Watch Video of Dame Diana Rigg's BFI Avengers Q&A

As we first heard back in September, the greatest female spy star of all time, Dame Diana Rigg (star of The Avengers and On Her Majesty's Secret Service) did a Q&A following a screening of a classic Avengers episode at the British Film Institute last week. I was so disappointed not to be able to fly to London for that event, but now BFI has been kind enough to put video of that Q&A (moderated by BFI curator Dick Fiddy) up on their website! She is completely open, candidly discussing a number of aspects of The Avengers and her career at large. Wearing a scarf that evokes the door to Emma Peel's flat, Rigg happily discusses a number of topics including her co-star, the late, great Patrick Macnee ("He was a deeply generous, dear, dear man, and I grieve his passing"), her predecessor Honor Blackman ("who's wonderful"), her character Emma Peel ("Dear God, was I lucky to get a chance to play this woman!"), the leather catsuits ("They were deeply uncomfortable, and hot, and sticky"), the cars ("they were very hard to drive!"), her delight at the remastering of the episodes on DVD ("I've been restored!"), the directors ("I was working with these brilliant men, and I didn't know it, and that is a great regret of mine, because I would have paid them homage had I known"), Emma's place in feminism ("I truly do think that she was a very, very potent influence in women claiming their place in the world"), Theater of Blood ("that film was such fun!"), Avengers writers ("Brian Clemens was brilliant"), On Her Majesty's Secret Service ("they had pots of money to spend on the Bond, which we didn't on The Avengers"), and George Lazenby ("George was not bad! He was not. He was just boring off [camera]!"). She also touches on The Sentimental Agent, "The Hothouse" (which she'd never seen), Euripides, Ian Hendry, Guy Hamilton, Vincent Price, Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who, and even Friends. This video is just so must-watch you shouldn't even still be on this page. Go watch it! Now! It's great!

Watched it? Great! Now for more on that auspicious day at BFI, check out a fan's perspective on meeting an icon at Home Arty Home, and then check out a collection of Avengers-inspired pop art that was on display at the event at Art & Hue. Great stuff! (Thanks to Art & Hue for the links.)

Londoners: Watch The Avengers on the Big Screen With Diana Rigg in Person

Lucky Londoners will be able to enjoy the event of a lifetime next month when Dame Diana Rigg herself does an on-stage Q&A following a screening of the classic Avengers episode "The House That Jack Built." It's one of a pair of absolute classic Emma Peel episodes screening on October 25 at BFI Southbank. You'd be hard pressed to come up with a better Emma double feature, in fact, than the monochrome "House That Jack Built" and the color "Return of the Cybernauts," which guest starred the great Peter Cushing. "Cybernauts" will be accompanied by "a compilation of oddities and rarities from the world of Emma Peel and The Avengers." Avengers fans will be aware that Dame Diana rarely speaks about her seminal work on the classic Sixties spy series, and even more rarely participates in any events pertaining to it. So this is a truly unmissable opportunity... and I've never been so jealous of my London friends! Even if you've never seen the show (though I can't imagine why not!), do yourself a favor and get tickets for this event. The greatest female spy star ever live on stage, and a screening of two of the greatest episodes of the greatest spy series of all time? How can you pass it up? Well, unfortunately I'll have to, as I don't have the means to get to London just now. But for those who do, tickets go on sale on October 6 at 11:30am for £16. What better way to celebrate the lives of the two luminaries of that series we've lost this year, Brian Clemens and Patrick Macnee?

Big Finish to Produce New Steed and Mrs. Peel Audio Dramas; Classic Sixties Avengers Comics to be Reprinted

For the past two years, UK company Big Finish has been producing top-notch, full cast audio dramas (what we might have once called radio shows) recreating the lost episodes from the almost entirely missing first season of The Avengers. These episodes predate any of gentleman secret agent John Steed's more famous female partners like Cathy Gale or Emma Peel, and find him teamed with a male amateur instead—Dr. David Keel. On TV Dr. Keel was played by Ian Hendry, and Steed was of course played by the incredible Patrick Macnee. In the Big Finish audio dramas, Anthony Howell (Foyle's War) and Julian Wadham (Double Identity) step into those respective roles and do so as perfectly as any fan could hope for. Steed in particular is at once instantly recognizable as Macnee's Steed, and yet at the same time very much Wadham's. It's a brilliant interpretation.

Last month the company (who made their name producing quality Doctor Who audio adventures) announced the next phase of their Avengers license. Alongside the continuing Lost Episodes line of recreated first season episodes, they will introduce Steed's most famous partner, Mrs. Emma Peel (originated on the series by the frankly inimitable Diana Rigg). Wadham will continue to play Steed, and the company are currently searching for an actress to play Emma. Presumably it has not escaped their attention that the perfect choice would be Dame Diana's daughter, Rachel Sterling (The Game)! She actually sounds quite a lot like her mother while being a supremely talented actress in her own right, who would no doubt bring the same blend of new and old to the role that Wadham does with Steed. I suppose it's possible that Ms. Sterling might not wish to step into her mother's most famous role, but she's shown no qualms in the past about aligning her career with Rigg's. She played Rigg's role from the film in a stage version of Theater of Blood, and appeared alongside her mother in familial roles on a recent episode of Doctor Who. Yes, Rachel Sterling would be the perfect choice to revive Emma Peel in new audio dramas! I hope it happens.

But what are these dramas based on, if all the Emma Peel era episodes thankfully survive? In an interesting choice, Big Finish will adapt them from the Avengers comics that ran in the UK children's magazine Diana (not named after Rigg) from 1966-67. That's... an interesting choice. The Diana comics are highly sought after and well worth reading, but that's for their gorgeous artwork (by Emilio Frejo), not for their stories. The storylines tended to be rather sophomoric, relying on the cliches of kiddie comics of the era rather than the sophisticated wit of the TV series. (One adventure saw Steed and Emma protecting England from a new wave of Viking invasions, a theme that seemed to weigh heavily on the minds of British children in the Sixties. That plot was, if you can believe it, used twice in Avengers comics, and also in comics based on other popular spy shows of the decade!) Since the artwork can obviously not be translated into an audio drama, the story is the aspect that will carry over. Luckily, each of the eight Diana storylines ran for only six pages, spread out over the course of three issues. So Big Finish's writers will have plenty of room for embellishment and improvement in the course of adapting them into hour-long audio dramas! The advantage the comics had over the TV show was that they weren't restricted by budget, and so we saw things like ski chases and helicopter crashes that simply wouldn't have worked on the series. The best place to learn more about these comics, including complete synopses of each one, is on the wonderful website The Avengers Illustrated. You can even read my reviews (as a contributor, before I had my own spy blog) on the first two Diana stories there! (My review of Story 1, and Story 2. And for fun, but with no bearing on this news story, you can also read my reviews of some New Avengers comics here.) You can also see examples of Frejo's beautiful artwork.

Which brings me to the other exciting aspect of this venture. In addition to putting out audio dramas based on the comics, Big Finish will also publish a graphic novel collecting all of those rare and sought after Diana comics for the first time ever! This is huge news in its own right. None of the Sixties Avengers comics have ever been reprinted before. (Though Boom! Studios have done a great job of collecting the 90s Steed and Mrs. Peel comics by Grant Morrison along with several volumes of their own current take on the characters.) It will be great to have all that beautiful Frejo Avengers artwork bound together in a single bookshelf volume! (I wonder if it would be possible for Big Finish to secure the rights to the terrific black and white comic strip "The Growing Up of Emma Peel," which ran in the comics anthology June and followed the adventures of 14-year-old Emma Knight long before she ever married pilot Peter Peel or met the mysterious John Steed? It would make a fantastic bonus feature in such a collection!)

Now for the bad news: all of this is a long way off. A whole year away in fact. According to Big Finish's website, the eight episodes of The Avengers - Steed and Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations will be released over two box sets in April and November of 2016, and the graphic novel will also be out that November. All of them can currently be pre-ordered in various configurations, as either digital downloads or lavish CD box sets. There are also cost-saving deals on various bundles. (And you always save money by pre-ordering with Big Finish.) In the meantime, though, be sure to pick up the continuing releases of The Avengers; The Lost Episodes! Volume 4 is due this July.

As previously reported, Big Finish also have new audio dramas based on The Prisoner in the pipeline. I hope they continue to add other classic British spy and adventure series from the Sixties to their roster! It would be great to hear new adventures of Jason King or Man in a Suitcase... though what I'd like most of all would be to hear audio adaptations of the lost episodes of Adam Adamant Lives! and Callan.

A big thanks to Phil for the tip on this exciting news!

The Avengers Return to Comics With New Boom! Series

Boom! Studios may have wrapped up their ongoing Steed and Mrs. Peel comic, based on the greatest spy series ever The Avengers, but that doesn't mean they're done with the classic characters! They've just solicited a new six-issue Avengers miniseries, Steed and Mrs. Peel: We're Needed, written by Ian Edginton and drawn by Marco Cosentino. I'm very excited to hear this, because Edginton is one of my favorite comics writers. He's shown that he can be very faithful to source material in his four excellent Sherlock Holmes adaptations (and one equally excellent John Carter one) with I.N.J. Culbard. (I'm sure Cosentino will be great, but I can't help wishing Culbard were illustrating this one too.) Let's hope he brings that same fidelity to The Avengers. It sounds like he will from this interview on Bleeding Cool, in which he says that he grew up with The Avengers and also name-checks his favorite ITC shows. According to the plot description in Boom!'s solicitation, it sounds like Edginton's Steed and Mrs. Peel will also reference one of those ITC series pretty directly: "When an old associate of John Steed is killed, a grand conspiracy is suspected. This will take Steed and Peel to a strange village, where one of the spies finds themself a prisoner." The Avengers originally sent up The Prisoner and his Village in the classic Tara King episode "Wish You Were Here," but I look forward to reading Edginton's take. Steed and Mrs. Peel: We're Needed #1 is solicited in the current (May) Previews for a July release, so place a pre-order now at your local comic book shop.

I've been a fan of all of Boom!'s Steed and Mrs. Peel comics so far (as well as their reprint of the 90s Grant Morrison miniseries, "The Golden Game"), so if you're a fan of the show and you've missed any, check out the collected editions. (Obviously the name "The Avengers" couldn't be used for comics since Stan Lee blatantly stole it for that other comic back in the Sixties!)

Order Steed and Mrs. Peel: The Golden Game here.
Order Steed and Mrs. Peel Volume 1 here.
Order Steed and Mrs. Peel Volume 2 here.
Order Steed and Mrs. Peel Volume 3 here.

Read my review of Steed and Mrs. Peel #0 here.
Read my interview with Steed and Mrs. Peel writer Caleb Monroe here.

The Avengers Return to DVD in America!

Here's the news American spy fans have been longing to hear for years! After way too long out of print (and commanding super-steep prices in the second-hand market), the greatest spy show ever, The Avengers, is returning to DVD in Region 1. Well, some of it anyway. On October 8, A&E will reissue their Complete Emma Peel Megaset. While the 16 discs themselves appear to be identical to the previous incarnation of this set, the packaging is substantially slimmer (a major plus on any shelf buckling under the weight of too many spy shows) and the retail price substantially more affordable. According to TV Shows On DVD, the new release containing all 51 Avengers episodes featuring Diana Rigg will cost just $49.98. (The out of print edition currently goes for as much as ten times that price!) So that's the good news, and it's very good news indeed. Now for the inevitable gripes.

I had hoped that when The Avengers was eventually re-released Stateside, American fans might be treated to the same stellar remastered picture and fantastic extras that graced Optimum's Region 2 UK releases (though ideally without all the glitches that plagued those sets). While this set does indeed co-opt Optimum's attractive cover scheme (albeit slightly altered), it doesn't appear to port over the wonderful bonus features. Since the article makes no mention of bonus content at all, I suppose it's possible that I could be wrong (and in this case I'd be delighted to be proven so!), but basic math indicates otherwise. The two Optimum Emma Peel sets added up to a total of 14 discs (and didn't include Rigg's swan song, "The Forget Me Knot," which appeared on the R2 Tara King set), and this A&E set promises 16 discs, the same as were in the previous R1 Emma Peel Megaset. So I'd say it's likely that this is simply a repackaging of that collection. Still, it's excellent news that any seasons of The Avengers will be back in print in the USA! Hopefully this release will sell well and pave the way for a Complete Cathy Gale Megaset (incorporating what survives of the earlier material as well) and a Complete Tara King Collection and eventually a Complete New Avengers Megaset... and maybe even some Blu-rays down the road. (A&E reissued the same DVD set of The Prisoner in new packaging when they put out the feature-laden Blu-rays of that show, but in that case Network had already paved the high-def path in Britain.) Fingers crossed, anyway!

Comic Book Review: Steed and Mrs. Peel #0

Like a lot of spy fans, I’ve been waiting a loooong time for this. For the first time since 1998, we’ve got a new, officially authorized Avengers story! Not those title-stealing pretenders who did some work for S.H.I.E.L.D. this past summer; the real Avengers—the TV Avengers. That’s right, John Steed and Emma Peel. My favorite TV spies ever. But just because we’ve got a new Avengers story on our hands, in convenient comic book form, doesn’t guarantee it will be any good, of course. Not by a long shot. (See: 1998.) So it was with trembling hands that I opened this Boom! comic by Mark Waid and Steve Bryant. Would the creators do justice to the wonderful, inimitable characters immortalized by Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg? I’m elated to report that the answer is an unequivocal yes!

Steed and Mrs. Peel #0 is good. It’s very good, in fact. It’s better than the 90s comic of the same name written by Grant Morrison (recently reprinted by Boom!)—and that was a lot of fun itself. But Mark Waid gets the tone of the show and the specific crackle of the best Brian Clemens or Philip Levene banter between Steed and Emma. The cadence of the dialogue feels right in a way that few tie-in writers have ever really nailed before.

As far as I’m concerned, the banter is the number one thing to get right in telling a good Avengers tale, but the story matters, too, of course. This special zero issue is a self-contained one, and Waid manages to cram a proper Avengers episode (or mini-episode, at least) into these 22 pages. “The Dead Future” is a direct sequel to the famous (or infamous) TV episode “A Touch of Brimstone” (though, while it rewards a familiarity with the episode, none is required). The Hellfire Club is back in action, but has changed its focus from the past to the future—or at least a 1960s vision of what the future might look like. In the teaser that strikes the correct balance of stylish spy and impossible sci-fi, a doomed agent is aged beyond his years and “woken up” in the far-flung year 2000. Through trickery, a window displays flying cars and a Metropolis-like cityscape. The club members use this scenario to pick the agent’s mind and then eliminate him. It’s a premise right out of Sixties television, reminiscent to some extent not only of the Avengers episode “Escape in Time” (one of my favorites), but also numerous Mission: Impossible set-ups.

From the teaser, following the pattern of the color Emma Peel episodes, we cut to a brief “Mrs. Peel, we’re needed” sequence, and it was here that I knew I was completely on board with this take. The gimmick by which Steed contacts Emma (which I won’t divulge) is not one the show ever used—but very easily could have been. In a comic, though, this particular gag functions on a meta level that wouldn’t have come across on TV. (And it also manages to sneak in a subtle reference to “The Winged Avenger.”) From there, Steed leads Mrs. Peel to the site of an aged corpse in the clothes of one of their agents—and it’s not the first time they’ve seen this scenario.

The story that follows feels not only like a loving tribute to the TV episodes, but also to the Avengers TVcomics of the time. At one point, Steed battles a bearded “Father Time” wielding a scythe, which is exactly the sort of imagery that popped up in those two-tone comic strips in the Avengers annuals! But the writing here, as I already mentioned, is infinitely superior to most of those stories. 

The artwork is fantastic on a level of channeling Sixties pop art pop culture (in its best moments recalling the work of Mike Allred), but less successful in depicting the series’ stars. I’m guessing that Boom! were unable to clear likeness rights for the actors, because these Avengers look very little like Diana Rigg and (especially) Patrick Macnee. That’s a shame, because a sequence in which Steed is “aged” into his 80s would have been a great opportunity to depict Macnee as he looks today! (One panel comes close.) It also seems unfair that Marvel was able to get away with using Peter Wyngarde’s likeness in their X-Men comics that "borrowed" TheAvengers’ Hellfire Club (as a character named “Jason Wyngarde,” no less), but here in an official Avengers tie-in, a brief flashback of has “Brimstone” character, Cartney, bears little resemblance. Cartney is also at the center of my only real nerdy nitpick about this book, too, and that’s that no character played by Peter Wyngarde would ever “favor rather a D-class fragrance,” as described here! But Mark Waid was prepared for my gripe, and has Emma quickly explain, “Oh, no pinchpenny he. But, it must be stressed, the honourable John Cleverly Cartney did incline sharply toward the vulgar…” And perhaps that can be said of Wyngarde. Okay, Waid, you’re off the hook on that one.

I enjoyed the Hellfire out of Steed and Mrs. Peel #0 (sorry; I couldn't resist!), and heartily recommend it to all Avengers fans. It quenches a thirst long overdue of satisfying like a good champagne. (Another minor nitpick would be that there wasn’t quite enough of that signature beverage consumed in this issue, but again my churlish gripery was quickly abated… this time by the fact that bubbly appears to be Emma’s concession of choice in a movie theater! Nice touch.) I hope it sells well and spawns a long series that lives up to the high benchmark set here.

Follow the link here to read my reviews of some past Avengers comics.

NOTE: If the variant covers depicted here seem odd to Avengers fans, they won't to comic book fans. They're homages to classic X-Men covers from the era when that comic was homaging The Avengers, thus completing the circle of homage.

Diana Rigg to Guest Star on Doctor Who

BBC reports (via AICN) that Emma Peel herself, uber-spy star Dame Diana Rigg (also the greatest Bond Girl of all time), will appear alongside her daughter, Rachel Sterling (Tipping the Velvet) on an upcoming episode of Doctor Who penned by none other than Mark Gatiss! Gatiss is not only the author of the fantastic Lucifer Box spy send-ups The Vesuvius Club and The Devil in Amber (as well as the less successful third novel in the trilogy, Black Butterfly), but also an avowed fan of of both James Bond and Sixties spy television. (He's all over the extras on the DVD release of BBC's answer to The Avengers, Adam Adamant Lives!, for instance.) I have little doubt that he'll be able to resist working in a sly reference or two to Rigg's famed spy roles. (He even references Charles Helfenstein's excellent book The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service on an audio commentary for the latest season of Sherlock, the brilliant modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes that he co-created with current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.) Apparently the pair will play a mother and daughter on the show, too. (I was kind of hoping they'd play older and younger versions of the same character on a time travel show. Oh well.) Rigg's Avengers predecessor Honor Blackman memorably appeared in the epic 1986 Doctor Who serial "The Trial of a Time Lord."

The Real Avengers Return in All-New Comics!

Those other Avengers (and they're good ones, too... just not the real ones!) might be getting all the media attention right now, but Boom! Studios is taking advantage of that attention to reintroduce comics readers to the original Avengers, John Steed and Emma Peel, heroes of the fantastic, classic Sixties spy series during its most popular incarnation. When Boom! began reprinting Grant Morrison's Steed and Mrs. Peel comic from the early 90s, I hoped aloud that those reprints might lead into a series of new Avengers comic books. (Well, not New Avengers comics... not yet, anyway; for now all I'm hoping for is new comics about the old Avengers! Then maybe Purdy and Gambit down the road.) Well, it looks like that's happening! And with some major talent on board. Boom! released this teaser image this morning, and a product listing at Midtown Comics (via Bleeding Cool) fills in the details.

As in the 90s, the title is again Steed and Mrs. Peel so as to avoid confusion with Marvel's product. (Even though the TV Avengers came first.) That information alone tells us something: Steed's partner will apparently be Emma Peel rather than Cathy Gale, Tara King, Venus Smith or someone else. (Of course it doesn't rule out the possibility of other partners appearing as well, as they did in the Morrison run.) And (here's the big news!) the listing confirms that this Steed and Mrs. Peel is an ongoing series, not just a mini! As the teaser graphic reveals, the writer is comics superstar Mark Waid, who previously gave Steed and Emma a one-panel guest appearance in his Kingdom Come epic for DC. (Or perhaps artist Alex Ross was responsible for that unauthorized cameo.) The Avengers TV show inspired more than one title in the Marvel universe. As I've blogged about before, the X-Men's nemesis the Hellfire Club and its White Queen, Emma Frost (as well as founder Jason Wyngarde) all come from a particularly memorable Avengers episode called "The Queen of Sin." (See visual comparisons here.) Teased in the graphic and confirmed in the listing, the original version of the Hellfire Club will feature prominently in Waid's first issue, a #0 special. It's unclear from the copy if this is a direct adaptation of the TV episode or a sequel, but I would bet the latter. What the copy does make clear is that the new series takes place "in the continuity of the original TV series," so presumably that means a Sixties setting. Steve Bryant (Athena Voltaire) will handle art chorse, while Joseph Michael Linser provides a variant cover. Additionally, Boom! will collect the 90s Grant Morrison series in a trade paperback this December.

Wow! An ongoing Avengers comic! I can't wait. What a great day today is for spy fans.

Follow this link to read my opinions of some previous Avengers comics.

The Avengers' Black Widow Gets Her Own Comic--Inspired by the REAL Avengers' Emma Peel!

Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of the spies in the Marvel Comics Universe, including Nick Fury and the Black Widow. I'm slightly less of a fan of the spies in the Marvel movie universe, but I'm still excited to see Samuel L. Jackson's Fury and Scarlett Johannson's Widow (both veterans of Iron Man 2, as well as other Marvel movies in Jackson's case), along with their fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Coulson (an original movie character played by Clark Gregg; I still wish they'd just named him Jasper Sitwell, after the comics character) and Hawkeye (played by utility spy franchise fill-in Jeremy Renner, who made his debut as the character in a cameo in last year's Thor) in this summer's Joss Whedon-directed superhero tentpole The Avengers. (I'm not a fan, however, of Marvel's use of the title The Avengers, which to me belongs to John Steed and his various cohorts, who pre-date the Stan Lee comic by two years.) Now, according to Newsarama, the worlds of film and comic book will temporarily merge in a new comics miniseries with a title almost as awkward as my parenthetical-laden mega-sentence above: Marvel's The Avengers: Black Widow Strikes. The three-issue series by Fred Van Lente and various artists will reveal the movie Black Widow's espionage exploits that happened between Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. Coulson and the movie version of Nick Fury (who's based on the Ultimate Universe version of the character, who was actually modelled on Jackson long before he ever signed on to play the role) will also make appearances. But the reason I'm really excited about this series is because Van Lente name-checks the actress who played my very favorite catsuited female superspy, Emma Peel from the real Avengers of Sixties TV! "I am a huge espionage nut," the writer tells Newsarama. "My obsession with kick-ass spy females dates back to my sixth grade crush on Diana Rigg." An Emma Peel obsession is definitely the right background to writing a good Black Widow adventure.

Oddly, this comic will first be serialized in the Russian edition of Maxim, and will consequently be a bit more risque than film tie-in comics tend to be. The Marvel miniseries version then hits stores this May, the same month that The Avengers opens on screens across the country.

For fans interested in getting to know the real Black Widow of Marvel Comics, there are three great hardcover collections that make an excellent introduction: Sting of the Widow, Black Widow: Web of Intrigue (featuring a terrific Paul Gulacy-illustrated story that "guest stars" Michael Caine) and Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider (which contains stories written by Queen & Country's Greg Rucka).

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Avengers Bonus Disc!

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Avengers Bonus Disc!

When Optimum's The Complete Avengers: 50th Anniversary Edition Region 2 DVD collection came out in the UK last May, I lamented buying the company's individual series releases, because only the 39-disc complete set included an exclusive extra disc of bonus features. And among those features were my own personal Holy Grails of Avengers fandom, the weird 8mm short films Diana Rigg made following her color season, The Golden Schlussel and The Mini-Killers. For some reason (well, supposedly because she was paid as much as she eaned for all of On Her Majesty's Secret Service!), she agreed to star as a very Emma Peel-like character in what amounted to expensive German and Spanish-made fan films. (A friend alerted me that another such project, Das Diadem, was included as an Easter Egg with the Series 5 DVDs, though–frustratingly–I have yet to discover it.) Now, happily, it's been reported on The Avengers International Fan Forum that the bonus disc will be made available on its own next month! So fans who bought the individual seasons (myself included) won't miss out after all. (A&E did something similar years ago when they included an extra bonus disc in their Region 1 Complete Emma Peel Megaset.) Retail is £11.99, which seems a tad steep for a disc of ultimately rather skimpy bonus material (compared to that which is already available on the season sets, anyway)... but who am I kidding? I'd probably shell out as much for a bootleg of the Diana Rigg shorts on Ebay anyway! I'm just so glad they're making this disc available on its own that I won't complain at all. The Avengers: Special Features Disc, a Region 2 PAL release, is available to pre-order at Amazon.co.uk. Here's the whole list of the features found on the disc, which span all six seasons of the seminal spy series (including, happily, two more of those cool episode reconstructions of lost first season episodes!):

• The Golden Schlussel Rare short film starring Diana Rigg
• The Mini-Killers – 4 Part mini-series starring Diana Rigg
• Director Laurence Bourne interview
• "Wish You Were Here" – Top Ten Avengers locations featurette
• "Death At Bargain Prices" – Alternate end tag
• Episode reconstruction – "Hot Snow"
• Episode reconstruction – "Toy Trap"
• Newly discovered Series 5 archival trailer
• German cinema trailer

Upcoming Spy DVDs From MGM's Limited Edition Collection

Including Works From Broccoli and Saltzman, Diana Rigg, Edward Woodward, Richard Johnson and More!

The next monthly wave of titles from MGM's MOD program, the Limited Edition Collection, includes some real spy gems!  Most exciting is the spy movie that Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman collaborated on between Dr. No and From Russia With Love: 1963's Call Me Bwana, starring Bob Hope and Anita Ekberg. Long unavailable on home video and never before released in widescreen (though it's run that way on TCM), this title is probably best known to Bond fans for the in-joke in Sean Connery's second 007 outing. Bond's ally Kerim Bey uses 007's Q-issued sniper rifle to shoot the Bulgarian KGB stooge Krilencu as he attempts to escape his safe house through a secret exit in the mouth of Anita Ekberg on a poster for Call Me Bwana painted on the side of his building. (In Ian Fleming's novel, it was Marilyn Monroe.)  But Bwana is notable for more than that; it's a spy movie in its own right.  When an unmanned American space capsule crash-lands in the African veldt, the CIA sends self-professed African expert Bob Hope (The Road to Hong Kong) to retrieve it.  The other side sends beautiful secret agent Anita Ekberg (The Cobra) and scientist Lionel Jeffries (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and soon all the interested parties find themselves on safari together.  In typical Bob Hope fashion, hilarity ensues.  Much of the Bond team established on Dr. No remains in place here, including editor Peter Hunt, production designer Syd Cain, composer Monty Norman, D.P. Ted Moore, title designer Maurice Binder and scribe Johanna Harwood.

The 1969 Eurospy movie The File of the Golden Goose doesn't quite live up to the promise of its all-star cast (which includes Edward Woodward, Charles Grey, Yul Brynner, Walter Gotell, Ivor Dean, John Barrie and Adrienne Corri), but it's still a welcome release on DVD. American Secret Service agent Brynner is sent to England where he teams up with Scotland Yard detective Woodward to go undercover to bust a brutal counterfeit gang known as the Golden Goose. All the double-crossing expected of the spy genre ensues, but the stodgy movie feels more like a generic Forties or Fifties noir (thanks in part to some unnecessary narration), belying its origins as a remake of 1947's T-Men. Director Sam Wanamaker made a much better Eurospy movie the following year, The Executioner, which has already been issued on MOD from Columbia.

Don Sharp's 1975 political thriller Hennessy is a real surprise! Based on a story conceived by Deadlier Than the Male star Richard Johnson, its contriversial subject matter ensured an extremely limited release in Seventies Britain, and it's never been very widely available since.  Fans have long demanded it on DVD, but probably never thought it would actually happen. Rod Steiger plays Hennessy, a peaceful Irishman driven to extremism after his wife and child are killed during violence in Belfast. As retribution he plots to assassinate the Queen of England by bombing the British Parliament when the Royal Family is in attendance. Johnson plays the Special Branch operative out to stop him, and Eric Porter plays an IRA thug out to stop him as well, out of fear of British reprisals in Ireland for such a horrific act. Trevor Howard, Lee Remick, Patrick Stewart and Queen Elizabeth II herself (via stock footage) co-star.

Diana Rigg fans will be pleased to note that this wave of titles also includes Peter Hall's 1968 version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Rigg (between The Avengers and Bond) as Helena. Judi Dench, decades prior to playing M, also appears, as Titania.  Impossibly young versions of Ian Holm (Game Set Match), Helen Mirren (RED), Michael Jayston (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Barbara Jefford (who lent her voice to Daniella Bianchi's Tatiana Romanova in From Russia With Love) round out the dream cast.

Though there are no pre-order links up yet, all of these titles will be available soon from online outlets like Amazon and Screen Archives Entertainment.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week and Last: Elke, Avengers, Bad Hair and Deceptive Bionic Affairs

Wow, this is one of those weeks with just a ton of new spy DVDs! That's why it's taken me an extra day to compile this post. As always, please consider supporting this site by buying these titles from the Amazon links here if they catch your fancy.

Covert Affairs
On a huge day for spy releases, USA's summer hit Covert Affairs (which made my own list of the best new spy TV shows of 2010) is probably the biggest domestic release. Covert Affairs (review here) stars Piper Perabo as freshman CIA officer Annie Walker. While there are a few of the soap opera elements that have haunted the genre since Alias, Covert Affairs is mainly a spy show as workplace dramady. I've always been a fan of the "desk" side of the spy drama, and I think Covert Affairs handles the office politics better than any other US spy series I can think of. (Certainly better than the melodramatic histrionics of CTU!) Of course, this is still a USA show, which means it's got its share of in-the-field excitement as well. It's a solid, fairly believable, character-driven espionage series that should appeal to all fans of the genre. If you missed it on TV, give it a try on DVD. Extras include commentaries on three episodes featuring stars Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham, executive producers Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) and David Bartis and show creators Matt Corman and Chris Ord, deleted scenes, a gag reel, an exclusive tour of the Covert Affairs set, featurettes ("Welcome to The Farm," "Blind Insight") and a descriptive narration of the visual elements of the series for visually impaired viewers. Covert Affairs: Season One, a 3-disc set, retails for $59.98, but can currently be ordered from Amazon for nearly half that. 

Circles of Deceit

From Acorn comes another obscure British spy series—this one from the Nineties. Circles of Deceit stars ITV mainstay Dennis Waterman (The Sweeny, Minder) and consists of four TV movies made in 1995 and '96: Circle of Deceit, Dark Secret, Kalon and Sleeping Dogs. Waterman plays a former special-forces operative who remains on call for MI5. His assignments find him taking on Irish terrorists, tracking down professional assassins, and pitting his wits against ruthless drug dealers. But, true to the genre, some of his deadliest adversaries are his devious bosses who keep him on a need-to-know basis, forcing him to rely on his instincts and his training in a world of betrayal, danger, and deceit. Guest stars include Derek Jacobi, John Hannah, Peter Vaughan and Leo McKern (The Prisoner). Retail for the 2-disc set is $49.99, but naturally Amazon's got it for substantially less.

The Prize
Four years ago it was rumored to be part of a Warner Paul Newman Collection on DVD, but that never materialized.  Two years ago, Warner reps said it was still in the works.  But it still didn't appear. Now, The Prize is finally available... but on MOD instead of DVD, from The Warner Archive. It's still fully remastered though. Writer Ernest Lehman shamelessly rips off his own script for North By Northwest in this lightweight Stockholm-set thriller starring Paul Newman, Elke Sommer and Edward G. Robinson. Instead of a biplane, Paul Newman outruns a... truck. (Um, yeah. Not quite as exciting.) Instead of rudely interrupting an auction to evade the baddies by getting himself arrested, he rudely interrupts a nudist meeting for the same reason. It’s not a great movie like Hitchcock's, but it's a damn good imitation and it's seriously entertaining. And, best of all, it’s got Elke... and that’s all that really matters.  A day with another Elke Sommer spy movie on DVD is a good day.

The Bionic Woman: Season Two
Universal follows up last fall's release of Season 1 of the cult classic 70s show with The Bionic Woman: Season 2. Lindsay Wagner stars as Jamie Sommers, bionic agent of the super-secret OSI (Office of Scientific Investigations) who undertakes increasingly dangerous covert missions at the behest of her boss, Oscar Goldman. Unlike the truncated first season, the second season includes a full 24 episodes. Better still, it also includes two crossover episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man so you've got the complete package! Retail is $39.98; Amazon's got it now for $26.99.

The Complete Avengers
Last week saw the UK release of Optimum's The Complete Avengers: 50th Anniversary Edition. This is the big one. This set assembles all five sets (Seasons 2-6 as well as the few surviving first season episodes) of special features-laden, remastered Avengers DVDs that Optimum put out over the past two years. The picture on these discs looks better than you've ever seen it before, but the individual releases were plagued with technical issues. Fortunately, this complete set contains fixed versions of all the discs, minus all the flaws. So if you've been holding out, well, then you're in luck. Buy now. If you've been buying all the individual releases, well, the bad news isn't over yet. You see, the best feature of this massive, 39-disc set is an exclusive bonus DVD containing the Holy Grail(s) of Avengers curiosities (well, my own Holy Grails, at least, ever since I learned of their existence 13 years ago): the 8mm short films Diana Rigg made following her color series, Das Diadem (The Golden Schlusse) and Mini Killers. For reasons known only to her, Rigg agreed to star as a very Emma Peel-like character in these silent fan films made by wealthy German and Spanish amateur auteurs. By all accounts, they're weird and not worth thirteen years of pursuit. But I still need to see them, and they're still wonderful extra bonus features. And they're still available only with this set, along with a featurette on the show's locations, some archival trailers and a few more first season episode reconstructions. And besides that new stuff, of course you also get all the amazing value-added content from the individual releases.  The only thing you don't get is The New Avengers. I'm not sure why Optimum didn't just go all the way and include that too, but it's available on its own (and at quite a bargain price right now on Amazon.co.uk). The Complete Avengers: 50th Anniversary Edition, a must-own spy title if ever there was one, sells for a prohibitive £143.99 on Amazon.co.uk.

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of James Bond and Mrs. Peel
Finally, though it's not a spy series, another new DVD from last week worth noting is the BFS release of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders starring Doctor Who's Alex Kingston and, more relevantly, co-starring Daniel Craig and Diana Rigg. But the combination of James Bond and Emma Peel together isn't even why I'm mentioning this. I'm mentioning it because of Craig's hair, which definitely counts in the "misfortunes" category of the title.  In fact, all three of those words in that tagline on the cover refer to the hair: "Notorious. Scandalous. Unforgettable!" As a document of the current 007's worst hair ever, this DVD earns a mention here.

Rare Diana Rigg Performances Coming To DVD

The BBC America Shop Blog is just full of exciting news for spy fans!  The blog reports that BBC Home Video will release a 5-disc collection entitled Diana Rigg at the BBC on February 15, 2011, and TVShowsOnDVD provides further details.  In addition to the previously available 1998-2000 Mrs. Bradley Mysteries in their entirety, the set will contain plenty of shows never before on DVD including Three Piece Suite (1977), Ibsen's Little Eyolf (1982), Unexplained Laughter (1989) and 1994's Genghis Cohn, which co-starred Daniel Craig.  (That sounds like a weird one.) Perhaps most excitingly of all, it will also include clips from her 1975 appearance on the Christmas episode of UK comedy staple The Morecambe & Wise Show. Three Piece Suite was a sketch show in which the future Dame Diana demonstrated her range by playing three different roles in three different sketches–both comedic and dramatic–each week. (And at some point, evidently, she donned a very silly outfit that looks to have been stolen from The Fantastic Argoman's Queen of the World.) Bob Hoskins and John Cleese were among the guest stars, and the talented writing staff included spy veteran Dick Clement (Otley, Never Say Never Again). 

Retail for the set is just $49.98, which seems like a bargain already for all those shows, but the set can be pre-ordered even more cheaply on Amazon, for a mere $34.99.  This has really been a fantastic year for fans of Dame Diana's.  We've already gotten two of her rare, earliest TV appearances on Region 2 DVDs (the Armchair Theatre play "The Hothouse" was a bonus feature on Optimum's The Avengers: Series 4 set, and Network's The Sentimental Agent: The Complete Series included her show-stealing guest spot in the episode "A Very Desirable Plot"), and now we have this comprehensive collection on the horizon. Now if only her impossible-to-find early Seventies American sitcom, Diana (which guest-starred Patrick Macnee) would turn up...  That I really want to see!

New Spy DVDs Out This Week

The biggest spy release this week comes from across the pond–and concerns my favorite of all spy shows.  Optimum's latest digitally remastered (and they mean that legitimately, not just in a low-budget, "hey, it's on DVD, isn't it?" kind of way) special edition Avengers set, The Avengers: The Complete Series Five, hits UK shelves as a 7-disc PAL Region 2 DVD set.  Don't be deceived by the cheap-looking cover art. These releases are amazing! Not only the remastering (which is top-notch; see some screen comparisons at The Avengers Declassified), but also the plethora of amazing special features.  This set comprises the color Diana Rigg season, which is probably the best gateway era for new fans.  Overall I'd say the earlier black and white Riggs are my very favorite period, but the psychedelic late-Sixties colors really make Series 5 pop.

Among the many, many extras included here are multiple audio commentaries, episode introductions, cut scenes, archival television presentations, and more. Brian Clemens contributes a commentary track for "Murdersville," as does scriptwriter Richard Harris on "The Winged Avenger." Diana Rigg sadly doesn't do a commentary, but her stunt double, Cyd Child, does, on "Return of The Cybernauts." And possibly best of all, we get a commentary from scene-stealing guest star Peter Wyngarde on his greatest, most scenery-chewsing Avengers role in the classic episode, "Epic," one of my personal favorites! But that's not all... Clemens provides filmed episode introductions to "The Bird Who Knew Too Much," "The Living Dead," "Epic," "The Correct Way To Kill," "The Superlative Seven," (love those two!), "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station," "The Joker" (oh, another favorite!) and "Murdersville." There's also a German TV interview with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, ATV newsreel footage of Rigg receiving a TV Award, "film trims" (short cut bits) from "The Fear Merchants," "Escape in Time," "From Venus With Love" and "The See-Through Man," a "They're Back!" archive trailer, original Sixties German titles, "Granada Plus Points" for each episode (previously released as "Follow the Hat" on the old UK Contender DVDs), stills galleries, copious PDF material (scripts, TV Times, etc.), an insert reprint of the original Series 5 promotional brochure, more painstaking "episode reconstructions" for lost Series 1 episodes ("One For The Mortuary," "Death on The Slipway," "Tunnel of Fear" and "Dragonsfield") and the 1993 documentary presented by Patrick Macnee, "The Avengers – A Retrospective." Whew!  The Avengers: The Complete Series 5 retails for £59.99 but is available from Amazon.co.uk for £42.99 right now.

Stateside, Music Box Films (who have released the two excellent recent OSS 117 films on DVD) bring us the Swedish thriller The Girl Who Played With Fire, second in the film series based on Stieg Larsson's "Milennium Trilogy" of novels, on both DVD and Blu-ray. The first movie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (like the book it was based on), was a dark mystery thriller involving an unsolved decades-old disappearance and a serial killer. The second one follows the same main characters, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist, who will appear in the next Mission: Impossible movie) and Lisbeth Salander (the excellent Noomi Rapace) as they're plunged–unexpectedly–into a Ludlum-esque conspiracy thriller involving the Swedish Intelligence Service and a Cold War-era Soviet defector.  I haven't seen this film yet, but like most of the world, I loved the book, so I'm looking forward to it.  The movies are of course being remade in English with Daniel Craig playing Blomkvist.  The third novel is a full-on spy thriller, so its American film will probably mark Craig's first foray into the genre outside of the 007 series since becoming the most famous spy of all.  I have no doubt that Craig will be great and look forward to David Fincher's take on the first book, but see these Swedish films first. 

Finally, VCI Entertainment brings us an obscure early Cold War thriller, Four in a Jeep.  This is another one I haven't seen, but it sounds pretty cool.  Set in post-war Vienna, when the city was occupied by the Americans, the British, the French and the Russians, Four in a Jeep follows a police patrol comprised of one sergeant from each nationality as they undertake a mission to capture a prisoner recently escaped from a Soviet POW camp.  Cold War tensions quickly heat up as the policemen disagree about how to handle the situation.  Ralf Meeker stars.

Special Features Announced For Final Avengers Season On DVD

The ever-reliable Avengers Declassified has once again scored the list of special features on Optimum's latest remastered Special Edition Region 2 Avengers DVD set.  According to the site, the extensive extras on The Avengers: The Complete Series 6 (comprising all the Linda Thorson episodes) will include audio commentaries on "Split!" with the recently late director Roy Ward Baker and writer/producer Brian Clemens, on "Love All" with scriptwriter Jeremy Burnham and guest star Veronica Strong, on "Killer" with guest star Jennifer Croxton, on "The Morning After" with director John Hough on "Game" (one of my favorite Tara King episodes) with director Robert Fuest and on "Noon Doomsday" with Linda Thorson's stunt double, Cyd Child. Linda Thorson provides filmed introductions for "The Interrogators" (guest starring Christopher Lee), "Love All," "Take Me To Your Leader," "Thingumajig," "Requiem" and the dreamlike "Pandora." Also included will be the Linda Thorson promotional films "Girl About Town" and "Introducing Linda Thorson" (don't think I've ever seen that one), the American shooting gallery opening credits on "Split!" and American end credits for "Invasion of The Earthmen" (never seen those, either!), variant end credits for "The Forget-Me-Knot" (the final Emma Peel episodes wherein Diana Rigg passed the torch to Thorson), a filmed introduction to "Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40?" by director Cyril Frankel, UK animated bumpers, textless extended closing credits, German opening and closing credits and (this one sounds particularly intriguing) "Artists' test footage to find the replacement for Diana Rigg - featuring Lyn Ashley, Diane Clare, Susan Engel, Jane Murdoch, Valerie Van Ost, Toby Robins, Susan Travers and Wanda Ventham plus James Maxwell and Moray Watson in the role of Steed." The usual stills galleries, PDF material (don't overlook this stuff, as previous editions have included some real gems) and first season episode reconstructions (for "The Springers," "The Yellow Needle," "The Far-Distant Dead" and "The Deadly Air") round out the set, along with an insert reprint of the original Series 6 promotional brochure.  As you can see, this is yet another Optimum release chalk-full of extras!

The Avengers: The Complete Series 6, a Region 2 PAL DVD set, comes out December 6 in the UK and retails for £59.99 (though it can currently be pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk for £42.99).  Series 5, featuring the color Emma Peel episodes, comes out next week.

Emma Frost Channels Emma Peel For Real!

A few weeks ago we learned that Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, a prequel focusing on the younger days of the characters played in the other movies by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, would be set in the 1960s, thus justifying the casting of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in those roles (and necessitating Fassbender's subsequent departure from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). We also learned recently that Mad Men's January Jones would play Emma Frost, a character whose costume (a white version of Jean Grey's Black Queen costume... it's complicated) was based on Emma Peel's costume as The Queen of Sin in the Avengers episode "A Touch of Brimstone." (See a revealing costume comparison here.) Producer Brian Singer said that Vaughn was going for a "James Bond vibe."  Clearly, he's taking this Sixties setting to heart, and he's also, appropriately, going for an Avengers vibe!  AICN ran this set picture yesterday (depicting Jones and her stunt double in costume) along with a link to lots more great pictures at The Daily Mail.  (Check out that awesome Cold War era helicopter!) It looks like Emma Frost is Emma Peel!  Look at that dress! Is that an Emma Peel frock or what? And those boots! This is awesome.  I'm so excited for this movie now.  I hope that all of Jones' costumes are white variations on Diana Rigg's famous wardrobe. Will she wear a white Emmapeeler catsuit?  I have little doubt that eventually we'll see that skimpy leather Queen of Sin outfit... Personally, I love what Vaghn is doing.  The AICN Talkbacks are kind of disturbing, though, with a million variations on, "Is he making X-Men or Austin Powers?"  Yes, even nearly a decade on, Austin Powers is still tainting any references to Sixties spywear.  It's too bad.  Austin Powers is like the atom bomb; what was unleashed (while it seemed like a very good idea at the time) can't be put back in the tube.  It's out in the world now, and we've just got to deal with it.  Hopefully Vaughn makes an amazing Sixties superhero movie that finally makes people say "Austin who?"

Latest Avengers Special Features Announced

The Avengers Declassified has revealed the special features on the latest volume of remastered Avengers Special Edition DVDs in the UK from Optimum Entertainment, and once again it's a mouthwatering assembly of goodies. Besides a beautiful remastered picture looking better than ever (if previous installments are anything to go by), The Avengers: The Complete Series 5, a 7-disc set comprising the color Emma Peel episodes, will include multiple audio commentaries, episode introductions, cut scenes, archival television presentations and more.  Brian Clemens contributes a commentary track for "Murdersville," as does scriptwriter Richard Harris on "The Winged Avenger." Diana Rigg sadly doesn't do a commentary, but her stunt double, Cyd Child, does, on "Return of The Cybernauts." And possibly best of all, we get a commentary from scene-stealing guest star Peter Wyngarde on his greatest, most scenery-chewsing Avengers role in the classic episode, "Epic," one of my personal favorites! But that's not all... 

Clemens provides filmed episode introductions to "The Bird Who Knew Too Much," "The Living Dead," "Epic," "The Correct Way To Kill," "The Superlative Seven," (love those two!), "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station," "The Joker" (oh, another favorite!) and "Murdersville." There's also a German TV interview with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, ATV newsreel footage of Rigg receiving a TV Award, "film trims" (short cut bits) from "The Fear Merchants," "Escape in Time," "From Venus With Love" and "The See-Through Man," a "They're Back!" archive trailer, original Sixties German titles, "Granada Plus Points" for each episode (previously released as "Follow the Hat" on the old UK Contender DVDs), stills galleries, copious PDF material (scripts, TV Times, etc.), an insert reprint of the original Series 5 promotional brochure, more painstaking "episode reconstructions" for lost Series 1 episodes ("One For The Mortuary," "Death on The Slipway," "Tunnel of Fear" and "Dragonsfield") and the 1993 documentary presented by Patrick Macnee, "The Avengers – A Retrospective." Whew! Just typing all those episode titles gets me really excited to watch them again.  The Avengers is my very favorite spy show (and Rigg's tenure my favorite era on it), and it's been a long while since I've watched it.  I've been vacationing, exploring all the other British adventure shows of the era, for pretty much the duration of this blog, and I look forward to returning to my spy fan roots, so to speak, just as it's always refreshing to go back to Bond after long stints of Eurospy watching. I just wish these sets weren't so expensive to import.  Hopefully some enterprising American company will pick up the rights abandoned by A&E, port the features from Optimum and re-release the show Stateside on DVD and Blu-ray. 

The Avengers: The Complete Series 5, a PAL Region 2 DVD set, comes out September 27.  SRP is £59.99, but it's currently available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk for £42.99.