Girl on the Trapeze

The earliest surviving episode of The Avengers. This is more like an action crime series which is a lot different from the episodes where Patrick Macnee was the lead as Steed.

Steed does not even feature in this one. Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry) comes across a young woman who threw herself from a bridge into the Thames. Despite not being in the river for long she later dies but not by drowning.

Keel thinks he has seen the dead woman before and finds out that she was a trapeze artist in a visiting east European circus. Keel visits the circus with his practice assistant Carol Wilson. They discover that the circus has kidnapped the daughter of a scientist who defected and plan to take her back.

It is good to see The Avengers before it morphed into the familiar series we all know so well. Keel is less of an adventurer and more grounded, assisting the police. There is a fight scene where everyone struggles to overcome the circus strongman.

It is shot differently, it feels at times that it was almost shot live like those early Hartnell episodes of Doctor Who.