MRS. PEEL...WE'RE NEEDED

[umpire2]

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[umpire2]

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[umpire2]

WHEN DIANA RIGG DECIDED NOT TO RETURN FOR A THIRD FULL SEASON PLAYING MRS. EMMA PEEL, SHE WAS REPLACED BY 20-Year-Old AMERICAN, LINDA THORSON (who was producer John Bryce's girlfriend).....

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[umpire2]

STRANGELY ENOUGH, AFTER 3 NEW EPISODES WERE FILMED, BRYCE WAS FIRED AND MOST OF THE FOOTAGE FROM THOSE EPISODES WAS SCRAPPED....

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[umpire2]

LUCKILY FOR THORSON, SHE WAS KEPT ON TO PLAY NEW AGENT "TARA KING", EVEN IN THE ABSENCE OF HER THEN-BOYFRIEND.....

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[umpire2]

DIANA RIGG WAS ENTICED BACK TO FILM ONE MORE EPISODE, THE TRANSITIONAL "FORGET-ME-KNOT", WHEREIN MRS. PEEL LEAVES WITH HER NOW-FOUND-"LOST"-HUSBAND, PETER PEEL AND TARA MINISKIRTS HER WAY INTO JOHN STEED'S LIFE.....

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[umpire2]

This thread is far from "over": I still encourage comments, stories and reminiscences.

I also have a current database of 246 more "Avengers" pics.....

[ELaken-Palmer]

We just don't like replacements. To us...

George Reeves is Superman
John Steed and Mrs. Peel are The Avengers
Sean Connery is James Bond
Roger Moore can be Simon Templar
Dick York is Darrin Stevens
Jonathan Frid is Barnabus Collins
Larry Fine, Moe Howard and Curly Howard are The Three Stooges
Adam West is Batman
Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes
Bela Lagosi is Dracula
Peter Sellers is Inspector Clouseau
Mike, Chip and Robbie were his three sons
Boris Karloff is Frankenstein's monster AND The Mummy
Rusty Hamer was his son and Angila Cartwright was his daughter (but what happened to his first wife and his oldest daughter?)
Audrey Meadows was Alice
and Kevin Bacon starred in "Footloose"!


Did I miss any?

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

We just don't like replacements. To us...

George Reeves is Superman
John Steed and Mrs. Peel are The Avengers
Sean Connery is James Bond
Roger Moore can be Simon Templar
Dick York is Darrin Stevens
Jonathan Frid is Barnabus Collins
Larry Fine, Moe Howard and Curly Howard are The Three Stooges
Adam West is Batman
Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes
Bela Lagosi is Dracula
Peter Sellers is Inspector Clouseau
Mike, Chip and Robbie were his three sons
Boris Karloff is Frankenstein's monster AND The Mummy
Rusty Hamer was his son and Angila Cartwright was his daughter (but what happened to his first wife and his oldest daughter?)
Audrey Meadows was Alice
and Kevin Bacon starred in "Footloose"!


Did I miss any?

That's cool, ELP (except that at least 6 of those you listed were, themselves "replacements".......

[ELaken-Palmer]

Originally Posted by umpire2

That's cool, ELP (except that at least 6 of those you listed were, themselves "replacements".......

Well... I know Audrey Meadows replaced Pert Kelton as Alice and there may have been minor Superman and Batman movies made in the 40's with other actors and Diana was Honor's replacement and Linda was added to "Make Room For Daddy" but didn't replace daughter Terry who just faded away . But who are the others you spotted?

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

Well... I know Audrey Meadows replaced Pert Kelton as Alice and there may have been minor Superman and Batman movies made in the 40's with other actors and Diana was Honor's replacement and Linda was added to "Make Room For Daddy" but didn't replace daughter Terry who just faded away . But who are the others you spotted?

Before Roger Moore played The SAINT, he was preceded by:

Louis Hayward
George Sanders
and Hugh Sinclair


Prior to Basil Rathbone taking the reigns of Sherlock Holmes,

Holmes was portrayed on films (I'm leaving out stage productions) by:

Eille Norwood (1921-1923) {interesting note is that Norwood's real name was Anthony BRETT)
John Barrymore (1922)
Arthur Wontner (1931-1937)
Clive Brook (1932)

[ELaken-Palmer]

Sharp as a tack, umpire!

[umpire2]

A Nod to "The New Avengers"

Two 13 episode series of "The New Avengers" were produced in 1976 & 1977.

Continuing the adventures of agent JOHN STEED, this time with two partners, Mike Gambit and the single-named Purdy......

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[umpire2]

PATRICK MACNEE reprised his role as JOHN STEED, with JOANNA LUMLEY as PURDY and GARETH HUNT as GAMBIT

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[umpire2]

INTENTIONALLY DONE AS MORE OF A STRAIGHTFORWARD SPY/ADVENTURE PROGRAM, "THE NEW AVENGERS" WAS GOOD, BUT DID NOT HAVE THE WIT or BITE OF THE ORIGINAL 6 SERIES FROM THE 1960s.....

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[umpire2]

A LUMLEY, MACNEE, HUNT reunion from 2009.....

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[ELaken-Palmer]

I actually enjoyed The New Avengers a lot. I found it (first run) on the CBC from across the river in Windsor (in the late 70's). I thought the producers got it right with Purdy who was almost as enchanting as Mrs. Peel. Steed was his usual dapper self and Gambit was very tough and Bond-like. Didn't know it then but the program was filmed in Canada.

The shock, to me, was having watched the British comedy "Absolutely Fabulous" run on cable (in the 90's) and realizing (much later) that Joanna Lumley (who was older, over-the-top frumpish glam on that show) was, in fact, the lovely Purdy from "The New Avengers".



Mrs. Peel wore shape-revealing catsuits, Tara King wore mini-skirts but always kept her thighs together and Purdy wore long skirts but gave us occasional, up-the-skirt shots while climbing over fences and such.

"The New Avengers" also had the Laurie Johnson music.


Freeze this at the :24 second mark.

Not a bad show at all.

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

I actually enjoyed The New Avengers a lot. I found it (first run) on the CBC from across the river in Windsor (in the late 70's). I thought the producers got it right with Purdy who was almost as enchanting as Mrs. Peel. Steed was his usual dapper self and Gambit was very tough and Bond-like. Didn't know it then but the program was filmed in Canada.

The shock, to me, was having watched the British comedy "Absolutely Fabulous" run on cable (in the 90's) and realizing (much later) that Joanna Lumley (who was older, over-the-top frumpish glam on that show) was, in fact, the lovely Purdy from "The New Avengers".



Mrs. Peel wore shape-revealing catsuits, Tara King wore mini-skirts but always kept her thighs together and Purdy wore long skirts but gave us occasional, up-the-skirt shots while climbing over fences and such.

"The New Avengers" also had the Laurie Johnson music.


Freeze this at the :24 second mark.

Not a bad show at all.

Thanks, ELP.

I like "The New Avengers", too (I own both sets). I just like them the least, behind the Peels, the Gales & the Kings (in that order).

I'd give it a B, 'cause its easy to dance to.

[umpire2]

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[magnus666]

this is the image i remember as a kid

[magnus666]

another "star" of the show..steeds bentley(i think its a bentley).

[umpire2]

Thanks, Magnus!

Steed did, indeed 'drive' Bentleys----he had several different models throughout the series.

Though I have heard (I don't know if this is true or not) that PATRICK MACNEE never actually learned to drive.

There are scenes of him driving, but only short distances, and supposedly most of the time he is shown in the car 'driving', it is either being pushed by some of the crew or it is a stuntman doing the driving.

[ELaken-Palmer]

Steed was born John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed sometime between 1922 and 1925 (the actor who played him, Patrick Macnee, was born 1922). A scion of a noble family, Steed attended Eton (like Macnee), where he once got into a fight with the school bully, James Bond, over gambling debts and was eventually expelled (like Macnee). He was a distinguished veteran of World War II (like Macnee - but here their bios begin to diverge as Macnee was a member of the Royal Navy), training with the Coldstream Guards and then transferring to the Intelligence Corps. He spent the early part of his war service posted at RAF Camp 472 Hamelin, which was a jumping-off point for British spies on the continent. He received the Military Cross for single-handedly taking a German machine-gun post. Before leaving the British Army to join "The Ministry" in 1945, Steed achieved the rank of Major.

He maintained a modest mews flat in London during the 1960s (first at 5 Westminster Mews, later at 3 Stable Mews) and drove a variety of elaborate, old-fashioned cars, including a Rolls Royce and several different models of Bentley, one of which he called Fido. In one episode also a Vauxhall 30/98 can be seen.

By The New Avengers, Steed had moved out to the country, to a manor house known as "Steed's Stud", and was no longer driving vintage cars, but contemporary Jaguars instead.

During his run on "The Avengers" , Patrick Macnee was very rarely (if ever) seen using a gun. Macnee has stated in interviews that he insisted on this because he'd seen enough of guns and carnage during his military service in World War II.




Patrick Macnee was born in London, England, into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her female lover. Until the age of 11, Macnee wore nothing but kilts.

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

Until the age of 11, Macnee wore nothing but kilts.

I guess he liked showing off his MacKnees......

[umpire2]

Great info, btw, ELP

[Trib Fan]

Diana Rigg had gorgeous cat like eyes....slender....perfection....
Apparently good enough for James Bond....but Blofeld killed her....sadly.....

[ELaken-Palmer]

Originally Posted by Trib Fan

Diana Rigg had gorgeous cat like eyes....slender....perfection....
Apparently good enough for James Bond....but Blofeld killed her....sadly.....

Actually, didn't Erma Bunt kill her?

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

Actually, didn't Erma Bunt kill her?

Yes, IRMA Bunt did the killing while Blofield drove the car....

[ELaken-Palmer]

Going back to post #108, to me

Donald Pleasence WAS Blofeld.

Because I saw "Goldfinger" first,
Cec Linder was the best Felix Leiter.

Just read an interview where Patrick Macnee states that he did not like the character of James Bond. He was told to read the stories for his role as secret agent John Steed. He rejected the Bond image for the dapper, English fop with a steel interior. Macnee, for Steed, got it right.

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

Going back to post #108, to me

Donald Pleasence WAS Blofeld.

Because I saw "Goldfinger" first,
Cec Linder was the best Felix Leiter.

Just read an interview where Patrick Macnee states that he did not like the character of James Bond. He was told to read the stories for his role as secret agent John Steed. He rejected the Bond image for the dapper, English fop with a steel interior. Macnee, for Steed, got it right.

Perhaps I need to go back and read the Bond novels again, but in my memory, the character of James Bond was not translated into the films (which I like) well at all.

In the books, Bond is colder, more calculating and, as far as his dalliances with the ladies are concerned, few had any emotional connection for him, but rather, they were a necessary part of the job.

In the films, Bond is portrayed as a Romeo.

If Macnee rejected Bond from the characterizations in the novels, it was to make Steed softer and more personable, not harder.

[umpire2]

"Damn! I'll get these pants off of you yet, Tara!"

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[umpire2]

I watched the second episode of Season 3 of THE AVENGERS, entitled "The Undertakers" this morning at 12:30, before I went to bed.

Excellent episode and has hints of some of the surreal episodes of the show yet to come...

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[umpire2]

LALLY BOWERS as the scatterbrained but calculating Mrs. Renter

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[umpire2]

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[umpire2]

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[umpire2]

OK, last night I watched an episode from the third season entitled "Second Sight", written by Martin Woodhouse. I had never seen the episode before (and there are still about 8 or 10 others that I've never seen) and I am not surprised.

This dog has probably been buried for decades and only dug up to put on the complete seasons DVD.

A sign that nothing is perfect, this episode totally stunk. Even Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman seemed as though they were just going through the motions. The story had some potential, but the way it was written, edited and acted was just horrendous. The way it was shot, it came across as an amateurish soap opera. The plot made little sense, there were awkward jumps in both plot and scene.....ugh, it was disappointing.

Oh, well......

[umpire2]

I KNOW IT IS MEMORIAL DAY IN THE U.S., and I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY APPRECIATION TO ALL FORMER and CURRENT SERVICE MEN and WOMEN and PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO DIED and WERE WOUNDED IN SERVICE TO THEIR COUNTRY.

[ELaken-Palmer]

Diana Rigg on Diana Rigg:

"I hope there's a tinge of disgrace about me. Hopefully, there's one good scandal left in me yet. " ... Diana Rigg





What a kisser!

[hotjohn4321]

Lots of old memories seeing this

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

Diana Rigg on Diana Rigg:

"I hope there's a tinge of disgrace about me. Hopefully, there's one good scandal left in me yet. " ... Diana Rigg





What a kisser!

Thanks, ELP!

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by hotjohn4321

Lots of old memories seeing this

Welcome, HJ

[umpire2]

Mrs. Gale in distress.....

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[ELaken-Palmer]

Originally Posted by umpire2

Mrs. Gale in distress.....

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I like her in dat dress.

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

I like her in dat dress.

Ouch!

[umpire2]

This is like viewing THE AVENGERS on an acid trip....

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[umpire2]

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[ELaken-Palmer]

No, no, NO! It's...

[ELaken-Palmer]

It was often said of other casts and programs but you could see that these people were having fun.

[umpire2]

Originally Posted by ELaken-Palmer

It was often said of other casts and programs but you could see that these people were having fun.

Diana Rigg's career boomed on both stage and screen afterwards, because she is such an excellent actress.

Even though he is respected, I think Patrick Macnee is tremendously underrated as an actor. His delivery of lines always struck me as the most natural of any actor I have ever seen. He never seemed to BE reciting lines, but rather simply talking as anyone would in a conversation. THAT is brilliant.