PREP Use Clickview to watch The Avengers episode. As you watch, look out for the ways in which social and historical contexts have influenced the programme.
Just for interest at this stage, below is the kind of question that would appear in our exam:
5 The Avengers
Explain how historical contexts influenced the portrayal of heroes and villains in television programmes. Refer to The Avengers from 1965 to support your answer. [10]
Social and historical contexts:
the 1960s was a time of rapid social change and the programme reflected the desire of the television professionals to push social boundaries. Peel’s character was a strong and sexy ‘heroine’ who was very different to the usual female characters found on television at this time
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Steed’s hero character was styled for an overseas market; he was presented to fit the international stereotype of an English ‘gent’ in order to appeal to an American market as Series 4 was sold overseas and introduced the world to the UK in the 1960s
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‘foreign’ villains, often found in The Avengers, reflected society’s concerns over spys and ‘outsiders’ (enemy within) operating in the UK during the cold war
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the influence of gender inequalities: Emma Peel is represented as an intelligent career woman and there is a central male/female ‘hero/heroine’ pairing at the heart of The Avengers – reflecting women’s increasing public role in British society in the 1960s
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the heroes in The Avengers are white and heterosexual, which suggests that this was considered the norm in the 1960s and any representation outside of this was not accepted by society, reinforcing the marginalization of minority groups such as these in Britain at this time
the heroes overcome the villains with relative ease - Steed and Emma polish off the `Eastern European' soldiers and villains speedily in the closing sequence, thus reassuring the audience of an assumed British superiority at a time when the Cold War was at its height
Historical context includes the social, cultural and political context of the time.
Context should move beyond the theoretical framework of representation, medial language, audience or industries.
- Candidates may refer to other programmes of the time in their response in addition to discussing The Avengers.
