Fans of the cult television series The Avengers are celebrating after a long-lost piece of film was found in Bradford.

The unique piece of TV history has been discovered at the National Museum of Photography Film and Television where it has been in storage for 20 years.

Now fans of the archetypal British show will be able to enjoy its leather catsuits and bowler hats in full colour for the first time.

The very first colour version of the series was thought by many in the industry to have been lost - but it has been tracked down by Ian Potter, curator of the public access television archive TV Heaven.

The film runs to just under five minutes and features Diana Rigg as the action girl Emma Peel and Patrick MacNee as the urbane, umbrella-carrying Steed.

It was created in 1966 - when British TV was strictly black and white - to promote the series in America.

Now Avengers fans have a chance to see the footage when it receives its first public screening at a special event at the Pictureville Cinema tomorrow.

Mr Potter, who came across the film while archiving, said: "It's classic Avengers material - fantastic, very camp, very stylish and very corny."

He has been cataloguing the remaining ten per cent of the ITV Association's collection of classic advertisements which the museum bought in 1976.

Most of the collection of 18,000 short films was archived before the museum's major refurbishment and the remainder put in storage. Mr Potter believes the box containing the Avengers material hadn't been opened since 1977.

The special Avengers event starts at 10am. Tickets are priced £10 and available by ringing (01274) 202030.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.