Diana Rigg, We Love You!
By James McLachlan
Mrs. Peel the Feminist
Diana Rigg, for those who don’t know, is most famous for her character Mrs. Emma Peel alongside John Steed in the 1960’s roller-coaster ride of a cult TV show, The Avengers; yes, her, but she is oh so much more than that. Even though The Avengers would not have been The Avengers without her, her relatively short stint as the beautiful, clever, all round beat ‘em up woman in the mini skirts and leather, pretty much pails in comparison to her over all career to date - and she’s still kicking!
There were many ways in which to approach this short little over view of her life and times; her many stage triumphs, the actors she’s worked with, her personal non marital views and the ironic fact that she has been married twice and engaged three times. She’s been named a Dame, and would you believe even a Commander of the British Empire, by the Queen. Then of course there’s her strong feminist status, not just as Mrs. Peel, but as the life long Diana Rigg. But because I’m a guy, I’m going to talk about her shagability.
Since we’re talking about feminism, and we are now that I’ve brought it up, I’d say that Mrs. Peel is what I would define as a feminist. I’d like to transplant this little revelation onto Diana Rigg herself, as from what little I know she is also the real woman I’ll be talking about in a minute, but as I don’t know that much about her as a person, nor have I met her, it would all just be supposition.
I’ve never really known what the difference between a feminist and an ordinary woman who doesn’t let herself be shitted on is supposed to be, but if I had to say what my uninformed interpretation of one is, Mrs. Peel would be it. How to put it into words is difficult, but I have a good cop out, ‘rent out some Avengers and go watch her in action.’
Obviously you don’t have to be an action hero, be cool and composed beating people up, and look like a walking add for late 60’s fashion and all that’s cool and hip in the world of sports cars. Emma’s comfortable with who she is, it’s the things that make her a regular schmuck, a real woman, that lye underneath the ‘handle anything the world of nutter villains can throw at her.’ She’s constantly saving Steed, but still lets him take her out to dinner, she writes articles on playing bridge, yet isn’t a boring old fart. Emma Peel/feminism is being the she/you she/you wants to be, it just happens that she spends her days constructing molecular models, and her nights adored by over sexed bolar hatted ex-army super spies and quirky red rose transfixed super baddies alike - I think she has it all. She doesn’t have to try, you shouldn’t have to try, if you be yourself no matter what others think, then you will be - a natural feminist. James Feminism isn’t filled with things you can’t do, it’s filled with everything you want to do, and if you’re stopped, then that’s when you should kick up a stink. (Obviously there are a few exemptions to this, like, for example, you can’t have your boy have the baby while you go to the beach, not because we’re domineering, it’s because we can’t have babies.)
But I don’t have room to go so far off on a tangent; I merely wanted to point out the correlation between Mrs. Peel and James Feminism. But now let’s get to the sex bit. (Note: I’m writing this all for the lesbian community who aren’t afraid of their sexuality, so there’s no need to think I have a problem.)
Sex Bomb at 63
So many people talk about the aesthetical and sexual sides of Diana Rigg, and I’m sure she finds it all a bit of a yawn, if not annoying, but as she’ll never read this I’m free to impress my mates.
Miss Rigg has been voted the sexiest TV star of all time by the readers TV Guide magazine, and that’s up against such media force fed tartlets as Pamela Anderson, Farrah Fawcett and Angie Dickinson in the United States’ biggest entertainment rag. However Rigg herself doesn’t seem to have been much of a one to ever worry about her looks, James Feminism again, despite being a James Bond tottie, the Contessa di Vicenzo, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Not because it was empowering, not because every woman should espier to becoming a sex symbol before they get married and have children for their husband, she just did it.
On recently being voted 75th sexiest woman in the world by readers of Playboy magazine, she said, “I was thrilled,” and, “Sometimes I see photographs of myself and I think, God, I was really quite tasty. But I didn’t know it at the time.” At 63 she is yet to succumb to any surgical panel beating, and insists she was never vain, though now admits to the temptation of having a little nip and tuck. “Well, I may,” she says.
Is that so bad? Is that so good? Whether she knew it or not, Diana Rigg was a sauce factory that went well beyond her body. An overwhelming confidence, and the seemingly simple ability to make you think that everything about her was just where it was supposed to be; the way she moved and the way she spoke, it all said I am what I am, and I’m perfect!
I was reading something once that mentioned the fact that she’s relatively flat chested, and I suppose she is, but I’d been watching The Avengers for ages and hadn’t even notice till it was pointed out to me, and I have a slight fixation. (It’s a natural drive important to the continuation of the species, so don’t write in people.) I’d simply been overwhelmed by her general stage presence, to the point where I’d almost forget what she physically looked like. You don’t get that with your Pamela Anderson’s and your… umm… some other pair of boobs with a name attached. See, I can’t remember their names!
The most uncomprehensive Diana Rigg biography ever!
In the beginning
In Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, on July 20, 1938, was born one Diana Rigg, to Louis and Beryl Rigg.
At two months old, her family moved to Jodhpur, in northwest Indian, where her father, an engineer, became manager of the state railroad. She lived in India until she was eight, and then was sent back to England to attend boarding school. First Great Missenden in Buckhinghamshire, then three years later transferred to Fulneck Girl’s School in Pudsey in Yorkshire.
After studying drama with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, in about 1958, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company with Peter Hall as director. Here she accompanied the likes of Charles Laughton, Edith Evans, and Laurence Olivier, and has become quite renowned for her portrayals of Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cordelia in King Lear.
The Avengers bit
For those of us who have only ever had the opportunity to watch her on the little screen it may come as a surprise, thought I’m sure only a small one, that her move to television was bagged out by a lot of her contemporaries as a waste of her talents. And maybe if you were able to see her on stage every now and then, so would you. However for those not quite so lucky, Rigg saw television as a new challenge. But of course being the genius that she is, it has now become somewhat of a trend for people to move back and forth between TV and the stage.
It wasn’t long before she was famous, pointed at in the street, and receiving, to say the least, odd fan mail. She handed the answering of these over to her mother, who would write back with little notes such as, “take a cold shower,” or “run around the block.” Ah, the joys of the adoring punter.
Despite her brilliance and the popularity of the show, her time was rather short on The Avengers. Why, you ask? Well, as best I can fathom, she was being treated like shit - even the cameramen got paid more than she did. Her wage did go up to about double after she kicked up an understandable stink, but she wasn’t a happy camper.
Even though she was playing the character of Emma Peel, who pretty much personified the new liberated woman of the late 60’s feminist movement, her ‘un-Australian’ outspoken personal objection to marriage, wasn’t the sort of thing that pleased the conservative male television executives. Oh, the bitch!
We’ll disregard the less savoury bits of her time with The Avengers, surfiest to say that it didn’t last very long, in fact she only stayed into the first colour series because good ol’ Patrick Macnee (who played Steed) convinced her to stick it out for a bit longer. So we’ll move on to the rest of her life, which is where most of her many triumphs are located anyway.
It’s sad that all the great telly series’ were made with bastard executive types, The Avengers, The Lone Ranger, and everything that the guy who made The Brady Bunch came up with.
After that Avengers business
It is greatly unfair of me to lump everything Rigg has done since The Avengers into only one layer of the pie that is her gourmet career, but I am like John Lydon before me, a lazy sod.
In 1975 she received the London Theatre Critics Award for Best Actress for Phaedra Britannica, she tied with Helen Mirren in both Teeth ‘n’ Smiles and The Seagull, and received the Variety Club Award for Evil Under the Sun in 1982, British award. Then there was the London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for Medea in 1992, a Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Drama for Medea, 1994, The London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1996, and she received an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for Rebecca in 1996/97.
The 1990’s marked a return to the stage, and throughout the last decade she has played some of the most demanding and dramatic rolls of her carer. These include Dryden’s All for Love, where she played Cleopatra, and Brecht’s Mother Courage in 1995/1996, as well as the above mentioned productions for which she was awarded. She seems to be somewhat of a diva in roles like Medea and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, where she can ‘bring in on’ emotionally speaking.
She is a keen fly fisher, Professor of Theatre Studies at Oxford University, the chairman of an arts complex in Scotland, and has edited two books: “No Turn Unstoned: The Worst Ever Theatrical Reviews” and “So to the Land,” which is a collection of English country poetry. She is also a co-founder and has served as director of United British Artists.
She received honorary degrees from Stirling University in 1988 and Leeds University in 1992 for her accomplishments in the theatre and in film. She was decorated a Commander of the British Empire in 1987 and, within days of accepting the Tony Award for Medea, 1994, was created a Dame.
So there you have it, one superb TV/stage powerhouse gorgeous lump of gorgeous whom I’d be proud to have at my funeral anytime. Everything above is of course rather squashed and incredibly unworthy of someone that I admire so greatly, but there you go. There are plenty of Avengers and Diana Rigg sites on the net and such for those who are interested, but then you all knew that anyway. She also has a 24-year-old daughter, Rachael Atlanta Stirling, who is an actor too. Plus for those very interested, I’ve managed to dig up some Diana Rigg contact addresses:
In the U.K., care of:
London Management, 235 Regent Street
London W1A 2JT, England
And in the United States, care of: Lionel Larner, Ltd.
130 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019