Avengers Logo 'Have Guns - Will Haggle'
by Donald James
Avengers Cast

Steed and Tara are called in to investigate the dramatic theft of 3,000 highly-secret, brand-new rifles. The guns have many potential buyers on the black market, including Colonel Nsonga, who plans to use the weapons to stage a political coup in his home country. When the thieves stage an auction for the guns, Steed bids against Nsonga, as he has arranged to be the representative of the Colonel's president. But unknown to Steed, Tara is imprisoned in the hut that is about to be the target for the demonstration of the guns’ deadly capabilities…

Patrick Macnee (John Steed), Linda Thorson (Tara King), Johnny Sekka (Colonel Nsonga), Nicola Pagett (Adriana), Jonathan Burn (Conrad), Timothy Bateson (Spencer), Michael Turner (Crayford), Robert Gillespie (Lift Attendant), Roy Stewart (Giles), Peter J. Elliot (Brad)

Directed by Ray Austin
Produced by John Bryce / Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens

TX:
UK: 11th December, 1968

Notes:
*Featuring John Steed and Tara King

*The tag scene: Steed and Tara receive a gift from the president; the card attached reads ‘...of our country, from our country’ - then the gift growls…

*This episode is a reworking of ‘Invitation to a Killing’, which was originally a ninety-minute episode intended to introduce Tara King, and was produced by John Bryce prior to the return of Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell. However, they thought it unusable and instead decided to use ‘The Forget-Me-Knot’ as Tara's first story, although the tight production schedule eventually led them to recycle it as this ‘new’ episode. Several plot elements were altered, Diana Rigg was called back for four days’ work (thanks to a thanks to a contractual technicality), and new footage was shot so that everything edited together coherently - although if one looks closely, it is possible to note a change in seasons from one scene to the next, as well as some odd transitions from day to night.