The Avengers International Fan Forum

Where and how did the charming innuendo come to be in the Avengers?

I was just thinking about this general question. It's one I don't think has been addressed in any of the books that I've been exposed to. So far as I know, there is nothing in Police Surgeon or the first Dr. Keel year that would have innuendo in it. I assume that this piece of the Avengers puzzle developed with the incredible Cathy wearing leather on missions.

Do we have an original moment in a specific episode where the saucy/flirty side came out of the characters with innuendo? I know it's there in the Cathy episodes I've seen, but I don't have them on home media and I don't know when it started. It's a quality well enmeshed into the show by the time of Emma and Tara, and I assume it continued into the New Avengers (woefully I haven't seen an episode of that hard-to-come-by series in a very long time).

Another interesting idea: Assuming we have a point at which charming innuendo could be said to have started, was it before or after Cathy donned her leather bad guy-beater outfit? If the first innuendos were before, then it was something that the writers injected into the series, maybe to see how far they could go or get away with, or maybe just playing on underground obsessions in dime novels and low-budget films with tough women characters they were aware of. But if it was after Cathy started dressing to redress, it may be possible that it was the stark image of Cathy the Superheroine that gave the writers ideas for saucy and flirty dialogue with an edge.

Steed chats up one of the girls in the salon in Ashes of Roses with a lot of innuendo and suggestive language, but I know that's not what you're asking about.
He makes a lot of saucy remarks about the belly dancers in Tunnel of Fear as well!

And there is this delightful bit of innuendo laden comedy with Norma Chappell in Dance with Death when he finds Steed peering through a hole in a hotel room wall:

PORTER: Hul-lo! Boring holes, eh?
STEED: Yes.
PORTER: I see. I think you’d better come down and talk to the Manager.
STEED: Sorry old boy, I haven’t time.
PORTER: Well, the manager’s not going to like it. Come along, sir.
STEED: I can’t help that. There’s a girl in that bathroom.
PORTER: Yes sir. Come along!

and this is Brought to Book (written by the king of innuendo, Brian Clemens)

STEED: When I arrived here I thought your receptionist was quite plain ... but now - now I can see quite clearly how wrong I was. Sharp vision has so many compensations.

Carol blushes madly and preens in response to his flattery - until Keel intercedes:

KEEL: Your wife and brood of children will be pleased the hear that ... I’ll see you out.
CAROL (SLAMMING FILING CABINET DRAWER): Married men! Always the worst.
KEEL: I hope you don’t speak from experience.

He's also cavalierly sexist with the cigarette girl and Venus in The Decapod.

The first obvious early innuendo is in The Removal Men where Mrs Dragna shows Steed her cleavage, daring him to make a move on her. It also really gets going on early with Cathy with the "judo practice" scene in Mr Teddy-Bear, where Steed is trying to cop a feel and Cathy is batting him off.

Wow, much earlier than I would have thought!

Would these playful innuendos have been the norm for UK telly at the time? Or was it completely unexpected? Was there ever any concern from management about content, or was it so delightful and "only there if you were in the know" that nobody objected?

One of the directors (I think James Hill) states in Avenging the Avengers that: "the boots ans leather, that was because Patrick liked it".

Honestly I think it evolved more, than that it was the decision by one person at one given moment.

There is also the single-entendre stuff when Steed and Dr Keel visit the purveyor of naughty photographs in Toy Trap, which is obviously quite a kinky situation. But not really a fun one.

some interesting dialogue.....love the comment, 'married men, they're the worse'....and the reply by Keel......priceless !