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Macnee returns in film, video and print
Calgary Herald
Saturday, July 11, 1998
Page: I8
Section: Entertainment
Byline: Scott Williams, Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Dateline: NEW YORK
Like a great Bordeaux, the classic TV series The Avengers ages well.
So does the great Avenger himself, Patrick Macnee, who played the suave British counterspy John Steed for 11 years. Now he's back, dapper as ever, to promote the release of The Avengers on home video next month.
It's a digitally restored edition, from A&E Home Video, and Macnee is quite proud of it.
"It's very important to me,'' Macnee said at a reception in the British consulate. "I found the original negatives in a vault at Elstree Studios in England. We did it from that. Otherwise, none of us would be here.''
"We've waited years and years for this to happen,'' he said.
"We spent five years of our lives making quite certain that the pirates were swept right off the street and out of the video stores,'' Macnee said.
The Avengers first arrived in the United States in 1966, five years into its run on British TV, and became a cult hit. The series teamed the bowlered, brollied Steed with the sexy, emancipated -- and frequently leather-clad -- Emma Peel (Diana Rigg).
Although the series has been off the air since its 1990 syndication on cable's A&E channel, its fans have never gone away, Macnee noted.
To explain the series' appeal, he cited an Avengers scene in which he's coaching a Russian trying to impersonate an English gentleman.
"I tell him, 'Don't be so aggressive. To be eager is almost worse than being enthusiastic.' You see, the English are not an enthusiastic people. They wait until their backs are against the wall. Then they strike. Some people don't understand the irony.''
The video release is timed to precede the Aug. 14 debut of the theatrical film The Avengers. Macnee has a cameo in the movie, but doesn't want to spoil the surprise.
"I'll be interested to see the movie and I think it will be a big success, because it's beautifully written. And it should be funny,'' he said.
"I met Ralph Fiennes, who plays the part of Steed in the movie, and I should think he'll do it much better than me. He's a far better actor, and really a delightful man.
"I think he and Uma Thurman will make a big hit of it. I lived off it for about 11 years and I met some wonderful people, and I'm doing very well from it now, so I can hardly complain.''
Macnee's also touting the release next month of his biographical The Avengers and Me, copiously illustrated from the series.
"It's quite what they call ``honest,' '' Macnee said, again with the twinkle. "It's not quite as honest as it could have been because quite a lot of the people who were in it with me took exception to complete honesty -- and that's quite right.
"One of them said, `Not only will I sue you, I'll kill you.' ''
Idnumber: 199807110005
Edition: Final
Story Type: General
Length: 485 words
Keywords: TELEVISION
