One of the icons on my youth sadly died yesterday. For my generation Diana Rigg will always be remembered as Emma Peel from The Avengers. However her career was much more varied and impressive that one part. Perhaps this is an opportunity to reflect on breadth of her acting and to enjoy some favourite moments again.
She was born in Doncaster and after a spell in India was educated at a school in Pudsey. After two years in RADA she joined the the Royal Shakespeare Company where she played a variety of parts. Here she is playing the part of Helena from a production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream filmed in 1968.
Rigg appeared in the television series The Avengers (1961–69) opposite Patrick Macnee as John Steed, playing the secret agent Emma Peel in 51 episodes. She auditioned for the role on a whim, without ever having seen the programme. Although she was hugely successful in the series, she disliked the lack of privacy that it brought. Also, she was not comfortable in her position as a sex symbol. In an interview with The Guardian in 2019, Rigg stated that “becoming a sex symbol overnight had shocked” her.
Here she is in one of the classic ‘Mrs Peel We’re Needed’ scenes with which most episodes began. It was always accompanied by music by Laurie Johnson.
From Emma Peel she went on to play Tracy Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), playing James Bond’s only wife, opposite George Lazenby. In 1975 she was awarded the ultimate TV accolade when she appeared as a guest in the Christmas Morecambe and Wise Show. She showed her gift for comedy in a short sketch set in a psychiatrist’s office.
Having appeared in a number of films she starred with another theatrical Dame, Maggie Smith, in the 1981 movie ‘Evil Under The Sun’. Here they share Cole Porter’s ‘You’re The Top..
In 1990, she won a Bafta for the role of an obsessive mother in the BBC drama Mother Love. Four years later she won a Tony for best actress in one of her most acclaimed roles, that of Medea. In the same year, Rigg was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
She found a new generation of admirers when in 2013 she excelled as the evil Mrs Gillyflower in a Doctor Who episode, The Crimson Horror, which was specially written for her by Mark Gatiss. This allowed her to celebrate her Yorkshire roots. She played alongside her daughter Rachael Stirling. This mother/daughter coupling was something that they repeated in the series ‘The Detectorists’
In her 70s, Dame Diana joined a long list of distinguished British actors who appeared in the HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, gaining an Emmy nomination. And she continued working until shortly before her death, appearing in the new remake of All Creatures Great And Small. Image copyright Rex Features Image caption She was nominated for an Emmy for her role in Game of Thrones as Lady Olena, Queen of Thorns a character who made bluntness an artform.
In 2017, the 20-a-day smoker found herself seriously ill and undergoing a heart operation. During surgery, Rigg’s heart stopped and her life hung by a thread. “The good Lord must have said, ‘Send the old bag down again’,” the devout Christian later told a journalist. “I’m not having her yet.” Well he has her now. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. To finish I just wanted to share this final piece with everyone.
