The Avengers: The Girl from Auntie

The Girl from Auntie (1966)
Starring: Patrick Macnee, Liz Fraser, Diana Rigg, Mary Merrall, Alfred Burke, Yolande Turner, Ray Martine, and Bernard Cribbens
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Government "trouble-shooter" John Steed (Macnee) returns from vacation to find a strange woman (Fraser) has assumed the identity of his partner, Mrs. Peel (Rigg). When assassins start popping up, intent on getting rid of the imposter, Steed finds himself working just as hard at keeping her from harm, as he is at finding out what has happened to his partner and friend.

"The Girl From Auntie" is a really fun episode that strikes a balance between suspense and silliness with such skill that it's difficult to be sure who is and isn't involved with the villains until late in the episode. Even Steed has a more difficult time than average unraveling what's going on, due in no small part to the fact that an assassin who racks up an impressive body count during the episode appears to be a harmless little old lady.

The main mystery of the episode revolves around Gregorie Auntie, the owner of a brokerage house that promises it can secure any object the client wants--be it antiquities, modern art, rare collectables... or even people (although that last one is only known to a very select clientele). It's established early on that this organization that has abducted Emma Peel, and the action revolves around Steed trying to find and rescue her before she's sold off to a foreign power for the state secrets she knows, so I'm not breaking my "no spoilers" rule by mentioning it. Alfred Burke, as Auntie, and Yolonde Turner as his femme fatale sidekick are perfect as the operators of this mysterious business, being equally adept at playing silly or sinister as the moment of the story calls for--almost like personifications of what makes this episode work so well. (If fact, these characters are so much fun that they are added to the list of ones I wish could have come back for additional appearances.)

Speaking of things are the equal parts serious and silly, Diana Rigg's Emma Peel character spends most of this episode in a giant birdcage, dressed in a skin-tight, feather-festooned outfit, awaiting the auction that will decide her future. Watching this episode in 2021, I suspect there's less of a sense of danger surrounding Emma Peel's situation--there are many more episodes featuring her to come--but in 1965, it might have seemed to viewers that Peel was on her way out: Steed had never had the same partner for a sequential stretch of episodes as long the ones so far in Season Four. (I don't know if they were testing the waters with Liz Fraser or not.. her character certainly feels like she could be a replacement for Rigg's Emma Peel, especially with her strangely calm reactions to the dead bodies that keep dropping around her, but ultimately she's just one of the many quirky characters that come and go through the series. The actual reason for Rigg's light involvement in this episode and script is probably tied to scheduling realties; there's an episode coming up where she's at the center of the action for the vast majority of it.)

This is another excellent episode that's swiftly paced, features a strong script, and is a lot of fun. Even minor supporting characters--one of which even have names, like the cab driver who ferries Steed around for a good part of the episode--gets some very funny bits.