Avengers<\/em> (1961-69).\u00a0 I\u2019m talking, of course, about Honor Blackman, who died in April, and now Diana Rigg, who died last week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I never got to see Diana Rigg perform on stage, where she appeared in plays by Edward Albee, Bertolt Brecht, Anton Chekov, Noel Coward, Henrik Ibsen, Moli\u00e8re, Jean Racine, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams and, obviously, William Shakespeare.\u00a0 Nor did I catch her when, after becoming a Dame in the mid-1990s and being recognised as a national treasure, she appeared in prestigious TV productions like Rebecca<\/em> (1997) or Victoria & Albert<\/em> (2001), both of which resulted in her winning or being nominated for Emmy Awards.\u00a0 I was living abroad and didn\u2019t have access to English-language TV at the time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t even watch her much-praised performance as Olenna Tyrell in the TV show Game<\/em> of<\/em> Thrones<\/em> from 2013 to 2017, since I thought I should first read the George R.R. Martin books on which the show was based \u2013 something I\u2019ve yet to get around to doing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Despite what I\u2019ve missed, however, I offer here a collection of Diana Rigg performances that I have<\/em> seen and remember fondly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Playing Tracy di Vincenzo in On Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service<\/em> (1969)<\/strong><\/p>\nOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service<\/em> is ostensibly about James Bond (George Lazenby in his one-and-only shot at the role) tangling with his arch-enemy Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Telly Savalas).\u00a0 However, it also explores Bond\u2019s emotional side and highlights his vulnerability.\u00a0 Key to this is OHMSS<\/em>\u2019s sub-plot about the romance between Bond and Contessa Theresa \u2018Tracy\u2019 di Vicenzo (Rigg), daughter of the boss of the crime syndicate the Unione Corse of Corsica.\u00a0 At the film\u2019s end, Blofeld is seemingly vanquished and Bond and Tracy get married.\u00a0 Then Blofeld makes a sudden reappearance in the final scene, sprays their honeymoon car with bullets, kills Tracy and leaves Bond as a babbling wreck.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Fascinatingly, for a film franchise that\u2019s often accused of de-humanising the Ian Fleming novels that inspired it and emphasising big, dumb spectacle at the expense of characterisation, Tracy is a more fleshed-out character in OHMSS<\/em>-the film than in OHMSS<\/em>-the-novel.\u00a0 She\u2019s given more to do and, played by Rigg, has a sparkle that\u2019s missing in the rather aloof, ambiguous character that Fleming sketches.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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\u00a9 Eon Productions<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Particularly memorable is her appearance after Bond escapes from Blofeld\u2019s Alpine headquarters.\u00a0 Hunted by Blofeld\u2019s henchmen, exhausted, frightened even \u2013 something that Lazenby, despite or perhaps because of his acting inexperience, conveys well \u2013 he takes refuge in a crowded Christmas market \/ ice rink in the local town.\u00a0 Just as he thinks he not going to make it, Rigg comes to his rescue, unexpectedly skating into view in front of him like some heaven-sent angel of mercy.<\/p>\n
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Playing Sonya Winter in The Assassination Bureau<\/em> (1969)<\/strong><\/p>\nOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service<\/em> wasn\u2019t the only instance in 1969 of Diana Rigg rubbing shoulders with Telly Savalas.\u00a0 In Basil Deardon\u2019s black comedy The<\/em> Assassination<\/em> Bureau<\/em> (based on an unfinished Jack London novel), she plays an aspiring female journalist in Edwardian London sent by Savalas\u2019s unscrupulous newspaper proprietor to investigate a secret criminal organisation offering assassins for hire.\u00a0 Armed with a bagful of money that Savalas has provided, Rigg brazenly hires this Assassination Bureau to assassinate its own chairman, Ivan Dragomiloff, who\u2019s played by Oliver Reed.\u00a0 Admiring Rigg\u2019s audacity, Reed accepts the commission and, with her in tow, spends the movie zigzagging around Europe dodging the efforts of his own board of directors to kill him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pleasantly silly film and, admirably, doesn\u2019t waste any time in setting up its convoluted premise and getting into the action.\u00a0 Rigg is delightful as the uppity Sonya Winter, determinedly doing her job and flying the flag for women\u2019s rights amid a world of starchy, patronising male chauvinists.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Reed had only just played the brutish Bill Sikes in Oliver<\/em>! (1968) and at the time was in contention to play James Bond, although his reputation for drunken offscreen hi-jinks put 007 producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman off the idea.\u00a0 His pairing with Rigg in The<\/em> Assassination<\/em> Bureau<\/em> is no beauty-and-the-beast affair, however.\u00a0 He dials down the roughness and dials up the charm so that their chemistry together is actually very pleasing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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\u00a9 Paramount Pictures<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Playing Edwina Lionheart in Theatre of Blood<\/em> (1973)<\/strong><\/p>\nDouglas Hickox\u2019s brilliant comedy-horror movie Theatre of Blood<\/em> has Vincent Price as an insane and hammily over-the-top Shakespearean actor who starts killing the snobbish London theatre critics who\u2019ve bad-mouthed his performances, using murders methods borrowed from the Bard\u2019s plays.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re not going to start killing critics for giving bad notices, are they?\u201d exclaims the campest critic Meredith Merridew, played by Robert Morley, who eventually meets a grisly fate modelled on events in Titus Andronicus<\/em>.\u00a0 As the corpses pile up, murdered in ways suggested by Julius Caesar<\/em>, Troilus and Cressida<\/em>, Cymbeline<\/em>, Richard III<\/em>, Henry VI: Part One<\/em> and even The Merchant of Venice<\/em> (Price rewrites it so that he can<\/em> extract a pound of flesh from Harry Andrews), the youngest and least obnoxious critic, played by Ian Hendry, and the investigating police officers, played by Milo O\u2019Shea and Eric Sykes, turn to Lionheart\u2019s supposedly normal daughter, Edwina (Rigg), for help.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Distraught about what her father is doing, yet repulsed by the critics who destroyed his career, Edwina is initially a troubled and conflicted character.\u00a0 Yet as the film progresses, it transpires that Rigg is having as much fun in her role as the Bard-quoting, soliloquizing Price is in his.<\/p>\n
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Taking the mickey out of herself in The Morecambe and Wise Show<\/em> (1975), The Great Muppet Caper<\/em> (1981) and Extras<\/em> (2006)<\/strong><\/p>\nRigg never took herself too seriously.\u00a0 She teamed up with Britain\u2019s most famous comic double-act Morecambe and Wise for their 1975 Christmas TV special, where she appeared in the inevitable Ernie Wise-penned play.\u00a0 This featured Rigg as Nell Gwynne, Eric Morecambe as Charles II and Wise as Samuel Pepys.\u00a0 (\u201cHave you read Ernie\u2019s play?\u201d demands Morecambe.\u00a0 \u201cYes, I have,\u201d replies Rigg.\u00a0 \u201cAnd you\u2019re still here?\u201d)\u00a0 Better still is her appearance in The Great Muppet Caper<\/em>, the second movie starring Jim Henson\u2019s much-loved puppets, in which she plays the snooty fashion designer Lady Holiday, who\u2019s robbed of her jewellery by a gang led by her devious brother (Charles Grodin).\u00a0 Predictably, Miss Piggy approaches Rigg in the hope of securing a job as a fashion model and insists on showing Rigg her portfolio: \u201cThis is me reeking<\/em> grandeur!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s a 2006 episode of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant\u2019s comedy show Extras<\/em>, which is about a struggling actor (Gervais) trying to make ends meet with bit-parts and uncredited roles in films and on television.\u00a0 This scenario enables the show\u2019s gimmick of having real, famous actors and actresses play versions of themselves \u2013 usually twisted, unpleasant versions.\u00a0 In this particular episode, Gervais gets a three-day job in a new fantasy film starring the then-17-year-old Daniel Radcliffe and Dame Diana Rigg.\u00a0 The joke is that Radcliffe is a randy, boorish and clueless teenager.\u00a0 Whilst eating with him in the studio canteen, Radcliffe tries to convince Gervais that he\u2019s a man of the world by whipping a condom out of his pocket \u2013 he\u2019s unravelled it but seems to think he can still put it on \u2013 and then accidentally pings it through the air to a nearby table, where it lands on the unamused Rigg\u2019s head.\u00a0 Radcliffe asks her for his \u2018johnny back\u2019 and gets a schoolmistress-ly reply: \u201cMay<\/em> I have my prophylactic<\/em> back, please<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Later, Radcliffe sidles up to her and inquires, \u201cYou still got that catsuit from The<\/em> Avengers<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 Rigg retorts: \u201cGo away<\/em>, Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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\u00a9 BBC \/ HBO<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
And that brings me nicely to\u2026<\/p>\n
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Playing Emma Peel in The <\/em>Avengers (1965-67)<\/strong><\/p>\nBy the time Rigg joined The Avengers<\/em> in the mid-1960s, the show, under the guidance of creator Brian Clemens, had gradually mutated from being a conventional action \/ thriller show with Patrick Macnee\u2019s John Steed and Ian Hendry\u2019s Dr David Keel as a pair of crime-fighters to being a television phenomenon that did everything on its own terms, both determinedly non-realistic and restlessly inventive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Rigg\u2019s tenure on The<\/em> Avengers<\/em> was surely its golden era.\u00a0 With her Emma Peel character partnering Macnee\u2019s now surreally debonair Steed, and the show being broadcast in colour for the first time, it was a self-confident cocktail of the funny, the silly, the fantastical, the baroque and, occasionally, the gothic and the kinky.\u00a0 (The kinkiness factor came to the fore in an episode called A Touch of Brimstone<\/em>, wherein Rigg dons a costume comprising a spiked collar, whalebone corset, black leather boots and a snake.\u00a0 Funnily enough, this attracted the highest viewing figures of any episode in The Avengers<\/em>\u2019 eight-year history.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Rigg brought to the show a bemused, unruffled quirkiness that was the equal of Macnee\u2019s majestic imperturbability.\u00a0 She was also his equal in being proactive, having no qualms about wading into fights to show off her martial arts prowess or hurtling around in a Lotus Elan.\u00a0 As a villain in one episode remarked, \u201cShe\u2019s well and truly emancipated, is that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rigg wasn\u2019t comfortable about the fact, but Emma Peel also became a sex symbol.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t well avoid it, being ephemerally gorgeous and clad in a succession of leather catsuits, mini-skirts and mod-inspired outfits that, inevitably, ended up being sold in the ladies\u2019 fashion shops of the real Britain.\u00a0 Wisely, though, sex was off the agenda in her character\u2019s onscreen relationship with Macnee\u2019s Steed.\u00a0 The two indulged in a relaxed, platonic flirtatiousness and left it at that.\u00a0 Macnee did get a kiss from her at the end of her final episode on the show, when she left him with the parting advice: \u201cAlways keep your bowler on in times of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Appearing at the height of the swinging 1960s, but tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted rather than smug, which is how I find many productions from the time, The<\/em> Avengers<\/em>, and especially the Emma Peel-era Avengers<\/em>, projects a charming and not-taking-itself-seriously notion of Britishness that seems light-years removed from the discredited, embittered, clapped-out Britain of 2020.\u00a0 The death of Diana Rigg, who\u2019d been one of the last links with the show, just seems to emphasise that it\u2019s now all in the past.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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\u00a9 ITV \/ ABC \/ Thames<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a9 ITV \/ ABC \/ Thames 2020 has been a rotten year and I suspect it still has more rottenness in store.\u00a0 One of the many reasons why I\u2019ve found it so godawful has been because it\u2019s seen the deaths of two actresses who meant a lot to me, firstly because they both … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “The real Princess Diana”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,327],"tags":[346,345,328,332,343,347,288,329,65,333,342,340,334,337,330,344,336,335,331,341,338,339],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-television","tag-brian-clemens","tag-daniel-radcliffe","tag-diana-rigg","tag-emma-peel","tag-extras","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-george-lazenby","tag-honor-blackman","tag-james-bond","tag-john-steed","tag-miss-piggy","tag-morecambe-and-wise","tag-oliver-reed","tag-on-her-majestys-secret-service","tag-patrick-macnee","tag-ricky-gervais","tag-telly-savalas","tag-the-assassination-bureau","tag-the-avengers","tag-the-great-muppet-caper","tag-theatre-of-blood","tag-vincent-price"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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