Emma Peel
Emma Peel is a fictional character played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers, and by Uma Thurman in the 1998 film version. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight. She is the crime-fighting partner of John Steed.
Emma Peel
Diana Rigg (TV)
Uma Thurman (1998 film)
Olivia Poulet (audio)
Diane Appleby (1971–1973)
Sue Lloyd (1977)
Female
Unofficial undercover operative[1]
Peter Peel
Sir John Knight (father)
As a lady spy adventurer and expert in martial arts, she became a feminist role model around the world and is considered an icon of British popular culture.[2] Regarded as a 1960s fashion icon and sex symbol, the character is often remembered for the leather catsuit sometimes worn by Rigg in her early episodes.
Casting[edit]
Mrs. Peel was introduced as a replacement for the popular character Cathy Gale, played by actress Honor Blackman. Blackman left the programme at the end of the third season to co-star in the James Bond film Goldfinger.
Elizabeth Shepherd was initially cast as Emma Peel and production on the fourth season began. After filming all of one episode and part of a second, the producers decided that Shepherd was not suitable for the part, and she was dismissed. No footage of Shepherd as Peel is known to have survived.[3]
The producers had to quickly replace her and gave the job to Diana Rigg; the episodes with Shepherd were then subsequently re-filmed.
Departure[edit]
When her husband, Peter Peel, surprisingly reappears at the end of "The Forget-Me-Knot", Emma decides to leave Steed and her spy career behind. In the distant shot in which he appears, Peter Peel looks suspiciously like Steed (and was in fact played by Patrick Macnee's stunt double, Peter Weston), and like Steed, he drives a two-door convertible Bentley, albeit a contemporary model. Emma meets her replacement, Tara King (played by Linda Thorson), who enters the building as she herself is leaving and tells her that Steed likes his tea stirred "anti-clockwise". Peel would be the last of the "talented amateurs" with whom John Steed was teamed, as her successor is a neophyte professional agent.
In real life, Diana Rigg had chosen to leave the series for a number of reasons, one of which was to accept a role in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (similarly, her predecessor Honor Blackman departed to appear in the Bond film Goldfinger).
During her first season, Rigg eventually discovered that she was being paid less than the cameramen: afterwards her salary was tripled and combined with her loyalty to Macnee, she was persuaded to come back for 25 additional episodes (including her farewell episode, which was actually shot well into the Tara King season). Eventually the arduous shooting schedules, various conflicts with the producers, the lure of film and stage roles, and a desire to challenge herself as an actress all combined in her decision to leave the show for good.[7]
After leaving the series, Rigg played a variation of the Emma Peel character in two German short films produced for the 8mm market: The Diadem and The Mini-Killers. Little behind the scenes information has surfaced, though the films themselves have survived.[8][9]
The New Avengers[edit]
Emma Peel re-appeared on The New Avengers using archive clips from the original series, featured in the episode entitled "K is for Kill". She briefly speaks with Steed over the phone and mentions that her last name isn't Peel anymore; Steed replies, "You'll always be Mrs. Peel to me." Sue Lloyd provided her voice for the new dialogue. It was the only time during the revival that such a crossover with the original series occurred.
The Avengers (1998)[edit]
The character was revived and reworked for the 1998 film version of the show, The Avengers. Uma Thurman was cast in the role of Peel opposite Ralph Fiennes as Steed. In the film, Mrs. Peel is a scientist working as part of a weather project. When the project is sabotaged by someone who appears to be her double, she is investigated by Ministry agent John Steed. Ultimately, they team up to find out the truth. The film was a critical and box office failure with the new incarnation of the characters being panned. In 2003, Total Film magazine voted Fiennes and Thurman as "The Worst Movie Double Act of All Time" for their performances as Steed and Peel.[10]
References
Sources