The Mirror Room
Emma Peel - Diana Rigg
Page 4 of 4

A Personal View

I've so far discussed some of the similarities and the most significant differences between Emma and Diana. Now I'd like to recall my first encounter with this 60s icon and explain why I have developed the deepest admiration and respect for this lady.

On 14 December 1999 I was extremely bored. A friend had advised me that Uniseries, an Argentine cable TV channel, was showing a series that, according to her, "was very good". I decided to follow her advice and turned on my TV at 10 PM to watch it. Needless to say, it was The Avengers, and the first episode I saw was The Gravediggers. From then on, with every episode I saw, it just seemed to get better and better, simply because nothing—absolutely nothing—in this show is wasted.

At 26, with a brain filled with spy / detective series of the 80s and 90s, I found myself surprised to take such an increasing interest in a B&W series of the 60s. What caught me the most at first, was the excellent plots and the wordless communication Steed and Emma seemed to share.

As the episodes went by, my preferences swung the balance in Emma's favor, simply because I see, through her, many of the qualities I admire in our sex, the fair sex: a complete certainty and determination facing any situation, intelligence, elegance, and sense of humor.

It is often possible to see facets of the performer's own character in their creations. That's why my interest grew towards Diana, who as I imagined, had a lot in common with Emma (or Emma had much in common with Diana) and more besides. Why I admire Diana is a question with countless answers, but these are perhaps the most important:

• She makes me laugh when her job is to make one laugh, and she makes me cry when her job is to make one cry.
• In spite of all the fame she gained internationally thanks to Emma Peel, she always was a humble person, who didn't change her modest character, thoughts or feelings.
• She always remained faithful to her first love, the theater, even though she was offered succulent projects to "shift" to the cinema industry.
• She always showed a great responsibility and absolute commitment in each project she was involved in, either good or bad, supporting it until the last minute.
• She is a part of that small number of actresses who have made it clear that not all of them are "breasts and teeth" but some of them also think.

I conclude this article admitting that unquestionably the most remembered character in Diana's career will always be Emma Peel, the truest Avenger girl, a character who influenced the life of millions of people around the world, a character who was skillfully defined by the frenetic director Z. Z. Von Schnerk (Kenneth J. Warren) in Epic:

"I needed a woman like you, Mrs Peel, a woman of courage, of beauty, of action, a woman who could become desperate and yet remain strong; a woman who could become confuse and yet remain intelligent, who could fight back and yet remain feminine. You, and only you, Emma Peel, have all these qualifications".

Mackidockie, febrero 2001