The Avengers Auntie

What's cooking, good looking?

Who is this diva? And I mean diva in the most complimentary Gen Z meaning kind of way.

Daily Mail, 5 April 1965, page 3 The new Avenger OR HOW THE BEAUTIFUL MISS DIANA RIGG WAS TIED TO A RAILWAY LINE BY VILLAINS OF THE FOULEST KIND, AND OUR HANDSOME HERO STEED GALLOPED TO THE RESCUE IN THE NICK OF TIME. NAME: Emma Peel. Description: Red hair, tall. Characteristics: Judo expert, fondness for leather clothes and company of John Steed. Meet the new Avenger. (Pause for kinky music.) SCENE: ABC-TV story conference. Mr. Big: Well, what about The Avengers? They're back in the autumn with that new girl Emma Peel - gee, what a GREAT name - in place of Cathy. Minion: Sir, what about getting Emma trapped in a submarine under the North Pole dressed as a penguin? New clothes cult. Better than boots. Mr. Big: Right, we'll stick to boots. Get a really good story line for the first show. What about Emma tied to a railway track - a MINIATURE railway track - with the engine - a MINIATURE engine - thundering down to decapitate her. Like those old-time movies. Get the writers on to it. (Pause for kinky music). SCENE: Story conference some time later. Mr. Big: Okay then, it's agreed. No sexy dog-collars this time. Just a man - let's give him a title - who likes miniature railways, only his is being used by secret agents sabotating British early-warning system. Sounds GREAT. Tell you what, let's get Steed to have a fight on one of the carriage roofs. GREAT. (Pause for kinky music). SCENE: Lord Gretton's estate at Stapleford, near Melton Mowbray, yesterday. It has a miniature railway. Steed (in other words Patrick Macnee) duly fights on carriage roof. Emma (new girl Diana Rigg) is duly tied to the track. The first Avengers of the new series is in the can. Melodrama. Corn. Sex. Boots and all. But never a mention of Pauline. Or Mack Sennett. (Fade to kinky music).

Back, back in the before times, back before there was even dial-up the fan tribes were scattered wide across the land and across the oceans. The only way to trade and exchange their knowledge was through images and words pressed upon fragile paper. Weeks or even months could pass endlessly hungering for even the merest morsel or crumb of community news. And then at last after endless, bitter days of lamenting the emptiness of the accursed box, a new carefully stapled bundle borne by the hand of a courier would finally arrive. And oh, the incandescent joy.

Spot the difference.

I'm not sure if these are the befores or afters of this scene from "From Venus with Love."

This book may be the French issue of The Avengers novel, The Passing of Gloria Munday, but the cover is giving serious Nancy Drew vibes.

Pretty sure these were taken on the set of "Death at Bargain Prices." Diana Rigg is yucking it up with and Joe "Dazzler" Cornelius, a professional wrestler, actor, and stunt performer. Cornelius worked on The Avengers with fight stunt arranger Ray Austin to make the fights look good. His brother Billy Cornelius was also a stuntman that worked on Avengers episodes "Dial a Deadly Number", "Small Game for Big Hunters" and "From Venus With Love."

—John Steed