Collecting together another six episodes from season 4, THE DEFINITIVE DOSSIER FILES THREE AND FOUR opens with THE MURDER MARKET, in which the pair go undercover to infiltrate a marriage bureau.

As the first episode filmed with Diana Rigg, it's unsurprising that Emma is a little different to usual here, being slightly low-key. However, there's still plenty to enjoy - Emma getting tipsy whilst feigning death in a coffin, Steed and Emma specifying what they're looking for in a partner (Steed: "broadly speaking, female", Emma: "with stamina") and Emma playing the tuba. There's also a good death scene where Edward Underdown gets shot in front of a fish tank.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to A SURFEIT OF H2O, not because the basic plot of weather control was reused for the appalling movie, but because I'd remembered it as being not very good. Watching it again here, I found it highly enjoyable. There's some suitably barking characters - Talfryn Thomas' Eli and Noel Purcell's Jonah Barnard, a big-bearded ark builder who's always writing letters to THE TIMES. Throw in some good lines (notably Steed's comments about bulls) and some moments of real danger for Emma, and this is a highly enjoyable 50 minutes.

THE HOUR THAT NEVER WAS sees Steed and Emma en route to RAF Hamelin for the base's closing down party when Steed swerves to avoid a dog and crashes into a tree. Arriving at the base on foot, the pair find the base deserted, although Steed eventually finds camp scrounger Hickey (Roy Kinnear) before getting knocked out by a falling barrier. Waking up back at the crash scene, Steed finds Emma missing, but on returning to the camp finds that it's not as deserted as it was before - so was it all a dream?

Rather unusually, this episode doesn't reveal the diabolical mastermind behind the whole thing until quite late on, which makes a nice change from the usual AVENGERS format.

Disc 2 opens with DIAL A DEADLY NUMBER, which has a slightly old-fashioned air about it. The stock market plot is grounded in reality and is well-researched. However, there are still plenty of AVENGERS-ish moments, including the wine tasting ("from the north end of the vineyard") and a cracking script from Roger Marshall.

THE MAN-EATER OF SURREY GREEN is about as far SF as THE AVENGERS ever got and it has a lot of similarities with the DOCTOR WHO story THE SEEDS OF DOOM. Unlike that story, which features a plant that grows larger than a house, the AVENGERS story keeps its alien menace largely under wraps (literally - it's hidden beneath polythene for most of the story). There's a good fight at the end, although Steed's "herbicidal maniac" isn't the sort of wit you'd expect from THE AVENGERS (there's a nice toe-to-head pan of Emma as well!)

Finally, TWO'S A CROWD, which sees Steed and Emma up against the mysterious Colonel Psev, a Russian spy with an interest in model planes and submarines. Patrick Macnee is great in this one, and he plays his various roles differently - Steed, fashion model Gordon Webster and Webster impersonating Steed (the fashion show is hilarious).

So six highly entertaining episodes, with one or two classics and no clunkers whatsoever. As usual, shame about the lack of extras and ABC endcaps, but the episodes themselves are top-notch stuff. BACK TO THE TOP

THE AVENGERS:
THE DEFINITIVE DOSSIER -
1965, FILES THREE AND FOUR

Written by TONY WILLIAMSON,
COLIN FINBOW, JOHN LUCAROTTI,
ROGER MARSHAL
and PHILIP LEVENE

Directed by: PETER GRAHAM SCOTT,
SIDNEY HAVERS, JAMES HILL,
DON LEAVER and ROY BAKER

Starring PATRICK MACNEE
and DIANA RIGG

KULT T.V.
(CERTIFICATE PG)

REGION 2 (PAL)


RATING: 9/10


NEXT RELEASE:
1966: FILES ONE AND TWO

PREVIOUS RELEASE:
1965: FILES ONE AND TWO