Patrick Macnee…1922 to 2015 June 27, 2015
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
Always liked Patrick Macnee and always liked the Avengers. His character Steed was an almost hyper-English, unbelievably laid back, individual set loose in a near-surreal world of espionage that touched not at all on reality – nothing there about post-colonial angst, or real examinations of super-power rivalry, let alone, say, mention of the North. Anything but.
Criminal organisations, absurd megalomaniacs. That was grist to its mill and very good it was too. Channel 4 used to run it late at night in the 1980s and that’s where I first saw it (though I’d seen Macnee’s earlier/later incarnation as Steed in the New Avengers from the 1970s – it was of variable quality but enjoyable nonetheless).
I’ve been rewatching the first colour season (series 5) with the amazing Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, and for all that it could hokey it still stands up pretty well. There’s just something about it and the way it managed to glory in the rickety sets and kind of silly setups that makes it the greater than the sum of its parts. I’m tempted to say it’s Pythonesque, but I’ve never entirely warmed to Monty Python (while liking quite a bit of it) whereas the Avengers, well that’s different. Perhaps it was the science fictional plots? Perhaps the baroque tone in parts. There’s a cracking episode about a cartoonist who… well, watch it yourselves if you haven’t already seen it, it’s called the Winged Avenger.
In some ways in depicting autonomous women it both reflected changes in the 1960s and foreshadowed more to come.
The show was noted for a progressive approach to feminism, with the female stars being more than a match for Steed.
And Macnee is quoted as being aware of this:
Macnee said the show paved the way for women to play leading action roles on television. “It just seemed that a woman would make the ideal foil to my John Steed. And so she did,” he told The Lady magazine last year.
“The wonderful thing was it made women feel they didn’t just belong in an apron in front of a stove cooking for the kids. It made them delight in the awareness that they could get out there and do it all, fight men, take on villains, all the kinds of stuff we showed in The Avengers.”
Some interesting stuff in relation to class too in the Avengers mix.
What always strikes me is what a generous actor Macnee was – Kelsey Grammer has something of the same quality – being clearly happy to share the limelight with others.
He had a spotty career subsequent to the Avengers, but one gets the impression that he didn’t much care, and why should he?. He was forty when it started and from there where could he possibly go? Dapper dresser too!
By the way, here’s the intro… that music by Laurie Johnson. Effortlessly cool.
There’s an unfortunate quote out there, of a derogatory comment that Macnee is alleged to have made about the personal appearance of the (very) beautiful Diana Rigg.
Both Rigg and Macnee went on to make notable appearances in future bonds, of course (and as the stars of the BBC’s ‘Sherlock’, in my opinion their heirs, are beginning to do also).
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I heard about that comment and if true it was very stupid, though hard to know given that he said a lot of very positive stuff too.
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Does his name not suggest an Irish connection of some sorts in his background ?
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Mr Jericho (1970) was the only film I saw in which Patrick Macnee played the lead. Can’t remember much about it since it was that long ago but it was a good heist and chase type film with a bit of glamour and suited him. It should be shown again somewhere as a tribute.
I read his wikipedia page once and saw at the end that he was an avid nudist but assumed that someone just put it on as a joke edit. It turned out to be true when he died.
The New Avengers had worse slightly more conventional scripts and the actors just did’nt seem to fit for some reason compared to the 60s. Quite a few episodes were cold war based which the original never did.
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