You Need to Watch the Classic British Spy Series, The Avengers!
Part One – My Review of the Mrs. Gale Era
My wife MG and I have lately been doing a review of the classic British television show, The Avengers. One or two episodes a night before bedtime, we started with the second season, the earliest season available on Amazon. The spy show, popular during its run from 1961 until 1969 in Britain, starred Patrick Macnee as the principle and accomplished spy man and, at first, a partner of the week format. The episode would often start with John Steed (Macnee) charming a useful, but amateur acquaintance of his into assisting him with his latest assigned spy project. These semi-regular characters included a male doctor and a female nightclub singer. There was also one particularly gifted woman who, more and more, Steed turns to for help, a Mrs. Gale. She is played by Honor Blackman, the actress I knew prior to this as Pussy Galore from the James Bond film, Goldfinger. By Season 3, Mrs. Gale has become the featured partner, and she is as good intellectually as she is in a judo fight.
Upon researching the origins of the show, I found that Season 1 of The Avengers started out as a partnership of two men, and that the main character was not John Steed but a Dr. Keel. These shows, not available for me to review, were apparently filmed in poor quality video tape and were lost or unavailable today. When the actor playing the doctor left the show unexpectedly, the owners decided to feature Steed as the principal character. When they added Mrs. Gale, they simply left in the dialogue meant for a male character. That made her very unique for television of the time.
If the first season was in poor quality, the next two weren’t much better, as these were also filmed in black and white videotape. The budget was obviously slim—no outdoor shots were possible, and the same music interludes are used over and over in every episode, one for intrigue or drama, and another for light-hearted fun, etc. The theme song was basic and unmemorable (I made a video clip of it for this posting, see above). And yet, the episodes are usually somewhat serious and interesting spy thriller stories. The fight scenes, including fist fights and judo, are many times unconvincing, and the plots are sometimes dated. And yet, part of the fun of watching these old shows is to transport yourself back to the time of the show. A bit of “dating” and suspension of disbelief are what are called for!
But truly, the best part of the show are the characters, Steed and Mrs Gale, and their interactions. Steed is always the impeccably dressed Englishman who actually looks out of place for the 1960s. Although he never actually wears spats, he would have fit in quite easily in the early 1900’s prior to WWI, always with a bowler on his head and a thin umbrella, which doubled as his weapon of choice, in his hand. He is as charming as his is cunning. He’s genuinely and joyfully in love with his job, if not life in general. He is the consummate gentleman, only sometimes making subtle attempts at flirting with Mrs. Gale.
If you have ever read any P.G. Wodehouse, you will understand me when I say that Steed would fit in as an exemplary member of the Drones Club, with merely his day job as a spy. In fact, his undercover alias is often as a no-account wastrel who feels that having a job would be too work-like, reflecting the attitude of many a fine Drones Club member.
Mrs. Gale, for her part, is full of a wry sense of humor, and always helps Steed, certainly saving him on several occasions, even if she is sometimes reluctant to join the particular mission (after all she isn’t actually a paid spy and has her own interesting life to live). The two clearly like each other, but are not at all romantically involved, which is a nice change of pace from how most male and female characters are presented in television and film.
Although she’s the gifted amateur, Mrs. Gale is the one who wears the spy uniform. When she goes into action, she’s usually dressed in a most-becoming leather cat suit. She’s called Mrs. Gale because she is a widow; her husband was killed while they were living in Africa. She has specialized knowledge on many topics including medical research. I can’t help think that she was an inspiration for both Dana Scully of The X-Files and Catwoman (at least in her choice of outfits) from Batman.
You can catch this series on Amazon and Freevee, starting with Season 2.
Look for my next post on The Avengers as I continue my review of the next and most famous phase of the television series.
Good article.