The Avengers - Season 2

1962 | Thriller

Following the departure of Ian Hendry - the original star of the show - the decision was made to promote Patrick Macnee as Steed to the central role. The position of his partner was initially split between three characters: idealistic doctor Martin King, naive singer Venus Smith, and non-nonsense anthropologist Cathy Gale. It quickly became apparent that Mrs Gale was by far the most successful character and King and Venus were quickly dropped. Legend has it that as Mrs Gale Honor Blackman received scripts originally written for Hendry and barely amended, resulting in the creation of an unprecedentedly tough and capable female lead.