"...Ra Boom Di Ay!"

Gosh, she was gorgeous!  Linda Thorson as Tara King came into my life in 1968, and things changed forever.  I had loved The Avengers for years, just about remembering Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale and then enjoying Diana Rigg playing Emma Peel.  Patrick Macnee was the smooth, unflappable John Steed who outwitted dastardly villains along with his various partners.

The Avengers first aired in 1961 with Ian Hendry as Dr David Keel who joined up with John Steed (apparently a somewhat mysterious figure at first) to fight crime.  This was before my adult television time, but seven years later Tara took over from Emma for Series Six.  Emma Peel (and Cathy Gale) had clearly been strong, independent women who had been more than the equal of John Steed when it came to combatting crime and evil doing, but both had come from outside the intelligence environment whereas Tara was a young, trained secret service agent who hero worshipped Steed. 

In Emma's final and Tara's first episode "The Forget-Me-Knot", the two meet briefly at the end in Steed's flat.  Emma informs Tara that Steed prefers his tea stirred anticlockwise and departs to rejoin her long lost (now recently found) husband.  Steed at one moment saddened by Mrs Peel's leaving is clearly delighted by Tara's arrival.  The final series of The Avengers was a surreal, strange and sometimes silly experience, but overall very enjoyable.  This (for me) was in no small part down to Linda Thorson's performances as the absolutely delectable Tara King.