This logo always brings you back to the welcome page

The Mirror Room
John Steed - Patrick Macnee
Page 2 of 5

Click the bowler hat to begin a search
An Early Approach: The Steed Of My Early Teens

The first impression that crossed my mind so many years ago when I was introduced to Steed on TV, during what I think was the first Argentine screening of "The Avengers", was that of a dandified aristocrat. To my 12 year-old mind, he appeared to dress in a very oddly formal manner, never removing that typically English bowler hat, nor forgot his umbrella, no matter how brightly the sun was shining.

For a child at the gates of adolescence, whose television heroes covered a broad range of luminaries from Eliot Ness, to Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Jim West, Napoleon Solo, and "the blond man from 'Mission: Impossible' ", to find myself making room for a character like John Steed seemed a little out of place. To me, Steed wasn't even like his countryman Simon Templar, let alone the untouchable titans from American television with whom I had grown up, appreciating and respecting their clear devotion to being and doing good.

Steed was different. Underneath his bowler hat and behind his umbrella, I saw a distant, cold, cautious, calculating, imperturbable man facing the most exasperating situations. And due to my naiveté, I didn't acknowledge these attributes as containing the dimensions of a hero. It wasn't the standard most teenagers in 1970 were used to accepting. It wasn't a typical hero character associated with a direct, simple story, which would have its beginning, middle and ending served to us on a silver platter.

However Steed wouldn't bring any such characterization and plot to us voluntarily. We had to look for those ourselves, searching among the complexities of the storylines to find his heroic attributes.

Steed offered us a man to think about; a man for whom one had to accept that white could be black and black could be white. A man pretty outlandish, quite paradoxical to our understanding at that time. A man who grasped an umbrella instead of the accepted, classic gun; a man who, with his imperturbable glance, was able to demolish everything his enemies had so carefully set-up.

Steed was, above all, a character mentally ahead of his time, but showing a stamp that looked stopped in time. Such an ambiguity was so axiomatic, so strange to a typical child, that I preferred to go back to Captain Kirk, who was futurist from beginning to end, or Eliot Ness, who definitively lived in the 30's I never knew, or to the ever modern and fashionable fellows of "Mission: Impossible". They were safe; they were predictable; they were fathomable.

And meanwhile, poor John Steed would remain unknown, caught in that 1960s timescale, smiling, hoping that my brain cells matured and my heart eventually welcomed him as an old friend, a friend who had wanted to enter my childhood... but I sadly hadn't welcomed him then. Luckily, I was to eventually awaken to his charms and his power.

A Current Approach: The Steed Of My Adult Life

Time went by. In December 1999, Steed and "The Avengers" returned to Argentine television after a long-drawn-out retirement. Only this time, I was no longer 12 years old.

By now, I was of an age to realize that Steed's universe comprised a unique world, showcased in a series as intricate and multi-faceted as had ever been created for television.

Steed is a paradigm of an upside down world. A world where reaction wins hands down to action. Where elegance and diplomacy are used to avoid violence when possible. Where the absurd and the fantastic are natural parts of actual, daily situations. Where men and women openly share the equality in all ways-intelligence, fighting skills, competence. Where, as Patrick Macnee states, "one expected me, the man, to make the decisions and I didn't. The women did."

Few actors are gifted with being offered the exact role designed to shoot them to stardom, enabling them to portray a character fitting the talents and skills that the actor naturally exhibits himself. Patrick Macnee was indeed fortunate when he was given the role of John Steed.

But Macnee didn't hold all the cards from the beginning. The thing is that the scripts of the forthcoming British ABC series called "The Avengers" needed the presence of an assistant for Dr. Keel, and the only detail they specified for that man was solely his name: John Steed. It must not have been easy for the almost anonymous Patrick Macnee, who'd accepted the offer quite reluctantly, to act the role of Steed when he had no idea who or what the man was! Likewise, his situation must not have been comfortable when the creator of the series, a few weeks later, put his back against the wall, demanding the improvement of a character who they hadn't so far been able to clearly envisage.

Perhaps Patrick Macnee's most praiseworthy achievement lies precisely in this aspect: to have given shape, polished, and defined a character who, without any single description, appeared for the first time before the viewers behind a half-opened door, and, what's more, to have designed him so brilliantly in the image of himself.

To be even more precise, I don't exaggerate when affirming that Patrick Macnee gave life to the most famous secret agent in the history of British television, and was the only one responsible for his success. To that extent, I categorically can't conceive John Steed without Patrick Macnee, and indeed, sometimes it's hard to imagine Patrick Macnee without John Steed, as Macnee has said himself. I have to say they're two of a kind.

Reality And Fiction Face To Face

It's quite surprising to hear about Macnee's approach towards Steed, which we learn whenever Macnee speaks of him. It seems Steed is so instilled in Macnee's mind that even to this day when Patrick is asked something specifically about Steed, he says:

"...when I counteracted an order to murder a divine French film star...", or "...when she [Emma] finally came up, kissed me on the cheek and said the line...", or "where I rescue Tara from the window ledge..."

Notice the use of "I"? Wasn't it Steed who did all that?

The recurrent, strange habit Patrick has of speaking in first person when we know in fact he's talking about Steed, proves that indeed, as he's always declared, "Steed was more than a role for me; he was an extension of myself." We wonder if that extension is really a merging of the two men, one real, one fictional, or if, to the contrary, Steed's and Macnee's lives ran parallel to each other like railway tracks.

Patrick tells us even more:

"As time went on, Steed and myself just grew together. I played it how I was feeling on that particular day, which worked in a funny kind of way, because the whole point of the show was that it was immediate" ("The Avengers and Me," p. 71).

Many of Steed's distinctive traits can be utterly understood as soon as one begins to track down the life of Patrick Macnee. Steed isn't an exact replica of Patrick, but he's close enough to him. There are incredible similarities between both, but also there are appreciable differences.

An exhaustive background of Steed is not available; no character on "The Avengers" was well defined, including the lead one. We can find out small details of his life through certain episodes of the series, and then put them together until a coherent set is eventually assembled. We also pay attention to his attitudes, his behavior, his reactions, the way he faces the diverse situations in his cases; by studying all these, a more or less coherent view about his personality can be built up.

It arises as a natural consequence for those who have literally devoured "The Avengers" throughout its seasons, to establish similarities and differences between John Steed and Patrick Macnee. I have found such an analysis an extremely exciting experience, and it makes up the rest of this article.

to page 3, Convergences: John Steed - Patrick Macnee
Top of Page
Table of Contents
Copyright of the written material is owned by its authors
Web Design and Digital Art © 2008 - TheAvengers.TV