The Avengers

Series 3, 1963–4

Episode Guide

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

Episodes are listed in the order of transmission to the Midlands but currently numbered in production order. You may resort the table by clicking on the headings.
Legend for this table - all dates are in dd/mm/yy format

You may also download a spreadsheet of all series transmission and production dates.

Legend and cast lists

• The 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.
• 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. “Esther Jones” instead of “Esther”); 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.

Episodes are listed in the order of transmission (the production order was used for the Contender and Optimum DVDs); it seems strange that some episodes were broadcast within a week of filming finishing, while others were in limbo for months. “Lobster Quadrille” apparently was broadcast the day after filming finished, while “Concerto” gathered dust on the shelf for 48 weeks (although that was probably due to Nigel Stock’s obvious ‘dry’, which annoyed the producers).

The earlier A&E DVDs were released in broadcast order.

Many of the scripts and promotional photos for the episodes are available as extras on recent DVD sets.

Production dates are from Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots (Mike Richardson, Telos Publishing 2014, First paperback edition) and The Avengers Declassified; I have also verified them against the existing paperwork (scripts, memos, etc.).

Broadcasting

• Teledu Cymru (WWN) only showed series 2 and series 3, having started broadcasting on September 14 1962, and going out of business on January 26 1964.
• In the North, ABC North ran weekends and Granada ran weekdays.
• In the Midlands, ABC Midlands ran weekends and ATV Midlands ran weekdays.
• In London, this was inverted, with ATV doing weekends and Rediffusion running weekday schedules. Confused yet?
• The Medicine Men was not shown by Grampian, probably because of their switching the show from Sunday night to Saturdays, to come into line with other regions, around the end of November 1963.

International broadcasts

The table below is expandable to show other countries. show all countries

#	Episode	ABN2	ABV2	Hong Kong	Malaysia	Canada	Italy
01	Brief for Murder	7/04/1964 8:00pm	5/11/1964 7:30pm	-	22/12/1968 9.45pm	15/03/1965 10.00pm	-
02	The Undertakers	12/05/1964 8:00pm	10/12/1964 7:30pm	-	-	22/03/1965 10.00pm	1/12/1965 9.15pm
03	Man with Two Shadows	-	-	-	2/02/1969 9.22pm	29/03/1965 10.00pm	-
04	The Nutshell	21/04/1964 8:00pm	19/11/1964 7:30pm	-	4/04/1970 8.10pm	5/04/1965 10.00pm 2	5/11/1965 9.15pm
05	Death Of A Batman	16/06/1964 8:00pm	14/01/1965 7:30pm	-	-	12/04/1965 10.00pm	12/08/1965 9.00pm
06	November Five	2/06/1964 8:00pm	31/12/1964 7:30pm	-	-	19/04/1965 10.00pm	-
07	The Gilded Cage	29/12/1964 8:00pm	10/01/1966 8:00pm	-	-	-	-
08	Second Sight	26/05/1964 8:00pm	24/12/1964 7:30pm	-	-	26/04/1965 10.00pm	-
09	The Medicine Men	5/01/1965 8:00pm	24/01/1966 8:00pm	-	-	-	-
10	The Grandeur That Was Rome	5/05/1964 8:00pm	3/12/1964 7:30pm	-	-	31/05/1965 10.00pm	-
11	The Golden Fleece	9/06/1964 8:00pm	7/01/1965 7:30pm	-	19/01/1969 9.22pm	10/05/1965 10.00pm	-
12	Don’t Look Behind You	-	-	-	18/04/1970 8.13pm	24/05/1965 10.00pm	-
13	Death à la Carte	28/04/1964 8:00pm	26/11/1964 7:35pm	-	26/01/1969 10.20pm	17/05/1965 10.00pm	-
14	Dressed To Kill	22/12/1964 8:00pm	17/01/1966 8:00pm	-	-	-	-
15	The White Elephant	2/02/1965 8:00pm	21/02/1966 8:00pm	-	-	-	-
16	The Little Wonders	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	The Wringer	26/01/1965 8:00pm	14/02/1966 8:00pm	-	-	14/06/1965 10.00pm? 2	-
18	Mandrake	9/03/1965 8:00pm	-	-	-	-	-
19	The Secrets Broker	12/01/1965 8:00pm	31/01/1966 8:00pm	-	-	-	-
20	Trojan Horse	16/02/1965 8:00pm	-	-	-	-	-
21	Build a Better Mousetrap	19/05/1964 8:00pm	17/12/1964 7:30pm	-	28/03/1970 8.12pm	7/06/1965 10.00pm 1	-
22	The Outside-In Man	9/02/1965 8:00pm	-	-	-	-	-
23	The Charmers	19/01/1965 8:00pm	7/02/1966 8:00pm	-	-	-	-
24	Concerto	14/04/1964 8:00pm	12/11/1964 7:30pm	-	14/02/1970 8.10pm	3/05/1965 10.00pm	-
25	Esprit De Corps	2/03/1965 8:00pm	-	-	-	-	-
26	Lobster Quadrille	23/02/1965 8:00pm	-	-	-	-	-

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1. This episode is not identified but it is the only episode to appear in other Canadian listings that is missing from Winnipeg’s record. It is also possible that it was shown at 10pm on June 21. ⭮
2. No other Canadian listing mention any episode past episode 13 so it seems unlikely that Winnipeg alone in the CTV network would show The Wringer.
   Other sites have claimed it is due to the description “Steed is suspected of being an informer”. It it more likely a repeated or rescheduled The Nutshell on this date. ⭮

Data for overseas broadcasts above has known omissions as episodes were frequently not identified by title in newspaper listings, please see the series transmission and production dates spreadsheet and the sections below for more information.

The Avengers Down-under

The government-owned Australian Broadcasting Commission broadcast The Avengers in Australia.

In Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne, 24 episodes of series 2 were screened, immediately followed by 11 out of the first 13 episodes of Series 3, making a first Australian “series” of 35 episodes (although initially announced as being 39 episodes, but the censors and worried programme controllers hadn’t seen the episodes yet then!)
The episodes from series 2 that were not broadcast were Warlock and Man in the Mirror while the episodes from the first half of series 3 that were not broadcast were Man with Two Shadows and Don’t Look Behind You.

When the remainder of series 3 was shown in Australia, it was promoted as a “second series” of twelve episodes in Sydney and Canberra (as The Little Wonders was not shown). Melbourne, being a year behind other regions, screened only seven of the last thirteen so that they could go straight into showing series 4 without a break. This resulted in a second series of thirty-two episodes in Melbourne as Too Many Christmas Trees was held back to be a Christmas special.

The Australian broadcast dates are all confirmed but there are four episodes that were not explicitly named in the listing in Canberra and Sydney. From my notes, I found this information in the Sydney Daily Telegraph but I do not currently have access to these listings to verify.

The Little Wonders appears to have never been broadcast in Australia. The television censorship board in Australia was remarkably harsh and would have been unlikely to approve a show which had criminals masquerading as clergymen.

No episodes of series 2 or series 3 were ever repeated in Australia.

The Avengers in North America

Canada

In 1960, Canada permitted licences for second channels for the first time, and independent stations were created to compete with the government-owned CBC. These stations - CFCN Calgary, CHAN Vancouver, CJAY Winnipeg (CKY), CFTO Toronto, CJCH Halifax, CFCF Montréal, CJOH Ottawa, and CFCN Edmonton which had lost its CBC affiliation - formed the Independent Television Organisation (ITO) in July 1960. In early 1961, with the exception of CHAN, they joined forces with another Toronto concern to form the Canadian Television Network (CTN) which finally made it to air on October 1 1961, now named CTV. When The Avengers was sold to Canada, it was to ITO, so these local broadcasters showed series 2 and part of series 3 in a combined season, with some areas - such as Ontario, Manitoba and suburban Alberta showing them from September 1964 until June 1965, while areas like British Columbia and regional parts of Alberta didn’t start until December 1965.

I have shown CJAY-TV, Winnipeg, Manitoba, who showed the series 2 episodes in the exact same order as the British transmissions, then followed with thirteen episodes from series 3 in a different order, no doubt driven by what was available to them at the time. There are three episodes unidentified on June 7, 14 and 21.
It seems most likely that Build a Better Mousetrap was shown on June 7, followed by two rescheduled or repeated episodes - otherwise Winnipeg would be the only Canadian area to have two extra episodes.
The June 14 episode may be The Wringer from the description “Steed is suspected of being an informer” - but as it appeared in no other Canadian channel’s listings, it is more likely a repeated or rescheduled The Nutshell.

CFCL, despite being a CBC affiliate, started showing The Avengers a week earlier, on September 8 1964, on channel 6 in the Timmins, Ontario area. Toronto was a week after Winnipeg, starting September 19 on CFTO and other areas of Ontario started on September 25 on CKCO. I wonder when SCTV started showing episodes...

The Avengers in Asia

Hong Kong

Rediffusion Television Hong Kong started screening The Avengers on July 24 1965 at 10.40pm, just before the Saturday night end of transmission. Unfortunately, the South China Post is very reluctant to list which episode was shown when, but we know it started with Box of Tricks due to the scathing review of the episode printed the following Saturday, July 31 1965. The review is confusing, though, as it seems to suggest the reviewer was already familiar with the show and disappointed to have Venus instead of Cathy. The late time slot was kept until October 23 and then, as it had been a rating success, The Avengers was shown again the next day, October 24 1965, in the prime time Sunday 6.30pm timeslot. It stayed at this time until January 1966, when ten Diana Rigg episodes were shown, commencing on January 23 1966 in the 6.30pm timeslot. It is possible that the timeslot and day change on 24 October indicates the start of series 3 but this is not confirmed at all; it’s equally possible that the October 23 broadcast was cancelled with the day switch and all episodes from series 2 were shown before they started series 4.

Malaysia

TV Malaysia ran a fairly jumbled run of The Avengers, starting with series 4 in 1967–8, with two episodes of series 5. At this time TV Malaysia only had one station, which had different channel numbers in different parts of the country.
On December 8 1968, still with one station, they started 13 episodes of series 2 with Traitor in Zebra. This ran until March 2 1969.
About a year later, TV Malaysia, on their Programme Two station as TV Malaysia had expanded by this time, recommenced series 2 with Intercrime on February 7 1970 in a combined run with series 3 which ran up to May 1970 and was then replaced with series 5 which led straight into series 6, which finished on June 19 1971.

Singapore

TV Singapura started showing series 4 about the same time as TV Malaysia - for four weeks on the same night - and once in the same timeslot, but appears to never have shown any episodes from series 2 or 3.

The Avengers in Europe

Series 2 & 3 had a limited release internationally - there was of course Australia above, as well as some other British Commonwealth countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canada. The only translated - or perhaps subtitled - episodes that have been unearthed were a very limited run of ten selected episodes from series 2 and 3 in Italy, broadcast intermittently in 1965 and 1966 under the series title “Agente speciale” on the public broadcaster RAI and variously shown on RAI 1 (Primo/Televisione 1) and RAI 2 (Secundo/Televisione 2). Initially scheduled weekly on Primo canale, it was quickly pre-empted by other programmes and moved to the more local, but still nationally organised, Secundo canale. It’s interesting that the episodes selected featured Venus Smith and Dr King as well as Cathy Gale.

Episode	Date	Time	Italian title	Channel
Death Of A Batman	12/08/1965	9:00 PM	Alta finanza	RAI 1
The Removal Men	26/08/1965 1	9:00 PM	Una donna in mare	RAI 1
Man in the Mirror	2/09/1965	9:00 PM	Un uomo nello specchio	RAI 1
The Nutshell	5/11/1965	9:15 PM	Segretissimo	RAI 2
Death on the Rocks	10/11/1965	9:15 PM	Operazione diamanti	RAI 2
The Undertakers	1/12/1965 2	9:15 PM	I filantropi	RAI 2
School for Traitors	17/12/1965	10:20 PM	Scuola di spie	RAI 2
Traitor in Zebra	7/01/1966	10:15 PM	La formula segreta	RAI 2
Death of a Great Dane	14/01/1966	10:15 PM	Il cane danese	RAI 2
Dead on Course	4/02/1966 3	10:15 PM	Sabotaggio	RAI 2

1. Originally scheduled for 19/8/1965 but pre-empted by a repeat of Carlo Goldoni’s “Burbero benefico”. ⭮
2. Originally scheduled for 26/8/1965 on RAI 1 but with the pre-emption above, “The Removal Men” took that slot and “The Undertakers” was rescheduled on 1^st December, 1965 on RAI 2. ⭮
3. Originally scheduled for 21/1/1966 at 22:15 on RAI 2 but pre-empted by live coverage of the Simmenthal - Racing Malines basketball match for the European Cup. ⭮