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As with many of my generation, I first encountered The Avengers in the 1980s, when Channel Four re-screened Series Five – and after just one episode, I was a devotee for life.

There was the theme tune by Laurie Johnson and the villains played by Peters Bowles and Wyngarde, or Kenneth J Warren; eccentrics, mad scientists and bounders who try to maintain the status quo by any means possible.

Of course, there were also the motor cars. The viewer could revel in a 1924 Vauxhall 30-98 plus a quintet of exquisite Bentleys – a 1924 3-Litre Tourer, a 1925 3-Litre “Green Label” Open Four-Seater by Vanden Plas, a 1930 6½ Litre Long Chassis Tourer, a 1924 3 Litre and a 1929 4 ½ Litre with a Harrison body.

And there was the late Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel in her Power Blue Lotus Elan S3. It was a combination guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of this week’s diabolical mastermind, international fiend or Warren Mitchell’s charmingly inept KGB agent “Brodsky”.

Colin Chapman provided SJH 499 D and the actress was to subsequently reflect ‘I had a couple of accidents when I was asked to do fast turns and things, and I was rather horrified by the amount of fibre that was revealed. One doesn’t expect a car to be fibrous’.

Meanwhile, Patrick Macnee openly disliked motoring, including taking the wheel of his own Jaguar S-Type; a bowler-hatted stunt double often piloted John Steed’s Bentley.

Mrs Peel joined The Avengers for Series Four in 1965 after the departure of Honor Blackman’s Dr. Cathy Gale. Her first adventure, The Town of No Return aired on 28^th September, and one critic raved ‘Miss Rigg was absolutely at home from the word go’.

Her transport was a 1964 Elan S2, registration HNK 99 C,  and in the following month, the actress graced the Lotus stand at the London Motor Show.

By 1966, the fifth season was shot in colour as ABC TV had sold the show to American television networks. Motoring enthusiasts were especially taken with the episode Dead Man’s Treasure with its Triumph TR4As, MGBs with Bermuda Hardtops, a brace of Series One E-Types, a Mercedes-Benz 250 SE Cabriolet and a Series V Sunbeam Alpine.

My episode of choice is Murdersville with its VDP Princess 4 Litre R, Citroen Safari, “police” Wolseley 6/110 Mk. I – and an atmosphere of genuine menace.

The Avengers was also much enhanced by the decision of its creator Brian Clemens to never stray beyond its own vision of England. Steed and Mrs. Peel would never find themselves in an ITC-style scenario of a Moskvich 407 crashing through a cardboard replica Eastern Bloc border crossing in Black Park.

Nor would they ever visit a “France” created by driving a Peugeot 403 on the wrong side of the road in Hertfordshire or visit an Elstree approximation of a “groovy happening”.

Naturally, this was all too wonderful to last, for pay disputes between Diana Rigg and the producers meant that her first colour season was also her swansong on the programme. Her final episode was The Forget-Me-Knot, and The Avengers was never quite the same.

The sixth and final series all too often suffered from whimsy and self-indulgence. As for the 1970s revival The New Avengers, that was the televisual equivalent of the sort of relative that one tries to avoid at social gatherings.

It goes without saying that the career of Dame Diana is one of the most distinguished of any British actress of the 20^th century, and her importance to television history can never be understated.

The Avengers were far removed from the conventions of the Bond films, where various ingénues tended to exist either to conveniently drop dead after two reels or fall prey to the charms of 007’s chest hair.

Instead, our impeccably well-mannered duo was at the centre of an idiosyncratic vision of the 1960s with a blend of Edwardian and Lotus Elans – and where a spy with the brisk manner of Mary Poppins would favour Pierre Cardin fashions. The best of The Avengers can never date, as it exists within a self-contained world.

 Mrs Peel – you will be missed.