Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots: The Ultimate Avengers Book

[NickP]

Talking of which, I can't be absolutely certain whether a bullet replaced the arrow, I'm afraid. My mind may have filled in the blank.

Very good!

[MikeR]

Any chance of verifying one thing, Mike, about The New Avengers. In your wonderful book you state that it was filmed on 35mm, while other sources suggest it was 16mm, including Canal +. Which was it?

Rodney

The New Avengers was one of the last big UK film series to be shot on 35mm, although I'm sure that 16mm copies exist and would not be surprised to discover that ITV and other broadcasters have transmitted episodes in the smaller format over the years.

[MikeR]

The actual script for the play has some dignitaries enter a box in the theatre with the playing of a foreign anthem and then as the main dignitary moves forward in the box and acknowledges the crowd, there was supposed to be the twang of an arrow and a scream as he slumped over with a blood stain on his white shirt to disappear out of sight.

This was meant to look realistic (and not part of the play) and then the foreign anthem stopped to be replaced by Laurie Johnson’s theme to The Avengers and the theatre was blacked out. The theme fades and is replaced by the sound of a telephone, followed by the rising of the curtain to reveal Steed played by Simon Oates in his apartment.

I take it from your description that the arrow idea was replaced by a gunshot sound effect for the actual performances.

To answer your other questions, yes, there was a prop vintage Bentley and Helicopter used during the play. On the occasion that Kate O’Mara was climbing a rope ladder and it gave way dropping her onto the stage, I think she must have been climbing up to the helicopter. Unfortunately, I only have the script for the first act, so I’m unable to verify this.

Thanks so much. It's wonderful to know I didn't make it all up.

Talking of which, I can't be absolutely certain whether a bullet replaced the arrow, I'm afraid. My mind may have filled in the blank.

--
Barbara

Barbara

I'm not certain how they would make the arrow work before a live audience. So the gunshot sound effect seemed like an easier solution to presumably be used in conjunction with a small bag of fake blood under the actor’s clothing, which split open with a small charge, to give the impression of being shot.

If only Dave Rogers came here, he might remember.

[MikeR]

Talking of which, I can't be absolutely certain whether a bullet replaced the arrow, I'm afraid. My mind may have filled in the blank.

Very good!

Nick

I'd have to agree. Its good that Barbara has given something of a insight into the play as very few enthusiasts of The Avengers (including myself) actually saw it.

[davidf]

Bought the book. Sampled through, it's just mind blowingly awesome

[MikeR]

Seventeen

Many thanks for the kind words. Do please come back when you've had a chance to read it and give me an update. Hopefully it will do more than come up to your expectations.

[mrs_emma_peel]

I’m thoroughly enjoying your new book, Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots, Mike. As a former academic researcher myself, I’m immensely impressed with the colossal amount of material you’ve gleaned, complied and assembled so expertly and brilliantly. I love the layout and chapters cleverly using Avengers episode titles.

I’ve been reading the Emma Peel chapters - and was particularly interested with the information (new for me) that two episodes were linked together in Europe for the purposes of a feature or TV film. 1966-67 would have been the perfect time to release a feature film - with additional US financial backing and the series at the very height of its popularity.

I'm old enough to remember watching The Avengers first time around - even recording some episodes on a Philips audio reel to reel tape recorder - exactly the same Philips model used in The Town of No Return and The House That Jack Built. Plus my Dad had exactly the same model of Ford - a white Ford Corsair - used by Haymes in Murdersville - with blue interior. I'm pleased Murdersville is one of the very few places which archives the memory of the increasing rare Ford Corsair.

Were there any thoughts of a two-part episode during the Peel era?
Or perhaps developing/re-writing and extending an episode into a feature film or TV movie. One element missing from Series 4 and 5 was a two-parter cliff-hanger.

Perhaps The Cybernauts, A Touch of Brimstone or Murdersville could have been extended for a feature film.

I hope you enjoy Rodney's new book - Mrs Peel We're Needed - I think its fabulous. Both yours and Rodney's splendid new works complement each other perfectly. I hope you like my four chapters

I also hadn't realized that John Garforth had not even seen one Avengers episode before he wrote any of his books. I read on Garforth's Amazon web-page of a rather uneasy interview he'd had with Diana Rigg.

Your splendid book is an Avengers Delphic Oracle of fascinating Avengers knowledge and information. Game of Thrones, Wisden-esque and encyclopedic in size and scope - as Margo said, this book really is, the definitive - Avengers bible.

[MikeR]

James

Thanks for being so positive about Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots and the fact that you are enjoying tells me that it was a project worth doing and researching anything and everything connected to The Avengers. Not to mention three and half years from me beginning to research until the publication date.

During June 1967 The Stage and Television Today reported that Julian Wintle was about to produce a feature film version of The Avengers, but this came to nothing as it appears he made the decision to leave the series shortly afterwards. Plus, Wintle was not in the best of health at the time and had he begun working on a movie then someone else would have had to come on board to finish it.

For me the episode from season five that looks more like a movie than any other episode is Dead Man’s Treasure, because of its extremely high content of location filming. However, if seems that when The Avengers moved across to be totally controlled by the Associated British Picture Corporation, they only saw it as a TV series and not a film, although undoubtedly they could have financed a movie version if they had wished.

At The Avengers at 50, Brian Clemens said that he and Albert Fennell could have easily managed to get another season out of The Avengers. Towards the conclusion of the season we got episodes like Fog and Pandora, which showed that there was some experimentation with the format and perhaps the storylines for another season would have become even more diverse, taking the series into new areas.

[Frankymole]

Clemens certainly didn't seem to have much trouble coming up with plenty of ideas for The New Avengers when it was suddenly suggested, even though he must have been ploughing through loads of them for Thriller. I guess he just had a creative flow going when he was on a long-running show.

[MikeR]

Clemens certainly didn't seem to have much trouble coming up with plenty of ideas for The New Avengers when it was suddenly suggested, even though he must have been ploughing through loads of them for Thriller. I guess he just had a creative flow going when he was on a long-running show.

I agree there was no shortage of ideas for The New Avengers, although I also think that a major factor there was that Clemens was working with his best friend Dennis Spooner and that they sparked ideas off each other. Although they had worked together before, The New Avengers was the only occassion where they mounted a series from scratch, although Dennis was not officially a part of Avengers Film & TV Enterprises. It does appear that they bounced storylines and plot ideas off each other and worked closely throughout production.

I'm so glad that Andrew Pixley and I interviewed Dennis at the Fan Aid North Convention at the Griffin Hotel in Leeds, during November 1985. He got very excited telling us about the First Avengers Movie script and who he and Brian wanted to play some of the eccentric characters in the screenplay, namely John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson. He also told us about a TV series he was planning with Kevin and Freddie Francis called Courier, which utimately did not happen. Many years later at The Avengers at 50 convention, Dennis' daughter Elaine told me that Andrew and I were the last people to interview her father.