Of course, we must start with The Avengers. John Steed and some female partners, especially Emma Peel, took a 60s approach to spying/criminal investigation. The Avengers was hugely popular around the world, a feature film was made with Ralph Fiennes and a follow up series, The New Avengers.
But by far the most productive of the studios must have been ITC, the Incorporated Television Company.
This was a company owned by Lew Grade and over a period of maybe twenty years or so produced some of the best loved series ever (let’s not talk about their films).
Here is a short list:
- many of the Gerry Anderson series, including Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet
- The Saint (with Roger Moore) and The Return Of The Saint (not with Roger Moore)
- The Persuaders! (with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis)
- Danger Man and The Prisoner (with Patrick McGoohan)
- Gideon’s Way
- The Adventures Of Robin Hood
- The Protectors, with Robert Vaughn not really being Napoleon Solo
Here are some others, slightly less familiar:
- The Baron (with Steve Forrest), a version of The Saint but The Baron is a famous antiques dealer
- The Adventurer, with Gene Barry as a secret agent who is a famous movie star who is not Amos Burke
- Man In A Suitcase, a private eye series about a loner who is always getting beaten up
- Man Of The World, an investigator who is also a famous photographer
- Department S, a spy series that specialises in ‘baffling’ cases with famous author Jason King, who also had a series
- The Strange Report, with Anthony Quayle as a famous retired dectective who has the hobby of solving unsolved crimes and driving around London in an old taxi
- The Champions, three secret agents who die in a plane crash but are brought back to life with special powers
- Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), a private eye series where one of the PIs is killed at the start and comes back as a ghost to help his partner solve crimes
And the list goes on. Let’s not mention The Muppet Show and others as these are a bit later.
Some of these series ran for hundreds of episodes and are often very good (eg The Saint, Danger Man), others are less so (eg The Adventurer, Man Of The World). The Prisoner is still cited as one of the greatest tv shows ever. Sure, it looks a little dated, but the writing is breathtaking and the themes still very relevant.