R.I.P. Steed, Patrick Macnee, 1922-2015 and the obit as an art form

The Obituary Desk was where Journalists once learned their trade. That was where they learned how to think, research and write tight. Forget the dreck that spews forth from "Schools of Journalism" today. m/r

Brollies and Dollies: Patrick Macnee, 1922-2015 :: SteynOnline

by Mark Steyn - Ave atque vale  - June 27, 2015

Hard to imagine at the start of yet another dreary summer of superheroes at the multiplex, but once upon a time "The Avengers" didn't mean lurid musclebound rupper-nippled Übermenschen battling malevolent Norse gods across a hole in the time-space continuum over the streets of Manhattan, but an urbane middle-aged toff and a catsuited Carnaby Street dolly bird bantering their way across Swingin' London. That other "Avengers" was a big hit in the US. It was, indeed, the last British telly show to play in primetime on one of the Big Three American networks (ABC). Thereafter, the upscale Brit hits were confined to PBS, and the lowbrow stuff was snapped up by Yank producers for local adaptation - see everything from "Three's Company" and "Sanford & Son" to "Dancing With The Stars" and "The Office".

But for a while Americans liked "The Avengers", and it lingered in the memory so warmly that, three decades later, Hollywood opted to do a big-screen, big-budget remake. Patrick Macnee, the original John Steed, sportingly agreed to do the usual cameo - in this case, as a ministry bureaucrat rendered invisible in some research mishap and now consigned to a cramped office in a Whitehall basement. As I say, he was invisible, so we heard Macnee's affable drawl (he had a smile in his voice, even when beating up the bad guys), but the audience never saw him, which was probably just as well - because, if they did, they'd remember the sheer affability of MacNee's Steed. He was never a conventionally handsome leading man — he had a bit of a dumplingy face — but he brought a bonhomous ease to the role of the unflappable secret agent: the bowler, the brollies, the buttonholes and the Bollinger seemed like natural extensions of his charm; you can understand why groovy birds like Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson would dig such an ostensibly squaresville cat.

He wasn't supposed to be the star. "The Avengers" began in 1961 with Ian Hendry as a mystery-solving doctor David Keel. Macnee returned to England from an indifferent theatrical career in Canada to play the role of Dr Keel's assistant "John Steed". But then the star departed, and Steed found himself carrying the show with a succession of glamorous gal sidekicks - Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, Linda Thorson as Tara King. They were very literal sidekicks in that they kicked to the side, being masters - or mistresses - of martial arts, doing most of the heavy lifting while Steed occasionally boinked someone over the head with his bowler. Many years ago, Dame Diana told me "Emma Peel" came from "M Appeal", as in "Man Appeal". But Steed always called her "Mrs Peel", just as he called her predecessor "Mrs Gale", because he was a gentleman. And the ladies always called him "Steed" because they were one of the boys, as in that English public-school thing whereby grown-up chaps who know each other well address each other by their surnames ("I say, Holmes!" "Yes, Watson...").

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