The Avengers (1961)
The Avengers is a British television series created in the 1960s. It initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed. Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. His most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity.
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Episode 1 - Brief for Murder
Release Date: 1963-09-28Thanks to the clever briefing of the Lakin brothers a man charged with treason is found not guilty. Mrs Gale believes that Steed is implicated, and contacts the newspapers. Steed threatens her: either withdraw her allegations or pay the consequences. Soon Steed is on trial for Gale's murder.
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Episode 2 - The Undertakers
Release Date: 1963-10-05All the occupants of a rest home, Adelphi Park, are multi-millionaires. And most of them are refusing to see anyone, including Professor Renter who was due to fly to America with Steed to show off his latest invention. His wife is unable or unwilling to help and, curiously, the neighbour, Madden, another millionaire, is missing.
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Episode 3 - Man with Two Shadows
Release Date: 1963-10-12Agent Borowski has been brainwashed by the enemy, but between moments of multiple-personality disorder he tells Steed that three 'doubles' have been created. Steed tracks down one likely replacement to a holiday camp, but then discovers that he, himself, is about to be replaced.
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Episode 4 - The Nutshell
Release Date: 1963-10-19The Director of Operations (Disco) of the Nutshell, a subterranean World War III bunker, tells Steed and Cathy that Big Ben, a file giving details of all their double agents, has been copied. Security cameras point to a young girl, but she is later found dead. Evidence implicates Steed, and Disco orders that he be apprehended.
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Episode 5 - Death of a Batman
Release Date: 1963-10-26At the reading of the will of Wrightson, Steed's former batman, the man's family are shocked to discover his estate is worth a fortune. Steed and Cathy set out to find out where a twenty pounds per week draughtsman acquired such a huge amount of money, and whether it was legal.
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Episode 6 - November Five
Release Date: 1963-11-02Michael Dyter, the newly elected MP for South-East Anglia is shot shortly after making his acceptance speech in which he had threatened to expose a major scandal involving the government. Steed knows that the subject of this was the recent theft of a nuclear warhead near London. So was Dyter killed to keep him quiet, and if so, by whom?
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Episode 7 - The Gilded Cage
Release Date: 1963-11-09Steed's trap for criminal mastermind J.P. Spaggs involves a brilliant plan to steal a million pounds in gold bullion. But when two detectives arrive at Steed's flat and arrest Cathy for Spagge's murder things don't seem to be going to plan.
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Episode 8 - Second Sight
Release Date: 1963-11-16The cornea grafts that will, hopefully, restore the sight of blind millionaire Marten Halvarssen fascinate Steed: they're rumoured to be coming from a live patient, one Hilda Brauer. Steed suspects that all is not what it seems and so sends Cathy to Switzerland to oversee the operation.
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Episode 9 - The Medicine Men
Release Date: 1963-11-23Willis-Sopwoth, a top pharmaceutical firm, is being drained by cheap imitations of its products in foreign markets. The death of a member of staff while investigating the fraud brings Steed and Cathy face to face with a deadly artist and a plot to poison children.
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Episode 10 - The Grandeur That Was Rome
Release Date: 1963-11-30Strange diseases are being reported in various parts of the world, and Steed's suspicion is that somebody has been tampering with the insecticides and fertilisers of United Foods and Dressings. Cathy Gale is captured whilst investigating, and will be the 'guinea pig' for a test on the new strain of bubonic plague.
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Episode 11 - The Golden Fleece
Release Date: 1963-12-07Steed and Cathy eat at a Chinese restaurant, but, as ever, it's not just for fun: Steed suspects the owner, Mr Lo, of gold smuggling. He also seems to be allied with Army types who are smuggling ammunition to support ex-servicemen.
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Episode 12 - Don't Look Behind You
Release Date: 1963-12-14Invited to spend the weekend at the home of medievel costume expert Sir Cavalier Resagne, Cathy finds herself alone in the house, pestered by a young man who claims to be a film director, and haunted by her past. And where is Steed?
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Episode 13 - Death A La Carte
Release Date: 1963-12-21Emir Abdulla Akaba is visiting London for his annual medical, and Steed suspects an assassination attempt. Despite Steed assumming the guise of a chef, the Emir seems to have been poisoned while eating a meal.
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Episode 14 - Dressed to Kill
Release Date: 1963-12-28An incoming missile attack, which is detected by all but one of the country's early warning stations, proves to be a false alarm. Steed finds himself attending an exclusive New Year's Eve fancy-dress party on a train. The train terminates at a remote, deserted station, and a guest is killed with an arrow.
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Episode 15 - The White Elephant
Release Date: 1964-01-04The disappearance of an albino elephant from Noah Marshall's zoo seems to be linked to Steed's investigation of ivory dust in a gun shop. Steed sets out to rescue Cathy from the tiger's cage, find Snowy and investigate the ivory smugglers.
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Episode 16 - The Little Wonders
Release Date: 1964-01-11Bibliotek are a criminal organisation who are fronted as a church. A coming 'Bible Class' will decide who runs Bibliotek. It could be Steed...
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Episode 17 - The Wringer
Release Date: 1964-01-18Six agents have died on an escape route through Hungary and Austria. Anderson, a friend of Steed's, has also gone missing. Steed finds his friend but is then accused of being a traitor and taken to a brainwashing unit in Scotland run by the Wringer.
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Episode 18 - Mandrake
Release Date: 1964-01-25After attending the funeral of an old friend in a lonely Cornish village cemetery, Steed discovers a plot to poison millionaires.
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Episode 19 - The Secrets Broker
Release Date: 1964-02-01One of Steed's colleagues has been murdered, and the subsequent investigation takes Cathy to a top-secret research establishment and Steed to a wine merchants.
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Episode 20 - Trojan Horse
Release Date: 1964-02-08Jockeys and stable hands are being trained in the use of firearms and poisons, so Steed delves deep in the murky world of horse racing.
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Episode 21 - Build a Better Mousetrap
Release Date: 1964-02-15What does Cathy joining a motorcycle gang, two elderly ladies who own a watermill and claim to be witches, and all of the clocks stopping at a local atomic research station have in common? They're all present in Brian Clemen's first great step into the bizarre.
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Episode 22 - The Outside-In Man
Release Date: 1964-02-22Arabian revolutionary Sharp is visiting Britain and Steed is put in charge of security. He thinks it is ironic that they are now protecting a man they were trying to kill five years before. Two agents were thought to have died during the violent bloodshed in Abarain but now one of them is very much alive.
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Episode 23 - The Charmers
Release Date: 1964-02-29The opposition believe Steed is responsible for the death of their agent Vinkel. Steed, however, had nothing to do with the murder and, as a show of good faith, agrees to a swap of partners with Keller in a bid to find the real killer.
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Episode 24 - Concerto
Release Date: 1964-03-07Soviet-British trade talks are coinciding with the first London concert of the brilliant young pianist, Stefan Veliko. A young girl accuses Veliko of assault, and is then murdered. If someone wants to disrupt the talks by incriminating the pianist, they seem to be going about it in the right way.
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Episode 25 - Esprit De Corps
Release Date: 1964-03-14The mysterious death of Corporal Craig of the Highland Guards sends both Steed and Cathy undercover into the army ranks. There, Steed finds himself under court-martial and Cathy becomes second in line to the throne.
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Episode 26 - Lobster Quadrille
Release Date: 1964-03-21When an agent investigating radioactivity levels in shellfish is killed in a beach hut fire, Steed and Cathy get involved in the heady worlds of nightclubbing, chess and lobster fishermen.