British Secret Agent Week: Miss Hynde, We're Needed.

As a brief intermission while we're watching "The Winged Avenger" together, let's contemplate the many partners of John Steed.

A casual fan of The Avengers will of course tell you immediately that Steed's partner was Mrs. Emma Peel. (And that the only real Peel deal is Diana Rigg, not Uma Thurman.) But Steed was a man of the world and many partners throughout his long and colourful career.

Someone with a more in-depth knowledge of the show will remind you that no-nonsense, tough-as-nails Catherine Gale was one of Steed's partners, as was the whimsical and canny Tara King.

True fans will remember or at least know of Ian Hendry as Doctor David Keel (from the first series of The Avengers) and Hannah Wilde (a TV character turned Steed's sidekick in the infamous Birmingham stage adaptation.) Of course if you came to the Avengers through its 1970s sequel you'll have, as I do, a certain fondness for action man Mike Gambit and witty, pretty, deadly Purdey.

If you knew that Samantha Peel (Mrs. Peel's daughter-in-law) and Christopher Cambridge numbered among Steed's associates, albeit in the never-produced 1980s revival Avengers International, then top marks to you and a tip of the bowler hat as a true Avengers fan and expert.

But to this Britpop-obsessed little stuffed bull, there's always one more partner of John Steed that has to be counted...Chrissie Hynde.



Later tonight: Part Three of "The Winged Avenger". Bring some popcorn!