Charlie Burrows is an ex-professional footballer who has had to give the game up due to injury. His young wife died suddenly and he was left to raise their daughter, Joanna, on his own. When Joanna gets into yet another fight, he realizes that he needs to obtain a better way of life for her and takes a job as a housekeeper to a rich and divorced career woman, Caroline Wheatley. This gives Jo the opportunity to go to a better school and have a female role model in her life. Caroline is uptight and very repressed. She lives in a wonderful house in Henley with her son, Tom and her mother, Laura and doesn't want a 'hunk' of a male to be housekeeper even though her mother has already employed him.
Simon Peel and Oliver Smallbridge contest a bitter rivalry in all that they do. Not only are they next-door neighbours, they are also rivals in the antiques market (formerly business partners, they are now pursuing trade individually). Typifying his character, Peel believes that he deals in the best end of the business, Smallbridge the tatty end.
The Avengers is one of the most popular and beloved television series of all time. Its outrageous blend of wit and style and its unique mix of the fantasy and spy genres, coupled with the marvelous characters of John Steed and Emma Peel make it one of television's great classics.