The BEST episodes of The Avengers

Every episode of The Avengers ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Avengers!

"Always keep your bowler on in time of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds." [Mrs Peel] The Avengers is one of the most popular and beloved television series of all time. Its outrageous blend of wit and style and its unique mix of the fantasy and spy genres, coupled with the marvellous characters of John Steed and Emma Peel make it one of television's great classics.

Last Updated: 2/15/2024Network: ITV1Status: Ended
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Dragonsfield
star
9.73
30 votes

#1 - Dragonsfield

Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 12/30/1961

How has a research centre developing radiation-proof material managed to irradiate one of its scientists? Once more, Steed submits himself to scientific testing.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Apple TV
The Springers
star
9.60
30 votes

#2 - The Springers

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/13/1961

Steed is trying to track down the organisers of a group who offer to spring any convict - even the dangerous ones - from prison if they're paid the right money. Keel impersonates a prisoner, and the trail seems to lead to a girl's finishing school.

Directors: Don Leaver
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A Change of Bait
star
9.60
30 votes

#3 - A Change of Bait

Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 12/23/1961

An unusual and sprawling tale of heart disease, industrial unrest, and a consignment of rotten bananas.

Directors: Don Leaver
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Deadly Air
star
9.60
30 votes

#4 - The Deadly Air

Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 12/16/1961

An experimental vaccine is stolen, and the subsequent test proves deadly. Steed and Keel, suspecting that the human 'guinea pig' did not die directly from the vaccine, volunteer to be the next subjects.

Directors: John Knight
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Dead of Winter
star
9.60
30 votes

#5 - Dead of Winter

Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 12/9/1961

The discovery of the body of Schneider, a wanted Nazi war criminal, deep-frozen in a consignment of meat at London docks brings Steed and Keel into the shadowy world of Phoenix, a new and terrifying Fascist party in Britain.

Directors: Don Leaver
Writer: Eric Paice
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Kill the King
star
9.60
30 votes

#6 - Kill the King

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 9/2/1961

A visit to London to sign an oil treaty from a monarch whose life is under threat brings Steed and Keel into the world of dissidents and assassinations.

Directors: Roger Jenkins
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Toy Trap
star
9.60
30 votes

#7 - Toy Trap

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 7/22/1961

Keel is asked by the improbably named Bunty to help her find her missing friend. What is the connection between the department store where the women work and a call-girl racket?

Directors: Don Leaver
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Far Distant Dead
star
9.60
30 votes

#8 - The Far Distant Dead

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 8/19/1961

Dr Keel, treating the victims of a cyclone struck Mexican village, uncovers a number of food-poisonings; emergency cooking oil is, in fact, hydraulic fluid.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Yellow Needle
star
9.60
30 votes

#9 - The Yellow Needle

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 6/10/1961

After an unsuccessful murder attempt against Sir Wilberforce Lungi, Steed asks Keel, an old friend of the pro-Western African leader, to investigate Lungi's secretary, Jacquetta Brown. Meanwhile, Steed flies to Africa to meet Lungi's tribalist rival, Shebro.

Directors: Don Leaver
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Double Danger
star
9.60
30 votes

#10 - Double Danger

Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 7/8/1961

Keel, called to deal with a man seriously injured by an accident, quickly discovers that the man is suffering from gunshot wounds, and that he may be implicated in a recent diamond robbery.

Directors: Roger Jenkins
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Death on the Slipway
star
9.60
30 votes

#11 - Death on the Slipway

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 6/24/1961

An agent has been killed at the secret dockyard where submarines are built. Steed investigates, and finds that a foreign spy has been arranging 'accidents' for him.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:Apple TV
Ashes of Roses
star
9.52
31 votes

#12 - Ashes of Roses

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/4/1961

Steed, investigating a number of probable arson cases, is led to the hairdressing salon of Olive and Jacques Beronne. He asks Keel to let Carol investigate the salon, but after she enters, there is an explosion from within

Directors: Don Leaver
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
One for the Mortuary
star
9.48
31 votes

#13 - One for the Mortuary

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/29/1961

When Keel attends a health conference in Geneva he is unaware that he is carrying, in microdot form, a vital new medical formula - unaware, that is, until he is arrested for murder.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Who Was That Man I Saw You With?
star
9.44
36 votes

#14 - Who Was That Man I Saw You With?

Season 6 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/19/1969

Tara has been employed to test the security on the top-secret war-room computer 'The Field Marshall'. But when a strange foreign man starts sending her flowers, Mother suspects that she's doing her job a bit too efficiently.

Directors: Don Chaffey
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Crescent Moon
star
9.44
32 votes

#15 - Crescent Moon

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/1961

A young girl, Carmelite Mendoza, has been kidnapped from a Caribbean island, but Steed suspects a political motive. His suspicions are confirmed when Vasco, the Mendoza family retainer, is observed killing the original kidnapper and abducting the girl himself.

Directors: John Knight
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Dance with Death
star
9.44
32 votes

#16 - Dance with Death

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/15/1961

Dr. Keel resuscitates Elaine Bateman, the owner of a ballroom dancing school who has narrowly survived a murder attempt by gassing. When he returns to the school after dropping his scarf, he is arrested. His scarf has been used to strangle the woman.

Directors: Don Leaver
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Curious Case of the Countless Clues
star
9.43
37 votes

#17 - The Curious Case of the Countless Clues

Season 6 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/5/1969

Rich men are being blackmailed by two crime experts who plant clues to them all over the scenes of the crimes that they themselves commit. However, when they try to allege that Steed would murder Tara....

Directors: Don Sharp
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Diamond Cut Diamond
star
9.42
33 votes

#18 - Diamond Cut Diamond

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/18/1961

Steed, attempting to break a gang of international diamond smugglers, is living in a bungalow near Heathrow Airport which was once owned by a suicide whom One-Ten suspects of involvement. Steed awakens one morning somewhat the worse for drink, when a phone call advises him to check the morning paper; the police are tracking a hit-and-run driver. Steed checks his car. It is damaged, and the front is covered with dried blood.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Writer: Max Marquis
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Radioactive Man
star
9.42
33 votes

#19 - The Radioactive Man

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/25/1961

Dr Keel is asked to help in the search for a man who has picked up a radioactive isotope, not knowing that it will quickly kill him and harm anyone else he comes into contact with. But Marko, fearing that the police want to find him because of his forged passport, has already gone into hiding.

Directors: Robert Tronson
Writer: Fred Edge
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Tunnel of Fear
star
9.42
33 votes

#20 - Tunnel of Fear

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 8/5/1961

Top-secret information is finding its way into the wrong hands, and the source seems to be a south coast fairground. Steed succeeds in getting hypnotised and winds up in the ghost-train tunnel. With frightening results, of course.

Directors: Guy Verney
Writer: John Kruse
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Hunt the Man Down
star
9.41
32 votes

#21 - Hunt the Man Down

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/18/1961

Frank Preston is released from prison and is intent on reclaiming the hidden proceeds of his robbery. So is Steed, who has been ordered to follow the man. So are a couple of thugs, who kidnap Carol. So is Preston's scheming wife, eager to get her hands on the one hundred thousand pounds hidden somewhere in the sewers.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Please Don't Feed the Animals
star
9.41
32 votes

#22 - Please Don't Feed the Animals

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/1/1961

Steed trails a blackmailed civil servant to Brinkley House, a private zoo, only to observe the man throwing a package of money into the reptile pit. The package soon vanishes. The man is then ordered to steal a top secret file.

Directors: Dennis Vance
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Nightmare
star
9.35
34 votes

#23 - Nightmare

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/1961

Keel receives a 'phone call from one of his patients, and ends up assuming the identity of her missing husband, a scientist engaged in secret research. Shot in the chest, Keel needs a minor operation - but the anaesthetist has tampered with the oxygen.

Directors: Peter Hammond
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Bizarre
star
9.35
37 votes

#24 - Bizarre

Season 6 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/21/1969

When a woman is found walking barefoot in a snowy field, complaining of a dead man who wasn't dead, Steed investigates the Happy Meadows funeral parlour, which doesn't seem to be keeping its clients down under. What connection could that business possibly have with Mystic Tours?

Directors: Leslie Norman
Watch Now:Amazon
Take-Over
star
9.30
40 votes

#25 - Take-Over

Season 6 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/23/1969

The home of Steed's friends Bill and Laura Bassett is invaded by a group of ruthless criminals who implant explosives in their throats. Unfortunately, this is the weekend that Steed is coming to stay.

Directors: Robert Fuest
Writer: Terry Nation
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV