CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 03/17/06

Emma-nently A-Peel-ing

by jason davis

The surreal icon of British '60s spy-fi celebrates its best-known leading lady in a superb set of 51 tales guaranteed to tickle the fancy of connoisseurs de magnifique. As Emma Peel redefines the female's role in television, The Avengers redefines itself, its genre, and pop culture in a decade whose apex is collected herein.

The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset (Collector's Edition)

Patrick Brawn, Ray Rigby, Dennis Spooner, Berkeley Mather, Brian Clemens, Malcolm Hulke, Philip Levene, John Lucarotti, Robert Banks Stewart, Tony Williamson, Colin Finbow, Roger Marshall, Martin Woodhouse, Alan Patillo, Richard Harris, Jeremy Scott, and Michael Winder

If a scientist goes missing or a secret escapes, there's only one man the British government summons to the case: the bowler-hatted, brolly-wagging John Steed (Patrick Macnee). Ever at his side, offering Judo flips and witty quips, is the inestimable Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), gifted amateur to Steed's seasoned professional. Together, the duo battles foreign invaders, homicidal androids, and crazed eccentrics with delusions of megalomania in the name of Queen and country.

Arriving in the fourth season of an ongoing series, the character of Emma Peel was in the awkward position of replacing the very popular Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), the first female TV protagonist to be given equal dramatic weight with her small screen co-star. Curiously, Gale had always been written as if the character was a man, a carry-over from the freshman season wherein Steed played a supporting role to Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry). The result was a female lead that absorbed the action of the script, allowing Steed's transformation from a government spook to a gentlemanly agent of Her Majesty's Secret Service to progress the show's evolution from its more banal roots into something altogether more interesting. Mrs. Peel would continue the trend by taking Gale's development one step further and feminizing a character who not only carried the action of each hour, but provided quirky commentary with an elegance befitting the changing style of the series.

While Peel re-created the dynamic between the show's stars, the series itself underwent a metamorphosis designed to simultaneously enhance its appeal to overseas (i.e. American) broadcasters while distancing itself from similar television fare of the era. The first season's live broadcasts had given way to "live on tape" videorecording for Cathy Gale's tenure, but the claustrophobic nature of early '60s UK studios was not widely embraced abroad. The resulting solution found the series' canvass greatly increased by the transition to film, an aspect that required a completely different mindset from the writers who now had the entire whole of the Home Counties as their stage. Along with the change of medium came a change of style often credited to producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell. No longer would the series be set in the everyday England of the era. Instead, "Avengerland," a depopulated genteel England inhabited by a cavalcade of eccentrics and madmen became the setting of the series. The surreal nature of the new aesthetic gave the show a unique identity that became as important to the style of telling stories as Peel's progressive female portrayal. Abandoned was any hint of the real world; the fourth and, even more so, the fifth seasons' tales took root in a world that seemed terribly English in America while feeling strangely surreal in its home country -- escapism for two countries embroiled in war and perpetually on the edge of nuclear disaster.

- "Lost" season one episodes
  "Hot Snow" first act
  "Girl on the Trapeze"
  "The Frighteners"
- Avenging the Avengers documentary
- "The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse" promotional short
- Alternate USA Chessboard Sequence
- The New Avengers episode
  "K is for Kill: The Tiger Awakes"

The Avengers provides a unique opportunity to chronicle the development of television across its sophomore decade of continuous transmission. The highlights of this set's supplemental package are the two-and-one-third surviving episodes from the series' first season, which was transmitted live throughout 1961. Presenting an almost alien concept of surgeon Keel investigating cases with a helping hand from surly secret agent Steed, the first season might as well be a different series. Still, the writing is tight and "Girl on the Trapeze" offers a slight hint of the surreal quality that would later influence the series. Avenging the Avengers is a 40-minute look back at the series that traces its development from spy series to surreal fantasy, with plenty of input from key creators like writer-producer Brian Clemens. The ABC promo film, "The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse," presents a three-minute condensation of the show's style as Steed and Peel verbally joust over a body, while the gratuitous and ill-conceived Mrs. Peel cameo in the New Avengers episode "K is for Kill" illustrates that just because a thing is possible, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

With two Emmy nominations for Best Actress to support its claim, The Avengers' presentation as women remains a hallmark of television's evolution in the mid-'60s. A&E's collection of Emma Peel episodes remain as fresh today as when they were originally broadcast, and the supplemental materials offer a unique insight into the development of a TV classic.

The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set (Collector's Edition)
A&E Home Entertainment
Not rated; ~52 hrs
$179.96

Buy it now

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Weekly, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank.

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