Linda Thorson's Six Favourites

[Rhonda]

I like having Linda Thorson's introductions before the episodes on the 'Six Of The Best' Video Box Set. It was a good idea by Lumiere at the time and introductions have become commonplace now on the DVD's. Avengers Introductions that I have, whether by Patrick (on the M Appeal videos) or these ones, always make me look forward to the episode and I love the reminiscences.

I'm hoping it's alright to quote from the videos (because they probably won't appear on any new release) as I hope anyone who doesn't know them find them as interesting as I do! :

Introduction
"Hello everyone. My name is Linda Thorson and I played Tara King on the television series The Avengers. Lumiere have invited me to select and introduce six of my very favourite episodes and I told them it would be more than my pleasure to do just that."

The Interrogators
"I chose 'The Interrogators' which was written by Brian Clemens and Richard Harris mainly because it was directed by the brilliant director Charles Crichton and I felt it was a great privelege to work with him. He'd directed some of the great Ealing comedies and at the age of 80 he received an Oscar for the film A Fish Called Wanda. Also Christopher Lee, my friend, was starring in that episode and we subsequently made a movie together in Greece. And I remember that Steed's life was threatened and as Tara I had to leap-frog to his rescue. Something else happened. We had to take a helicopter to Oxford because it was a location shoot and it was terribly misty and we couldn't take off so we had to end up going in cars arriving about four hour late for the filming and so everything was in a dreadful rush."

Love All
"I chose 'Love All' because I liked the idea of the secret message hidden within a book. It was a romantic novalist who wrote a book that when you read it it was sort of hypnotically engaged with these micro-dots, and Tara was made to fall in love with the first person she would see. It turned out to be Terence Alexander who was starring in the episode. However he turned out to be a baddie and wanted me to jump out a window (which didn't seem like a very good idea) What else happened? Peter Sykes was directing the episode, and he was trying to show Patrick something very specific he wanted done with the Rolls-Royce and he bashed it up while was doing this, so we had to sort of wait for hours while it was fixed. Which also reminds me that the second day of my filming, ever, ever of the entire series I turned the Lotus Cobra into a wall in front of the entire camera crew, and I think I heard things like "god, woman driver!". Anyway after that I got an AC Cobra and that was easier to drive and in real life I got myself a Mustang."

Take Me To Your Leader
"'Take Me To Your Leader' was written by Terry Nation, who was the creator of the Daleks, and it was directed by Robert Fuest who was a great friend of mine, Bob. And he was a brilliant action director however this episode was done entirely on location and it never stopped raining. So we were up to our knees in mud. There was an accident between a bubble car and a motor cycle and the constant faint smell of dog, since there was a large alsation named, I believe, Toby who starred in the episode. And I think if you watch you'll see it's the only time I blow my own trumpet."

Thingumajig
"Now you might think that 'Thingumajig' is a rather odd choice for a favourite. It was directed by Leslie Norman whose son is the famous film critic Barry Norman, and during this episode we were again on location, and it was raining. It was the middle of January 1969 and I got sick for the first and only time and perhaps I remember this episode so fondly because I spent five days in bed in my own flat recovering, and this gave Rhonda Parker a chance to really shine because she sort of took over my bits in the episode. But do you know something, they still wouldn't let her talk."

Requiem
"I chose 'Requiem' because I remember that we really had quite a lot of fun on the episode. Don Chaffey was directing. He directed four or five episodes that I did and at that point it was the second year of filming and things were actually getting a bit chaotic.We were trying to meet American airdates and were getting a bit behind. So sometimes we were doing three episodes at once and I would be running back and forth in and out of the wardrobe changing and picking up diffrerent scripts, going on the set and meeting new actors and Don handled the whole thing really beautifully.
(Laughs) Johnn Cairney was starring in the episode and his voice had this uncanny resemblance to James Mason and he kept sneaking up behind me and reading Robert Burns poems in James Mason's voice. It was just all too confusing."

Pandora
"The episode called 'Pandora' is my absolute favourite. It was written by Brian Clemens and I think it's one of his favourites too and directed by Robert Fuest. And it was very special to me because in this episode I got to do something a little bit different. It was a period piece. Tara is drugged and taken away and I had these rather unusual costumes, my hair was all pulled back and it showed a different aspect of my acting, my personality, which was very feminine and defenceless. And Julian Glover was in the episode, one of my all time favourite actors, and I had a wedding dress that was simply glorious. It was pink with white lace on it and there was this enormous hat that went with it and I was photographed in that for the cover of the TV times and in fact that was my all-time favourite costume in all of the Avengers episodes as well."

There's certainly lots of memories there and insights into the making of these ones. I'm a bit puzzled by the Thingumajig introduction as I only see Linda playing Tara, so I'd like to know what you think. There are certainly a variety of reasons why Linda chose her favourites (and her very interesting absolute favourite).

[Dandy Forsdyke]

I think Linda may have been saying Rhonda did something in the episode Linda was meant to do. But as I'm not familiar with the episode I can't figure out what.

Good write up. I remember those intros but I don't have that VHS box set any more, so very useful to have her words transcribed - someone should YouTube them.

[Timeless A-Peel]

Thanks for these. Lots of interesting, fresh insights from Linda. Wonder what she'll say on the new DVDs?

[Allard]

Thank you very much for posting this Rhonda!

[darren]

I loved this boxset, it was very solidly made and came with little postcard with a picture of Tara on one side and an episode description on the back. I got rid of it 2 years ago but I associate getting the boxset with a very happy time in my Avengers fandom as it was my birthday around the same time and I was able to catch up on loads of releases of the Lumiere videos.

I do think that Lumiere must have given her a list of the episodes not yet released and got her to choose from them. I'm not sure her memory is too correct on the Thingumajig intro as Rhonda isn't in the episode. They were making a lot of episodes at the same time of course. I think she could have meant a scene from Requiem where Rhonda beats up the baddies at the end when they get to the wrong safe house.

I was very disappointing when getting the similar Emma Peel set that Diana Rigg hadn't done similar intro.

[Frankymole]

Love All
"I chose 'Love All' because I liked the idea of the secret message hidden within a book. It was a romantic novalist who wrote a book that when you read it it was sort of hypnotically engaged with these micro-dots, and Tara was made to fall in love with the first person she would see. It turned out to be Terence Alexander who was starring in the episode. However he turned out to be a baddie and wanted me to jump out a window (which didn't seem like a very good idea)

Crikey, so she spoiled the plot before each episode? Nice one!

[Rhonda]

I'm not sure her memory is too correct on the Thingumajig intro as Rhonda isn't in the episode. They were making a lot of episodes at the same time of course. I think she could have meant a scene from Requiem where Rhonda beats up the baddies at the end when they get to the wrong safe house.

She herself mentions they were making several episodes at the same time so, yes, it sounds a possible explanation. Anyway, it makes a pleasant change when Rhonda saves the day in Requiem!

[mousemeat]

Thanks for these. Lots of interesting, fresh insights from Linda. Wonder what she'll say on the new DVDs?

nice that she still has fond memories of the show..and more!

[Mararaboomdiay]

Thanks for these. Lots of interesting, fresh insights from Linda.

A lovely read indeed, thank you for posting!

[kim]

Crikey, so she spoiled the plot before each episode? Nice one!

Mmmm...Maybe not. I'm thinking it was assumed that people had already seen the episodes and were just given a nice background story. That is strictly my opinion and has no basis in fact.

It was a wonderful read..Thanks for posting Rhonda!