The Avengers and Me

This is a good book. It is very good reading about that famous British import TV show. It is very insightful. I recommend this highly. Good reading!

"The Avengers & Me" is a very good book if you love that wonderful British import to American TV. Patrick MacNee is really at the core of this book as he is without a doubt the one and only John Steed. It's really from his perspective. It is very insightful and full of great stories about the workings of this great TV show. A must have if you grew up with it.

If you are a fan of "The Avengers" series and even have a recollection of "The New Avengers" series, you will love What this book also tells us is how the participants did not particularly have as much fun making the series as we did watching them. When Diana Rigg announced that coal miners were making more than they were--a remark that did not endear her to coal miners--or when the cast of "The New Avengers" found they were not going to be paid--or when Joanna Lumley stood up at a gathering and let the others know how hard the cast worked while everyone else partied, we begin to reconsider what came over the tube in a new light and admire the actors even more for not showing their displeasure before the cameras. As is common today in "confess all" autobiographies, Macnee is quite honest about his weight and drinking problems; and more interestingly, about his feelings of inferiority before such "real" actors (as he puts it late in the book) as Diana Rigg and Ian McKellen (but not Orson Welles, for reasons that you will find in the last chapter). This edition boasts lots of good stills, especially the color shots of Honor Blackman episodes which we know only in black and white. I feel it could have used more behind-the-camera anecdotes and I certainly miss an index. But what there is is quite good and fans will certainly love it all.

Reading this book is like having a personal chat with Patrick MacNee as he recounts his experiences while making the avengers series. He is unassuming and generous in praising his co-stars, and colleagues although he is critical of some people who were behind the scenes. Patrick downplayed his own capabilities and contribution to the series. Sure he had the support of many good female partners, but his own character was very integral to the series. Wild and outrageous ladies with this gentleman spy to balance the story.The author also reflects on how he might handled things differently with his co-stars, vis-a-vis the producers, if he could do it again. As an avengers fan, i always wondered why Diana Rigg did not stay for more than 2 seasons. I also thought that the Linda Thorson series was under-rated. Some answers are offered in this book and i am glad i read it.Though the stories were fantastic, and sometimes ludicrous, but it was a fun series to watch. I also think Patrick deserves a little more credit han he has given himself in this book.

As humble as ever, Patrick Macnee takes us on a trip behind the scenes of the making of the international hit television series of the 1960s--The Avengers. He builds up the talents of his co-stars--especially Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson--at the expense of his own ego. While he submits that he was often weak in dealing with the producers, the reader who remembers well the series will have no doubt but that this is none other than the legendary John Steed himself writing. And the pictures, which appear on every page, are exceptional. These alone are worth the price of this large-format paperback book. Add in the wonderful anecdotes and--well, Mrs. Peel, this book is needed!