The Avengers: Complete Series 2 and Surviving Episodes of Series 1
aka ... From Series 1/...from Series 1,
Various (TV),
1963
Star Review
Those who only remember TV’s The Avengers being a campy, colourful ride on the James Bond bandwagon of the sixties are often surprised to see that it originated from a grittier, monochrome star vehicle for the semi-forgotten Ian Hendry.
An unofficial follow-on to Hendry’s 1960 show Police Surgeon, the first series saw him teaming up with Patrick Macnee (very much in support here) to avenge the death of his wife. But when an ITV strike interrupted Series 1, Hendry, then an ambitious young actor with real potential for stardom, left the show to pursue a film career. Honor Blackman, of all people, was brought in to replace him, and the rest is history.
Containing all the surviving Hendry episodes (and even a surviving episode of Police Surgeon), as well as the complete, Blackman-starring second series and a wealth of extras, this 8-disc set is a Godsend to hardcore Avengers fans and will also be fascinating to anyone with an interest with those early, ‘missing believed wiped’ days of British TV drama.
All the surviving episodes from the first series of The Avengers plus the complete second series. The first series saw Ian Hendry teaming up with Patrick Macnee to avenge the death of his wife. Hendry then left to pursue a film career and was replaced in the second series by Honor Blackman, and the format with which everyone is familiar was born. An essential release of a classic piece of British TV.