"In those days, trousers were appallingly cut for women so I used to go to a gentlemen's tailor to have them made. Nowadays you can look at some quite highly priced clothes and be astonished at how badly they are finished. But then, people don't look for that any more, it's only old bags like me that do. When I need to look smart, I go for Armani because he's just absolutely brilliant at tailoring. I always dress for myself, not men or other women."
"If a man holds a door open for me or pulls back a chair so that this old bag can sit down, I'm delighted. Women who moan and carp about that sort of thing are stupid."
"The leather catsuit I wore in The Avengers was a total nightmare; it took a good 45 minutes to get unzipped to go to the loo. It was like struggling in and out of a wet-suit. Once I got into the jersey catsuits, they were very easy to wear but you had to watch for baggy knees; there is nothing worse."
"I got a lot of very odd fan mail while I was in that show, but my mum used to enjoy replying to it. Some of the men who wrote to me must have been a bit startled because she would offer really motherly advice. I would get a letter from a teenage boy, say, who was overexcited and my mother would write back saying: 'My daughter is far too old for you and what you really need is a good run around the block.'."
"Yes I have a dark side, doesn’t everyone? I’ve played a lot of evil, ball-breaking women. And, if you’re honest, you’ll just drag up from the depths all the times you’ve hated or felt passionately about something and play it."
"The older you get, I have to say, the funnier you find life. That's the only way to go. If you get serious about yourself as you get old, you are pathetic."
The Avengers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Mother Love, Evil Under The Sun, Theatre of Blood, Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Pygmalion - we loved her in all of them.
RIP, Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE (20th July 1938 – 10th September 2020)
The world is a far more dreary place without her.
[More Diana Rigg here]
So beautiful and gifted. She really got the tone of The Avengers right and had a wonderful onscreen relationship with Patrick Macnee.
ReplyDeleteTheir pairing really summed up the classic "Swinging Sixties" era. Jx
DeletePatrick McNee said they played each other as ex lovers who'd moved on and stayed friends.
DeleteThe detectorists is fantastic (it's very Bbc4ish, so brilliantly made but a bit marmite) -i can't remember who she played in it?
she will ALWAYS be emma peel to me. I wanted to be like her and wear those cute clothes in the 60s.
ReplyDeleteI don't think either of us would look great in a catsuit these days... Jx
Deleteoh dear gawd, I would look like the michelin man in a catsuit.
DeleteI wouldn't even like to think how my "lockdown body" might look in one - probably reminiscent of the "Pillsbury Doughboy".
DeleteJx
I am still in shock. I loved Emma Peal of course...but the Dame in Evil Under the Sun and The Detectorist were my favorite.
ReplyDeleteNever watched The Detectorists, but she was sublime in Evil Under The Sun...
Delete"I'm so sorry, are we late? Patrick insisted upon rowing me right round the island and its much bigger than I thought. Poor darling, he's absolutely exhausted."
Jx
Wonderful photos a divine actress.
ReplyDeleteShe is a great loss. Jx
DeleteI always thought she was wonderful. Was she also in Theatre of Death with Vincent Price? I loved that film, it scared me silly!
ReplyDeleteSx
Theatre of Blood is one of my all-time favourite films, ever! She played Vincent Price's daughter - and looked as if she was enjoying every camp moment of it. Jx
DeleteGreat
ReplyDeleteIndeed! Jx
DeleteHer turn as Emma Peel on the Avengers put her on the map in the USA.
ReplyDeleteHer mod girl persona with Patrick Macnee's proper English gentleman was the perfect combination. So pleased when she was made Dame Diana Rigg. -Rj
It was her screen breakthrough here, too - she arrived straight from the Royal Shakespeare Company to kicking the living shit out of a variety of henchmen! Jx
DeleteThe Royal Shakespeare Company and RADA have created dynamic actors. In the states, most people know the British actors know how to act, on stage and film, and put on a good show. -Rj
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