Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman, Linda Thorson, Ian Hendry
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 30, 2001
• Run Time: 312 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005O7NC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,610 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #24 in	Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Series & Sequels > The Avengers
  #75 in	Movies & TV > Television > A&E Home Video > Series
  #91 in	Movies & TV > Television > British Television > British Cult Television

• For more information about "The Avengers '68 Set 2" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
Comprised secrets, strange disappearances and a parade of dead doctors are among the mysteries secret agent extraordinaire John Steed (Patrick Macnee) must solve in the final season of The Avengers. Providing able assistance is his new partner, the young and beautiful Tara King (Linda Thorson), fresh from her top-secret training with the Ministry. To add a little spice to the proceedings, she promptly falls madly in love with her debonair mentor. The sexy style, fantastic action and droll wit that made The Avengers an international phenomenon sparkle in this collection of six digitally restored and remastered episodes that originally aired in 1968-69.

The six episodes include:
All Done with Mirrors
Legacy of Death
Noon Doomsday
Look (stop me if you've heard this one)... but There Were These Two Fellers
Have Guns... Will Haggle
They Keep Killing Steed

Product Description
Studio: A&e Home Video Release Date: 01/29/2008 Run time: 312 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Final series makes it to DVD, April 23, 2003

By A Customer

The final season of the original Avengers finally comes to DVD & VHS in region one. "The Forget me knot," the debut episode of Ms. Tara King played by Linda Thorson, was released back in 1998, but only now is the entire series seeing the light of day - and it's been well worth the wait.

There are many of course who do not rate these last adventures featuring the debonair John Steed as Britain's top government agent as highly as what had gone before, and it's easy to see why. Steed's pairing originally with Mrs Gale (Honor Blackman) and later Mrs Peel (Diana Rigg) had been an excellent match for his skills. With Mrs Peel leaving the show, the producers, Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell followed suit and John Bryce was brought back to the programme, following his stint producing the early Mrs Gale episodes.

The first thing Bryce did was to cast his girlfriend, twenty one year old Canadian Linda Thorson as Steed's new assistant, Miss Tara King. In order to complete the delivery of episodes to the US market, production was fairly rushed, and what came out of it was deemed substandard. Bryce was sacked and Fennell and Clemens brought back to rescue the production. Clemens was particularly unhappy about Linda Thorson's role, but it was too late in the day to do anything about it. They set about filming the initial block of 8 episodes (extended to 9), rehashing two of the abandoned Bryce episodes, and bringing back Mrs Peel for the one-off story "The forget me knot" to introduce the new character of Tara (although this "debut" was actually filmed third). Once these episodes were ready, they set about producing the final batch of 24.

There is a very significant shift in the character of Tara King between these two production blocks as Thorson began to gain confidence in the part. Also added as a regular into the later stories is Steed & Tara's boss, "Mother," played by Patrick Newell. Thorson's inexperience and the naivety of the character are often cited as the reason the show was cancelled after these episodes were transmitted. Personally, I think the inclusion of the very annoying "Mother" to be a far more valid reason. But it's all a matter of taste.

The stories are included on the discs in the order they were first transmitted in the UK. I would strongly recommend viewing them in PRODUCTION ORDER (easy to track on any Avengers website). There are several reasons for this. It's easier to warm to Miss King as you follow her character development. It also makes more sense to understand her constant hair changes and costume. She started as a blonde, moved to a be-wigged brunette, and only in the latter 24 episodes did we see Thorson's own hair. We can also see how the actress started in "slimmed down mode" (on the orders of the TV station) but regained her lost weight as the series moved along. The character also started out as a complete "spy" trainee, but by the second production block, had become one of the most experienced agents in Mother's department. I also enjoyed seeing the rehashed sets from episode to episode too. All these nuances are lost by following the stories strictly in disc order, and indeed the characterisation of the leads is actually confusing if you simply watch the shows in disc order.

As for the discs themselves, sadly A&E have once again neglected to include any extras at all. All there is are a few still photos, although it has to be said that the menus are at least very well done. The picture quality is certainly very sharp, but there are definitely flaws due to sparkle and dirt. Sadly, "You'll catch your death" has been transferred incorrectly, and the picture strobes and jumps throughout. Clearly no-one at A&E was paying much attention to the remastering process.

Clemens believes this batch of episodes to be the best of the entire run of The Avengers. He has stated that everything came together right in terms of production and scripts. I can't say I agree entirely. They are certainly as enjoyable as anything else, but the total fantasy nature of the stories and the weakness of Tara and Mother characters combine to take the edge away when compared to the earlier Peel episodes. Regardless, it's all camp and wacky fun and I still highly recommend this collection to any fan of the series as there is plenty here to enjoy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars some of the better Tara episodes, September 10, 2005

By	Deborah MacGillivray "Author," (US & UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Each of Steed's ladies made their own mark. Honor Blackman's Kathy Gale, set the pace. Sleek sassy women, who were as smart as they were sexy. They held their own in a man's world and didn't need someone to take care of them. Blackman and Rigg were two very positive role models in a time when most women were victims, wives or secretaries on telly at the time. Blackman made less of an impact in US, because they were generally shown as a Summer Replacement, to keep people from seeing reruns. Since they were run on ABC, tried to be recognized as a big-boy network the old Black and White Gales were not widely scene.

Rigg came along and made Emma Peel a character that will go down in the hall of fame. She is as popular today, if not more so. So when she left--to do as Blackman did -- go on to be a Bond girl, Steed had to have another partner. Enter Tara King. She gorgeous full figure Canadian with eyes to do for. They tried to play on her more feminine side (and with horrid fashions). Seriously, the clothes designers for Tara needs shooting. For the most part, they couldn't design more dumpy look clothes. They stuffed her in a series of wigs - some very bad - so point one, she was fighting an uphill battle. Also, the scripts were not as sharp. Even so Tara is charming and a pleasure to watch.

Episodes include:


All Done with Mirrors
Legacy of Death
Noon Doomsday
Look (stop me if you've heard this one)... but There Were These Two Fellers
Have Guns... Will Haggle
They Keep Killing Steed (with a very blond Ian Ogilvy doing a guest spot)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stop me if you've heard this one ..., July 16, 2007

By	Chris Lines "not-Swiss Chris" (Zurich, Switzerland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this DVD because of the extremely silly episode with the long title. I remembered watching it in 1968, and being amazed at all the talent on show, and always had it as a favourite. It wears as well as you expect, which means I love the stagey sets, outrageous clothes (yes, we wore stuff like that), the cars. I'm a hard-core Emma Peel fan, but Tara, while not being quite so forceful nor as sexy, has her own appeal. The other episodes are like new to me - maybe I didn't see them back then, but I was such a regular every Saturday evening ... memory fades.