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*The* Avengers - Steed and Mrs Peel

Lonemagpie

Lonemagpie

Writer
In Memoriam
Inspired by all this talk about "the Avengers" I've been watching some episode with Steed & Mrs Peel. Surprised it's not being rebooted/remade again - come on, what about Tony Head and Alex Kingston? That'd just about work... Though I dare say producers would want younger leads. (Though if Big Finish were to do it... Actually I'd want to write that)

Was briefly excited that Boom Studios were doing some Grant Morrison comics, but disappointed to find that it's just reprints of the 1990-92 series...
 
You might find this humorous. When Chris Hemsworth was on Letterman a few days ago, the music the house band was playing as he was walking out was the theme to "The Avengers" with Steed or Peel.

I'd like to think they were doing it to be cute, cause I'm sure even they would know the difference.
 
Agreed. We're overdue for a first-rate revival of those Avengers. Although if the Marvel movie is the worldwide blockbuster it's looking to be, any new "Steel and Peel" series might have consider finding a new title.

Sacrilege, I know, but how else do you avoid confusion with the Avengers that are taking over the box office at the moment. For better or for worse, that's going to be what people think of when they hear "The Avengers" nowadays.
 
Greg Cox said:
Agreed. We're overdue for a first-rate revival of those Avengers. Although if the Marvel movie is the worldwide blockbuster it's looking to be, any new "Steel and Peel" series might have consider finding a new title.
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"Steed And Mrs Peel" - it worked for the comics
 
Greg Cox said:
Agreed. We're overdue for a first-rate revival of those Avengers. Although if the Marvel movie is the worldwide blockbuster it's looking to be, any new "Steel and Peel" series might have consider finding a new title.

Sacrilege, I know, but how else do you avoid confusion with the Avengers that are taking over the box office at the moment. For better or for worse, that's going to be what people think of when they hear "The Avengers" nowadays.
Click to expand...

Though I must be rare becasue I tend to think more Stead and Mrs Peel when I hear of the Avengers.

Though at least with people thinking more of the superhero avengers, they might forgot about a cetain ghastly movie...

btw has anyone else seen some of the various earliest ones with Honour Blackman as Cathy Gale? Just want to know if's just me or was Stead a slightly sleezey ladies man that wasn't case with Mrs Peel (or maybe he was just more virtuous becaue she was a married woman?).
 
The disaster of a movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman has probably killed any prospects for a remake forever.

Which is just as well. You can't do an Avengers without either Honor Blackman or Diana Rigg. Yes, there were other Avengers - Linda Thorson, Joanna Lumley, even a couple of guys, Gareth Hunt and (way back at the start) Ian Hendry. But the public only knows and cares about Emma Peel as played by Diana Rigg. Uma Thurman learned first-hand you don't try to replace Diana Rigg.

Yes, Star Trek got away with replacing Shatner and Nimoy. But the thing is Trek was not a huge success just because of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. It was a huge success because of the universe that was created, the team of characters, etc.

The Avengers, as far as the general public is concerned, is about one thing and one thing only: the relationship between John Steed - as played by Patrick Macnee - and Emma Peel as played by Diana Rigg. End of story. The only way we will see a revival of that is either by way of novels (like John Peel's The Avengers: Too Many Targets) or for Boom to commission sequels to the 1992-93 reprint, which I assume is what they have planned since there was really no reason to resurrect the Morrison miniseries otherwise.

Marc said:
btw has anyone else seen some of the various earliest ones with Honour Blackman as Cathy Gale? Just want to know if's just me or was Stead a slightly sleezey ladies man that wasn't case with Mrs Peel (or maybe he was just more virtuous becaue she was a married woman?).
Click to expand...

Steed's character was still very rough in those episodes, which have a really unique feel to them. I agree about the sleeze factor, though part of that was because of the adversarial relationship between Steed and Gale that had been created. I love Honor Blackman's performances in these early shows, and I wish they got a bit more exposure (even with the occasional camera running into scenery and the like). I only wish we could see more of the very first episodes with Ian Hendry - all that survive are 15 minutes of the first episode (ending before Steed debuts), one episode in which Steed does not even appear (since Ian Hendry was the actual star of the show at first) and then only one full-length episode with the two of them. Fortunately all the Blackman episodes survived.

Alex
 
23skidoo said:
The Avengers, as far as the general public is concerned, is about one thing and one thing only: the relationship between John Steed - as played by Patrick Macnee - and Emma Peel as played by Diana Rigg. End of story.
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I don't think that's actually true any more. For Brits over 40 it is, but for the rest of the population... they don't even remember it.
 
Greg Cox said:
Sacrilege, I know, but how else do you avoid confusion with the Avengers that are taking over the box office at the moment. For better or for worse, that's going to be what people think of when they hear "The Avengers" nowadays.
Click to expand...

In fact, in the UK it's the other way around; the movie is being released there under the title Avengers Assemble to avoid confusion with the spy series. (And I think that's actually a cooler title.)
 
Greg Cox said:
Agreed. We're overdue for a first-rate revival of those Avengers. Although if the Marvel movie is the worldwide blockbuster it's looking to be, any new "Steel and Peel" series might have consider finding a new title.
Click to expand...
They could do what Lonemagpie did in the thread title, call it The Avengers with an emphasis on "the." :lol:
 
Trekker4747 said:
Marc said:
Trekker4747 said:
The Avengers
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Not sure what that really has to do with the thread.
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Well, the thread is about The Avengers British spy duo TV series, the link goes to a review of the movie version of said Avengers.

Hmmm. That is a tough one.
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Just playing Devil's Advocate here, but it's not really doing much to contribute to the thread.

Anyways, I think I may be the only person in the world who liked the Avengers movie. But then again, my friends do tell me I like a lot of crap, so what do I know :confused:
 
Lonemagpie said:
23skidoo said:
The Avengers, as far as the general public is concerned, is about one thing and one thing only: the relationship between John Steed - as played by Patrick Macnee - and Emma Peel as played by Diana Rigg. End of story.
Click to expand...


I don't think that's actually true any more. For Brits over 40 it is, but for the rest of the population... they don't even remember it.
Click to expand...

I'm going to dispute that. I think there is still plenty of interest. The Fiennes-Thurman movie failed because it sucked and had terrible word of mouth, and also because the writers completely forgot what made the Avengers work. (Plus, as I noted above, it didn't star Macnee and Rigg).

On the other hand if your point is correct, then that's all the more reason why they simply shouldn't bother and just focus on getting the original series (at least the Rigg-Thorson episodes and maybe the New Avengers too) onto Blu-ray and be done with it.


Alex
 
I've never seen the Fiennes-Thurman Avengers movie, but its director ended up working on the brilliant The Middleman, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I seem to recall the Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach saying in the commentaries that The Avengers was an underrated movie, so not everybody hates it.

And there must still be plenty of awareness of Steed & Mrs. Peel in the UK if they had to change the name of the Marvel movie to Avengers Assemble to avoid confusion.
 
23skidoo said:
I'm going to dispute that. I think there is still plenty of interest. The Fiennes-Thurman movie failed because it sucked and had terrible word of mouth, and also because the writers completely forgot what made the Avengers work.
Click to expand...

Yep, the script was rubbish, with no conception of what made the series a hit. Doesn't mean I'm not right though.
 
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