The old episodes, with Honor Blackman, play on Arte moday to friday 18:00 MEZ

Most of the Avengers at the University of Chichester . . .
 

. . . last weekend. Alas, Dame Diana Rigg wasn't interested in participating. (Maybe she's tired of hearing about Mrs. Peel.)

http://blogs.chi.ac.uk/theavengers/p...-avenger-girls

I've never been able to figure out the *Rules* about which links are verboten, but since this link to the University of Chichester isn't selling anything, maybe the moderators will leave it alone.

It's odd that, at least to my eyes, Linda Thorson now looks older than Honor Blackman, though Blackman is the older of the two by a couple of decades.

http://img292.imagevenue.com/loc555/..._123_555lo.jpg

The Avengers calendar for 2012 . . .
 

. . . is out, after we Avengerphiles had to suffer through a lean year with no calendar for 2011. Here's the front:

http://img215.imagevenue.com/loc516/..._123_516lo.jpg

I've read somewhere online that Slow Dazzle's option on doing the calendar (and also the calendar for The Prisoner) ran out, and it wasn't renewed. This calendar is done by Studio Canal, and they didn't dig very deep for the photos for each month this time, since i've seen a lot of these before in various venues, including the VEF Diana Rigg thread. Here are the months, as seen on the back of the calendar:

http://img192.imagevenue.com/loc471/..._123_471lo.jpg

There is also a big pic of Diana Rigg, taking up two pages at the center of the calendar. She's wearing the outfit with black pants and white cuffs, plus boots with a stripe down the center of their tops, as seen here in the center top pic in Mr. Bond's post:

http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/sho...&postcount=166

(Many thanks, Mr. Bond!) However, the photo in the calendar's center pages is in color and has her in a different pose than in Mr. Bond's pic. And, while the photos decorating the months to come show a lack of imagination in selection and also in arrangement (they have clusters of Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson where Slow Dazzle did a mix, for better variety), for me the big pic of the Rigg in the center is alone worth the price of admission. However, I don't see the point of including a photo of Elizabeth Shepherd, who AFAIK never appeared in the show. (She was originally going to play Emma Peel, but didn't work out and was hastily, and superbly, replaced with Diana Rigg.)

This calendar has been Americanized, putting Sunday at the beginning of the week, instead of Monday, as was the case with the Slow Dazzle calendars. This bit of Americanizing is fine with me!

I'm not sure if the rules permit me to say how much the calendar costs, or where it's for sale online, but a bit of Googling should turn it up, hey presto! (as Steed once said).

P.S. I've just noticed that the cover of the 2012 Avengers calendar uses the same photo of Rigg and Macnee that was used on the cover of the first (1998) calendar in the Slow Dazzle series, though it's not as tightly cropped. The 1998 cover is the first pic in the first row here:

http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/sho...7&postcount=30

I saw all The Avengers episodes with Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson, and Patrick Macnee. Diana Rigg was my favorite of the female stars.:D:thumbsup:

Linda wasn't without her wide eyed sweet faced firm thighed merits.

http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/47...e477840680.jpg

Diana pips her to the sexy smart sultry post though, agreed.

http://thumbnails116.imagebam.com/47...4477840682.jpg

One of my favourite classic series.

It must have been her spell in Emmerdale that aged Linda! Not surprising, having to do that crap.

Great series with some very surreal plots and one of the best opening sequences/themes in history. Very British.

May be teaching granny to suck eggs, but the name Emma Peel came about because of shorthand. The casting director had said "must have man appeal" which was abbreviated to "m" appeal in the notes.

Linda Thorson always complained because people accused her of being a bit too well-rounded! In fact it was her body double who was a little heavy and whose generous backside we often see. ;)

True Entertainment, a Freeview channel in the UK, currently has Series 4-6 on a repeating loop five nights a week; starts with B&W Diana Rigg and runs through to Linda Thorson.. then starts again. Yes, time has been unkind to Thorson. Very unkind.

I like both the Emma Peel episodes and the later New Avengers with Purdey. I don't think I've ever seen the Honor Blackman epsisodes and I only ever saw the Linda Thorsen episodes when they were televised at the time making me about eight or nine years old.