AvengerNews Archive: 2000
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AvengerNews Archive: 2000 |
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20
December. Dick Fiddy of the National Film Theatre has kindly
provided the details of their upcoming event, Avengers Day, slated
for Saturday 6 January 2001. Their January program details the day's
schedule:
Dick Fiddy adds: "On my Avengers Day event some more guest appearances have been confirmed and the list (so far) reads: Leonard White, Don Leaver, Peter Hammond, Jonathan Alwyn, Julie Stevens and Dave Rogers. It's shaping up to be an intriguing event and it looks like in the intros and q/a sessions we'll be concentrating on the very early days of the show—the pre-Clemens era (although Clemens has been invited and did say he would come schedule permitting). I also asked Honor Blackman who is unfortunately filming around that period. Her agent says if the filming finished promptly she may make some of the event but we've had no confirmation yet. In many ways this is beginning to feel like more of a convention event than our normal screenings, but I will try and keep things as informal and informative as I can." Also of note, The Avengers ranks no. 13 in the BFI TV 100 Drama/Serials category, and no. 51 overall. For more information on NFT events, visit www.bfi.org.uk. 28 November. You are cordially invited to the following very special event:
3 November. Region 2 DVDs are at last coming onto the market via France. You can now order them online here through this site from Amazon in France. Note that some sets are already available while the rest will be coming later in November. 13
September. On October 1st, Starz Encore's Mystery channel
presents 24 classic episodes of The Avengers playing back-to-back
starting at 12:00 am and ending 12:00 midnight. Hosted by
Patrick Macnee (John Steed), the marathon features a primetime airing of the U.S.
television premiere of "The Frighteners,"
the series' lost episode from its first season, as well as numerous
episodes featuring the popular Mrs. Peel, with the following lineup:
After the marathon, the series will regularly air on the Mystery channel Monday-Friday at 7-8 pm ET/PT. Also: Two of the top UK glossy collectors' magazines, "Antiques & Collectables" and "Collect It," will both feature special sections on collectable Avengers memorabilia in their November issues, on sale in October. "Antiques & Collectables" will actually be advertising their feature in the October edition. 7 August. Great news: Contender is re-releasing the "Sci-Fi and Fantasy Collection"! Street date is 25 September. You can pre-order it here—as well as Volumes 3 and 4 of the Evolution Collection, which are due 4 September. (Thanks to Darren.) 18 July. According to DVD Review, Avengers '63 Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be released October 3, 2000. They write: "He is the inimitable John Steed (Patrick Macnee)—professional undercover operative and full-time man-about-the-town. Only fools would dare to tangle with the delectable Cathy Gale. Honor Blackman, with her beauty, energy and originality, created Cathy Gale, the first liberated women in television history, who became the leading lady of the Avengers series. An anthropologist and humanitarian as well as an expert with firearms and Judo, it was Cathy Gale—not Emma Peel—who began the hugely popular fashion of wearing skin-tight leather outfits that went on to become part of Avengers lore." (Submitted by several site visitors simultaneously.) 25 May. Follow-up report on NFT honoring Peter Cushing has been kindly provided by John Hayton. 15 May. Follow-up details on the Big BAFTA Bash have been generously provided by Darren Burch, as well as Joe at londontourists.com. 14 May. Lee Horton checks in with the following: "Some good news — over here in the UK we are just having the annual BAFTA television awards and they have given an honorary BAFTA award to each of the girls! They had clips of the series and they had footage of Diana and Linda saying thanks — Linda now has very long red hair, BTW, and then had Honor and Joanna come up and say thanks. All four of them said many, many thanks to Patrick." 4 May. Own a real Avengers prop, courtesy of Brian Clemens and John Dineley: an 18-inch cream color Murphy television set, which remains in working order, is now up for auction at Cybernaut. It was a resident prop in Mike Gambit's apartment and various other locations throughout The New Avengers. In other news, Chris Johnson has alerted us to the fact that Avenging the Avengers is being released by Contender as a stand-alone video (previously available only as part of the Monochrome set). You can now pre-order this PAL video from Amazon through this site. Chris also notes that it is rumored "The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse" may surface on video as well, in color. 19 March. Sébastien Grenier of France reports (via the Avengers Newsgroup) that Canal+Video, a division of Canal+International, will be releasing The Avengers on DVD in France by the end of the year. 10 March. Dave Matthews reports that Contender is planning a release of Avengers (and possibly New Avengers) on DVD for the European market beginning sometime this summer. At least three episodes will be featured on each Region 2 encoded disc. 7 March. Dave Matthews reports that Pat Macnee's wife, Baba Majos de Nagyzsenye, is doing well after her surgery (see 23 December news). 16 February. Contender has announced the
next collection of Avengers PAL videos. Tentatively they are slated to begin
release in July. The theme of this new collection is "evolution": each of the
four sets of four episodes takes the viewer through evolutionary stages of the show. The
sets are as follows:
Information courtesy of Chris Johnson. Also: This year's Dead Man's Treasure Hunt is open for bookings. The Treasure Hunt was the first regular Avengers "convention" and has been providing a chance for fans of the series to gather for the last 13 years. Visit their website at http://www.kikgraphics.demon.co.uk/avengerland.html for all the information you need to book for the event. (Thanks to Tony McKay) 13 February. The Weekend section of the Daily Mail featured an article on "The Top 100 TV Shows Of All Time" according to their TV editor, Nigel Andrew. The Avengers ranked 32. They write, "It began as a standard spy series, but it soon developed into a uniquely eccentric fantasy, with ever more bizarre storylines and only the most tenuous links to espionage. Patrick Macnee's ultra-suave Steed was joined by a succession of high-kicking lovelies, from Honor Blackman to Linda Thorson via (the pick of the bunch) Diana Rigg. Fantastically stylish, utterly British, absolutely of its time." The classic picture of Emma turning with gun in hand was splashed across the center of the page, twice as large as anything else. (Thanks to Caroline) 1 February. Two new volumes of Agente Speciale have been released, each containing three episodes from the fifth (color) season. Rumor has it that DVDs might be in the works... 23 January. A&E has made the first two sets of Cathy Gale episodes available on NTSC VHS tape and DVD! See this page for details on the "Avengers '64" videos, ordering info and shipping dates. 17 January. Black Star video can't seem to make up their mind about The Avengers—The Journey Back. Seems they announced its release as 10 January, but their site still shows it as deleted, and another visitor claims it can't be ordered yet. Stay posted for further news. 16 January. Diana Rigg appears in the Mrs Bradley mysteries on BBC1 at 20:00. (Thanks to Caroline) 10 January. Corgi has released models of Steed's green Range Rover (TCX 922J) and Gambit's red Jaguar XJS (NRW 875P). A tiny bit of trivia: Corgi consulted yours truly for details on these vehicles prior to their release. Also, Dave Matthews of the Authorized Guide to The New Avengers wrote the packaging notes. See the Avenging Vehicles pages for more info on the real thing. 7 January. Happy Birthday, Avengers! The show aired for the first time on 7 January 1961 in Britain at 10 PM. Also, Gareth Hunt is back at home after his recent heart attack. |
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