15 Greatest TV Characters of the 1960s: Emma Peel

Name: Mrs. Emma Knight Peel

Portrayed by: Diana Rigg

TV series: The Avengers (the two Mrs. Peel seasons covered 1965-68)

Occupation: Amateur spy who worked with John Steed, a professional.

Lifestyle: Lived in an apartment. Drove a Lotus Elan convertible. When dressing for action, she favored catsuits--leather ones in her first year and then colorful cloth ones made of a stretch fabric. These jumpsuits became known as Emmapeelers.

Family and Friends: Husband Peter Peel was a test pilot, who went missing for two years when his plane crashed in the Amazon. Daughter of Sir John Knight. Steed is her best friend as well as professional partner.

Trademarks: Auburn hair; playful smile.

Useful Skills:  Martial arts experts; excellent fencer; drives very fast!

Classic quote: (In her farewell to Steed) "Always keep your bowler hat on in times of trouble...and beware diabolical masterminds."

Classic episodes: "The Gravediggers" (Emma gets tied to train tracks!); "Who's Who?" (Emma and Steed...there's more to it!); and "A Touch of Brimstone" (Emma wore an outfit that caused the episode to be banned in the U.S.).

Classic British Spy TV: Sark and Rick Discuss The Avengers, Secret Agent, and The Prisoner

The best decade for spy television series? The obvious answer is the 1960s, in which British TV produced a plethora of well-regarded espionage series from Danger Man in 1960 to The Baron (1965) and Man in a Suitcase (1967). The most influential of these shows were undoubtedly The Avengers, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), and The Prisoner. All three were imported to U.S. television, where they attracted solid followings. Their popularity hasn’t waned over the years with frequent appearances on cable and through video releases. Sark and Rick, two film and TV buffs from different generations, discuss these classics:

Rick: The Avengers went through several iterations which can be categorized by the different female leads from Honor Blackman to Diana Rigg to Linda Thorson to Joanna Lumley (The New Avengers). Starting with the best, how would you rank them and what’s your rationale?

Linda Thorson as Tara.

Sark: As you suggested, my favorite ladies on The Avengers are easily associated with the series itself. I would rank Diana Rigg as the best, when the series was at its peak -- plus, she’s ridiculously charming and astoundingly beautiful. I also really like Linda Thorson: she was able to capture that delightful quality and starred in some great episodes, though some with Linda weren’t as strong. Joanna Lumley is good, and Purdy is an odd but intriguing character, much like The New Avengers. And while I like Honor Blackman, she was on the show during its early days, where it was stiff and and a little dreary, and her performances unfortunately reflect that. How would you rank the Blackman, Rigg, Thorson and Lumley years?

The one and only Mrs. Peel.

Rick: I agree that the Diana Rigg years were the best. The stories were often witty, the dialogue delicious, and the Mrs. Peel-Steed relationship just vague enough to keep one wondering. My second pick would be Honor Blackman. Yes, her episodes were often clunky, but she defined the kick-butt heroine and--without her--there may have never been a Mrs. Peel (perish the thought!). My third pick would be Purdy--sort of a Mrs. Peel “lite”--and finally Tara. I like that the producers tried to do something different with Tara, to make her more vulnerable than Emma. But I never warmed up to her...perhaps, it was just a matter of still mourning Diana Rigg’s departure. What are some of your favorite Avengers episodes?

Rigg and Patrick Macnee.

Sark: While I do enjoy The New Avengers, I don’t recall any standout episodes. The majority of my faves are Emma-centric: “The Master Minds”, “Quick-Quick Slow Death”, “Death at Bargain Prices”, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station”, “The House That Jack Built”, “The Joker” and “Murdersville”. There’s also “A Touch of Brimstone”, which is great because... well, if you’ve seen it, you’ll know. I think Patrick Macnee had the best chemistry with Dame Diana Rigg, which really did make the episodes much more fun. I do like some episodes with Tara King, however, including her intro and Emma’s goodbye, “The Forget-Me-Knot” and the ridiculously titled “Look -- (Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One) -- But There Were These Two Fellers...”, which is a good one for Tara. What are your faves? Any with Purdy or Cathy?

Rick: I haven’t seen the Honor Blackman episodes since A&E showed them in the 1990s. As for The New Avengers, I recall enjoying “The Last of the Cybernauts...?”, especially since it linked back to the original show. To be honest, all my favorites come from the Emma years and include the ones you mentioned, especially “The Master Minds” and “A Touch of Brimstone”. Other personal picks include the highly amusing “The Winged Avenger”, “A Surfeit of H20” (what a great opening), “What the Butler Saw” (with Steed as a gentleman’s gentleman), and “A Sense of History” (loved the Robin Hood part). I could talk for hours about The Avengers, but let’s move on to Danger Man, better known in the U.S. in its one-hour format as Secret Agent. The half-hour episodes, which ran from 1960-62 in the U.K. are pretty good, but I think the series took off when it returned in 1964 in its one-hour incarnation. It’s well-written and features some fine guest stars, but--for me--the series works due to the casting of Patrick McGoohan as the anti-James Bond. What say you?

Sark: I agree that the later, longer episodes are better than the earlier ones. Perhaps, it's only because I viewed the half-hour episodes after the more popular versions, but the shorter feel too short, like the story’s just taking off and then suddenly stops. They're wonderful, but just not They’re wonderful, but just not as strong or entertaining as the hour-long episodes. And yes, some great stars! I remember seeing Hammer queen, Barbara Shelley! I like that you called Patrick McGoohan’s John Drake an “anti-James Bond,” but I’ve always maintained that McGoohan would have made a most excellent 007. Since we’ve already discussed The Avengers, how do you think Drake would have fared with a partner, female or otherwise? That would have been interesting, but I like him much better as a solo agent. What do you think?

Rick: I can’t imagine Drake with a partner of either gender. He comes across very much as a loner, which seems realistic to me because relationships could cloud his judgment. I can’t think of an episode in which there was even a hint of romance. Am I missing one? He did express remorse over the fate of a female character in one of my favorite episodes “Colony Three.” In it, he infiltrates a training camp for enemy spies. There are a lot of parallels with The Prisoner, which would come a few years later. Plus, that episode featured the great Niall MacGinnis from Curse of the Demon. Danger Man boasted some fine guest star turns, from MacGinnis and the fabulous Barbara Shelley to Bernard Lee (M in the 007 films), Susan Hampshire, Ian Hendry, Barbara Steele, and Joan Greenwood. Though a big Danger Man fan, I do have some minor complaints about the series. The modest budgets required a lot of in-studio shooting to substitute for international locations. That could look pretty bad, which was sometimes distracting. Also, I think MacGoohan ended the series at the right time, as some of the plots were beginning to become repetitious.

Sark: Speaking of shows’ endings, what about The Prisoner? Not necessarily its final episode, but the fact that it ended so soon. I love having access to quite an abundance of Avengers episodes, as well as Danger Man/Secret Agent, but I can’t readily complain of The Prisoner’s short life, as it never wanes in quality. I think it would have flourished with additional episodes, but for how long? As it is, the series will forever be strong. Any thoughts?

Rick: It ended at the perfect time, though I think the final revelation is one of the all-time great puzzlers. My theory is that every TV series has a specific life span and rarely does that exceed, say, three years. After that, there may still be good episodes, but typically the quality of the show declines. The Prisoner was such a great concept: Retired spy is kidnapped and held against his will in a weird village as his captors try to find out why he left the spy business. It’s a fiendishly clever show--my favorite episode is the Western “Living in Harmony”--but the concept is limited from the start. No. 2 tries to find out what No. 6 knows, No. 6 tries to escape, he gets caught. There are only so many variations to this central plot. I think McGoohan understood that and envisioned a limited series. Yet, despite all I’ve just said, it’s not the plots that made The Prisoner unique...it was the Kafkaesque themes and the look of the show, from the Village itself to the clothes and the local “newspaper.” Well, that’s my take on it away. Where do you place The Prisoner in the pantheon of TV spy series?

Sark: As a spy series, The Prisoner is surprisingly effective. I’d have to rank it fairly high because it’s so odd and unconventional. Though, honestly, neither The Avengers nor Danger Man bows to convention. All three series makes spy shows endlessly refreshing. You can even put them together in their own timeline: The Avengers with the playfulness of youth; Danger Man with a world-weary spy; and The Prisoner with the spy in retirement. A playground, a spy at home wherever he is, and a retirement home. I think the best spy series are remembered for the characters, and these UK shows prove that with the titles alone, all referencing the story’s players. Any final thoughts?

Rick: That's a nice wrap-up to close out this discussion. As always, Sark, I had a blast hanging out at the Cafe with you and discussing classic TV. I assume you're picking up the check this time? Otherwise, I wouldn't have ordered the deluxe blueberry pancake breakfast.

Sark: Thanks, Rick, for an enjoyable look at television in the UK. Let’s do this again sometime. And don’t worry, I’ll get the check. I’ll just need a minute or two alone with your wallet.

The 5 Best Smart and Sexy Female TV Characters

Good TV shows have strong female characters. The greatest shows have women who steal the series and leave lasting impressions. This is a list of my personal favorite of all those wonderful ladies who have graced the television screen.

1. Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg/The Avengers). The Avengers was the first British series to be broadcast for a fall schedule in the U.S., but that wasn’t until 1965 with the fourth season (or fourth series, as they say in the UK). That particular year was the introduction to the beguiling Emma Peel, her name derived from a condensed version of “Man Appeal” in the original script. An agile fighter and skilled agent, Emma was most often adorned in a variety of attire, with, particularly in her second series, a predilection for jumpsuits. Her presence literally made the series glow, as The Avengers moved from black-and-white to full, radiant color, and audiences were treated to the resplendence of Mrs. Peel’s red hair. Her physical attributes were pronounced, but one of Emma’s most prominent qualities was her above-average intelligence, most amply displayed in “The Master Minds”, when she takes an IQ test on behalf of her partner, John Steed, for admittance into a school of intellectuals. She also aces her own test and later, working at the school as a secretary, must “fix” a test Steed takes on his own, even with some answers provided for him (“And now you’re brilliant,” Emma tells him, “genius level”). It is fitting that Mr. Peel is never shown (he can be seen only from afar in Emma’s final episode, “The Forget-Me-Not”), as no man seems worthy of such a woman. Rigg was irresistible in the role that made her a star: delightful, charming and undeniably beautiful.

2. Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn/Twin Peaks). Twin Peaks was a small town in Washington with a brooding, underlining evil that began exposing itself following the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer. But the town did have a pleasant side, and nothing shone more brightly than Audrey Horne. When Audrey walked into a room, everyone noticed, like in the pilot when she turned the heads of a roomful of investors. She even had her own theme, “Freshly Squeezed” (as named on the show’s soundtrack), a reference to Audrey’s breakfast encounters with Special Agent Dale Cooper at her father’s hotel. She set her eyes solely upon Special Agent Cooper, and she used her wits to conduct her own investigation (simply to help the object of her affection). Though she’s halted by being held captive, Audrey was actually a few steps ahead of the cops. The consummate professional, Cooper never reciprocated Audrey’s advances, but because Audrey craved a relationship that seemed unattainable, it’s an indication of her unfaltering determination and independence. Fenn is classically beautiful, as if she’s stepped off a film lot in Old Hollywood (and aided in Twin Peaks with Audrey’s retro wardrobe). And like a softly-lit movie star on a giant theatre screen, Audrey remains forever graceful and poetic. Special Agent Cooper dreams of Laura and the Black Lodge, but the viewers’ dreams are filled with Audrey Horne.

3. Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist/Remington Steele). In a male-dominated world, gumshoe Laura Holt creates a non-existing male detective for her agency, hoping to earn clients who are confounded by a female sleuth. With some actresses given little to do, Remington Steele is a refreshing change of pace by making a male the eye candy (in this case, the Irish Pierce Brosnan). The unnamed conman, assuming the role of Remington Steele, was the front, as Laura did the majority of the crime solving. But while having a capable, smart female character in the lead is noteworthy, the show’s most commendable trait is helping an audience see that the attractive characters in the past were more than their external beauty. Laura’s expertise and proficiency are unprecedented, but with Zimbalist portraying the detective, she was also alluring, a vision in a fedora (allowing other fedora-donning sleuths such as Sam Spade to fall into obscurity). The series title is an allusion to the agency’s name, not the man. And the responsibility of running the agency, as well as the true source of all that romance, fell at the rather adept feet of Laura Holt.

4. Amy Allen (Melinda Culea/The A-Team) It takes quite a woman to stand out among a cast full of testosterone, but reporter Amy Allen did just that with minimal effort. It was her newspaper article (which she was researching) that introduced audiences to the A-Team. She was a good fit with the men: not constantly barraged by Face’s flirtatious ways, never the victim of B.A.’s infamous bad attitude, and respected by Hannibal as if she were a soldier under his command. Amy could even understand the sometimes incomprehensible (and legally insane) Murdock. Culea played the character as resilient and flexible in largely unfamiliar circumstances, and her girl-next-door appeal was a way that young male viewers could, perhaps ironically, relate to stories involving Vietnam War vets. Unfortunately, Amy was gone halfway through the sophomore season, but Culea’s female replacement wasn’t genuinely a replacement, as she only appeared sporadically and was dropped early in the subsequent season. Reportedly, Tia Carrere, a guest star in the Season 4 finale, was meant to join the cast in the fifth season but was unable to do so (due to her role in General Hospital). In short, there was no one equivalent to Amy, as she is not remembered as a cohort, but rather a former member of the A-Team.

5. Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray/Buck Rogers in the 25th Century). In the 30+ years since its debut on television (the pilot actually premiered in theatres months before), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century has aged considerably, its more derivative features all the more noticeable with the growing popularity of 1977’s Star Wars (an obvious source of, let’s say, “inspiration”). Colonel Wilma Deering, however, was a character all her own, and her skintight uniforms and corresponding outfits made it easy to forget that she was a high-ranking officer. More significant was the fact that the presumably dashing titular character, who caught the fancy of the villainous Princess Ardala and somehow managed to bed a new woman each week, had to earn any respect and potential affection from Col. Deering. Romance between the two was not a focus of the series, which seems to suggest that even the writers did not believe Buck Rogers was a worthwhile partner for Wilma. Gray’s bright eyes and warm smile (with those impossible-to-miss dimples), along with her rank, gave her a commanding presence. Producers reportedly asked her to lighten her hair for the show, but as the series progressed, she returned to her natural brunette hue, because, behind all the spaceships and lasers, the real reason to watch Buck Rogers had not a thing to do with Buck What’s-his-face and everything to do with a certain Colonel in snug apparel.

Honorable mentions: Cinnamon (Barbara Bain/Mission: Impossible) -- The sole female IMF member (for the first three seasons), she was more than just the female agent, as she was often pitted in dangerous situations like the men. Cinnamon also had the distinction of retrieving the mission details in Season 1’s “Action!”, the only other person aside from team leaders Dan and Jim to do so. Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith/Charlie’s Angels) -- A seemingly ever-changing cast did not deter from the draw of Smith or her portrayal of Kelly. She was the only actress who starred in all five seasons of the series, a beautiful constant and an incentive to continue watching. Morticia Addams (Carolyn Jones/The Addams Family) -- With her perpetual smirk and her arms generally crossed, the Addams Family matriarch evidently believes that running a household filled with eccentric characters is a cakewalk. A precursory look at promotional shots for the series is telling: Morticia, surrounded by her family, is sitting in her famous chair, the center of everything.

The Avengers: Steed Has a Nightmare with "Too Many Christmas Trees"

Steed awakes from a Christmas nightmare.

Originally telecast in 1965, during Diana Rigg's first season, this Christmas episode of The Avengers opens with John Steed (Patrick Macnee) dreaming about a friend's murder at the hands of an unpleasant Santa Claus. When Steed later tells Mrs. Peel (Rigg) about his nightmare, she shows him a newspaper article about his friend--who died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room.

On an apparent whim, Mrs. Peel invites Steed to accompany her to a weekend holiday gathering at the country estate of publisher Brandon Storey. As they approach the isolated mansion, Steed gets a strong feeling of deja vu. Once inside, he recognizes the sleigh full of presents in the hall, his outfit for the costume party, and even a guest he has never met--it's as if Steed's nightmare was coming true.

Although its plot doesn't rank with the best Avengers episodes, Too Many Christmas features all the elements that made this unique series a favorite among its many fans. Macnee and Rigg have tremendous chemistry, which is amazing considering that they had only filmed a few epsiodes at that point in their two-year run together. Their witty banter and knowing winks are Avengers trademarks. For example, when Mrs. Peel is opening Steed's Christmas cards, there's one signed: "Best wishes for the future, Cathy."

"Mrs. Gale...how nice of her to remember me," muses Steed, adding "What can she be doing in Fort Knox?"

Fans of the show know that Cathy Gale, played by Honor Blackman, was Steed's previous partner. Blackman had just starred in Goldfinger as Pussy Galore--who was involved in a scheme to devalue the gold stored at Fort Knox.


Steed tells Emma about his deja vu.

Perhaps unintentionally, the casting also features an inside joke. When Steed experiences deja vu as he and Mrs. Peel approach Brandon Storey's mansion, the scene is very reminiscent of the opening of the 1946 ghostly anthology Dead of Night. One of the stars of that British classic was Mervyn Johns, who plays Storey in Too Many Christmas Trees.

The Avengers often recycled its guest stars and Too Many Christmas Trees features several actors who appeared in other episodes: Robert James, Alex Scott, Barry Warren, and Edwin Richfield. Interestingly, many of these performers also appeared in horror pictures made by Hammer Films (for instance, Barry Warren was an aristocratic bloodsucker in the excellent Kiss of the Vampire). Director Roy Ward Baker, who helmed eight Avengers episodes in all, also worked for Hammer. Finally, Brian Clemens, who produced and wrote some of the finest Avengers outings, later wrote and directed Hammer's Kronos (aka Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter).

Another Avengers trademark was its offbeat sense of fashion. Rigg started out in black leather, but graduated to colorful jump suits in her second year. The show's costume designers also loved to put her in fanciful garb--in a Robin Hood outfit in A Sense of History, a spiked choker in A Touch of Brimstone, and playful Oliver Twist attire in Too Many Christmas Trees.

Of course, the two leads and the clever scripts are what make The Avengers a must-see series (especially during the Diana Rigg years). That alone makes this holiday episode a delightful hour for any classic TV fan.



Underrated Performer of the Month: Diana Rigg

Every time I mention Diana Rigg in a blog post, she generates a plethora of positive comments. So, for all we Dame Diana fans, I wanted to pay a brief tribute to one of the most versatile and reliable actresses of her generation—both in the cinema and on the stage.

After guest stints in a handful of TV shows, Diana Rigg secured lasting fame as Mrs. Emma Peel (the name a play on “man appeal’”) in the classic British series The Avengers. I’m convinced that if she had done nothing else, there would still be plenty of Diana Rigg fan clubs around the world. (And if you think the role was easy, watch Uma Thurman struggle with it in the 1998 big screen adaptation of The Avengers).

Regarding her famous first-season costume, she once said: “The leather catsuit I wore in The Avengers was a total nightmare. It took a good 45 minutes to get unzipped to go to the loo. It was like struggling in and out of a wet-suit….I got a lot of very odd fan mail while I was in that show, but my mum used to enjoy replying to it. Some of the men who wrote to me must have been a bit startled because she would offer really motherly advice. I would get a letter from a teenage boy, say, who was overexcited and my mother would write back saying: ‘My daughter is far too old for you and what you really need is a good run around the block.’ "

Her post-Avengers film career included the tongue-in-cheek The Assassination Bureau (with Oliver Reed), the witty theatrical satire Theater of Blood (she plays Vincent Price’s daughter), and a portrayal as the only Mrs. James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Agent (in spite of George Lazenby, this is one of my favorite 007 films). Concurrently, she gained acclaim on the stage, earning Tony nominations for Best Actress in 1972 and 1975 (she would eventually win a Tony in 1994 for Medea).

For the rest of her acting career, she moved back and forth among the theatre, the big screen, and the small screen. She earned kudos for dramatic parts in the TV miniseries In the House of Brede, Bleak House, and Rebecca (as Mrs. Danvers). She showed off her singing voice in the 1977 film version of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (my wife and I were in London when she did Sondheim’s Follies on stage, but a ticket was not to be found). In 1982, she expertly pulled off the Marlene Dietrich role in an entertaining TV version of Witness for the Prosecution and brought sparkle to the part of a murder suspect opposite Peter Ustinov’s Hercule Poirot in Evil Under the Sun.

The only significant blight on her stellar resume is the ill-advised 1973 American sitcom Diana, in which she played a divorcee living in New York. She has much more success with her other U.S. TV series gig—hosting PBS’s Mystery! from 1989 to 2003.

At age 71, she continues to act, most recently appearing as a nun (as she did in House of Brede) in the 2006 version of The Painted Veil.

So, Dame Diana fans, it’s your time to chime in!

This Week's Poll: Who would you choose as your partner if you were John Steed?

This week's Cafe poll was created by natsumi13.

This week, we ask who would be your ultimate partner if you were John Steed?

Cathy Gale: A strong and highly independent woman. She is well equipped to take care of herself in a fight, whether using judo or firearms. She also has a Ph.D in anthropology.







Emma Peel: Quick witted and highly talented genius. She is knowledgeable in everything from chemistry and most sciences to math and the arts. An accomplished fencer and master at martial arts, she is highly adept at undercover work.



Tara King: While young and inexperienced, she is level headed and resourceful. Having just finished training as an operative, she is lacking in field experience, but is quite spunky and clever with disguises and undercover work.





Purdey: Former ballerina with the Royal Ballet, she can go from high kicks to roaring off on her motorcycle. She is a smart and highly resourceful martial arts expert. Seeing as she is named after the British gunsmiths Purdey & Sons, she is also an expert at firearms. She is a fully trained and highly capable operative with British Intelligence.



Mike Gambit: A highly trained operative with British Intelligence, this former military man is always armed for combat. He is also an expert at hand to hand fighting and can nearly dodge a bullet using his hands. Suave and something of a ladies man, but cares deeply for Purdey.