After one filmed series (of 26 episodes) in black and white, "The Avengers" began filming in colour for the fifth series in 1966. It was three years before Britain's ITV network began full colour broadcasting. The first 16 episodes of this series were broadcast concurrently in the US, in colour, and the UK, in black and white, from January to May 1967. Eight further episodes were broadcast in the UK beginning in late September, while these episodes were withheld in the US until early 1968, where they would be immediately succeeded by the first batch of episodes featuring Rigg's replacement, Linda Thorson. The American prologue of the fourth series was modified for the colour episodes. The show opened with the caption "The Avengers In Color" (required by ABC for colour series at that time), followed by Steed unwrapping the foil from a champagne bottle and Peel shooting the cork away. Unlike the "chessboard" opening of the previous series, this new prologue had no narrative voice-over, and the scene was also included in UK broadcasts of the series.