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Color phones on The Avengers

Started by McHeath, July 16, 2009, 01:08:03 AM

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McHeath

We've been watching a lot of The Avengers these days, and phones figure prominently in the show.  Tonight's episode, Noon Doomsday, started out with this great scene of a suitcase load of 706s.


foots

Cool. I don't think I'm familiar with The Avengers. I like those phones however.
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

McHeath

The Avengers is a strange British spy show from the 60's that at times is pure farcical humor al la Monty Python, other times odd science fiction stuff sorta like Dr. Who, still other times treasure hunting Indiana Jones style, and other times just spy vs. spy stuff.  Overall it's supposed to be a spy show which were popular then in the US and UK, but it wanders far and wide in it's formula.

The basic premise is that this fellow named John Steed works for some super secret spy agency in the British government, he's totally old fashioned and dresses very Edwardian and drives early 20th century Rolls Royces.  He is always paired with an uber babe young woman who is totally hip and modern, Diana Rigg playing the role of Emma Peel and being the most well known perhaps.  The shows get weirdly funny at times, one episode is a complete parody of the Batman TV series of the 60's right down to the "POW" placards on screen when they hit a bad guy, and we just watched one that is a "High Noon" parody.

British phones are everywhere in the series, cropping up in cars, swimming pools, bushes, and the suitcase above.  All the ones in the suitcase would ring, and the character answered them, even though they had no line cords and were carried about the room freely.  Guess they were early cell phone prototypes. ;)

bingster

I wouldn't mind finding a suitcase like that! Neat photo, McHeath. 8)
= DARRIN =



HobieSport

#4
Ah yes, The Avengers! I'll have to watch the "Noon Doomsday" episode again. I'm fairly familiar with the original Avengers, though all he weird and wacky episodes are kind of mixed up in my early memories of the series. It was our favorite tv show as kids in the mid 1960s. And of course who could forget Dianna Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel.

Of course we always wondered who Mrs. Peel was married to. Was she a widow? And there was so much flirting between her and Steed. It sure added some good tension and mystery to the whole series. Naturally we were later shocked when we saw Dianna Riggs' topless back in the Bond movie "Her Majesties' Secret Service", because as kids we had such an innocent crush on her.

As for Steed's great cars, I remember the Rolls Royces, but the car that sticks in my mind the most was this Bentley, which may have only appeared in very few episodes.
-Matt

McHeath

Steeds Bentley was used in most of the 68' episodes, though they often ended with a gag of him and Emma trying to drive off in some really old and strange car.  I pulled a few clips that give a basic idea of the visuals of the show:

First up is Emma's flat and her in a typical costume.  She was often doing some sort of artwork, in this case sculpture and Steed dressed up as always.

McHeath

They coined a term for Diana Rigg's costumes, "Emma Peelers", this one shows why:

McHeath

This is one of the strange cars that they drove off in at the end of an episode, I have no idea what it is.  That thing Emma is wearing on her head is a "hat", it was the 60's after all. :D

HobieSport

#8
OMG, Emma Peel with a power tool. Am I in Heaven? :D So just who was Mrs. Peel married to? Did they ever reveal that anytime in the series? I've only been wondering about it for about 40 years... ;)

BTW Heath, I notice that you're posting links to pictures without posting them directly on the forum. What's your method? Is it to help save storage space on the forum? Is it otherwise convenient? Can you do more than one picture/link per post? I'd like to learn how you are doing this.
-Matt

Stephen Furley

The colours of those 'phones don't look like the standard GPO ones for the 706; maybe they were ones made for a private system.

The Avengers was still shot on 35mm negative film after most television production had switched to 16mm, often VNF.  Modern video transfers of the series look very good.  The change to 16mm for most programmes happened largely around the time of the change to colour, in 1967, though 16mm was used for some purposes, e.g. news, before this time.

McHeath

I have no idea how I am posting the pictures without putting them on the forum, I use the "Additional Options" link after I type my post and then select the various pics.  I can do 6 at a time that way, if there is another way I'm lost.

Okay, here are the parting shots of Emma Peel from the series episode Forget me Knot.  First off we have Emma passing the new girl Tara King, played by Linda Thorson, on the stairs after she has said goodbye to Steed in his flat, which is the first picture.

McHeath

Now for Emma getting into the car with her husband.  Storyline was that he was lost in the Amazon in a plane crash and had been presumed dead.  He turned up alive, which was only mentioned in the last 3 minutes of the episode, and Emma leaves Steed's service to be with him.  The man playing her husband looks to be the spitting image of Steed, which the final moments play on.  Steed himself notes the similarity as he watches Emma depart from the window of his flat.  I'm guessing that the same actor, Patrick Macnee, played both.

McHeath

Back to the phones, that interesting Stephen that the colors of the phones in the suitcase don't seem to be standard issue.  They like these bright colored 706s in the series and they show up a lot.  My 706 I bought from a source in Israel is not a standard color either methinks, it's kinda two tone yellow/ivory. 

Dennis Markham

McHeath, tiff files was not one of the extensions allowed by the software.  I added tiff to the allowable extensions.  In order to display them on the forum you MIGHT have to re-post them.  Try one if you will and see if it works.  Just modify one of your postings and do it the same way you did before.  I'd like to see if they will work this time.

McHeath

Okay, I'll just repost something as a tiff file.

There should be a picture of this post being written.