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. 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.
• France:

  • 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.

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.