Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
Reading Alan’s insightful observations about the Dark Phoenix saga from last week and his reference to British cult series The Avengers (1961-69; renewed in 1976/77, The Movie in 1999), I was reminded what these Six Degrees posts are really all about: connecting everything in the world of film, music and culture to everything else. And there is hardly another series that represents that principle of six degrees removed as well as The Avengers!
Just think of the above picture: Diana Rigg doesn’t just link this most iconic British 60s series, she’s also considered one of the best Bond partners in one of the most beloved films in the longest-running, most successful film series (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969) – and to one of the most popular recent fantasy TV shows, Game of Thrones, where she was also one of the stand-out supporting players. Diana Rigg, of course, also connects to everything else, from Hitchcock (TV’s Rebecca) to Agatha Christie (Evil Under the Sun), from horror (Theatre of Blood alongside Vincent Price) and Shakespeare to the Muppets (The Great Muppet Caper)! Her iconic Avengers character, Emma Peel (apparently a riff on ‘m(ale) appeal’), both echoed and inspired similar characters like Lara Croft, Jean Grey or Catwoman.
The connections and associations don’t stop at Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. No fewer than three other main players became connected to the world of Bond as well: Honor Blackman (first female partner Cathy Gale to main character/snoop John Steed) was that other iconic ‘60s Bond girl, Goldfinger‘s famously named Pussy Galore. Joanna Lumley, who was John Steed’s partner Purdey in the less fortunate New Avengers (1976-77), had a short stint in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (pretty much calling George Lazenby’s Bond possibly gay) before she eternalised herself as part of the ditsy duo in Absolutely Fabulos alongside Jennifer Saunders. Finally, John Steed himself, played by Patrick Macnee with incomparable gusto, became Bond’s amusing old-school sidekick in Roger Moore’s last entry A View to a Kill (1985). Their rapport in the film clearly harks back to the John Steed & partner relationship, and seeing Diana Rigg as a Bond character facing a bad guy, audiences must have expected her to pull out her Avengers’ karate chops (which she does to a good extent!).
These initial connections to the Bond universe, of course, are literally only the tip of the iceberg: The fan site Avengers Forever lists an incredile 82 (!) actors and actresses that both appeared in an Avengers instalment and a Bond film. Among them are big names like John Cleese, Edward Fox, Julian Glover and Christopher Lee, but also pretty much every MI6 staff member (two Ms, two Qs, one Miss Moneypenny), numerous Bond girls (Eunice Gayson, Caroline Munro, Angela Scoular, Valerie Leon) and countless villains and henchmen (Steven Berkoff, Vernon Dobtcheff, Burt Kwouk, James Villiers, Geoffrey Palmer). And if you count the atrocious The Avengers movie version (1998), you could even add one proper Bond actor (Sean Connery as a ludicrous villain for once) and one other M in the shape of Ralph Fiennes (a surprisingly miscast John Steed).
Beyond the amazing Bond/Avengers connections, this just shows how productive and well-connected British film and TV productions were in the 1960s. There was an amazing pool of acting talent, obviously, but just as many scriptwriters, cinematographers, set designers, composers and directors, who later left more indelible marks on other franchises, series and big film productions: think of Peter Cushing, Donald Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling or Roy Kinnear that often make a first or late appearance in the series, think of Laurie Johnson’s iconic theme and Howard Blake’s later scores, and let’s not forget about author Brian Clemens and producer Albert Fennell, who gave the series its quirky, edgy plots and their beloved cult sets and design. From Avengers to Bond, from Hammer to Carry On and from Pinewood to Teddington Studios, everything was connected!
For more raving, revealing and fascinating trivia knowledge about the series, go to Avengers Forever!
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 
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