Macnee was able to increase his role's visibility as the series progressed, losing weight to improve his athleticism and "keep up" with his new partners.
One reason for the addition of Gambit was the question of whether Macnee, aged 53 when the series began production, could handle the potential stuntwork and action scenes.
The verbal interplay between Gambit and Purdey, with her humorously keeping his romantic advances at bay, harks back to the Steed/ Cathy Gale era of The Avengers. Gambit is the athletic action hero, while Purdey incorporates the wit and fighting skills of her predecessors. Steed is seen to be the mentor to Mike Gambit and Purdey, taking on a paternal role towards them (especially in the episode "Hostage"). Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit ( Gareth Hunt), a top agent, crack marksman and trained martial artist, and Purdey ( Joanna Lumley), a former trainee with The Royal Ballet (to which she ascribed the high-kicking skills she frequently used in the series) who was an amalgam of many of the best talents from Steed's female partners in The Avengers.Īs he was for most of the original Avengers series, John Steed is once again acting without a direct superior-in many ways his character takes on the duties of " Mother" from the Tara King era of that series. Ī joint United Kingdom-France-Canada production, the series picks up the adventures of John Steed (again played by Patrick Macnee) as he and his team of "Avengers" fight evil plots and world domination. The series was produced by The Avengers (Film and TV) Enterprises Ltd for the ITV network, cost £125,000 per episode to produce at Pinewood Studios, and was seen in 120 countries. It is a sequel to the 1960s series The Avengers and was developed by original series producers Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens. The New Avengers is a secret agent action television series produced during 19. The Avengers (Film and TV) Enterprises Ltd for London Weekend
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