Showing posts with label Avengers TV series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avengers TV series. Show all posts
Remembering Patrick Macnee: Hear a BBC Radio documentary on "The Avengers"
BBC Radio 3 is representing documentary on 1960s spy TV series "The Avengers" in remembrance of actor Patrick Macnee (a.k.a. John Steed), who died this week:
Matthew Sweet dons his kinky boots to investigate the phenomenon of The Avengers, 50 years after its first transmission. As well as its regular cavalcade of cyborgs, spies and megalomaniacs, The Avengers seemed to present the world of British television with a new action figure - the liberated single female who, week after week, proved to be deadlier than the male. But how progressive was its sexual politics ? Was Diana Rigg in her all leather cat suit a male fantasy or a feminist icon and did Honor Blackman always play second fiddle to Patrick Macnee ?
Stream it here.Matthew has assembled a crack team of thinkers to ponder these mind-bending questions - teenage fans Bea Campbell and Sarah Dunant, historian Dominic Sandbrook and one of the masterminds of The Avengers, the screenwriter Brian Clemens.
So long, Patrick Macnee
Pop focus: Emma Peel and the Avengers
Right around the time Marvel Comics' Avengers and Black Widow appeared, there was a different Avengers and a different karate-kicking heroine on TV.
Emma Peel, memorably played by Diana Rigg, made her debut on the show in 1965 -- the same year it started to air in the U.S. after a few years already airing on British television.
Before Emma, the sidekick (and she did kick) to suave secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) was Dr. Cathy Gale (played by Honor Blackman, later of "Goldfinger").
But the Emma Peel era tends to be the favorite of many "Avengers" fans. She was sexy, tough, smart, independent and funny. Plus, those catsuits.
The Emma Peel episodes have recently re-appeared on a revamped, reasonably priced DVD set after being out of print, and available only at high prices, for several years.
I also recently came across a batch of lesser-seen pics from that era of the show. Here's a look:
Emma Peel, memorably played by Diana Rigg, made her debut on the show in 1965 -- the same year it started to air in the U.S. after a few years already airing on British television.
Before Emma, the sidekick (and she did kick) to suave secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) was Dr. Cathy Gale (played by Honor Blackman, later of "Goldfinger").
But the Emma Peel era tends to be the favorite of many "Avengers" fans. She was sexy, tough, smart, independent and funny. Plus, those catsuits.
The Emma Peel episodes have recently re-appeared on a revamped, reasonably priced DVD set after being out of print, and available only at high prices, for several years.
I also recently came across a batch of lesser-seen pics from that era of the show. Here's a look:
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