Emma Peel

Diana Rigg as Mrs Emma Peel

Emma Peel was a fictional spy played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight.

Casting

The partner of John Steed, Mrs Peel was introduced as a replacement for the popular Cathy Gale, played by actress Honor Blackman, who left the series at the end of the programme's third season to co-star in the James Bond film Goldfinger.

Elizabeth Shepherd was cast as Emma Peel and production on the fourth season began. After filming all of one episode and part of a second, however, the producers decided that Shepherd was not right for the part, and she was dismissed. No footage of Shepherd as Peel is known to have survived.^[1]

The producers scrambled to find a replacement and found her in Diana Rigg; the Shepherd episodes were subsequently re-filmed.

Character

The character was notable for a number of characteristics. She is a feminist heroine, eschewing traditional "damsel-in-distress" portrayals of women (she is rarely bested in any fight and rescues Steed as often as he rescues her.) She is a master of martial arts and a formidable fencer. A certified genius, she specializes in chemistry and other sciences. She is often seen in episodes engaging in artistic hobbies and had success in industry at the helm of the company of her late father, Sir John Knight. Her husband, Mr. Peter Peel, was a pilot whose plane disappeared over the Amazonian forest. He was presumed dead for many years, and Peel went on to work with Steed. The name "Emma Peel" is a play on the phrase "Man Appeal" or "M. Appeal", which the production team stated was one of the required elements of the character.^[2]

Her style of dress typified the period, and the character is still a fashion icon. John Bates was brought in as the costume designer for Emma Peel in the second half of Season 4. He created a wardrobe of black and white op-art mod clothing and mini skirts. Before this, people had believed that lines, circles and other bold patterns would not work on the television cameras of the day. It was also filmed before the mini skirt had become mainstream. Bates even had to stop leaving hems on the mini skirts because the production team kept lowering them again. He also licensed his designs to several manufacturers under the Avengerswear label and these pieces were sold in various shops throughout the country. She is often best-remembered for the leather catsuit she wore early on in her first season. Rigg, in fact, disliked wearing leather and John Bates designed softer stretch jersey and PVC catsuits for her instead. For the colour season, the designer was Alun Hughes who used bold colours and lurid, psychedelic patterns. Hughes also created the Emmapeeler catsuit which was made of stretch jersey in bright block colours. The Emmapeelers and several other pieces from this season's wardrobe were also licensed and sold in the shops. She drove a convertible Lotus Elan at high speeds, and convincingly portrayed any series of undercover roles, from nurse to nanny. Her favorite guise was that of a women's magazine reporter, trying to interview big business tycoons and rich playboys.

Departure

Peel's interactions with Steed range from witty banter to sexual tension. The tension was never broken except for a chaste peck on the cheek she gives Steed at the end of her final episode before departing with her husband, Peter Peel. He was a test pilot and was lost on a mission. When he returns, at the end of "The Forget-Me-Knot", Peel leaves Steed and her spy career behind. In the distant shot in which he appears, Peter Peel looks suspiciously like Steed.

In real life, Diana Rigg had chosen to leave the series for a number of reasons, one of which was in order to accept a role in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She also experienced ongoing conflict with the series producers (she later said she discovered she was being paid less than the cameraman).^[3]

Emma Peel was replaced by the much younger agent Tara King played by actress Linda Thorson, but appeared one last time in an episode of The New Avengers entitled "K is for Kill." Rigg had declined an offer to appear on the series, so stock footage of her from an Avengers episode was used instead.

The Avengers movie

The character was revived and reworked for the 1998 film version of the show, with Uma Thurman playing Peel and Ralph Fiennes playing Steed.

References in popular culture

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

In the 1967 Man From U.N.C.L.E. novel (number 13), The Rainbow Affair by David McDaniel, Emma Peel and John Steed appear on p. 43, but are described, not named. Emma is a "sleek, aristocratic redhead" teamed with a "elegantly, almost foppishly dressed gentleman" wearing a bowler. Emma is accused of "teasing Mr. Solo" merely by looking at him.

Dishwalla released the single "Miss Emma Peel" on the album Pet Your Friends and Steven Wilson's side-project, I.E.M., has a song called "The Last Will and Testament of Emma Peel" on the self-titled album.

The Allies, a Seattle-based rock group during the early 1980's, recorded "Emma Peel", which was featured on MTV during its early days.

Noxzeema Jackson tells Miss Clara that she is going to make her look like Emma Peel in the feature film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

In the 1988 comic Shattered Visage, made as a sequel to the spy show The Prisoner, Emma Peel makes a cameo at the funeral for a spy, along with Steed, Napoleon Solo, and Illya Kuryakin. A thinly-veiled version of Emma Peel appears in Alan Moore's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, as the young "Emma Night", daughter of industrialist Sir John Night, where she shares a mutual attraction with James Bond.

A Dame Emma Knight appears in the Doctor Who New Adventures novel The Dying Days.

One episode of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. ("Stagecoach") featured a female British spy named Emma Steed.

Emma Frost is the name of the White Queen of the Hellfire Club in X-Men comics, a reference to the Avengers episode "A Touch Of Brimstone".

In the Good Eats episode Flat Is Beautiful, Alton Brown refers to his pizza peel as Emma.

Both Emma and John Steed made cameo appearances in the bar scene in the second issue of the 1996 comic book mini-series Kingdom Come.

In the TV show Married With Children, the episode called 'Kelly Breaks Out' Al and Jefferson are watching TV and see an ad for 'Avenger' videos. Al orders the tape and is disappointed when it arrives because it features Linda Thorsen and not Emma Peel. He also asks the operator when ordering the tapes if they have an episode where she "kicks really, really high".

In the 1990s, Lib-Tech Snowboards had a model called "the Emma Peel" which was the same height as the character

In the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, John Travolta's character confessed to Uma Thurman's character that his only celebrity crush was Emma Peel. Four years later, Thurman portrayed Peel in the 1998 film The Avengers.

References

• Alvarez, Maria (1998), "Feminist icon in a catsuit (female lead character Emma Peel in defunct 1960s UK TV series 'The Avengers')", New Statesman, Aug 14.
• Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; & Topping, Keith (1998). The Avengers Dossier. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-86369-754-2.
• Lars Baumgart (2002): DAS KONZEPT EMMA PEEL – Der unerwartete Charme der Emanzipation: THE AVENGERS und ihr Publikum. Kiel: Verlag Ludwig – ISBN 978-3933598400

1. ^ The Avengers Forever: Elizabeth Shepherd
2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0312031874&id=KSNQpAU5z80C&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=emma+peel&sig=QerAnDyu0BYYbKEJHazaTvSZ4gQ
3. ^ Diana Rigg: Biography