The Avengers Season 4 Episode 21

This episode was banned in the U.S. back in 1966 because of the costume Mrs. Peel was wearing and when she dodges Cartney's whip but you can see this on VHS & DVD. The Evening Standard on the day of broadcast carried a publicity still of Diana Rigg with a whip and the headline "What You Won't See on The Avengers Tonight!" (In America legends persist of US TV middle-management gathering in hotel rooms to watch pirate copies of this episode). Steed joins the club by chugging a quart of ale and then asking for more, and then cheating on another test. Cartney's first word to Emma is 'Mrs?' She is genuinely flattered by him - 'We got on rather well' - but frowns at his description of women as 'mere vessels of pleasure'. This episode achieved the series' highest-ever viewing figures (8.4 million) and fifth place in the weekly charts. This figure is all the more remarkable when it is remembered that the episode wasn't properly networked. Then again, with the advance publicity this episode got, nothing is surprising. This is actually the height of the series, as camp as coffee and chicory and with the magnificient OTT grandeur of Wyngarde. One laughs at the sheer verve of it.