In one ep Steed rescues a hottie of a young actress. He claims to be from a certain company while doing so. The actress turns up dead ( all a hoax) and the company Steed claimed to work for honestly actually denies any knowledge of him at all.

The rest of the analogy. In a very early ep Briggs and the IMF and the former's somewhat romantic lady interest all go under cover as a traveling circus in a foreign police state country. A member of the not so secret police there tells Briggs the former checked and the latter's circus checks out with no guild at all.