The Avengers - Series 6 [DVD]

Series six of The Avengers sees some major changes despite the successful formula of series four and five. This series is often thought of as inferior to the "classic Avengers era" with the character Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) but actually it is very good. It is simply different.

Diana Rigg wanted to leave the series so she is written out. Mrs Emma Peel, (widow of test pilot Peter Peel) discovers that Peter is not dead after all. She decides to leave the British secret service to go and be with him.

British network executives decided to re vamp the whole show despite the success of the previous formula. For some people this was a mistake because the series had been popular the way it was. But personally I do not think this was a bad idea. They had already made a lot of episodes in one way and it would be just more of the same if they did it again. It would have been impossible to fill the shoes of Emma Peel if everything else was the same. Therefore it was logical to give the new female partner to Steed its own identity and originality. It was important to give the show a fresh look to keep the interest alive. There was a change in producers. Out went Brian Clemens and Albert Fennel and back came John Bryce. He signed newcomer Linda Thorson as the new female character to play along side Steed. This was the new character of Tara King.

Tara King has more innocence than her predecessors do. She is also allowed more subtle hints of romance with Steed. Tara is also a fully qualified agent but lacking in experience. This is different to Cathy Gale or Emma Peel who had been "talented amateurs".
Linda Thorson is fabulous as Tara King. She creates a great character that has its own uniqueness. Emma Peel had been incredible and a tough act to follow. There was no point trying to be another Emma Peel and so Tara has her own identity.
Actress Linda had natural brown hair but producer Bryce wanted Tara to have blonde hair so it was bleached which badly damaged the hair and Linda had to wear a wig through many of the early episodes.
After only producing three episodes studio executives were not happy and Bryce was fired and Clemens and Fernnel were brought back as producers.

Clemens and Fennel decided to film a new episode to introduce Tara King. Tara debuts in dynamic style: when Steed is called to Headquarters, he is attacked and knocked down by trainee agent King who mistakes him for her training partner.
No farewell scenes for Emma Peel had been shot when Diana Rigg left the series. Diana Rigg was recalled to film a final episode that features the farewell scene for Emma. Emma visits Steed to say goodbye, and while leaving she passes Tara on the stairway giving the advice that "He likes his tea stirred anti-clockwise." Steed looks out the window, he sees Emma get into a Bentley car driven by Peter who looks remarkably like Steed complete with suit, umbrella and bowler hat.

Also on this fantastic series for the first time we actually get to see the government official who gives Steed his orders. This character is known as "Mother" who is usually in a wheelchair. The headquarters for "Mother" is often in different places. Mute "Rhonda" later assists "Mother". There is also in one episode the character "Father" that is a blind older woman. Another episode has Tara away on holiday and "Lady Diana Forbes Blakeney" assists Steed.
This sixth series also becomes even more far-fetched and weird as it often does parody of other TV series and films such as mission impossible and the Birds.
Steed had a different car, this time a vintage yellow Bentley. "Mother" drives a silver Rolls Royce and Tara drives Lotus Europa.
The show was still popular in the UK and Europe but not so successful in America and funding was withdrawn. This meant that production in Britain could not continue and the series ended in 1969. So this iconic series that had been a part of the 1960s culture ended as the decade came to a close.

This series, like its two predecessors has some bizarre stories that are often far-fetched and full of humour. It is a show that you cannot take too seriously. You are not supposed to. It is just pure escapist fun. Life is often too serious and it's great to have an entertaining series full of colour and unusual stories to escape and relax.
There are some good bonus features, The individual DVD cases fit far too tight into the outer box and there are no subtitles. Also the picture and sound are very good. There has been some criticism of these DVD releases in terms of picture, sound and cuts, but I found nothing that bad about these released to truly worry about.
The series is in colour and these are some of the best episodes ever.

I held off buying this set untill 2 weeks ago, to see if AMAZON would replace their faulty stock with the correct sound pitch for the voices on disc 1...

sadly they havent and unfortunatly this defect is very very noticable with steed sounding like a squeaky Chipmunk its not good form for amazon to charge this much for a faulty set with the incorrect Version o discs
instead of the corrected version 2 the words V2 should be on the shiny side of the disc near the hole if you have the replacement version

Probably the most delightfully inventive TV series ever made exquisitely restored in vibrant colour.

A high point of European Culture.

But a word of warning to the new viewer.

This set is in production order. This means that the worst episodes (on the whole) come first. Halfway through a series of 26 episodes which was to have the change from Diana Rigg to Linda Thorson halfway through the producers, Clemens and Fennell were removed as the US backers thought it was too crazy. John Bryce, from the Honor Blackman days was brought back and he hired Linda Thorson.

The first two and a bit episodes filmed were so bad that Clemens and Fennell were brought back. They had very little time to rescue the series. They redesigned Tara as a brunette rather than a blonde and changed the tone of it all. They also brought Steeds vintage cars back - he had been given a maroon AC Cobra prototype. This became Tara's car in the early episodes. Tara originally had a Lotus Elan Mk2 but a few episodes in she was given Lotus Europa and Steed got a cream vintage Rolls. When these later cars arrive you know you are in the "proper" last series.

A couple of new episodes were produced by time was so tight that one episode with ablonde Tara was used and another heavily reshot. Diana Rigg was brought in to do handover (The Forget me Knot).

The last batch of Riggs and the first Thorsons were shown in the US as a single series.

The "real" series begins with "You'll Catch Your Death" and from that point the visual style has changed, the actual look of the colour is fresher with a different film stock and a series of madly inventive surreal episodes follows.

Knowing this you see that the standard is very high indeed and Linda Thorson quickly became a first class performer, ideal at the light comedy style. It's ver hard to imagine anyone doing it better, especially looking at the screen tests that are extras on this DVD set. She is highly underestimated. She's very different from Rigg but to me, even in 1969, she was much more entertaining.

The set is an absolute treasure. The sound problem mentioned on the sEries 5 reviews is only present on The Forget me Knot. It's probably not worth worrying about and the disc can be replaced if you are bothered.