The New Avengers (TV series)
| The New Avengers | |
|---|---|
Series title screenshot
|
|
| Genre |
Action Spy fiction |
| Created by | Brian Clemens, Albert Fennell |
| Starring |
Patrick Macnee Gareth Hunt Joanna Lumley |
| Theme music composer | Laurie Johnson |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom Canada France |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Brian Clemens |
| Running time | 50 minutes per episode |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 22 October 1976 – 17 December 1977 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
The Avengers Escapade |
The New Avengers is a British secret agent action television series produced during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series, The Avengers (created by Sydney Newman) and was developed by original series producers Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens.
The series was produced by The Avengers (Film and TV) Enterprises Ltd for the ITV network, cost £125,000 per episode to produce at Pinewood Studios and was seen in 120 countries.
A joint United Kingdom-France-Canada production, the series picks up the adventures of John Steed (again played by Patrick Macnee) as he and his team of "Avengers" fight evil plots and world domination. Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt), a top agent, crack marksman and trained martial artist, and Purdey (Joanna Lumley), a former trainee with The Royal Ballet (to which she ascribed the high-kicking skills she frequently used in the series) who was an amalgam of many of the best talents from Steed's female partners in The Avengers.
As he did for most of the original series, Steed is once again acting without a direct superior – in many ways his character takes on the duties of "Mother" from the Tara King era of the 1960s series. Steed is seen as the mentor to Gambit and Purdey, taking on a paternal role towards them (especially in the episode "Hostage"). Gambit is the athletic action hero, while Purdey incorporates the wit and fighting skills of her predecessors. The verbal interplay between Gambit and Purdey, with her humorously keeping his romantic advances at bay, harks back to the Steed/Gale era of the original Avengers.
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