The New Avengers

Seasons 1 & 2, 1976-7

Episode Guide

Clicking the randomly-selected images above takes you directly to the episodes pictured.

Episodes are listed in order of first transmission by ATV Midlands, as used in Dave Rogers’ books. You may resort the table by clicking on the headings.
Legend for this table - all dates are in dd/mm/yy format

Series 1

1. Three Handed Game was pre-empted in NSW and the ACT by a Rod Stewart concert film, Rod the Mod Comes of Age. See “The Avengers Down-under” for more information.
2. Sleeper is listed in nearly every single Australian broadcast schedule against both April 13 and May 4, 1977 but the repetition has been found to be an error and Dirtier by the Dozen was shown on 4 May. See “The Avengers Down-under” for more information.

Series 2

1. CBS showed both parts of K is for Kill back to back as a series finale on 23 March 1976. In New York, part 2 started at 12:45am on 24 March 1979 but in Chicago it started at around 11:40pm on 23 March 1979. See “Broadcast” for more information.
2. The Gladiators was rescheduled for 6 September 1978 at 11.25pm, which suggests it was pulled at the last minute on November 18 1977 despite being confirmed for HTV West. See “Broadcast” for more information.

Legend and cast lists

• Television channels are listed with their acronym or short name, hovering over them will give you the full name. On small screens, these are automatically expanded as the table is redrawn.
• Episodes are listed in order of first transmission to the Midlands area which is identical to that in Dave Rogers’ books except for the last episode of series 2.
  Also indicated is the production order of the episodes and regional and international transmission dates (Sydney, Melbourne, New York and Paris).
• The cast and crew lists are as complete as possible, and readers should note that they are often more informative than the originally broadcast credits; that is, I have included complete character names, if known, in place of a single name - the addition in italics - (e.g. “Doctor Maybach von Claus” instead of “von Claus”); and uncredited characters are also listed. Some of these have been identified by a combination of script listings, call sheets, research and good luck; if you see a mistake or can identify someone, let us know.

Media and archive status

All episodes have been recovered from private collections and film libraries and are now available to the public on DVD or digital download.

There have not been any good DVD releases of the series so few original items of paperwork or publicity still are available.

Production dates are from recovered paperwork but recent research by Mike Richardson has caused many of them to be revised. The production dates used here are from The Avengers Declassified. Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots (Mike Richardson, Telos Publishing 2014, First paperback edition) contains numerous variations.

Broadcast

• All ITV regions that were showing The Avengers at the time took a week’s break if the episode was going to fall between Christmas Eve and December 27, as well as December 31 in 1976, and for the Britannia Awards on 20 October 1977.
• The Gladiators was widely pre-empted for violent content by ITV channels and shown in late night timeslots after 10.30pm.
• Anglia Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 18 and then replaced with The Gladiators.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 25 and then replaced with Forward Base.
  • The Gladiators was not shown in the first run due to its violent content and was finally screened at 11.00pm on August 27 1978.
• ATV:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was finally shown at 8pm on December 17.
• Border Television and Grampian Television:
  • Border and Grampian stopped showing The New Avengers after stopping for Christmas 1976. They showed the last four episodes throughout March 1977. Guides only identify Sleeper so the order has been guessed based on the schedules of other channels.
  • Emily appears not to have been broadcast by Border or Grampian in the first run, if ever.
• Channel Television:
  • Channel scheduled series 1 of The New Avengers in the same timeslot as other regions, such as ATV and Southern, but no newspaper listing I’ve checked specify the episode order; it has been assumed they were the same as the other channels.
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
  • Listings do not specify that The Gladiators was shown on December 8 1977 but it’s the only episode not accounted for. It’s possible it was delayed until May 23 1978 when an episode was screened at the 11.30pm timeslot.
• Granada Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
• Harlech Television:
  • The Moel-y-Parc transmitter was knocked out by a thunder storm on October 17 1976, affecting West Wales reception of The Eagle’s Nest.
  • The Gladiators was rescheduled for 6 September 1978 at 11.25pm, which suggests it was pulled at the last minute on November 18 1977 despite being confirmed for HTV West.
• Scottish Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
• Southern Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
  • Listings do not specify that The Gladiators was shown on December 8 1977 but it’s the only episode not accounted for.
• Thames Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
  • The Gladiators was not shown in the first run due to its violent content and was finally screened at 11.25pm on September 6 1978.
• Tyne Tees Television:
  • It’s possible that The Gladiators was not shown on November 18 1977 as scheduled, and the last two episodes moved up the schedule, as the series ends a week earlier than expected and there is no listing for Emily.
    That would put Forward Base on November 18 and Emily on November 25.
• Ulster Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
  • Listings do not specify that The Gladiators was shown on December 8 1977 but it’s the only episode not accounted for.
• Westward Television:
  • Forward Base was scheduled for November 17 and then replaced with Hostage.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 24 and then replaced with Forward Base. Emily was shown at 8pm on December 1.
• Yorkshire Television:
  • Yorkshire scheduled Medium Rare but must have forced into line with the rest of ITV and replaced it with the correct “first” episode, Dead Men are Dangerous.
  • Emily was scheduled for November 25 but apparently replaced with The Gladiators then finally screened on September 3 1978 at 10.30pm. However, I suspect the exact opposite occurred, based on scheduling of The Gladiators by other ITV companies, and have reversed these dates in my table above.
• United States:
  • CBS bought The New Avengers for the American market, buoyed by reports of it being a highly rating show and hoping to steal a ratings winner from ABC, who had shown The Avengers in the past. However, they didn’t know how to fit it into their schedule and relegated it to an 11:30pm timeslot in New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles, and a 10:30pm timeslot in Chicago, ostensibly on the grounds that this was the time the youth market who were the target demographic for the show would be watching. I’ve found a letter to the Chicago Tribune (April 7 1979) suggesting that an earlier timeslot would open it to more viewers, but CBS were not swayed. They would do exactly the same thing to Return of the Saint at the end of 1979.
  • K is for Kill parts 1 and 2 were shown in one night as a long-form special finale for the American market. It’s slightly unclear if the episodes were edited into one, or simply shown back to back. I suspect the latter, as the New York Times and LA Times both have two entries for the night (11.30pm and 12.45am in New York, 11.30pm and 12.30am in LA, and Baltimore listed part 2 as starting at 12:40am), these areas all finished at 2am, whereas the Chicago Tribune simply listed The New Avengers at 10.30pm and a rock concert starting at 1am. Technically, the USA debut for this episode is on 23 March as Chicago ran an hour earlier and would have started the second part between 11:40 and 11:45pm, so as to be synchronised with East Coast broadcasts.

The Avengers Down-under

• The New Avengers was heavily promoted by the A.B.C. in 1977 and The Women’s Weekly doted on Purdey’s fashions and haircut.
• In a rare moment of synchronicity in Australia, every single episode of The New Avengers was screened on the same night and at the same time across the entire country (or at least, to metropolitan areas) - except one! On March 16 1977, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory viewers instead saw a Rod Stewart concert film, Rod the Mod Comes of Age instead of Three Handed Game. Victoria stuck to their guns and showed the Rod Stewart concert on the Friday night, March 18 1977.
• Sleeper is listed in nearly every single Australian broadcast schedule against both April 13 and May 4, 1977. It has long been thought that the episode had been pre-empted in it’s original broadcast by Dirtier by the Dozen but The Bananacoast Opinion proves otherwise, and printed a lengthy exposé of the plot for Dirtier by the Dozen in their May 4 edition. This proves that the repetition in the listing was an error by the ABC publicity department, and Sleeper belongs in the 13th April 1977 listing.
• Following the showing of series 2, the A.B.C. immediately showed a repeat run of the whole of series 1, meaning The New Avengers was broadcast from 23 January until 24 July in 1978 with only a single week break for the World Cup on 26 June 1978.
• Series 2 was repeated from November 30 1979 until 25 January 1980, showing only nine of the thirteen episodes. Those that were not broadcast in the repeat screenings were Angels of Death, Complex, The Gladiators, and Forward Base. The finale of the repeat run was Emily. As far as I can tell, The New Avengers has never been broadcast in Australia since.

European broadcasts

#	Episode	France	Switzerland	French title	Germany	German title	Netherlands	Dutch title	Italy	Italian title	Spain	Spanish title
01	The Eagle’s Nest	22/01/77 9:35pm	7/12/76 8:25pm	Le Repaire de l’Aigle		Der Adlerhorst	28/10/76 8:25pm	Het Adelaarsnest	19/05/78 8:40pm	Il nido dell’aquila
02	House of Cards	30/12/76 8:30pm	9/11/76 8:25pm	Le Château de Cartes	1/06/78 9:45pm	Herzdame	7/10/76 8:25pm	Kaarten des doods2	26/05/78 8:40pm	La casa di carte
03	The Last of the Cybernauts...?	21/12/76 8:30pm	16/11/76 8:15pm	Le dernier des Cybernautes		Das stählerne Monster	21/10/76 8:25pm	De laatste de Cybernauten3	2/06/78 9:15pm	L’ultimo dei cibernauti	12/05/81 11:05pm	¿El último de los cibernautas?
05	Cat Amongst the Pigeons	8/01/77 9:30pm	14/12/76 8:15pm	Un chat parmi les pigeons	12/01/78 9:45pm	Wie aus heiterem Himmel	11/11/76 8:25pm	Een kat tussen de duiven	15/06/78 10:05pm	Rapaci	2/08/81 7:35pm	Un gato entre las palomas
04	The Midas Touch	28/12/76 8:30pm	23/11/67 8:15pm	Le Baiser de Midas	29/06/78 9:45pm	Gold1	14/10/76 8:25pm	Midas	3/08/78 10:05pm	Il tocco di Mida	28/04/81 11:05pm	El toque de Midas
06	Target!	23/12/76 8:30pm	22/03/77 8:15pm	Cible	20/04/78 9:45pm	Tödliches Training	30/12/76 8:25pm	Doelwit	8/06/78 10:15pm	Tiro al bersaglio	9/08/81 7:35pm	Ejercicio de tiro
07	To Catch a Rat	15/01/77 9:32pm	30/11/76 9:30pm	Pour attraper un Rat	23/03/78 9:45pm	Die weiße Ratte	4/11/76 8:25pm	Ratten vangen	22/06/78 10:05pm	Caccia al topo	23/08/81 7:35pm	Coger una rata
08	The Tale of the Big Why	29/01/77 9:30pm	29/03/77 8:20pm	La grande interrogation	27/07/78 9:45pm	Das geheimnisvolle Ypsilon1	25/11/76 8:25pm	Het grote waarom	27/07/78 10:05pm	Storia di ipsilon
09	Faces	12/02/77 9:30pm	12/04/77 8:20pm	Visages	23/02/78 9:45pm	Doppelgänger	9/12/76 8:25pm	Gezichten	6/07/78 10:05pm	I sosia	6/09/81 7:40pm	Los dobles
10	Sleeper	19/02/77 9:47pm	19/04/77 8:20pm	Le «Z» 95		Schlaf über der Stadt	16/12/76 8:25pm	Slaap	31/08/78 10:05pm	Operazione silenzio	26/07/81 7:35pm	Gas letárgico
11	Three Handed Game	5/02/77 9:35pm	4/04/77 8:15pm	Jeu à trois mains		Drei minus eins gleich null	2/12/76 8:25pm	De Geheugenbank	20/07/78 10:05pm	Partita a tre mani	30/08/81 7:35pm	Juego a tres manos
12	Dirtier by the Dozen	5/03/77 9:47pm	3/05/77 8:20pm	Commando très spécial		Das dreckige Dutzend	6/01/77 8:25pm	De verdwenen generaal	24/08/78 10:05pm	Jack li pazzo	13/09/81 7:40pm	Comando especial
13	Gnaws	26/02/77 9:32pm	26/04/77 8:15pm	Le monstre des égouts		Das Ungeheuer	23/12/76 8:25pm	Knabbelaars	17/08/78 10:05pm	Paura sotto la città	19/07/81 7:35pm	El roedor
14	Dead Men are Dangerous	30/06/79 8:35pm		Méfiez-vous des morts!		Tote Männer sind gefährlich	17/10/77 8:25pm	Gevaarlijke Lijken	?/4/80	I morti uccidono ancora	26/05/81 11:05pm	Los muertos son peligrosos
15	Angels of Death	21/07/79 9:35pm		Les anges de la mort		Engel des Todes	31/10/77 8:25pm	Engelen van de dood	20/04/80 20:30	Gli angeli della morte	9/06/81 11:05pm	Los ángeles de la muerte
16	Medium Rare	7/07/79 8:35pm		Steed et la voyante		Die Wahrsagerin	10/10/77 8:25pm	Het medium	26/04/80?	Una medium preziosa	2/06/81 11:05pm	Una extraña médium
17	The Lion and the Unicorn	28/07/79 8:35pm		Le lion et la licorne		Eine königliche Geisel	7/11/77 8:25pm	De Eenhoorn	12/04/80 20:30	Uno scambio difficile (TTI)	16/06/81 11:05pm	El león y el unicornio
18	Obsession	14/07/79 8:38pm		Obsession		Der Rachefeldzug	24/10/77 8:25pm	Obsessie	13/04/80 20:30	Sabotaggio	21/04/81 11:05pm	La obsesión
19	Trap	23/06/79 8:38pm		Le piège		Die Falle	29/09/77 8:25pm	De Val	21/04/80 20:30	La trappola	19/05/81 11:05pm	La trampa
20	Hostage	16/06/79 8:35pm		Otage		Poker um Purdey	3/10/77 8:25pm	De gijzeling	14/04/80 20:30	L’ostaggio	5/05/81 11:05pm	Rehén
21	K is for Kill - The Tiger Awakes	4/08/79 8:40pm		Le long sommeil (1re partie : Le réveil de l’ours)		Der Drache erwacht	14/11/77 8:25pm	De M van Moord	27/04/80?	K come killers
22	K is for Kill - Tiger by the Tail	11/08/79 8:45pm		Le long sommeil (2e partie : La danse de l’ours)		Der Drache erwacht	21/11/77 8:25pm	De M van Moord	29/04/80?	K come killers
23	Complex	18/08/79 8:35pm		Complexe X41		Der Meisterspion	28/11/77 8:25pm	Het Complex	20/04/80?	La spia	23/06/81 11:05pm	Complejo
24	The Gladiators	8/09/79 8:40pm		Les gladiateurs		Die Kampfmaschin	5/12/77 8:25pm	De gladiatoren	17/04/80 20:30	I gladiatori
25	Forward Base	1/09/79 8:40pm		Bastion pirate		Abenteuer in Kanada	12/12/77 8:25pm	De geheime basis	NOT 13/04/80!	In prima linea	5/07/81 7:40pm	Base avanzada
26	Emily	25/08/79 8:40pm		Emily		Emily	19/12/77 8:25pm	Emily	17/04/80?	Emily	12/07/81 7:35pm	Emily

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1. Tale of the Big Why episode was cancelled by ZDF and replaced by a Tom Jones special. There is some suggestion that they also cancelled the previous episode, The Midas Touch.
2. One Dutch newpaper lists this premiere episode asDe Kaarten des doods
3. One Dutch newspaper perhaps incorrectly calls this episode De laatste der Cybernauten

Holland showed every episode of both series but other countries were lacklustre in their response.

Spain did reasonably well, taking ten episodes from each series.

Following the cancellation of Tale of the Big Why in Germany, ZDF, which had announced a twelve part series of The New Avengers with much fanfare, then cancelled the series completely after only five or six episodes, much as they had done in 1968, and never showed any episodes from the second series. (Under German law, Nazi imagery was illegal so they had declined to take The Eagle’s Nest.)

Italy’s public broadcaster RAI showed every episode of series 1 except Sleeper (the fools!) and declined to take an option on series two which ended up in the clutches of private television. Newspaper listings for the private stations are generally poor, so most of the dates doe series two are questionable.

France:. France, having put up most of the money to pay the The New Avengers, showed every episode enthusiatically.

• French dates are for Télévision Française 1 (TF1) Paris, taken from Le Monde Diplomatique. They differ slightly from those for Lyon (as reported by Swiss newspapers such as L’Express, L’Impartial and Le Temps).

  L’Express seems to incorrectly report Jeux à trois mains (Three Handed Game) as being shown on 12 février 1977 at 21.30 as other newspapers for this date report that Visages (Faces) was shown.

  Series 1

  Episode	Paris	Lyon
  To Catch a Rat	15 janvier 1977 21h35	15 janvier 1977 21h30
  The Eagle’s Nest	22 janvier 1977 21h45	22 janvier 1977 21h35
  Three Handed Game	5 février 1977 21h30	5 février 1977 21h45
  Sleeper	19 février 1977 21h35	19 février 1977 21h45

  • Sleeper was originally scheduled for 21h50 in Paris, then moved to 21h30.

  Series 2

  Paris was originally going to follow the same timeslot as Lyon, with L’Otage (Hostage) initially scheduled for 20h35, but TF1 Paris elected to continue with their variety programme at 20h35 and showed every episode at 21h35 instead. Variations from that time are listed below.

  Episode	Paris	Lyon
  The Lion and the Unicorn	28 juillet 1979 21h35	27 juillet 1979 20h35
  K is for Kill part 1	4 août 1979 21h45	4 août 1979 20h40
  K is for Kill part 2	11 août 1979 21h40	11 août 1979 20h45
  Complex	18 août 1979 21h45	18 août 1979 20h35
  Emily	25 août 1979 21h35	25 août 1979 20h40
  Forward Base	1 septembre 1979 21h40	1 septembre 1979 20h40
  Gladiators	8 septembre 1979 21h40	8 septembre 1979 20h40

  • Lyon moved The Lion and the Unicorn a day earlier than the usual schedule but Paris did not.
  • Gladiators was originally scheduled for 21h25 in Paris, then moved back to 21h40.
  • Emily went the other way, originally scheduled for 21h45 and brought forward to 21h35.