You'll Catch Your Death

Feels weirdly prescient in these Covid -19 days. Though on its own terms making even less sense than most King-era Avengers episodes, the idea that pandemics could wreak such havoc in the world suddenly takes on a horrible reality.

Good turns from Ronald Culver and the ever-reliable Fulton Mackay, later to be reunited with Dudley Sutton (making a brief appearance here) in the Porridge take on The Desperate Hours.

Plusses include Tara's trilby and Steed's double-take when he sees Sylvia Kay behind the x-ray stand (Ooh, Matron!)

Minuses? Well, the oversized nose seems a prop too far. A bit too wilfully eccentric perhaps. The sets of this series ('Game', 'My Wildest Dream') are one of its best features, or can be. This one should have stayed in the imagination of whoever came up with it (one of the runners, maybe?) Also Tara being chloroformed. Again. To be fair to her, though, she was beginning to warm to the role to some degree. But the King/Steed dynamic never really felt comfortable. The tag scenes a recurring illustration of the awkwardness of their relationship (along with the quite hideous shirts worn by the usually immaculate Steed in some of them).

Quibbles aside though, it's still The Avengers, for God's sake. Stylish, playful, artful telly of a type impossible to conceive of being made now. More power to it!