Enter Honor Blackman: Seasons Two & Three

During the first season of The Avengers, an actor's strike halted production in 1961 at episode 26, and it did not resume for almost a year. Once production was due to recommence, Ian Hendry had decided to leave the show for a movie career. The producers asked Patrick Macnee to continue which he agreed to do. Macnee, thus, became the lynch pin of the series.

With this decision, actor Jon Rollason temporarily replaced Hendry for three episodes at the beginning of season two, playing Dr. Martin King. However, it was decided that a woman should be Steed's new crime-fighting partner.

Cathy Gale would become the first liberated female character created for television. Honor Blackman won the role (albeit Nyree Dawn Porter was the producers' first choice), and her first filmed episode was "Death Dispatch" in June, 1962.


Honor Blackman completed 43 episodes during her tenure. By 1964, for reasons which are still unclear, she had decided to leave and accept the role of Pussy Galore in the upcoming James Bond extravaganza, Goldfinger. This left The Avengers without a female lead, but after several months the production team started to look in earnest for a replacement. Eventually, an actress was found and she would take the series to new levels and the television world by storm...