Does anyone else think Mrs Peel should have been killed off?

[dissolute]

I'm happy with Clemens' concept, but I don't think the ardour has waned. She's always touching his lapels and being very close to him, something the producers of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries got exactly right in the interaction between Phryne and Jack, it's like Emma and Steed all over again.

So it is only the possibility of her missing husband being alive that is stopping them being all over each other like a rash?

Oh, I'm sure they are whenever the cameras aren't there. Why else would she turn up at his flat in the wee hours of the morning with a bottle of champagne?

[Frankymole]

Oh, I'm sure they are whenever the cameras aren't there. Why else would she turn up at his flat in the wee hours of the morning with a bottle of champagne?

From an IMDB review:

"Once both have regained their senses (in a stirring last hurrah for Emma's fighting skills), she decides to jog his memory by inaudibly whispering (in a classic Rigg ad lib), "are you the man who dallies with me?" to which his smiling response is, "I'm afraid so!" The next scene features headlines depicting the rescue of Peter Peel, Emma's long lost pilot husband, thought to have died in the Amazonian jungle, who will shortly pick up his waiting wife from Steed's apartment. She quietly offers a distraught Steed some advice: "always keep your bowler on in times of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds," barely able to speak above a whisper, before giving him a good bye kiss on the cheek.

Just as she is about to leave, he calls her by her first name, which he'd never done before, to say simply, "thanks." To bridge the final gap, Emma greets Tara's arrival with a friendly word about Steed's tea drinking habits. And while we never see his face as the departing Emma waves from the car, we can't help but notice Peter Peel's immaculate suit, umbrella, and bowler on top, an absolutely brilliant idea that never fails to amuse. Nothing fancy, but played with great emotion between two superlative stars who worked as well together as any male-female team ever has, their 51 episodes providing the peak of the series in its prime. It's understandable that it is remembered more for Emma's farewell than for Tara's introduction, but the series would continue, with many more gems to come."

[QueenOfSin]

Yes, I don't believe Clemens' theory either. If they had had a passionate affair that had now cooled, they wouldn't flirt so much.

The "will they, won't they?" or "are they, aren't they?" engine kept things bubbling along until the end (I can see why you don't like the definitive answer given there, if a definitive answer had to be give - and why did it? - then it's not the answer we wanted! Or Steed or Emma would've wanted, either. Then again I don't think Emma dying would've quite worked either - it could have worked in the more serious season 4, which had one foot in the real world, at least).

Shows like Moonlighting and The X-Files used the same technique to keep intrigue regarding its male and female leads, and it ultimately goes back to The Thin Man film series (okay, Nick and Nora were married but sex wouldn't be shown and only obliquely referred to, despite it being pre-Hays Code - so at least the flirtation was strong enough. And they are proto-Steed and Emma, being "a leisure-class couple who enjoy copious drinking and flirtatious banter").

Paul Temple and his wife Stevie were similar, mainly on the radio though they did become a TV series later. I can't remember about Moonlighting, but The X-Files did indeed fail to keep it from going explicit (well, stated explicitly that they had sex, if not shown) which was a massive error in my view.

Both Tara and Purdey are clearly shown to fancy Steed, but he's too much of a gentleman to act on it, even though he warns Purdey that gentlemen are not always to be trusted in that regard, otherwise they'd die out as a species

I've never seen The X Files but I have read that once the two leads finally got it on viewers lost interest in the show. Which is inevitable really, I mean where do you go from there story wise? On the other hand you risk viewers getting bored and fed up if things don't go anywhere as there's only so long you can drag something out for. Steed and Emma's interaction was charming and compelling enough to make you keep watching regardless of what was shown, not many shows can do that.

I'm happy with Clemens' concept, but I don't think the ardour has waned. She's always touching his lapels and being very close to him, something the producers of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries got exactly right in the interaction between Phryne and Jack, it's like Emma and Steed all over again.

Exactly! They are far too close and touchy-feely for there to be nothing going on between them. They're always at each other's flats whether it's day or night. She turns up at his in the middle of the night with champagne. They're perfectly at ease together. They flirt constantly and are physically very close. He give her little affectionate kisses on the cheek, takes her on holiday (to Paris), to dinner, the cinema, the theatre. Twice she whispers something very obviously intimate that only they would know to him, the most telling one being asking if he's the man who _____s her - fill in the blank with whatever word you want, I don't know what she said but I could take a good guess! If that's not enough the looks and banter alone between them is very telling.

Oh, I'm sure they are whenever the cameras aren't there. Why else would she turn up at his flat in the wee hours of the morning with a bottle of champagne?

That's my thoughts too. When I'm watching an episode it seems to me like the camera pulls away just before any "action" occurs. There's several scenes where it looks as if had the camera stayed on them for a couple more seconds they'd have kissed but it's pulled away to keep you guessing.

[Frankymole]

Emma is also obviously very jealous of "Olga from the Volga" at the end of The Correct Way To Kill, which I don't think she would be if they were over each other.

[QueenOfSin]

Oh yes I forgot about her and Steed is equally jealous of Emma's friend Paul in Murdersville. And the way she asks him if everything is in proportion when he's shrunk by that machine .

[Frankymole]

Oh yes I forgot about her and Steed is equally jealous of Emma's friend Paul in Murdersville. And the way she asks him if everything is in proportion when he's shrunk by that machine .

Steed also seems jealous of the attention paid to Emma by another Paul, Peter Cushing's character Paul Beresford in Return of the Cybernauts. Perhaps he just doesn't like Pauls

[QueenOfSin]

Steed also seems jealous of the attention paid to Emma by another Paul, Peter Cushing's character Paul Beresford in Return of the Cybernauts. Perhaps he just doesn't like Pauls

Ooh yes Steed didn't like him did he? And with good reason it turns out. I think Beresford did fancy Emma but he fancied harming her more! Steed he seemed to sort of put up with to get Emma's company and it seemed he (Steed) knew this.

I've always thought they both looked disappointed at not being paired together for the race in Dead Man's Treasure too, though I can't see how the ending would have worked for that if they had been.

[Frankymole]

I've always thought they both looked disappointed at not being paired together for the race in Dead Man's Treasure too, though I can't see how the ending would have worked for that if they had been.

Ah, yes, where Steed gets Valerie Van Ost as his driving partner. Which reminds me of the promo film The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse, where Steed goes off with her, and Emma ends up knitting socks! What that says about their relationship, I'm not sure.

[QueenOfSin]

I found her quite annoying, she'd have been OK for one scene but she was getting on my nerves by her third or fourth appearance. She wasn't quite so bad as the receptionist in Return of the Cybernauts though. Now she was irritating.

But to go back to my original question, I think I'm even more unhappy with The Forget Me Knot episide now. The evidence points quite clealy that Steed and Emma were lovers, so the ending of TFMK makes no sense at all. She would not have left Steed like that. Is she going to somehow simply forget the last few weeks/months/years? Just how long is it supposed to have been anyway? I know it was only two years but it feels like they are supposed to have been together for years in the show.

[Frankymole]

They knew each other ten years before because they did the mission in Berlin, as mentioned in The Joker, but that is because it's a remake of a Cathy Gale episode - same applies to her really, it seems like Steed used Cathy and Emma years before (in series 1 and 2 he had lots of people he used as "civilian"/amateur agents - there are several in The Frighteners alone!) and then dropped them before getting back together with them on a more permanent partnership basis.

I don't know if he had any contact with Emma (or Cathy) again after their last TV episodes, though he remembered them fondly and displayed their portrait photographs in his house when he moved out of central London. The flashback in K is For Kill seems to imply he has not kept up with the changes in Emma's personal life. It does leave it a bit open that they might one day get together, perhaps when Steed finally retires (if agents can ever retire... but see The Prisoner for more on that).