Honor Blackman, pre and post Hollywood

[stuart.uk]

I was just thinking that Honor Blackman in the States is soley known for her 60s roles from Goldfinger, through to westerns like Shalko and the highly underrated Something Big with Brian Keith and Dean Martin. in the early 70s she also did a good Columbo with Richard Baseheart.

however, she's had a career before and most certainly after that. in the 50s and very early 60s she was more or less a character actress. she was though leading lady to Norman Wisdom in the war time comedy The Square Peg and was the wife, soon to be widowed as a single mother in Titanic drama A Night To Remember

it's funny i have a 1962 episode of The Saint called The Arrow of God, where Honor has a small undemanding role. however, when in her 30s she got the role that would change her life. The Avengers started with star Ian Hendry and co-star Patrick McNee, as secret agent John Steed. after a season Hendry left hoping to become a movie star, leaving McNee the star of the show. he was given 3 assistances, who would work seperetly with him over the series. two of them were woman, one of them Honor blackman as tomboyish leather pants wearing Cathy Gale, a girl who could look after herself. the other two didn't last long and such was the impact Honor made in the series she was soon the equal of McNee.
the series wasn't shown in America at the time, partly i think because it was black and white and filmed in a tv studio. that would change after Diana Rigg arrived as the show was shot on film and in her 2nd series in colour.

after Hollywood Honor went into British tv. she was in her 50s then, but boy she was still one of the worlds most beautiful women. she played the love interest for Sir Donald Sinden, a lively sit com also starring Windsor Davies. however, her most popular post Hollywood role came in the sit-com The Upper Hand. it was inspired to begin with by earlier American comedy Who's The Boss with Tony Danza. i'm not saying it was better than WTB, but it lasted longer and Honor was better than her American counterpart, playing a glamorous granny, who in her 60s and early 70s was able at time to date men half her age.

she was also seen in a brief role, that last only a few weeks, in top British soap opera Coronation Street

[jdb1]

Sorry Stuart, but Honor Blackman is not a favorite of mine, and as you say, she is little known here. I've always found her rather hard looking, like a woman who has spent too much time outdoors without applying moisturizer.

I've seen a few episodes The Avengers with Blackman, and IMO she was not as good as Diana Rigg, not just in looks, but in screen presence and in terms of her chemistry with McNee. I just don't think Blackman appeals to American tastes all that well. It's all a matter of personal preference, after all.

(And now I will be humming the little waltz theme from The Avengers for the rest of the day. Thanks a lot!)

[stuart.uk]

it's funny because i agree at the time Diana Rigg was best of The Avenger girls. however, in recent yrs it's the younger element that are doing better. Linda Thorson, who played Tara King right after Diana Rigg left the show recently did about a yr in the British soap Emerdale which is set in a Yorkshire farming village (you wouldn't believe such behaviour and scandel could go on in such a place, but then again it's a soap) but was recently killed off.

However, it's Joanna Lumley, who played Purdy in The New Avengers that of all The Avenger Girls is doing better than the rest of them. i know you got the popular Ab Fab in The States with her and Jennifer Saunders. and that's not all, as one of the most beautiful women around, she allowed herself to be made up into an old dear for Saunders drama comedy Jam And Jerusalem, a series about women in the WI. Joanna reverted back to playing a beautiful woman in her other comedy drama Sensitive Skin

for a long time i hoped for an Avenger movie with all four girls working with John Steed on a case. now that's impossible, unless there's an animated feature. that said Thorson and Lumley at a push could still reprise their roles, they certainly still have their looks!

here's a trivial question for your friends-How many Avenger girls were in a bond movie. if they say two, Blackman and Rigg, their wrong. in Rigg's On Her Majesty's Secret Service Joanna Lumley plays one of the Bond girls in Blofeld's ice palace, for want of a better word.

[jdb1]

We had several episodes in the US of the Tara King stint - I remember her asking someone: "Don't you want to say 'Tara -- Rah-Boom-Ti-Ay?' Eveyone else does?"

At one point in the early 70s Thorsen was married to American TV presenter Bill Boggs, and she often appeared on his daytime show. On one show, she demonstrated martial arts although rather hugely pregnant. I liked her - she was also briefly in a sitcom here as I recall.

To my mind, it's a dead heat between Rigg and Lumley.

[The episode of Extras with Rigg and Daniel Radcliffe was recently aired. Radcliffe, in a Boy Scout uniform, swinging a condom around in the canteen to show off ("I've done it with a girl"); it lands on Rigg's head; for which misdemeanor she makes him publicly apologize.

Embarrassed: "Sorry"
Imperiously: "Sorry, what?"
Thoroughly humiliated: "Sorry, Dame Diana."
It was soooo funny.]

[stuart.uk]

i bet America didn't get Daniel Radcliffe's great adult performance in My Boy Jack where he played the son of Rudyard Kipling, who was killed in his first battle in WW1

i'll try and send you a link on it

My Boy Jack - ITV Drama
The official ITV home of My Boy Jack on ITV Period Drama at ITV Drama; includes The Exhibition,About the drama,David Haig interview,Kim Cattrall interview and Daniel Radcliffe ...

www.itv.com/Drama/perioddrama/MyBoyJack/default.html · Cached page

[movieman1957]

But then, I preferred Leslie Ann Warren and Lynda Day George to Barbara Bain (another bore) on <b>Mission:Impossible</b>, too.

How could you tell since there was so little dialogue? I don't even remember Warren on M.I.

I liked the middle "Avengers" best. I didn't see the shows with Honor until a few years ago. I liked Rigg and Thorson although Thorson was saddled with some unfortunate clothes and hair.

[stuart.uk]

As far as i believe Honor's Avengers wern't shown in America until the 1980s, though along with the other girls, the shows are out on dvd and video, at least in the UK

I thing Thorson had to grow into her role as Tara. she was an inexperienced actress when she landed the role and it showed. however, as she went on she got better and better. fof me one of the problems was the Mother character, played by Patrick Newell. i think that kind of spoilt the show

I prefer The Avengers to The New Avengers, because it think the latter wasn't as well made. the first lot were okay, but when they took the show to Canada to shoot on location it was a disaster. that said Joanna Lumley was the best thing in it, even better than Steed himself. the famous Purdy bob was a fashion trendsetter in hairstyles

[movieman1957]

When "The Avengers" was a fairly straight-forward spy type show (even with "Mother" I enjoyed it. There were times when it strayed into some kind of off-the-wall weird other worldly theme I didn't like it as much.

Steed was always Steed. No matter what went on he was always properly dressed, appointed and proper. For some of his character he might have chosen a different line of work. He's a great character.

[jdb1]

When "The Avengers" was a fairly straight-forward spy type show (even with "Mother" I enjoyed it. There were times when it strayed into some kind of off-the-wall weird other worldly theme I didn't like it as much.

Steed was always Steed. No matter what went on he was always properly dressed, appointed and proper. For some of his character he might have chosen a different line of work. He's a great character.

Aha. But that's what I liked best about The Avengers, the absurdist thread that ran through it. This was another 60s theme - unreality, sometimes drug induced, sometimes not - y'know, Man, just, like, weird - and I loved they way Steed and Peel calmly made their way through an upside down world. I loved their banter, and I loved constant and not all that subtle reminders that these two were lovers. I especially liked the way Steed generally just "supervised," while Emma physically vanquished the bad guys. Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Emma Peel was our kicka** role model. There really hadn't been anything quite like her on American TV before.

[stuart.uk]

I remember one episode from the Thorson series. a casually dressed Steed in his flat finds out Tara's lifes in danger and he has to get to her quickly. yet he still has time to put on his trademark Edwardian suit first

[movieman1957]

Do you watch "Lost"? I know we're getting off here but I lose interest when the likely reality of something goes away. I watched the first two episodes or so until that kind of unknown monster showed up. That did it for me.

I see the previews the other night and I figure they have been there two-three years and most of the men still only have three days worth of beard. The ladies don't look like it's been hard on them and the heavy set guy still weighs 400 lbs. Of course, there may be an explanation.

That's me, unfortunately.

Peel, Steed, good match. Was her husband a spy as well that was killed? I don't remember much about the "Mrs." part.

[stuart.uk]

There was a cross over episode were Diana Rigg leaves and Linda Thorson takes over. what happened was they took a Rigg episode that hadn't aired and filled in the gaps with Thorson. the two women didn't actually have a scene together at the end. for that Diana Rigg came back from her retirement from the show to film it.

just before that scene Emma's saying goodbye to Steed just moments after he's read in a newspaper that pilot Peter Peel has been found alive and well in the Amazon or some place like it. after she leaves, meets Tara, Emma climbs into a car driven by her still alive husband to goes of into the sunset