The Avengers – The Musical! A good or bad idea?

Early reports are now circulating that The Avengers is currently being considered for the fully-fledged West End musical treatment; by the team that also brought us Billy Ellliot and Wicked. Universal Stage Productions, the theatrical arm of Universal Pictures have asked writer and director Sean Foley and composer David Arnold to work on the project. Arnold also created the music for the Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

With the debonair John Steed together with his bowler hat, red carnation and his sidekick, Emma Peel, it’s larger than life characters, plots and colourful sets – The Avengers, camp, cool adventures helped define Sixties television. It would, therefore, seem to be ideal material for a musical.

But as The Guardian pointed out in their article from way back in 2006, ‘Revealed: what the Avengers were really avenging’, the Camp Sixties classic started life as a dark drama:

‘The chief protagonist of the first series of The Avengers was Dr David Keel, played by Ian Hendry, who in the rediscovered first reel is seen becoming mixed up with drug runners.

Picture: Patrick Macnee, Ingrid Hafner and Ian Hendry taken during the Soho, London photoshoot in December 1960

He is preparing to buy a ring for his fiancee, played by Catherine Woodville (who was later to marry Macnee in real life), when she is gunned down in a drive-by shooting. It is her murder which turns Keel into an ‘Avenger’. Steed, an enigmatic government agent yet to find his urbane persona, does not appear until the second reel of Hot Snow, which is still missing.

He continued to play second fiddle to Keel during the first series, but when Hendry quit for a movie career, Macnee took over and was joined by Honor Blackman as the ultimate modern woman, Dr Cathy Gale’.

Dick Fiddy of the BFI said in the same article that:

‘Any find from early television is interesting as a social document. The Avengers has a cult status but it started as a thick-eared drama with none of the flash or style we associate with it.

‘The Steed character is very different: shadowy and manipulative. In this episode you find out why they are called The Avengers – the raison d’etre of the entire series. It is the Hitchcockian idea of taking an innocent man, Keel, and putting him in a dangerous situation.’

But any musical version is unlikely to focus on such dark themes, aside from perhaps including a reference to the how all of this ‘Avenging’ began.

The report below by Baz Bamigboye first featured in the Daily Mail on 3 November 2017. It provides very the latest intelligence on what could be The Avengers next case:

Mrs Peel, we’re needed for a West End show: 1960s TV series The Avengers is being developed into a stage musical, reveals Baz Bamigboye

‘Cue chorus girls in black leather catsuits, and dapper besuited boys in bowler hats bopping with brollies. Yes, The Avengers television thriller is being developed into a stage musical.

A small team has been assembled to explore whether The Avengers could work under a West End proscenium.

One of the signature shows of the Sixties, the series made a star out of the then relatively unknown Patrick Macnee — although when it first hit British tv screens, in 1961, Ian Hendry was actually the lead, playing a doctor whose girlfriend had been murdered.

Picture: Cue chorus girls in black leather catsuits, and dapper besuited boys in bowler hats bopping with brollies. Yes, The Avengers television thriller is being developed into a stage musical. Above, Patrick Macnee as John Steed with his trusty companion Emma Peel (Diana Rigg)

Subsequently, the GP linked up with intelligence officer John Steed (Macnee’s character) to solve cases of intrigue.

And when Hendry left after the first series, the programme’s producers promoted Macnee. They also took the decision to have a woman share top billing.

First up was Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale; followed by Steed’s most famous operative, Emma Peel (Diana Rigg); and lastly Linda Thorson, as Tara King.

Steed used his special umbrella (which sheathed a sword) and steel-brimmed bowler hat to good effect when dealing with baddies. But his style was urbane and he was tailored to the hilt, like an Edwardian dandy.

So, it was mostly left to the women to take charge and dish out the punishment. A karate kick often did the trick.

Picture: First up to work alongside Steed in the classic 60s’ series was Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale. A small team has been assembled to explore whether The Avengers could work under a West End proscenium

Steed would summon help with a simple phrase — ‘Mrs Peel, we’re needed!’ — and she would then proceed to kick ass.

The show’s writers came up with some great one-liners. Once, when facing a lethal foe, Steed was asked whether he had any last requests. ‘Would you cancel my milk?’ he responded.

Macnee — who died two years ago — seemed to have the best spark on screen with Rigg — and it’s their partnership that’s remembered most fondly.

Universal Stage Productions, the theatrical arm of Universal Pictures (which was involved with the staging of both Billy Elliot and Wicked), have asked writer and director Sean Foley and composer David Arnold, who created the score for the musical Made In Dagenham (much missed by me!) to work on the project.

Picture: It’s still early days for The Avengers musical — the official green light won’t be given until complex legal rights issues have been untangled. Above, Steed’s last pairing was with Linda Thorson, as Tara King

Arnold also did the music for Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, so his involvement seems particularly appropriate — given that Sydney Newman, head of drama at the old ITV station, ABC, came up with the original idea for The Avengers as a way for the small screen to compete with the excitement Ian Fleming’s 007 stories were generating.

However, it’s still early days for The Avengers musical — the official green light won’t be given until complex legal rights issues have been untangled.

Universal Stage Productions did not return my calls requesting a comment’.

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Until next time,

Neil Hendry
Editor, Official Tribute To Ian Hendry

Further Reading

A detailed account of the life and work of Ian Hendry in the new biography:

Read: ‘Send in the Clowns – The Yo Yo Life Of Ian Hendry’ by Gabriel Hershman