Emma Peel
My personal favourite of all the main Avenger characters. Elizabeth Shepherd was orginally cast in this role but was soon demeed as unsuitable. She was also too expensive! Before shooting had begun her wardrobe had already cost £500. The only episode shot was "The Town of No Return". After the episode was screened it was decided that Shepherd was just not right and Diana Rigg was then chosen to take the role.
Emma Peel is the daughter of the successful business tycoon, Sir John Knight but who dies when Emma is just 21 leaving her to take the helm of the industries.
She marries an air fighter pilot who goes missing, assumed dead, whilst on a mission over the amazon. He makes a dramtic return in "The Forget-me-knot" and has a striking resemlance to Steed.
The very first Emma Peel episode is "The Town of No Return" although the series was shot out of sequence ("The Murder Market" being the first which Rigg shot) but their meeting is recalled in The Avengers movie (with Uma Thurman as Peel) when the two are fencing in Steed's apartment in the film and in Emma's in the original. It is clear that Steed and Emma are already aquainted as Steed is just passing and decides to drop in.
Emma Peel has it all; brains, beauty and balls. The viewer sees her writing physics papers, pracitising modern art in both sculpture and painting, she also has a fantstic general knowledge and men will swoon at her feet. She is generally remembered as a leather clad beauty who could handle herself against any men, or woman. She was fully emancipated and loved to break every stereotype and watch those jaws drop. She was in every way equal to a man and in the episode "How to succeed...at murder" she seems to find the idea of females being dominant to males a cause to fight against.
Emma is also recognised as a fashion guru. Her costumes were designed by Alun Hughes and John Bates. She was recognised for her monochrome coloured clothing, short skirts(Diana Rigg refused to throw aside her mini-skirt which it was thought would offend American audiances) and, of course, har fantastic leather catsuits. One of the most risque items which Emma wore was in "A Touch of Brimstone" as the Queen of Sin. She wore a black herring-bone bustiere with all in one knickers, knee length boots and a spiked collar around her neck. The costume was designed by Diana Rigg herself but resulted (along with the whipping scene) in the episode being banned in the United States!
There is no doubt in my mind (although others are free to disagree) that the best Avengers episode is "The House that Jack built". Emma is left a surreal house which has been left to her by an elderly uncle. Upon entering the house she finds a museum in memory to herself, rooms which take her around in circles as well as finding a fellow visitor who had turned mad by the house. It is upto Steed to help her escape from this cruel prison. Not only is it here where we learn the most about Mrs Peel's past but also about her. The way she thinks, the risks she is willing to take, when she gets frightened.
