The Avengers Forever: Quote, Unquote

	Quote, Unquote: Rigg Color Page 5 of 7

Patrick Macnee, Actor, on the success of The Avengers: "It's all due to the girls. Two completely independently-minded, absolutely wonderful females have been the success of The Avengers—or at least a great part of it."

Diana Rigg, Actress, on The Avengers' magic recipe: "Patrick has been marvellous. The series has been successful, I think, because we have broken away from the stereotype. We have inverted the usual ideas and added humor to the inversion."

Patrick Macnee, Actor, on a vintage problem: "I wanted Steed to drive a Bentley Continental or a Maserati, or something modern and lovely of a different make. It was put to the office. So what do I end up with? This so-called beautiful old car which is nothing but a nuisance...you can't change gears in it, you have problems with the clutch, you go backward instead of forward, and apart from that, it doesn't go far."

Diana Rigg, Actress, on her toughest critic: "I'm really nothing like Emma Peel at all. I can't wait to get out of this gear. I hate being the centre of attention. I'm my own worst fan. I'm much too critical to look at myself. I hate being a star and all that it entails. I am jealous of my private life. My ambition is to be a free agent. I want to be able to interpret a part without limitations. I want to be free of the one dimensional world of television."

Patrick Macnee, Actor, on the John Steed of 1967: "John Steed operates dangerously in the 20th century; his heart is in the 18th century."

Diana Rigg, Actress, on the downside of fame: "I had become paranoid with an underlying urge to pack and run. It is a very curious thing. I can only describe it as a sense of panic that seizes you when you are Diana to yourself and you are walking down the street. An instant later, you are somebody else to a lot of people who behave as if you belong to them. If you are quite a private person, which I am, this seems an intrusion on my privacy. I just have to run. Mind you, I am not ungrateful. I will be the last to minimise what television has done for me. It is a phenomenon, a miracle medium that can accomplish in six months what takes six years on the stage. Suddenly, everybody knows you. The point is though, that you are not yourself. Only the other person you portray in the series. That person is of a necessity imposed by television, one-dimensional. So you ask—is it worth it?"

Patrick Macnee, Actor, on a pet hate that's at odds with Steed's tastes: "I want to outlaw ties. Useless garments. Nasty, dangly, stringy things. Serve no purpose at all. I wear them as little as possible. Ties are simply symbols of conformity. Cravats have flair, masculinity. You won't find a tie in my wardrobe."

Quotes sourced from the TVTimes magazine, 1967
Compiled by Alan Hayes