengers" began. <
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>Unfortunately (as all "Avengers" afficianados know), the bulk of the first series from 1961, starring Ian Hendry as Dr David Keel, was destroyed / erased, as was the common practise back in those days. For years, the only complete "Avengers" episode from the Hendry series was "The Frighteners". A&E Home Video have finally brought to us all the existing footage from Hendry's tenure, as well as the episodes following Hendry's departure, featuring Jon Rollason as Dr Martin King. While these were essentially "Dr Keel" scripts with a recast, there were two most interesting things about the 2nd series of "The Avengers"; 1) John Steed (always deftly played by Patrick Macnee) became the lead character, emerging from Hendry's shadow, and 2) Honor Blackman arrived, and in doing so, changed the course of women in TV forever. <
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>For the casual fans of the series, Dame Diana Rigg's performance as Mrs Emma Peel is universally recognised as the "look" of "The Avengers", along with Macnee's bowler, brolly, and custom-made suits & boots. What is not generally known to the uninitiated is that Honor Blackman's portrayal of Mrs Catherine (Cathy) Gale set up the rest of the world for the strong female leading role. Often clad in leather catsuits, Mrs Gale was easily John Steed's equal, and quite often his superior. The scripts, like the ones featuring Dr King, were still written for a man, but they weren't retooled at all for a typical early-'60s female role; Mrs Gale was often the one to rescue Steed from the jaws of danger. Quite refreshing and definitely groundbreaking for its time. <
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>This series is also quite different from the Steed & Mrs Peel era, in that the characters are differently defined. Steed is much darker, often shady, menacing, even sinister from time to time, and quite frequently just plain dangerous. While some of that persona survived into the 1965 series (some of the early Mrs Peel scripts were retools from Blackman's tenure before she left the series in 1964 to play "Pussy Galore" in the 007 blockbuster, "Goldfinger"), it wasn't very long until the dapper gentleman-spy-with-a-twinkle-in-his-eye we've all come to know and love was cemented. Steed & Mrs Gale bickered a good deal of the time, and it's apparent that, while she enjoyed the dangerous situations Steed put her in, she had little tolerance for Steed's devious manipulations of her, and voiced her disapproval. The one thing that was established early on that survived all the incarnations of "The Avengers" is that Steed & Mrs Gale are equals, regardless of gender. Again, very groundbreaking for its time. <
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>So a big "thank you" to A&E Home Video for finally completing "The Avengers" legacy on video. Do yourself a favour and watch these episodes!