Avengers EXCLUSIVE: Watch preview of MISSING episode found after 55 years

Way before spandex and special effects ruled the screen, bowler hats and catsuits showed how it was done.

It may have been far more genteel times, but the original TV Avengers were groundbreaking in their portrayal of female heroes. The cult show stylishly and sensationally broke records and set television, pop culture and fashion trends for the next 50 years.

TUNNEL OF FEAR is the twentieth episode of the first series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television show, starring Ian Hendry, Patrick Macnee and Ingrid Hafner.

It was broadcast in the US by ABC Television on 5 August 1961 but was never officially archived and presumed lost, despite persistent rumours that it existed somewhere in a private collection.

WATCH AN EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW CLIP NEXT:

It’s one of only three known complete Season 1 episodes to have survived since the original broadcast. Lost for 55 years, the episode was finally rediscovered in a private film collection in 2016 and was recovered by the British television preservation group Kaleidoscope.

Alan Hayes, the co-author of Two Against the Underworld, the guide to The Avengers Series 1, has been researching the cult show over the last eight years.

He says: “Tunnel of Fear is a bit of a gem. With so little surviving from Series 1, and with the other episodes that are available hailing from earlier in 1961, it affords a fascinating snapshot of the show as its trajectory was beginning to change.

Hayes adds: “Previously, only one of the existing episodes actually featured both John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry). Hendry was the show’s original lead character, and the earliest surviving material – the first act of the premiere episode Hot Snow and the sixth episode Girl on the Trapeze – features him alone (Macnee featured in the second and third acts of Hot Snow but these remain lost).

“By Tunnel of Fear, Steed is more flamboyant, and despite the show still being a two-hander, it is becoming patently obvious which character the writers are finding more interesting to write for. It’s no reflection on the talents of Ian Hendry, but his earnest Pimlico-based PC was a little limited as a character compared to that of the man from the Ministry with the very twinkle of devilment in his eyes.

“In Tunnel of Fear, fans will see the missing link between the John Steed that delivers a furtive briefing to Keel in the back of a London taxi in The Frighteners to the one that they are familiar with from his 1962 adventures alongside Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman).”

Now for the first time ever Avengers fans will be able to own the episode in its entirety on DVD with a host of extra content.

The episode begins as Harry Black, an escaped convict, bursts into Dr David Keel’s surgery wounded. He claims to have been framed for a crime that he did not commit – and begs the doctor not to hand him over to the police.

Steed arrives and ascertains that Black has links to Southend-on-Sea which might well tie in with an investigation currently being undertaken by his department.

They are aware that top government secrets are being leaked from a fun fair in Southend, and Black’s story, if true, could possibly lead them to the source of the operation.

Can Steed and Keel bring down the operation, prove Harry’s innocence and get out of Southend with their lives?

Alan Hayes points out that The Tunnel of Fear find has been something of an eye-opener.

He explains: “It happens to be one of nine Series 1 Avengers episodes for which no script has survived. When we saw the episode, it answered many questions that we had about its content; for instance, how a character turned up at a GP’s surgery in Pimlico when we thought he’d been injured in Southend (where the bulk of Tunnel of Fear is set).

“We came up with a solution, as did Big Finish Productions, who have adapted all the Series 1 episodes as audio plays in recent years – and we both got it wrong, even if both our explanations were perfectly logical. We did our best, but there is no substitute for the real thing, as actually seeing the episode proved!“

Of the cult status of the series Alan adds: “The Avengers was a trailblazing series that spanned pretty much the entirety of the 1960s, arguably the most culturally important decade in Britain’s recent past.

“It was a series that reflected this vibrant era and moved with it, often being at the forefront of cultural change, notably in the way it presented strong female lead characters at a time when rival series were casting women mostly as decoration.”

The episode will be released on DVD with a host of exciting content, including a new interview with John Dorney, the writer of the Big Finish episode, historic interviews with Ian Hendry and Patrick Macnee, surviving scripts from Series 1 and reconstruction slideshows.

The DVD will also include an insert 64-page booklet of rare stills from the episode and of the stars of the show, with a foreword by Neil Hendry, Ian Hendry’s nephew, and an essay from Alan Hayes.

The Avengers Tunnel of Fear is available for the first time on DVD from Studiocanal. CLICK HERE to preorder