Tara King
Agent 69, Tara King, was a young rookie called in to replace Emma Peel as Steed's partner in the only cross-over episode "The Forget-Me-Knot". Tara was a lot younger than Steed and producers hoped that it would be evident that nothing could occur between the two but viewers were unsure especially when, in the last episode "Bizarre" the two were trapped in orbit with nothing more than smart evening dress and a bottle of Champagne!
Tara was played by the twenty year old Canadian Linda Thorson (the only Avenger star not to appear in a 007 movie) who had been chosen from a list of 200 hopefuls and had to be sent to a health farm for a week in order to lose weight on the insistance of the producers. Her hair was also bleached to make her more distinguishable from Diana Rigg. This was until it damaged her hair too much when a wig was introduced until it had regrown and her natural colour could shine through. Thorson was RADA's top student but Patrick was initially sceptical about his young side-kick fearing she would make him appear too old.
The name Tara is a reference to the estate in "Gone with the Wind" and was chosen by Linda Thorson herself. In many ways her experiences on and off screen at the Avengers mirrored each other. After being shunned and hurt by the top dogs at ABC MacNee took Linda under his wing and the pair began to hit it off with the new sexy Tara admiring her mentor. The same was true on the screen as the young rookie often had to be rescued by Steed and who often mentioned how responsible he felt for 69(!).
Tara appears to be rather more feminine than her predecessors. Many quips have been made about her handbag but I feel that she was a highly accomplished sniper fit enough to do back flips and arm-to-arm conflict to whoever would take her on. She's very intelligent (although a professional agent as opposed to an academic and amatuer as both Mrs Gale and Mrs Peel were) and held a great appreciation to all branches of the arts from classical music to Vaudavillia (?). I, for one, am willing to stand up for Tara King, the last of the Avengers.
Mother
The Tara episodes also introduced a new character, Steed's supirior, Mother. Mother is the head of the Ministry who had been paralysed in the prime of his career as an active field agent. Only in the Mrs Gale episodes with One-Ten and the others had we seen a sense of hierarchy in the series. In his biography Macnee stated how much he disliked the character, Mother. It was clear that Steed was a well qualified man, his very heir and poise suggested his standing and believed that these two now had to report in and have their adventures asigned made the programmes boring.
Mother was played by Patrick Newell (who can be seen in the Emma Peel episode Something Nasty in the Nursery). He would often be seen driving (or being driven in ) a mini-moke or a silver rolls royce. Mother also had a very transient office which could be at the bottom of a lake to on board a London double-decker bus.
With Mother there was often the silent but deadly blonde Rhonda (Rhonda Parker) who acted as secretary, chauffeur, carer and as an extention of Mother.
