Who gave the best performance?

[Johnny O]

Still begs the question, why create a new character instead of just simply recasting Dr. Keel? Shame they got rid of Ingrid though.

They never recast an established Avengers character and I'm pleased about that. Brian Clemens once said, had Patrick been younger, he would have recast Emma Peel with Joanna Lumley, which I think would have been courting disaster.

I don't know if Gabrielle was next in line, but I know Louise Jameson (who went on to play Leela in Doctor Who) was also one of the final shortlisted actresses. She has often said she got down to the "final 6", but again, she may be exaggerating. I'd have to think she'd have done a screen test had she really got that close!

I agree. It's a bit like Bond. Not a year goes by when someone says, "I was nearly Bond". Peter Purvis (ex Blue Peter presenter was a recent - and surprising - one). Thank heavens Louise Jameson never got the role, I disliked her intensely in Doctor Who.

I think it sounds better in interviews and looks better on your CV if you say you got closer to a choice role than you actually did.

I liked the character of Leela and I think when Louise turned up in Tenko, I think she proved that she is a good actress. But I can't imagine her as Purdey! Or Charlie as I suppose she would have been. In fairness, Louise said at the time she landed Dr Who (mid 1976) that she had been close to getting the TNA part, so it's a story she has put about since the actual time it happened, not a reinvention she only brought up decades later. On a wider note, it's rare for an actor to put on their CV roles they didn't get! It's not a selling point at all!

[Timeless A-Peel]

Still begs the question, why create a new character instead of just simply recasting Dr. Keel? Shame they got rid of Ingrid though.

They never recast an established Avengers character and I'm pleased about that. Brian Clemens once said, had Patrick been younger, he would have recast Emma Peel with Joanna Lumley, which I think would have been courting disaster.

I don't know if Gabrielle was next in line, but I know Louise Jameson (who went on to play Leela in Doctor Who) was also one of the final shortlisted actresses. She has often said she got down to the "final 6", but again, she may be exaggerating. I'd have to think she'd have done a screen test had she really got that close!

I agree. It's a bit like Bond. Not a year goes by when someone says, "I was nearly Bond". Peter Purvis (ex Blue Peter presenter was a recent - and surprising - one). Thank heavens Louise Jameson never got the role, I disliked her intensely in Doctor Who.

I think it sounds better in interviews and looks better on your CV if you say you got closer to a choice role than you actually did.

That always sounds wrong to me, considering the whole "move forward, not backward" philosophy Clemens is always putting forward. Joanna's brilliant, but she's not Diana Rigg. One of the attributes of the series was that they were so willing to cast very different looking women and give them a fresh character to play with. Recasting is never a good move in my experience.

I don't know how Louise Jameson (of whom I know nothing) defines "close," but she auditioned and wasn't asked back for the second, screentesting day. Gabrielle Drake was, along with Joanna, Ann Zelda, Cassandra Harris, and Diana Quick--that's the final five, not six, and Jameson is nowhere to be seen. Only Gareth, Lewis Collins, and Harry Meacher actually got screentested for Gambit, which lends credence to the idea that Gareth tested with more than one woman since there weren't enough of them to go around and pair off evenly. I'm still left wondering who the girl with the really awful laugh was, though.

[Captain Crusoe]

If Brian Clemens hadn't been fired at the end of S5, then Gabrielle Drake would probably have got the part of Diana Rigg's replacement, playing a character rather like Purdey (let's call her "Gaby" for ease of reference) in 1967 - which would have been a big improvement on the character of Tara King, IMO. But then maybe the French wouldn't have gone wild for Gaby, so they wouldn't have had an Avengers champagne commercial, so there wouldn't have been TNA. On the other hand, it seems from what Denis writes that the stuff about the French going wild for Tara King is a bit exaggerated, so maybe there would have been the champagne commercial anyway. But then the French backers would probably have wanted Gabrielle Drake back like they wanted Linda Thorson back, but Brian Clemens wouldn't have been so strongly opposed, so then we might never have had Purdey. On the other hand, maybe Gabrielle Drake wouldn't have wanted to come back, but still we wouldn't have had Purdey because she was too much like Gaby, even though the new character for TNA would quite likely have been played by Joanna Lumley, since she was who Brian Clemens wanted and casting was mostly about him getting the others to take who he wanted to begin with...

This endless speculation about what might have been is kind of fun, but we do seem to go round in circles. There will never be additional episodes with Dr King or entire seasons of the Avengers with Gabrielle Drake in this universe, no matter what we wish. I personally think the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory is more plausible than the Copenhagen interpretation (more to the point, so do most physicists these days). I think there probably are universes out there in which Dr King, not Cathy Gale, became Steed's main partner (but in nearly all of them, the show was cancelled after S2). There will be universes in which Gabrielle Drake starred in S6, or TNA or both. Universes in which Louise Jameson got the part in TNA and Joanna Lumley played Leela in Doctor Who (I'm having a hard time picturing that universe, I think the part of Romana would have been more suitable for her in any space-time continuum). It's rather like there would also be universes in which Hitler won World War 2, the dinosaurs didn't get wiped out or the Earth itself never formed. We can speculate about them, but even if they exist we'll never have any contact with them, so it's all a bit pointless...

On the other hand, sitting around discussing again the same points about the history of The Avengers we have in our universe that we did on the previous two (or is it three?) forums that vanished is even more pointless and boring, because there really isn't anything new to say about them now...

[Dandy Forsdyke]

Universes in which Louise Jameson got the part in TNA and Joanna Lumley played Leela in Doctor Who (I'm having a hard time picturing that universe, I think the part of Romana would have been more suitable for her in any space-time continuum).

I like both Romanas. Lalla Ward and Mary Tamm. Far better than Leela. She reminded me of Joanna, at the time, in the way she was posh and blonde - but facially she was a bit like Billie Piper I suppose. Or perhaps I'm tired ...

By the way, I do believe Linda was a big star in France. I've read that from several sources and she did have a number one hit single over there.

[Timeless A-Peel]

By the way, I do believe Linda was a big star in France. I've read that from several sources and she did have a number one hit single over there.

Joanna mentioned on more than one occasion that the French backers were disappointed they got her instead of Linda, so there must be some truth to it.

[Dandy Forsdyke]

After watching this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDKgDRmVVtc

I think I may have misjudged Leela. She was a tough cookie (although all that business with the knife wouldn't be allowed today ... )

[Frankymole]

If Brian Clemens hadn't been fired at the end of S5, then Gabrielle Drake would probably have got the part of Diana Rigg's replacement, playing a character rather like Purdey (let's call her "Gaby" for ease of reference) in 1967 - which would have been a big improvement on the character of Tara King, IMO. But then maybe the French wouldn't have gone wild for Gaby, so they wouldn't have had an Avengers champagne commercial, so there wouldn't have been TNA. On the other hand, it seems from what Denis writes that the stuff about the French going wild for Tara King is a bit exaggerated, so maybe there would have been the champagne commercial anyway. But then the French backers would probably have wanted Gabrielle Drake back like they wanted Linda Thorson back, but Brian Clemens wouldn't have been so strongly opposed, so then we might never have had Purdey.

Clemens was "strongly opposed" to Linda coming back? Seems unlikely, since he was happy for her to be cast as a leading character in the first episode of his "Thriller" series 2 or 3 years earlier. And from photos of him with his arm round her and looking at her boobs at the launch party for season 6, it seems he appreciated her attributes even back in the 1960s.

[Johnny O]

Universes in which Louise Jameson got the part in TNA and Joanna Lumley played Leela in Doctor Who (I'm having a hard time picturing that universe, I think the part of Romana would have been more suitable for her in any space-time continuum).

I like both Romanas. Lalla Ward and Mary Tamm. Far better than Leela. She reminded me of Joanna, at the time, in the way she was posh and blonde - but facially she was a bit like Billie Piper I suppose. Or perhaps I'm tired ...

By the way, I do believe Linda was a big star in France. I've read that from several sources and she did have a number one hit single over there.

I think you must be tired if you think raven haired Louise Jameson was ever blonde! Mary Tamm would have made a brilliant Avenger. She has that wonderful ice cool demeanour and is just stunning.

[Johnny O]

A new biography about Joanna Lumley, written by Tim Ewbank and Stafford Hildred, does cover in quite good detail the process which landed Joanna the part of Purdey, including what the production team thought of her audition and suitability. As it's not an autobiography and Joanna isn't involved, I have no idea how accurate it is, but it's an interesting read.

[Dandy Forsdyke]

I think you must be tired if you think raven haired Louise Jameson was ever blonde! Mary Tamm would have made a brilliant Avenger. She has that wonderful ice cool demeanour and is just stunning.

I said Lally Ward reminded me of Joanna, Louise Jameson actually resembles Diana Rigg in my opinion.

I agree about Mary Tamm - all the qualities of an Avenger girl. She still looks beautiful today.