Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse turned down chance to revive The Avengers

“At the time, we said no, but actually something like that would be fun.”

By Morgan Jeffery

Published: Sunday, 07 May 2023 at 12:00 am

Stylish 1960s spy-fi series The Avengers hasn’t been revisited on screen since an ill-fated 1998 movie adaptation – but it appears there were conversations since then about reviving the show on television.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com, writer, comedian and actor Charlie Higson revealed that he and Paul Whitehouse once had conversations about bringing back The Avengers, which starred Patrick Macnee as suave secret agent John Steed alongside a number of different female leads, most famously Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel.

Higson explained: “Years ago, me and Paul Whitehouse were approached to see if we were interested in revamping The Avengers, the original TV Avengers from the ’60s. At the time, we said no, but actually, something like that would be fun.”

Higson and Whitehouse, who worked together on beloved BBC sketch series The Fast Show, turned down the project for fear of not matching up to fan expectations.

“We were busy on our own stuff at the time, and we thought, ‘Do we really want to bring back something that’s not going to be as good as the original?’” he said.

Higson previously revamped another cult ’60s series, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), for television in the early 2000s, with Whitehouse co-writing one episode with Higson and playing a villain in another.

The original version of The Avengers first aired in 1961, running for six series until 1969, and followed Steed and his partners as they battled criminals, mad scientists and other miscreants.