Network, out now

John Steed’s three encounters with the deadly robots, now in full high definition.

In common with most of the adventure series of that time, The Avengers didn’t feature regularly recurring villains – they weren’t pitted against an organised foe of the nature of THRUSH in The Man From UNCLE, or SPECTRE in the contemporary Bond films. Characters might reappear but that was the exception rather than the norm. Doctor Armstrong’s creations, the Cybernauts, turned up three times across the two incarnations of the TV series.

Their first appearance came in the black and white Steed and Mrs Peel era; their second in their colour years; their final in The New Avengers. Each story is enjoyable in its own right, with some terrific guest stars as the human villains – Michael Gough in the first, Peter Cushing in the second, Frederick Jaeger as their assistant Benson in both of these, and Robert Gillespie in the New Avengers – and some tense moments for Our Heroes. The continuity’s perhaps not as tight as it could have been: Gillespie plays a hitherto unseen assistant to the Cybernauts’ creator, although Jaeger was still around and turned up on The New Avengers three episodes later!

Network’s time and money on the restoration is clear on screen – the two Steed and Mrs Peel episodes look as if they are period pieces shot this year, and the New Avengers, while still maintaining that slightly down and dirty Seventies feel, look better than I’ve seen before. There’s not a lot of extras – there’s vintage mode, where you can watch period-appropriate adverts in the breaks – but it’s the clarity of the adventure that you’ll be buying these for (not the subtitles: those on The New Avengers include references to “Mrs Peale” and a game of “snook! huh!”)

Verdict: Three fine examples of derring-do upgraded to Dr Armstrong’s highest standards. 9/10

Paul Simpson