The final Emma Peel episodes in Contender's DEFINITIVE DOSSIER serves up seven episodes, including a remake of one of her predecessor's episodes and the first appearance of her successor.

First up is the remake, THE £50,000 BREAKFAST, originally made as DEATH OF A GREAT DANE. As someone who prefers the Rigg era over the Blackman one, the presence of Mrs Peel would be reason enough to prefer the remake, but in this instance the remake really is better. Minus marks for Steed's comment about "jungle music" though...

DEAD MAN'S TREASURE is often dismissed as an extended car chase, but as far as I'm concerned, the scene in which Steed admires Benstead's car while Benstead admires Emma is worth the price of admission alone. On top of that there's all that racing around Hertfordshire, a cracking performance from Diana Rigg, enjoyable villains in the shape of Alex and Carl and a great tag scene where Emma "test-drives" Steed's new electric razor.

YOU HAVE JUST BEEN MURDERED sees various millionaires being blackmailed by the "hard-to-find" Needle. It's a little formulaic, but Needle is a great villain and Emma greats a great fight scene on the bridge at Tyke's Water Lake.

The final episode on disc one is THE POSITIVE-NEGATIVE MAN, It's not the greatest episode in the world, and the monster in the Morris Minor van doesn't really do it for me, but there are still some good moments - Cynthia Wentworth-Howe keeping her keys in her stockings (Emma tells Steed: "Don't forget to return the key") and the "What are you, AC or DC?"/"I've never had occasion to find out" exchange.

Like Tyke's Water Lake, Aldbury was another location often used by THE AVENGERS' production team, and it crops up in MURDERSVILLE, doubling as Little Storping. Pretty much a solo outing for Emma, this is very enjoyable, with a great telephone conversation with Steed,

MISSION...HIGHLY IMPROBABLE is a slightly dull episode, but there are still enough good things about it - great villians, the lovely Jane Merrow, a pre-Lethbridge Stewart Nicholas Courtney as well as some great props.

Wisely, Contender have included THE FORGET-ME-KNOT, Diana Rigg's final episode in this collection, even though it was actually filmed as the third Linda Thorson episode.

Emma gets some good moments, but this isn't really the cracking send-off she deserved, although at least her final scenes with Steed are as emotional as you'd expected.

As her replacement, Tara King (a.k.a Agent 69), Linda Thorson fails to make a strong impact, although with Mrs Peel still around perhaps that was inevitable. Her transformation from inept trainee to super spy is quite frankly unbelievable, while the numerous "Mother" gags quickly begin to grate, despite a good performance from Patrick Newell (although the break-up of the set meant that ABC had to resort to the ludicrous "location of the week" setting when the character became a regular).

Picture and sound quality are pretty much what we've come to expect - not Contender's fault obviously, but I do wish that Canal+ had properly remastered everything before licensing any episodes for DVD.

Extras are also the usual suspects, but there is an interesting Linda Thorson showreel thrown in as well.

With seven episodes plus the Thorson showreel, I'm just about prepared to give this a 7/10, although there aren't really any classic episodes this time around. BACK TO THE TOP

THE AVENGERS:
THE DEFINITIVE DOSSIER -
1967, FILES SEVEN AND EIGHT

Written by ROGER MARSHALL,
MICHAEL WINDER, PHILIP LEVENE,
BRIAN CLEMENS, TONY WILLIAMSON

Directed by ROBERT DAY,
SIDNEY HAYERS, ROBERT ASHE,
JAMES HILL

Starring PATRICK MACNEE
and DIANA RIGG


KULT T.V.
(CERTIFICATE PG)

REGION 2 (PAL)


RATING: 7/10


PREVIOUS RELEASE:
1967, FILES FIVE AND SIX