First watched : 22 October 1976
Still backtracking to 1976 we come to the re-vamp of the Avengers franchise. The big telly event of the week when it was first broadcast , I watched this with no knowledge of the sixties TV series and loved it.
Patrick Macnee returned as the impossibly suave John Steed with a new female sidekick in short-haired, high-kicking Purdey ( Joanna Lumley ) . In addition to her he now had a male lieutenant Gambit ( Gareth Hunt , previously best known as footman-turned-gigolo Frederick in Upstairs Downstairs ) who could handle the fisticuffs now that Macnee was in his mid-fifties.
The series was relatively big budget allowing the stories to delve into science fiction. The first episode was well-chosen with Peter Cushing guest-starring as a cryogenics expert kidnapped by some mad monks who turn out to be Nazis looking to resuscitate their old boss ( ignoring the inconvenient fact that Hitler's body was incinerated after his suicide ). There was a lot of humour in it too as in the moment when the monks throw off their disguise and start chanting "Heil Hitler" , catching out the undercover Steed who offers "Er , Rule Britannia ? "
Other good episodes were "The Midas Touch" about an assassin carrying every deadly disease known to man who wipes out a room full of people just by dipping his hand into a punch bowl and the cornily-titled "Gnaws " about a giant rat. My favourite moment of the series though came in the episode "Dead Men Are Dangerous" from the less memorable second series . Steed is being stalked by a former school friend crazed at always coming second to him. Having hospitalised Steed with a forehead grazing bullet he shoots him again through the hospital window upon which the not obviously qualified Purdey gives her instant diagnosis "Another superficial head wound !! " with an admirably straight face.
At thirty, Lumley was a relatively experienced actress but this series was her big break and as she remains a bankable TV face, it's another little piece of today's world falling into place. Alas, Hunt was less well-loved . Soon afterwards he became reviled for his smug appearances in a string of Nescafe commercials and his presence here has become an easy mark for lazy criticism of the series as being unworthy of its predecessor. In truth Hunt plays his not very interesting character well enough and certainly provides no reason for shunning the show.
Despite decent ratings the joint Anglo-French-Canadian production experienced difficulties getting finance to make the second series and the last four episodes were all filmed in Canada to please a new backer . In addition to this the series' main writer Brian Clemens had switched his attentions to a new show, The Professionals instead. A third series was planned but never materialised and attempts to revive it in subsequent years always foundered. It has been repeated a few times over the years most recently on ITV4 last year.
Macnee retired to the USA and became a US citizen in 1982. He remained a busy actor into his eighties , often playing villains in TV movies. He retired in 2005 and died earlier this year - I thought he'd long since gone - aged 93.
No comments:
Post a Comment