"When I wrote "Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers", that was definitely the last series. They were going to make no more, so in that series we went right over the top; we went really weird, because they knew there weren't going to be any more."

The Avengers is a 1960s British television series in the Spy-Fi genre set in cold war Britain. The Avengers focused on John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and his succession of investigative partners working as government agents for the "Ministry". As the series evolved Steed's later partners were high profile, stylish women: Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), followed by Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and later Tara King (Linda Thorson). Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity.

Science fiction fantasy elements (a style later known as Spy-fi) emerged in stories. The duo would encounter killer robots ("The Cybernauts"), and giant alien carnivorous plants ("The Man-Eater of Surrey Green").

Comedy was evident in the names and acronyms of the organizations. For example, in "The Living Dead", two rival groups examine reported ghost sightings: FOG (Friends Of Ghosts) and SMOG (Scientific Measurement Of Ghosts). "The Hidden Tiger" features the Philanthropic Union for Rescue, Relief and Recuperation of Cats — PURRR — led by characters named Cheshire, Manx, and Angora.