passed along by Archie from something he saw on the web:
“Mrs. Peel taught me that strength and confidence are even more feminine than finding the perfect outfit and Mr. Steed taught me that a man shines most brilliantly when he doesn’t block the light of the woman sitting next to him.”
Why, Thank you, Mrs Peel.
You are welcome, Steed. Say hello to Mother and Technorati for me.
By the by–D’you know where the name “Emma Peel” originated?
After the departure of his second (possibly third or fourth, depending on how you reckon) partner Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), there was a meeting to determine the sort of person Steed needed as a partner.
First they needed someone to play off of the debonair Mr. Steed. This, it was felt, meant “woman”.
The classic BBC heroine, all eyeliner, open-mothed screams and twisted ankles, was becoming formulaic. They wanted someone as competent and deadly as Steed, someone who could in fact fight her way out of a wet paper bag. She would be an expert at martial arts.
But she also had to be very feminine–or at least very female, to keep the male viewers. During the meetings and audition process, staff began calling this factor “M appeal”.
But I think it’s clear that no-one deserved the title more than Diana Rigg.
Thanks for the great quote, Archie.
[...] I feel as though I have been knighted by Blogging royalty. Raincoaster has quoted me on her blog! It is almost enough to cause me to forgive her obsession with those nine inch finger nails. [...]
Technorati has been told! And your Mother says to call – - -
METRO! I’m the one who told you that story!
That’s bull$#!7. Though I’m far too much of a gentleman to say so. I read that one in the public library before e’er the internet was a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye.
We may have discussed it, but you were, respectfully, not the first source.
You really shouldn’t be so touchy, as some disreputable person or other once told me.
FIne sentiments..Us Brits are wonderful eh..
Not really
I didn’t actually say I was the first one who told you that story. How do I know where your ears have been, eh?
I just said that I told it to you. And I did.
Your exact phrase was “I’m the one who told you that story”: “THE one”.
So now you’re admitting you’re “A one who told [me] that story”? Or “ONE of several who have told [me] that story”?
And my ears, thank you, have been right here alongside my head the whole time, unflappable.
What would I be? the several who told you that story? Puh-leez. You said you got it at the library, where you’re not allowed to talk, so you must have read it, so I may, indeed, be the ONLY one who told you that story. As you were.
[...] part of this pantheon is Catherine Deneuve and the fictional, yet nonetheless iconic, Catwoman and Emma Peel, about whom I’ve written elsewhere and will link up once I find [...]
Mrs. Peel taught me that ten years of age is not too early for a boy to be sent to confession by strategically cut holes in a dark black garment.
It wasn’t? Huh, I learn something new every day.