The Avengers - A Sense of History - Robin Hood Spotlight

Robin Hood Spotlight

The Avengers:
A Sense of History

Spotlight Review by Allen W. Wright
December 2024

Introduction

Starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg
Guest-starring Patrick Mower, Nigel Stock and Jacqueline Pearce
Written by Martin Woodhouse
Directed by Peter Graham Scott
Original UK Airdate: March 8, 1966

The Avengers is a classic British TV series about a couple of adventurers stopping diabolical masterminds. It was a big success on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and part of the 1960s "British Invasion".

In one episode, John Steed and Emma Peel dress up for an adventure with a Robin Hood theme.

Extraordinary crimes against the people and the state have to be avenged by agents extraordinary. Two such people are John Steed -- top professional, and his partner, Emma Peel -- talented amateur. Together they are -- The Avengers!
- Original Opening Narration for the US Broadcasts of the first season featuring Emma Peel

A Top Professional and Talented Amateurs

The Avengers began as merely a catchy title suggested by Canadian television producer Sydney Newman for Britain's independent television networks. (A few years later Newman would take over drama at the BBC and instigate the creation of Doctor Who.) I don't believe the characters ever referred to themselves as "|Avengers" - it was just a good name for marketing, well at least until a certain American superhero team borrowed the name.

British viewers tuning in on the night of January 7, 1961 to see the first episode "Hot Snow" would have seen a very different sort of Avengers than the one that lives in the popular consciousness. The lead character was Dr. David Keel, played by Ian Hendry - who for the first two episodes avenged the murder of his fiancée. He was assisted by a shadowy, trenchcoat-wearing government agent named John Steed played by Patrick Macnee. Keel, usually joined by Steed, would foil other crimes and international schemes in a fairly gritty series. The Steed character became more central as the original season (or series, to use the British term) continued.

Ian Hendry chose not to return for the next season, and so Macnee's Steed was promoted to the central role. He was joined by a rotating group of amateur partners - Dr. Martin King (John Rollason, playing a part very similar to the first season's Dr. Keel), nightclub singer Venus Smith (Julie Stevens), but in most episodes Steed was assisted by Dr./Mrs. Cathy Gale, played by Honor Blackman.

Blackman's Cathy Gale was hit -- showing wit, intelligence and fighting skill distinctly different from most TV heroines of the day. She became Steed's sole partner for the third season.

Then, just as the producers sold the show to the American network ABC - Honor Blackman left. Mrs. Gale was replaced by Mrs. Peel - Emma Peel (the name was a pun on M. Appeal or "man appeal") - played by Diana Rigg. Mrs. Peel initially donned her predecessor's leather catsuits before transitioning to more mod outfits as the show switched to colour with its fifth season.

The John Steed and Emma Peel team is the best-remembered version of the show. But after Diana Rigg also left for a film career, Steed was joined by rookie agent Tara King (Linda Thorson) and later in a 1970s revival by Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) in The New Avengers.

An English Gentleman ... Descended from Robin Hood?

John Steed's companions may have changed over the course of the show, but in many ways Steed himself changed -- all while still being played by Patrick Macnee.

The early Steed was more hard-boiled. But as the show went on, Macnee brought more of his own personality to the role. There was a twinkle in his eye, some witty phrases. The early Steed favoured trench coats and pistols, but by the time Emma Peel showed up, Steed was best-known for his bowler hat and umbrella. And there was a certain sense of fair play.

In the press releases for the 1966 TV season, Macnee remarked that swashbuckling was in his family's blood. His mother was of the Hastings family -- holders of the title Earl of Huntingdon since Tudor times. Since Elizabethan times, Robin Hood has been called the Earl of Huntingdon and Macnee once claimed the legendary hero as an ancestor. (In later interviews he dismissed the supposed family connection.)

Welcome to Avengerland

Under Macnee's evolving performance of John Steed and the scripts by writers such as Brian Clemens, the world of The Avengers transformed. As the leading man became more eccentric, so too did the other characters our heroes would encounter. The world became slightly less grim and a lot more stylized.

It also became a lot more ... well, English, a useful selling point when Englishness was a global pop culture commodity. It wasn't the English Empire on which the sun never set of decades past. The sun had set on the empire. This version of England was something more quirky -- a peculiar combination of the old-fashioned with the very modern.

The show's environment -- called Avengerland by its fans for both the filming locations and cultural ethos -- was less England of the real world and more like the England of the Roger Miller song England Swings. Fair play foiled diabolical masterminds. The streets were rarely crowded. The settings more rural than urban, even if the heroes were always urbane.

More regrettably, Brian Clemens also wanted to limit the number of visible minorities in the show. You'd be forgiven for thinking The Avengers took place in some strange alternate universe where the Windrush Generation never happened.

Then it's only fitting that the Avengers would encounter the Robin Hood legend. The bold outlaw of literature has often been portrayed as a hero for an England that was more imagined than real. The Avengers and Robin Hood were all in the business of English heritage.

Earlier Sightings of Robin Hood

"A Sense of History" wasn't the first Avengers episode to touch upon the Robin Hood legend.

The third season (in the Cathy Gale years) includes the episode "Dressed to Kill" by Brian Clemens. Steed is invited to a fancy dress party on a train. One of the other guests, Billy Cavendish played by Leonard Rossiter comes dressed as Robin Hood. (The credits even list him as Robin Hood, not as Cavendish.)

And "The Master Minds", a fourth season episode by Robert Banks Stewart has Steed encounter archery instructor Holly Trent. Holly and her fellow archers are wearing bycockets (Robin Hood hats). She manages to score a bulls-eye, but rather than split her arrow, Steed is distracted and sends his arrow crashing through a window far from the target.

It Began With a Dream

In this case, it was a dream of writer Martin Woodhouse - a regular Avengers writer, who had also scripted Cathy Gale's first appearance - to see Diana Rigg's Emma Peel dressed up as Robin Hood. In the British stage tradition, it was very common for Robin Hood to be played by a woman, so this wasn't too radical a notion even if Diana Rigg's costume was a good deal shorter than the Regency or Victorian stage conventions might have permitted.

But audiences would need to wait for that sight.

The actual episode begins with the slightly more lofty dream of economist James Broom (an uncredited Kenneth Benda) -- a dream for a united Europe and end to poverty. Broom's car is driving through the woods when he spies a Robin Hood-like figure with an arrow in his back. The arrow had a suction cup tip, and it was all a ruse to lure Broom into an ambush.

The ambushers are wearing Robin Hood costumes, but they also have hideous masks. But then they produce a tin can saying St. Bedes College - RAG FUND - All Donations Thankfully Received. (The college's name is changed in dubbed dialogue to be St. Bodes to avoid confusion with a real-life St. Bede's.)

The professor is relieved. RAG Week - that's Raising And Giving Week - is a popular tradition in UK colleges and universities where funds are raised for charity. Its use in this episode is clever with the connotations of robbing from the rich to give to the poor and the festive spirit of the May Games that were such a part of the medieval Robin Hood legend.

The seemingly harmless outlaws collect their donation and depart. But as Broom returns to his car, he's shot in the back by an arrow.

The next day, Emma Peel arrives in a garage and is nearly shot by an arrow herself -- a suction cup arrow from the bow of John Steed. Steed's investigating the death of Professor Broom.

EMMA PEEL: James Broom? The economist?
STEED: The brilliant economist.
EMMA PEEL: His plans were revolutionary. Unite the financial resources of Europe, banish poverty forever -- Europia. 'Twas a nice dream.
STEED: Broom was close to making it a reality.

As it turns out, they are not alone in their investigations. Broom's right-hand man Richard "Dickie" Carlyon is poking around the boot (trunk) of the car to find where Broom hid his briefcase.

This is the first of many playful takes on the names of the Robin Hood legend. Carlyon is a variation of Richard Coeur-De-Lion, King Richard the Lionheart. But if Carlyon possesses the heart of a lion, it is the Cowardly Lion. The foppish and frightened man played by Nigel Stock is a far cry from the heroic king of legend.

Carlyon tells Steed and Mrs. Peel that Broom was headed to a university to confront a fellow economist -- someone in violent opposition to their plans for a united Europe and an end to poverty. But Broom thought was too dangerous to confide the name of his enemy.

But they deduce his quarry must be at St. Bodes College - which has a first-rate economics department. They plan to go undercover, more or less.

Higher Learning with the Merry Men

Mrs. Peel audits a lecture by Professor Gordon Henge (actor John Barron) on the immutability of history, that everything is the result of circumstance. The students are bored and rebellious. The ring-leader is Eric Duboys (Patrick Mower) who cracks pencils to disrupt Henge and then prods his bespectacled underling John Pettit (Robin Phillips) to challenge the professor's theories. Pettit believes in the position of another professor Acheson that great men can change the course of history. When Duboys adds that "for the past 53 minutes you have assaulted our ears with a load of pretentious, old rubbish." Henge snaps that Duboys has "the manners of a guttersnipe" and storms out of the room.

The students of St. Bodes have names resembling those of the Merry Men - Marianne (Jacqueline Pearce) is Maid Marian, Millerson (Peter Blythe) is Much the Miller's Son, Allen (actor, drag queen and activist Bette Bourne - then credited as Peter Bourne) is Allen a Dale and John Pettit is Little John, his surname being a play on the French word for Little.

Duboys is the cleverest play on a legendary name, and again leaning on the French tradition where Robin Hood is called Robin des Bois - Robin of the Wood.

But it's not just the names that have been rearranged. You might expect to find young students to argue a Marxist perspective, and that position would certainly align with a prominent academic view of the Robin Hood legend at the time. But instead Duboys and his gang advocate a neo-fascist line of thinking.

It is an unfortunate aspect of the Robin Hood legend that far-right fascists can find something to support their cause in the legend just as much as the moderate or radical left can.

As the exercise-enthusiast professor Professor David Acheson directs Mrs. Peel to Duboys and his merry band, Carlyon and Steed discover what was so concerning to the late Professor Broom -- an uncredited paper titled Economics and the Sense of History.

CARLYON: There you are, you see, it gets progressively more hysterical. It was not an economic thesis -- it is a political document. And it reeks of ideals and dogma.
STEED: And the faintest whiff of jackboots.

There's the faintest whiff of jackboots around Duboys - who brandishes a sword as he banters with Mrs. Peel over coffee. He has no respect for Professor Henge, but more for James Broom -- although he pointedly uses the past tense.

Patrick Mower plays Duboys with a sinister attitude -- his trickster charm turned callous, just as one might expect from an evil Robin Hood type.

Steed visits St. Bodes and encounters both the enthusiastic but eccentric Acheson and the stick-up-his-gown Henge. Henge suggests Steed and Peel speak to the archivist Grindley if they want to know who wrote Economics and the Sense of History. Grindley's filing system is kept in his head, and doesn't follow any discernable sense of order.

Henge visits Grindley (John Glyn-Jones) and tells him that Steed isn't a student, that he's treating the campus like a public library and it just isn't done. Grindley says he knows what to do about it.

There are three suspects for the adult mastermind behind the students.

Well, three suspects for a brief time. Millerson - acting on a nod from Duboys - appears to execute Grindley with an arrow.

Duboys and his gang accost Steed in the halls of St. Bodes, but Steed gets the better of them.

But as Steed returns to Carlyon at his gypsy-style hideout, the rambunctious archers attack and commit the most unforgivable sin -- they pierce Steed's bowler hat with a flaming arrow.

When Steed tackles one of the attackers, he manages to grab a wallet -- a wallet that contains a picture of Marianne.

Jacqueline Pearce as Marianne

Steed confronts Marianne.

Actress Jacqueline Pearce doesn't say that much in this episode, but she conveys a lot of emotion in her eyes, particularly a sense of fear. The press releases for the episode singled out Pearce for her performance in the recent Hammer horror film The Reptile and saying she was destined for greatness.

It's fascinating just how different Pearce is here from her most memorable role -- that of Supreme Commander Servalan in the 1978 - 1981 British science fiction TV series Blake's 7. In that show, Pearce is a sort-of Sheriff of Nottingham style figure -- played somewhat like Joan Collins's Alexis on Dynasty. Or for fans of another 1960s TV series, you might say that Pearce's Servalan is Margaret Thatcher with the sex appeal of Julie Newmar's Catwoman.

Pettit shows up to claim the wallet as his.

Steed interrogates Pettit - twisting his arm, smacking his head with the thesis. It's a bit more vicious than the Steed audiences had come to expect in the Emma Peel years, but then Martin Woodhouse also wrote for the earlier seasons when Steed was a bit more thuggish.

Pettit reveals that yes, there is a figure above Duboys, although he doesn't know who it is. And he also says that he knows how the archives are organized and agrees to find the author of the troublesome thesis.

But as he says this, Duboys enters the room.

Later Duboys questions both Pettit and Marianne, and then sends them away. Millerson says it time that the Big Man take a hand instead of delegating the tasks to them. Duboys agrees and calls someone.

Pettit finds the thesis in the archives, but just then someone pushes a bookcase onto him -- killing Pettit.

Millerson delivers an invite for a RAG Week to party to Steed and Mrs. Peel. Carlyon has also received an invite.

Duboys and his two remaining ardent followers, Millerson and Allen, pledge themselves in blood to the cause. Marianne comes by to deliver Carlyon's acceptance to the party, but Deboys doesn't let her past the doorway. She is no longer part of their plans. Duboys promises that his sword will taste blood again.

RAG Night - "The Central Theme is Robin Hood"

An arrow whizzes past Steed. An apologetic Professor Acheson explains he couldn't resist trying it out for the RAG Night event -- which is fancy dress. "The central theme is Robin Hood." A statement that applies to the whole episode.

The action cuts to the party with the students decked out in medieval garb for a celebration that seems to be only a slightly more toned down version of the Hogarthian revels in the classic Avengers episode "A Touch of Brimstone".

Marianne is dressed as the more courtly version of Maid Marian, but her sympathies are decidedly not with the outlaws any longer.

While she might not be part of the inner circle any longer, Marianne does get close enough to hear their plans. Marianne plays close attention as Duboys talks of luring their quarry to the lecture room. In a sense, Marianne fulfills the role of Maid Marian in many films and TV shows -- she's a spy for Robin Hood. But the Robin she's spying for is not Duboys

The Avengers in Fancy Dress

And then comes writer Martin Woodhouse's vision that inspired the whole episode. Emma Peel enters the room in her very attractive Robin Hood costume -- the kind modern costume shops might bill as "sexy Robin Hood." Steed has more to wear -- the robes of a sheriff, in fact.

MRS. PEEL: Steed. So, you finally decided on your costume. The Sheriff of ...um ... Bashful Ben?
STEED: Nottingham.
MRS. PEEL: Well, I hate to mention it. but in all the books I've read the Sheriff is a baddie.
STEED: Beneath this doublet beats a generous heart. (Pats chest and then pulls out his pretend sword.)
MRS. PEEL: (Playing with the cross-guard.) That looks a bit droopy.
STEED: Wait until it's challenged. After you, Robin Hood.

Duboys and his gang confront Carlyon and prepare to spirit him away when Steed and Mrs. Peel enter the party room. Steed leads Carlyon away -- leaving Duboys and Mrs. Peel to face each other.

DUBOYS: Mrs. Peel. We seem to be in competition. Two Robin Hoods? That will hardly do. One will have to be eliminated, don't you think?
MRS. PEEL: I don't think we need bother. In a situation like this, a gentleman would bow to a lady.

Duboys bows and lets Emma Peel pass. She outwits the student in one of the episode's best exchanges.

Meanwhile, Steed and Mrs. Peel explain the level of danger that the clueless Carlyon is in. And that the Avengers are using him as "live bait" to bring the top man into the open.

Marianne speaks to Mrs. Peel. She's upset that they killed John, and tells Emma that if she wants to get the big man to look for Friar Tuck. Duboys sees this and confronts Marianne. She tells him that Mrs. Peel only wanted to know where she got this dress.

Will the Real Friar Tuck Please Stand Up?

When Emma tells Steed what Marianne told her about the ringleader dressing as Friar Tuck, he accepts it immediately. "Of course, it would be." Emma adds "Well, he was the real brains behind the Robin Hood set up." I'd love to know which version of the legend they got that from. There are certainly versions where Friar Tuck is wise, but the "real brains" seems taking it a bit too far.

They spot Friar Tuck and quickly knock him out in the archives room with a volume of memoirs (heavier than an encyclopedia of erotica). It turns out the villain was Dr. Henge. But then as Steed is telling Carlyon he can relax, Mrs. Peel spots another Friar Tuck. They clobber this second Tuck with the erotica and unmask ... Professor Acheson.

They ask Marianne to point out the real villain, and she says it's neither of them. And she adds that the students have grabbed Carlyon.

In the lecture room, Duboys offers a third Friar Tuck his sword -- to kill Carlyon. The friar unmasks to reveal -- Grindley!

Carlyon is shocked -- he thought Grindley was dead. It gives Grindley the opportunity to deliver a villain's speech.

DUBOYS: Things were hotting up. We thought it better if Grindley was no more.
GRINDLEY: After all, he was only an archivist. Just a small man of no consequence. Only an archivist, a sort-of glorified librarian. And yet one tends to overlook that such a man spends his entire life surrounded by thoughts committed to paper, ideas, wisdom. I am a voracious reader, Mr. Carlyon. And in the end, I wrote a modest thesis myself -- Economics and the Sense of History.
CARLYON: I've read it.
DUBOYS: Well then, you'll appreciate its genius -- the pure simplicity of its basic premise.
CARLYON: What? That history can be created to order?

Whether the writer intended it or not, it's utterly appropriate that the villain in this inverted Robin Hood story be an archivist. So many times, the Robin Hood legend has been shaped, guided and transformed by antiquarians and archivists -- from William Stukeley to Joseph Ritson to Dr. David Crook to name but a few.

Carlyon calls the theory "poppycock", but Grindley retorts that they are going to change the course of history in this room -- beginning with Carlyon's death which will cause "a small economic snowball", which they will guide downhill.

Grindley declares "you shall have your immortality, Mr. Carlyon! You shall have your rightful place in history."

At the last second, the Avengers burst into the room and Mrs. Peel shoots the sword out of Grindley's hand.

A struggle ensues. Millerson bends back Steed's ineffectual rubber sword, and Steed notes "Mrs. Peel was right." But in the end Steed triumphs over his foes. And Emma knocks Duboys into a stack of books. She gives a sly smile as she sees the book that has fallen on the villain is "How to Develop a Winning Personality". Steed and Mrs. Peel already have winning personalities.

With all the foes vanquished, Steed and Mrs. Peel ride off into the sunset, but not in horseback. Mrs. Peel rides a motorcycle with Steed in its sidecar.

Reflections

"A Sense of History" does not often appear on lists of The Avengers' best episodes. And it's true that some of the other episodes I've mentioned here such as "A Touch of Brimstone" are deservedly better remembered. And yet, it's by no means a bad episode.

The script has some witty exchanges, the direction shows how tense and exciting the monochromatic world can be, and all the guest stars are first-rate. Patrick Mower is particularly notable as Duboys -- showing mischievousness, arrogance, cruelty, pettiness, spite and above all fanaticism. As mentioned early, Jacqueline Pearce as Marianne is another notable presence.

It turns the Robin Hood legend on its head, and ends up commenting more on the legend than the other Robin Hood related guest appearances I've covered. It explores the battle between different intellectual ideas, including exposing the allure of fascism -- something that those in our own time might note. It shows how symbols such as Robin Hood can be used for good or for ill. The episode also inverts the 1960s campus radicals by having the Robin Hood gang be more campus reactionaries. And by having multiple Robin Hoods (Duboys and Mrs. Peel) and multiple Friar Tucks (Henge, Acheson and Grindley), the episode shows all the forms the Robin Hood legend can take.

Order The Avengers on Amazon

THE AVENGERS: THE COMPLETE EMMA PEEL MEGA SET starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. All the Emma Peel episodes on DVD. But the quality isn't as high as the UK DVD/Blu-Rays.
The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel MegaSet on Amazon.com (United States)
The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel MegaSet on Amazon.ca (Canada)

THE AVENGERS: SERIES 4 Remastered The black-and-white Emma Peel series including A Sense of History, The Master Minds, A Touch of Brimstone, Too Many Christmas Trees, The Cybernauts and many more. Designed for UK players.
The Avengers Series 4 DVD on Amazon.co.uk (UK)
The Avengers Series 4 Blu-Ray on Amazon.co.uk (UK)

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from the links associated with these interviews (at no additional cost to you).

Where to go from here:

If you enjoyed this Spotlight, check out the following:

THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD WITH MARTIN POTTER (1975) - Jacqueline Pearce's Blake's 7 co-star Paul Darrow plays the Sheriff of Nottingham in this version
AND GUEST-STARRING .... ROBIN HOOD - A Look at Robin Hood-themed episodes of Peabody's Improbable History, The Time Tunnel, Voyagers and Star Trek: The Next Generation
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD WITH ERROL FLYNN (1938) - Now with sound and technicolor. Possibly the best-known live action version of the legend.
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD WITH RICHARD GREENE (1950s TV Series) - A multi-part look at a TV classic that was popular around the world
ROBIN OF SHERWOOD (1980s TV Series) - This mystical take on the legend is one of the best and most influential versions of the Robin Hood tale ever done. It stars Michael Praed as Robin of Loxley and Jason Connery as Robert of Huntingdon
ROBIN HOOD -- PRINCE OF THIEVES WITH KEVIN COSTNER (1991) - In terms of box office, one of the most successful Robin Hood movies ever. In terms of quality...?
STRAIGHT OUTTA THE FEDERATION: A BLAKE'S 7 PODCAST - Co-hosted by this website's creator Allen W. Wright, we explore the 1970s and 1980s British sci-fi TV series Blake's 7 -- a sort of Robin Hood in space, which stars Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow and Jacqueline Pearce
WOLFSHEAD THROUGH THE AGES: THE HISTORY OF ROBIN HOOD - Learn about the growth and development of the Robin Hood legend from the medieval ballads to the modern movies and TV shows
ROBIN HOOD TALES - Read Robin Hood ballads, poems, short stories and comic books

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