In October, 11 missing episodes of “Doctor Who” were found in Nigeria. I mention this not in passing, but because it’s directly relevant to the subject in hand today: “The Avengers”. No, not the Marvel ones. This is the 1960s series starring Patrick MacNee, and heavily influenced by Sydney Newman, creator (not entirely coincidentally) of “Doctor Who”. But I’ll come back to that in a moment.

“The Avengers” began life in 1961, airing on ABC television in the UK (part of the ITV network). Starring Ian Hendry as Dr David Keel and Patrick Macnee as John Steed, the pair initially teamed up to investigate the murder of Keel’s fiancee. A strike meant the first series was cut short, and by the time they were ready for a second, Hendry had left to pursue a film career (spoiler: not a wise move), leaving MacNee as John Steed to hold the show. Read more