Love and Liberty

We’re sitting up watching The Avengers: The Superlative Seven on BBC4, and my, it’s fantastic. It begins and ends with the most gorgeously frivolous ‘shooting’ you’ll ever see, and in between does a remarkably sinister take on And Then There Were None. Though bursting with guest actors like Donald Sutherland and a quietly menacing Brian Blessed, Patrick Macnee steals it utterly, turning in an instant from fey to dangerous. We both laughed for sheer pleasure when instead of driving himself to his appointment he arrives standing upright in Mrs Peel’s Lotus wearing the full rig of an 18th Century general. I’ve not seen anything so magnificent on the telly all year. It might just be the best of the colour Diana Rigg episodes, and she’s hardly in it… There’s probably my second favourite nearly-very-rude-joke from The Avengers, too.

Next week’s is set in a railway station and stars demented John Laurie, so that’s another to tune in for (Thursday at 7 as well as late Friday). And near-confirmation for my views of the characters’ politics at the end, so look out for that.