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

[QueenOfSin]

I don't remember any backlash from that. Wow that's surprised me, I thought most fans were happy with the ending Rose got. For some reason it didn't really bother me but then I wasn't as invested in the pairing of the Doctor and Rose as much as I am Steed and Emma. I think I was just happy they'd rectified the first ending where she got sucked into that other dimension and left alone. I wonder what comments would have been said by Avengers fans about Emma's departure had the Internet been around then?

I don't know why they needed to make her married in the first place to be honest. Uneccessery complication as it adds nothing to the show. If they wanted the 'Mrs Peel' part why not make her a widow instead? Actual not presumed.

[Frankymole]

I guess perhaps they feared being accused of being out of ideas, because they'd already done that with Mrs Gale, whose husband had definitely been murdered, rather than missing-presumed-dead.

Could they have wanted to give a similar vibe to Ian Hendry's character, who went into the field of defeating criminals because his wife-to-be had been slain before his very eyes? Cathy Gale had similar reasons to hate murderers and to want to see them brought to book.

By the time of Tara King, the Sixties were in full swing and there no longer needed to be a reason (however tenuous) for Steed's partner to not be young, free and single (even if Cathy and Emma were technically single, or thought they were, they still had emotional ties to past marriages which may have made them more cautious around Steed).

The out-of-fiction reason to make them a step removed was to maintain the "will they, won't they?" curiosity in the audience which, along with occasional flirting, was the spice that kept viewers coming back to see more.

By the time of The New Avengers we only had Gambit trying to get into Purdey's pants every week.

[mousemeat]

good point...but I don't think Purdey, was all that interested in bedding down Gambit....LOL

[QueenOfSin]

Fair enough although I think the will they/won't they* would still have worked regardless. Mrs Peel could have been a definite widow and still been uncertain about her relationship with Steed which would keep the audience guessing. I don't see how making her married with a missing husband was a good idea as it limits the character.

*They were weren't they? I'm firmly of the opinion they were, they make it quite obvious in a subtle way, if that's even possible .

[Frankymole]

*They were weren't they? I'm firmly of the opinion they were, they make it quite obvious in a subtle way, if that's even possible .

Brian Clemens reckoned they had had a torrid affair in the past, before the series started, and now they were just good friends, with a better relationship now the shagging was out of the way.

But what does he know, he's only the producer. Everyone's opinion is valid.

[QueenOfSin]

Hmmm I don't buy that. If they'd had an affair why would she have left Steed when they were such a perfect match? Who would she have left him for - her husband? That would mean poor Steed had been dropped twice over the same man! No I don't believe that they were lovers in the past that are now 'just good friends, I belive that they are in an intimate relationship and because of the time the show gave as many hints and clues as it could without actually showing anything. I have no doubt that if it were filmed today they would not be anywhere near as discreet and probably show (nearly) everything!

[Frankymole]

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

[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.

[Frankymole]

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?

[Rhonda]

Mrs Peel leaving was a unique moment in the colour era as it was a crack of reality in that fairytale version of the England that never was. No female deaths, no drugs related stories, everything stylish and no dwelling on the almost disaster averted by our heroes. Life goes on and people go in and out of our lives and the fairytale moment doesn't last.

Mrs. Peel leaving was a crack of reality but Avengerland did and does exist for me, particularly when I take a walk in the countryside.