The Avengers

Get the real story behind the sixties cult series in this definitive TV documentary, never before released in the US.

Harry H Corbett plays a tycoon husband Harry Fender, who has built up the supermarket business from the time he was a delivery boy in his teens - he's now over forty and obsessed with developing the exotic plants in his hothouse. Diana Rigg plays his wife, Anita.

When The Avengers was bought by the ABC network in the United States in 1966, network executives were concerned that the audience might not take to the show if it didn't understand the characters, so they commissioned a short introductory sequence to fill in the perceived gap. The sequence was only ever broadcast in the USA, so when Canal+ remastered the episodes, it was omitted from the DVDs produced for the US market. A&E and Canal+ were surprised at the uproar this caused, so when the Emma Peel episodes were repackaged after the Ian Hendry episodes came to light, it was included as a feature on the disc.

Following the death of his fiancee Peggy at the hands of heroin smugglers, Dr David Keel vows to track down the killers and avenge his lost love. He is aided in his quest by a mysterious stranger, John Steed.

Steed has infiltrated a gang, led by Mason, which is implicated in Peggy's murder. Steed asks Keel to establish contact with a rival gang, and the doctor discovers that Vance's hitman, Spicer, has been sent to kill Steed.

Steed impersonates Riordan, a forger soon to be released from prison, and gains the trust of gang-leader Hooper. Things seem to be going well until Hooper's second-in-command, known as the Cardinal, announces that Riordan's girlfriend is outside waiting to see him.

A man is murdered whilst being interviewed on live television. one-Ten is sure that it is the work of the ruthless assassin Mr Teddy Bear, and he asks Cathy Gale to trap the man - by arranging for him to murder Steed.

At Marseilles airport, Steed and Cathy find the courier they were due to meet dead. His sample of new liquid rocket fuel has been taken. Facing an array of enemy agents, the duo must recover the flask of Propellant 23.

Borb, the president of the Balkan Republic, is visiting London to sign a military deal. His private secretary is killed by a masked wrestler, the Decapod. Steed is assigned to augment the president's bodyguards, but the wrestler continues to kill those close to Borb.

Thanks 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.

All 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.

Agent 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.

Four agents have vanished, looking for each other, in Little Bazeley-by-the-Sea. Steed and Emma go in for the man who went in for the man who.... and meet the odd local landlord, blacksmith and vicar. Are they more than they seem?

Has the late Dr Marlow's proposed radar-jamming system been tested against British defences? If so, the dead scientist seems to be doing it from his grave. And what's the connection with the local hospital's bizarre operations and a train-crazy philanthropist?

A vastly strong, bullet-proof killer homes in on and destroys several electronics executives. Could it have something to do with Dr. Armstrong's automated work place? Or with the activities of a nearby karate school...

The strange deaths of several astronomers, left bleached white, pose a problem. Whilst Steed joins the stargazers, Emma chases a bright light, and finds herself in the hot seat.

Four men involved in the production of ceramics suffer nervous breakdowns in everyday situations. All have recently turned down the opportunity to merge with the British Porcelain Company. Steed and Emma investigate the world of fear, with terrifying consequences.

Several notorious criminals have vanished into thin air. A whisper has been received that the escape chain starts in London, but, when agent Paxton follows it, he winds up dead in the Thames with a 300-year-old bullet in him.

Steed's colleague Sean Mortimer comes to see him in a very confused state. He knows there is a traitor in the organization but he has been drugged to put him in an amnesiac state and he can remember little else. Mrs. Peel investigates but she too falls prey to the drug as she and Sean are abducted by bikers. It is down to trainee agent 69, Tara King, to whom Steed is introduced by spymaster 'Mother' to help him save the day.

The sudden deaths of several of Steed's former army colleagues are revealed to be part of an elaborate engine of destruction, devised by a man court-martialled by them all. And now he is playing a deadly game.

Problems of a secret leakage from Cypher HQ and the disappearance of agent Jarret are first handed to rival Department MII2, and then to Mother's group. But why does everybody at Cypher HQ claim never to have seen Jarret and state that the only thing worthy of note that happened yesterday was that it rained?