“Fresh-faced and brimming with energy, actress Ione Barwick is no newcomer to television, despite being only 21-years-old.”

Of course, Ione Barwick never existed. But still, who is she?

She’s the typical young actress carving out a career on stage and screen during a crucial period in Britain’s television. Picking up a role in The Avengers would have been a juicy job for most. And for Ione it would have given her the chance to add a bit of action onto her resumé, thanks to the inevitable fight scene at the episode’s end.

Read Ione’s Press Biography and it may help you to conjure her to life from the pages of A DEADLY INVITATION. Though, don’t go looking for her film Satellite-Six on IMBD… Ione’s (fake) list of credits, broadly spanning stage, film and tv, is typical of an actor of the day, before the labels ‘film star’ and ‘television star’ became the pigeonholes they remained for the next 40 years.

Back to reality and there were many strong female characters on The Avengers and a number of well-known British actresses appeared during its 161 episodes. Stars such as Penelope Keith, Charlotte Rampling, Fenella Fielding, Yootha Joyce, Kate O’Mara, Nicola Pagett, Carol Cleveland, Gabrielle Drake, and Angela Thorne all at one point said yes to a script and discarded reality for a week.

And, of course, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson would go on to have lengthy careers having cemented their place in cult television history.