The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between 'light entertainment' and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The monochrome filmed Emma Peel season had established a cult following for a series which became an intrinsic part of the 'Swinging Sixties'. Backed by US dollars, the show was now filmed 'in color' and Avengerland becomes stranger and more playful than ever: Steed is shrunk to the size of a desk pad, forced to evade a machine-gun-toting nanny; Emma Peel is tortured in a medieval ducking stool and turned into a living cybernaut. Mrs. Peel, We're Needed draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers as it explores the wonderfully mad Technicolor world of Emma Peel. "The Avengers in pop culture is The Avengers with Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee, in colour. It is this season that defines the show." (Piers Johnson)

Bright Horizons draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers - including scriptwriter Roger Marshall - offering critical explorations of all twenty-six 'mini-films' which made up Season 4, the collective peak of an extraordinary television series. The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between 'light entertainment' and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. At the crossroads between the Cathy Gale-era stricture of video tape and the glossy, surreal, comic-strip world of 'glorious Technicolor', the monochrome filmed Emma Peel season represents the artistic pinnacle of a show which was exported around the world and remains the only British television drama to be networked at 'primetime' in the USA. "Such sheer hard sweat, blood and tears went into it and such beautiful humour, wit and sexiness came out of it. In that way - for all its fantasy - it's closer to everyday human feelings than soaps or Shakespeare." (Frank Shailes) Edited by the author of the popular Subversive Champagne, Bright Horizons represents the first part in a unique, exciting four volume collection covering every single one of the 109 filmed Avengers episodes.