Concerto

Series Three begins as it means to go on – a new, glossier title sequence with a big, bold new logo. Glossy and bold – just like the episode itself. There’s a new sense of self-assurance here, as the pieces all start to fall into place. Steed is much more to the fore than previously. Macnee positively sparkles in his scenes with Nigel Stock as the lugubrious foreign agent Zalenko – their verbal sparring is the shape of things to come. Zalenko’s description of him as ‘a man about town whose other activities are fairly obscure’ pretty much sums up Steed from here on in. The focus on Steed does tend to be at the expense of Cathy – here she’s tied up and subjected to a nasty game of one-sided Russian roulette – but even this is a taste of the future, when Mrs Peel tended to get tied to something most weeks. Nevertheless, Cathy and Steed’s relationship, whilst retaining a hint of the antagonism of the previous series, has mellowed. This is much more like it. Confident, fresh, sharp and witty, this is a smashing episode with more than a little playful self-awareness – such as Zalenko’s comment that he learned his fighting techniques from watching British TV! Splendid stuff.

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A couple of years ago when The Avengers was released in DVD box sets rather than the piecemeal releases they’d had previously, I started a watch-through, making notes on each episode with the vague idea that I might do some Twitter or blog reviews. I never got round to typing up the initial thoughts, but here are my ‘raw’ notes…

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