Patrick Macnee (John Steed)
Commenting on the return of The Avengers...
"The New Avengers sort of sneaked up on me. Last year, I was in a play at Chichester Festival and on the very last day I had to travel to Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, to do a Champagne commercial for French television. It was an Avengers-style commercial, mainly featuring Linda Thorson (who's a big name in France) and I was only there as a kind of reminder of The Avengers. They kept on at me to do my lines in French, which I find difficult. Time was getting late, and I had a 100-mile drive to catch the curtain at Chicester. I was just dashing out of the door when a tall Frenchman called Rudolf Roffi asked me if I'd like to do The Avengers again. I rushed past him saying: 'I certainly can't do it in French.' I forgot all about it until six weeks later when Brian Clemens rang me at the Schubert Theatre in Chicago, where I was playing in Absurd Person Singular. He said it was no joke — The Avengers was going to be done again and they wanted me in it. I said send me a script. They never did. I didn't see a script until I came back to Britain. My daughter Jennie was very suspicious at first. She said there must be some kind of catch. But when I did get some scripts I realised that they were better than ever before. And there we were, doing it. Now it's almost as if I've never been away."

TV Times, 16th-22nd October 1976

Joanna Lumley (Purdey)
Auditioning for the role of Purdey...
"I was dejected at the time I did the audition. I'd been out of work for six months and there were loads of little things going wrong at the flat that needed fixing, like the loo not flushing! I was so fed up I'd thought of packing up and going off to the States! So I couldn't believe it when I was offered the part. It was such a good one and I knew it would be fun to do."

Look-In, week ending 10th September 1977

Brian Clemens (Co-Producer with Albert Fennell)
Talking about Joanna's audition for the role of Purdey...
"For any actress to get this girl's role is like winning the football pools."

Source Unknown

Patrick Macnee (John Steed)
Postulating on the origins of John Steed...
"I based Steed on a combination of Leslie Howard's Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel, a performance by Ralph Richardson in a 1936 film called Q Planes — and on my father."

TV Times, 9th-15th October 1976

Gareth Hunt (Mike Gambit)
On the joys of being Mike Gambit...
"Gambit is like a dream really. He's what a lot of people would like to be. I'm just acting out other people's fantasies, like James Bond."

Source Unknown

Joanna Lumley (Purdey)
Talking about Purdey's fighting style...
"If you want a demonstration of my fighting kicks, I'll oblige — but I don't encourage it. You'll never know what hit you! The high-kicking technique is inspired loosely by the French fighting art of Panache. And Purdey, an ex-ballerina, knows how to use her legs to good effect."

Source Unknown

Vladek Sheybal (Zarcardi in Cat Amongst the Pigeons)
On coming to England from Poland...
"As a young Polish actor, I won an Oscar award and as part of my prize, given by the Ministry of Culture, was to spend two weeks in Paris and London to study French and English. But I liked it so much in England, I just stayed on. Originally it was to be only for two years, but it is eighteen years now and I consider myself very English. I didn't defect. It was nothing political. I just liked it better here."

TV Times, 13th-19th November 1976

Gareth Hunt (Mike Gambit)
On finding his vocation...
"I stayed in the Merchant Navy for six years, but one time, in New Zealand, I got footloose. With another couple of guys, I jumped ship. That was at a place called Napier, and to make a clean getaway, we hired a cab for a hundred mile trip. Cost us eleven quid and two watches. We did odd jobs out there, but of course, we were caught, and ended up in the nick. I did three months, and it taught me one thing. Never to get on the wrong side of the law again! Eventually, I decided it was time to concentrate on that old first love of mine — acting. I studied, played bit parts. Toured in rep, got my confidence and experience, and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Now I'm with the National Theatre, so in a way, if I ever had any ambition, I've answered it."

Look-In, week ending 4th December 1976

Joanna Lumley (Purdey)
On a stunt that went wrong...
"The accident happened during an actual 'take'. It looked marvellous on camera. But the poor man must have been in agony for some moments, and I hurt my foot. As soon as the director called 'Cut,' I rushed across to see how he was. It was several seconds before he could speak. And then I apologised profusely. But he just smiled and said it was one of the occupational hazards that he ran. But it made me a little nervous of the fighting scenes for some time. The idea of really hurting someone is not my idea of fun."

Source Unknown

Brian Clemens (Co-Producer with Albert Fennell)
The new direction for Purdey in The New Avengers' second year...
"Purdey very obviously has an affair. You don't see nudity or anything like that. After all, we have a reputation for being respectable. But it's clear that Purdey is carrying on with somebody."

Source Unknown

Ian Hendry (Irwin Gunner in To Catch A Rat)
On finding himself back in The Avengers after many years away...
"Rather eerie going back after sixteen years and seeing Steed's same bowler hat. I left when the show was at its peak because I've always believed in keeping moving. And inevitably when you keep moving you go around in the odd circle."

TV Times, 27th November-3rd December 1976

Patrick Macnee (John Steed)
On The Avengers' enduring success...
"Today, seven years on (from The Avengers), I feel that The New Avengers has a fresh validity; the timing is perfect for a whole new series. But if I had been asked any time in the past seven years to do it, I can assure you I would have refused. For me, a most exciting thing about the old Avengers is its recent apparent discovery by American youth. It has become a cult thing in the colleges. There are 83 episodes of the series with Di and Linda which are currently showing in some American city every day of the week. From this, you will assume I must be vastly wealthy from the repeat fees. Not so. Down in the small print on the contract there is a clause that says no repeat fees will be paid unless it is shown in more than 20 places at the same time. This time, just in case, I've looked very closely at the small print..."

TV Times, 16th-22nd October 1976

Joanna Lumley (Purdey)
Revealing the downside of her adventurous role...
"I have no head for heights. So, of course, I seem to spend my time on rooftops, trying to look cool while screaming inside."

Source Unknown

Gareth Hunt (Mike Gambit)
On behaving like a star...
"People expect me to be a millionaire driving around in an XJ6. Well, I'm not, and Alexander the Beetle does me just fine!"

Source Unknown

Brian Clemens (Co-Producer with Albert Fennell)
The Avengers women...
"I think we were always ahead of our time with the liberated ladies, such as Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, and the next extension to Women's Lib, I thought, was the woman like Purdey, so sure of herself that she can put her bra back on again."

TV Times, 22nd-28th October 1977

Gareth Hunt (Mike Gambit)
On the price of fame...
"I don't want to be a sex symbol, it's not my scene. I don't enjoy the publicity bit or being recognised. On TV, you're to a certain extent the product of the public. In any case, the fact that I'm acting in a successful series doesn't mean to say that 'I've arrived'. It's just a stepping stone to something else. I'd like to be a director and I'd like to write. I may do all this later."

Source Unknown

Joanna Lumley (Purdey)
On Purdey's new look...
"Let's say I'm even more individual in style and fashion. Nothing shocking or offensive. But I'm sure people will notice me."
TV Times, 3rd-9th September 1977

TV Times, 3rd-9th September 1977

Patrick Macnee (John Steed)
On becoming a part of the television furniture...
"I figure that it's just nice to be recognised. Not perhaps, as a movie star, but more as an old piano that sits in the corner of a room, and they've grown accustomed to it being there. Our Avengers series have all generated that kind of warmth. They have been that kind of show."

Source Unknown

Brian Clemens (Co-Producer with Albert Fennell)
Explains the financing of The New Avengers...
"It is ironic that this supremely British series has not been backed with British money. It's like British Leyland having to make cars in Taiwan. We have made three episodes in France, and are now making another four in Canada, largely because it is the French and Canadians who are putting up the money."

Source Unknown