The Avengers International Fan Forum

Richy wrote:That's true Anti-clockwise

Who was your favorite Doctor Who?

Well I grew up with Sylvester Mccoy so I like his dr, however I love the 3rd and 4th doctor. What about you?

Pertwee will always be the Doctor for me, but it depends when you were growing up I guess. For much the same reason I like Purdey as I was a ten year old at the time.

I loved Purdey too as I saw the new avengers first then Cathy Gale as she was the first from the original series.

Richy wrote:Johnny O, who would you have liked to have played the part?

Charlotte Rampling or Suzy Kendal would both have been fabulous but were probably already too established in movies. Mary Peach would have been a good choice. Samantha Eggar perhaps. Hard to imagine that Jill Melford would have done a bad audition. Anouska Hempel, even Joanna Lumley.

Then there's Hattie Jacques naturally, Ann Haydon Jones and her husband Pip...

Richy wrote:Well I grew up with Sylvester Mccoy so I like his dr, however I love the 3rd and 4th doctor. What about you?

Too many to choose from!

I was very surprised that Justine Lord was not involved in the screen tests to replace Diana Rigg, having appeared in the feature films, Ring of Spies and Deadlier than the Male, plus five episodes of The Saint and in the videotaped Avengers episode Propellant 23. However, she had yet to play Sonia the assassin in The Girl Who Was Death episode of The Prisoner, which would have probably brought her to the attention of senior production crew on The Avengers, as having the qualities they were looking for..

Although Tracy Reed had done a variety of film and TV roles, including two roles in Charles K Feldman’s Bond spoof Casino Royale, plus roles in the second Pink Panther film A Shot in the Dark, Dr Strangelove and Maroc 7, not to mention the recurring role of Maggie in the early sixties ITC film series Man of the World, she never really played leads.

Mary Peach had already appeared in The Saint episode The Gadget Lovers, but her Doctor Who part in The Enemy of the World serial had yet to be recorded.

Jane Merrow had lots of television film series experience after appearing in episodes of Gideon’s Way, The Human Jungle, The Baron, three episodes of Danger Man and two episodes of The Saint, not to mention having worked with the crew recently on the episode Mission: Highly Improbable.

When Tony Mackay and I visited Brian Clemens at his Kensington apartment in the spring of 1992 (that’s a long time ago) we asked his views regarding Diana Rigg’s replacement and he voiced a preference for Jane Merrow. However, in recent years he tended to reply to interviewers who asked the same question by stating that Gabrielle Drake would have been his choice, despite her not having been screen tested for the role.

Mike R, I can see Jane Merrow in the role, also I think Valerie Van Ost, Reed and Peach would have been good too. Would love to have been able to see the complete list of actresses who were considered. Alas I guess we will never know.

Diana Rigg is a hard act to follow, period. So was Honor Blackman. But you have to admit that Tara is not a particularly strong or well-drawn character, script-wise, and so any actress would have had an uphill battle.

I personally would have loved to see Annette Andre in the part, simply because she'd already proven that she and Macnee had excellent chemistry (and she might have delivered the more...insipid lines with a bit of panache).

Annette Andre would have been good. Not sure about Gabrielle Drake though. She was nearly Purdey in TNA, Victoria Waterfield and Jo Grant in Dr Who.