The Avengers On True Entertainment

[christian bews]

may I be the first on missing episodes to tell you that THE AVENGERS is on true entertainment is on weeknights at 8pm replacing the sentimental US drama series 'HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN'. although none of the TV guides mentioned the episodes & it's synopses,the sky on-screen guide said 'the original avengers series and the first not to have been lost.follow the sauve british spy dr.david keel and his charismatic female assistances....' I thought they meant john steed as ian Hendry played dr.keel in the first series. when I switched I thought they would start at the only surviving episode of series 1 'hot snow' followed by honor blackman's run as cathy gale. but they started with Diana rigg's first appearance as emma peel. it ended with the 1965 ABC PRODUCTION' endcap as used in the original UK screenings & in channel 4's 1984 re-run.when it was shown on bravo in 1994 & again on channel 4 in 1997 when the last credits rolled it blacked out over the end of laurie Johnson's theme. was this the original UK prints for the final avengers series in black & white? or was it used all over the world too including the US? or in the original US screenings did they use a warner-pathe endcap to put over the ABC logo? true entertainment is on sky channel 184,freeview on 61,virgin 189,freesat 142 & an hour later on sky 261.

[Jeff Leach]

It's on from today 11.00am and repeated at 8.00pm

[Stephen Doran]

Jimmy Jewel was guest in one and it had different opening and closing titles when it was shown on ch4 1984

[Pete Morris]

Jan 5, 2015 21:58:08 GMT christian bews said:

I thought they would start at the only surviving episode of series 1 'hot snow' followed by honor blackman's run as cathy gale.

Hot Snow is incomplete in the archives. Only the first act remains.

There are two S1 episodes that survive intact.

www.thiswaydown.org/missing-episodes/avengers.htm

[Mark P]

Found these screenings on the EPG by accident yesterday and as it says

"The original Avengers series and the first not to have been lost. Follow the suave British spy Dr. David Keele and his charismatic female female assistances [sic] take take on the nebulous world of crime and espionage"

assumed I had missed the remaining Keel / Steed episodes and the Steed/Gale episodes.

BTW Season 4 comes out on Blu-Ray in the UK on the 23 Feb on 7 discs (cover says 3) whilst the 26 episodes were on 3 discs in the USA with s much reduced nitrate.

[Mark P]

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002SZQC5C

I assume with the partial first season and complete seasons 2-3 only being available as tele-recordings that DVD will be the only home release media for this due to picture quality limitations whilst Blu-Rays start to be released for seasons 4-6.

I understand the tele-recordings werent vidfired by choice by Studio Canal / Optimum.

Attachments:

[Mark P]

Jan 6, 2015 11:05:37 GMT Jeff Leach said:

It's on from today 11.00am and repeated at 8.00pm

The 11.00am showing is the repeat from the previous night's 8.00pm showing.

[christian bews]

I see the second screening of the final series with linda thorson as tara king is incomplete again & tonight they're going back to Diana rigg's first outing as emma peel.which episodes from the linda thorson era is excluded to true entertainment's run?

[christian bews]

now that true entertainment has showed all the filmed episodes of 'the avengers' they did not show 'bizzare' as the last ever episode from the linda thorson & showed last 'requiem'. 'bizzare' was the last to be shown & to be made too, but when true ent. showed 'requiem' was this wrote in the original order as the last episode?

[johnstewart]

It's good that the channel has shown the series but there are a lot of disappointing aspects. Since the channel 4 showings the advert 'bumpers' for the B+W Mrs Peel episodes have been lost. True entertainment have shown the colour ones with the 'Mrs Peel we're needed' and sub heading titles back in. They were not something I recall from the original 1967 showings though I was a kid then.

To continue; the B+W episodes; after their first repeat here; seemed to be shown in a format that doesn't seem to either match up with letterbox or traditional monitors and looks stretched horizontally.
'Whos who' was unwatchable as it looked like a cheap NTSC transfer. Also what seems to happen when broadcasters show clips from 'Youtube' happened; the movement seemed to stagger every few seconds, with a refracted quality to the images.

There were indeed a few errors in the billings; some stated Steed and David Keel. Others said 'Steed and Peel' (not Mrs). I thought 'Bizarre' was omitted altogether then reinstated. But yes it was shown before another episode which itself was bizarre as we had already seen the original cast wound up in the ending of 'Bizarre'.

My guess is True entertainment won't rectify the errors on re - showings but may sell it on to the horror channel or others who might.

[StevePhillips]

True Entertainment's copies of "The Waltons" and "Little House On The Prairie" are horrible too. There have been new transfers of both series in the last few years, so there is really no excuse for what they are using.

[Richard Marple]

I remember the BBC used to show Santa Claus: The Movie from a print that made an episode of The Sweeney look like it was shot on 70mm.