On this day we celebrate a landmark television anniversary.

On 7 January 1961, the first episode of The Avengers, “Hot Snow” was broadcast — starring Ian Hendry as Dr David Keel and Patrick MacNee as his enigmatic partner, John Steed. The first episode is about Dr Keel wanting to bring to justice the criminals who murdered his fiancée — hence the title The Avengers.

The series was originally taped at Teddington Studios but later moved to ABPC Elstree Studios for Series 4, where it was shot on 35mm film for the first time. The first episode filmed at Elstree was “The Town of No Return”, which began shooting in October and November 1964.

A little trivia about that first Elstree episode: “The Town of No Return” was originally filmed with Elizabeth Shepherd as Emma Peel, before she was replaced by Diana Rigg — meaning parts of the episode had to be remounted and reshot in July 1965. Later episodes — including Diana Rigg’s final episode — were filmed on Stage 9, which is still standing and in operation today.

The series remained at Elstree Studios until it ended in 1969 after 161 episodes, making it the longest-running British spy series by number of episodes. It was followed by a continuation in “The New Avengers” which saw Patrick MacNee return with new colleagues Gareth Hunt and Joanna Lumley between 1976-77.

We have recorded oral histories with several crew from The Avengers including Brian Clemens, John Hough, and Brian Elvin, and some of these can be found on our special page here.