The Mirror Room
John Steed - Patrick Macnee
Page 4 of 5

Divergences: John Steed — Patrick Macnee

The determination - It's hard to imagine that behind the cold, calculating, and perfectly self-controlled Steed, there's been an emotionally fluctuating, weak, uncertain, and indecisive actor. Macnee always regretted waiting so late in life to seek the psychological help that helped him immensely in his 50s—he feels he desperately needed it in his 20s. Patrick was a man who admits to having made big mistakes ("Macnee blunders," he calls them); who has stated he is unable to face reality; who declared he didn't have the guts to make this or that choice; and who even called himself a coward. Perhaps this is the greatest contradiction that exists between Patrick and Steed. However, to laud Macnee appropriately, a few traits that Steed exhibited no doubt came from Patrick's own training as an officer in the Navy during WW II. As Macnee states, "Underneath he [Steed] was steel, and outwardly he was charming, vain and representative of the type of Englishman who is, I suppose, really more valued abroad. [The character of] Steed was evolved in circumstances which you normally wouldn't encounter in real life. Hopefully during the war one had encountered very frightening actions... with a certain amount of equanimity covering, I imagine, tremendous fright underneath. But the idea was to be calm and cool under fire. That was what I tried to convey with Steed" ("An O.T.T.A. Souvenir Special" magazine, April 1986, and "The Avengers and Me").

Showing feelings - Placing his Steed in the context of the prototype of the old-fashioned Englishman, Patrick seasoned his character with a large amounts of eccentricity, dichotomy, individualism, and above all, British phlegm. That slowness in showing feelings or interest for things, were incorporated into Patrick's upbringing. However, while Steed remained forever reserved, struggling to hide repressed feelings—a classic example is the scene of "The Living Dead" where Steed contained his fear when he was almost shot to death by the firing squad, asking for the blindfold, but still so suave. Patrick has progressively come out as an extrovert and awfully chatty man. Where Steed was meticulous in his speech, saying just what he meant and wanted to say, Patrick is known to ramble on about anything, digressing from the subject at hand and talking in circles. Patrick like Steed reveals an open mind about many things, although they differ in one notable way—Pat has tried to focus his life with a spiritual perspective that sent him through many paths, whilst we never really understand if Steed had any particular spiritual leanings. Patrick gets emotional very easily although Steed does not—the most emotion we see in Steed occurs in the tag scene of the episode "The Forget-Me-Knot," when his eyes obviously get watery upon Mrs. Peel's leaving. Lastly, Patrick unlike Steed is terrible at keeping secrets (aside from whom he has slept with in his life). Hmmm... we're tempted to say that Patrick would never have excelled as a secret agent...

The emotional stability - We said that, although he remained single, Steed always showed enough self-assurance so as to, come the right time, get married and live happily along with a woman. Once again, this is diametrically opposed to Patrick's case, who with countless romances behind him and two marriage failures, had made a point of never reaching an altar again. He hadn't considered, however, that finally for him, everything was a question of "third time lucky," when happiness caught him in his senior years. Even so, we still are wondering if Steed really ever married any of his partners. The general consensus of Avenger fans by far gives Steed's heart fully and eternally to Mrs. Peel, which accounts for the watery eyes when she left him for her husband, returned from three years in the Amazonian jungle. It was and will be left each viewer to imagine what happened later, after Mrs. Peel essentially told "New Avenger" Steed she was no longer married to her husband.

Fondness for champagne - After consuming almost 80 liters of champagne throughout all the series (according to statistics), one can't help but wonder when one finds out that Patrick declared he never drank champagne. Of course, Di Rigg has explained this disparity by saying they never drank alcohol on the show, and that the "champagne" was in reality carbonated lemonade. Nevertheless, we are lead to believe that Steed loved the stuff, as in most scenes (including in "The New Avengers"), we see it is Steed, invariably, who uncorks the bottle and then pours the bubbly drink into the glasses. Also we see that almost always there's a previous toast. But if we pay careful attention to this, we'll corroborate that, unlike anyone of his female colleagues, Steed is not generally caught drinking by the camera aside from a quick sip or two. All in all, Steed has shone as one of the greatest champagne drinkers ever seen on television, and that led Macnee, along with Linda Thorson, to film a commercial for Laurent Perrier, a French champagne, in 1975.

Steed's aunts - Few details about Steed's family life have been revealed as repeatedly as the fact of his having had so many aunts, with the most eccentric names, behaviors and gift-giving habits. And what's more, those aunts used to come to Steed's mind in the tensest moments of an alarming situation. Once again, Steed's insouciance would arise just when it was needed, and that resource was exploited through the most outlandish way. Aunts weren't, however, a significant addition in Patrick's life. Coming from a virtually non-existent family, although his father had a trio of sisters (known as the "Kilkenny Cats," according to Patrick) who kept him in his place, as his Mother did also, none of the members of his wider family exerted a marked influence on Patrick.

The athletic Steed - In the episode "Silent Dust" and in some of "The New Avengers", Steed demonstrates excellent equestrian abilities, drawing a parallel between him and Patrick. We've also seen him handle the saber with outstanding dexterity, another ability acquired by Patrick in Eton. Nevertheless, in "Dead Men Are Dangerous," we learned that in 1957 Steed won a series of important trophies for his performances in cricket, a sport that we see him play in that episode and in "Honey for the Prince." Also in "The Thirteenth Hole" he seems to enjoy playing golf and in many other episodes, even from the Gale season, we've spotted him playing billiards or darts. We don't know if Patrick really played these sports—though he has said that golf is "so boring"—but the thing is that he's declared himself to be "very unathletic." That was one reason the presence of stuntmen occurred in the filmed series (aside from insurance concerns), particularly during the fight scenes. In any case, we know for sure that Patrick didn't excel in Eton as a sportsman, but rather as a performer in many school plays. He learned to play tennis in the 1970s, a discipline he enjoyed most likely for fun rather than ability; however, a few years later he went on a celebrity tennis tournament to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, so he must have had some little competence. Unfortunately, arthritis and the impediments of old age and obesity have prevented Patrick from playing tennis as well as riding horses these days.

The vintage cars - The sight of Steed driving his 1926 Bentley or the Rolls Royce during the Tara season has become not only a trademark of this adorable secret agent, but once again, is synonymous with prototype of the Englishman he depicts, an Edwardian of the early twentieth century. When in "Too Many Christmas Trees," Mrs. Peel suggests he donate his Bentley to the British Museum, Steed responds he remains "loyal to his old loves". "The quality of a lady's performance is not measured by a year," he concludes. However, we doubt Patrick has ever complained more about anything than when he was asked to drive any of those "old loves" on the series. To shift gears required an ability he did not have, and many times he drove only in second gear, or allowed the car to be pushed by a bunch of robust crewmen. Instead of opening the small door, he jumped over it quite acrobatically, just because he admitted that "that was the easiest way to get out of the car," since according to him, if he tried opening the door, he'd fall flat in his face. Conclusion: Patrick always hated the vintage cars that Steed cherished. In fact, those cars disappeared completely in "The New Avengers"—Steed would keep his Bentley only as a relic in the garage of his Georgian mansion. They were replaced by, among others, a Range Rover (precursor of the current 4x4), an elegant Rover Saloon, and a stylish Jaguar coupé—all the latest models. These preferences indeed seemed to be more in agreement with those of Patrick, who by the end of the 1980s did a TV commercial for Sterling, and to this day drives luxurious Cadillacs.