The Avengers

When the series launched, it could only be seen by viewers in the North-West. Studio bound and live, many episodes were never telerecorded, so they do not survive to this day. But by the time the series came to the whole ITV network, this situation had been rectified, with episodes taped as-live a few days ahead of transmission. As of Diana Rigg’s introduction, series four in 1965, it had switched wholly to film production, which gave the series very slick production values – see left-hand clip. Series five was the first to be made in colour, featuring arguably the most famous title sequence of them all (right-hand clip) as Macnee and Rigg clink champagne glasses.