Patrick MacNee (as John Steed) and Honor Blackman (as Cathy Gale) in The Avengers. Photo copyright of ABC TV (UK).
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, British actress Honor Blackman talks about her role of Cathy Gale in The Avengers.
It was The Avengers producer Leonard White who created the character of Cathy Gale. When he found that he had a half-dozen or so unused scripts commissioned for the first season of the program, White decided to rewrite the role of Doctor Keel.
Cathy was once married to a farmer in Kenya killed during the Mau Mau troubles. She fought alongside Cuba's Fidel Castro during his democratic rebellion against dictatorship, but, as soon as he seized control of the government, he deported her because she opposed certain aspects of his regime. Mrs. Gale returned to Britain and was employed by the British Museum. While she was not a professional agent, her talents were known to and acknowledged by Steed's superiors and she assisted him on various cases. Her unique skills and honest desire to help those who had been wronged were the perfect balance for Steed's sometimes trivial dismissal of human life.
British television viewers were first introduced to this cool blonde with a Ph.D. in anthropology and a black belt in judo on September 29, 1962 in the episode entitled Mr. Teddy Bear. While the title sounds cuddly, the ruthless assassin Cathy Gale faced was not.
"It may surprise you," says Honor Blackman, "but I don't remember that first episode. When I started out on the program it was just another job. Everybody looks back on it now and says, 'What a wonderful show,' and it was, but one didn't know how wonderful it was going to be when one first started work."
Blackman's involvement in The Avengers began to steer the program in quite a different direction. Although the character of Mrs. Gale started out simply as a revamped version of Doctor Keel (Ian Hendry), Blackman soon took charge of the part and made it her own. Mrs. Gale was not afraid of making decisions and acting on them. This helped break the stereotypical mold of the helpless female and paved the way for a long line of beautiful and liberated Avengers women. These episodes were high on action and low on screaming females, often having Blackman's character tackle dangerous situations with a combination of brains and brawn.
"There was one episode, Don't Look Behind You, about a chap who cut up my picture and mailed the pieces to me to prove that he was going to kill me. I remember having great arguments with the director Peter Hammond because he wanted me to be very tough and ready to kill this man at the end but I felt so sorry for the character. He moved me so much that I had tears running down my face. I think Peter was quite cross with me but I couldn't play it any other way.
"We used to rehearse every day for a fortnight [two weeks] and then on the last day shoot it right through with one commercial break. The tape would jiggle all about when they stopped the camera and, because it cost them one hundred pounds [roughly 160 dollars today] to correct this, they only allowed for one break per show, so, one changed one's clothes running from one set to another. Now, I realize that ladies aren't supposed to sweat or perspire - they're supposed to glow - but I used do a fight, rush to change into some negligee or whatever and then lie down on a chaise lounge trying to appear very cool. It was a pretty funny life, I must say," Blackman jokes.
"I remember working on another episode [The White Elephant] with an actress named Judy Parfitt, who's done quite a bit of work in the States. She was chasing after me with a gun and, at one point, we were creeping around these very smelly cages filled with various animals. I don't know how we got that scene done because all we did was laugh. Judy's a great giggler and I don't have to be encouraged."
The actress recounted another more sobering memory from this episode. "I was running from one set to another, doing my costume up, and I just caught the face of my favorite prop man. 'What's the matter, Frank?' I asked. 'Oh, nothing, nothing,' he said. I knew it was something but they wouldn't dream of telling us in the middle of the show. We found out later that President Kennedy had been shot."
The character remaining constant throughout the entire history of the program was John Steed. Over the years Steed's partners would come and go but The Avengers without John Steed is like caviar without the champagne. Steed took viewers by the hand and led them on a merry romp through the England of the Swinging Sixties. Blackman recalls her costar Patrick MacNee (Steed)with great affection.
"Patrick was wonderful to work with. He was professional and an absolute dear. He was always very funny because he used to worry about my getting hurt. If you notice, when he fought he used to do these strange duels with his umbrella and all sorts of other odd stuff. He would say to me, 'Oh, darling, why don't you do as I do? You're going to get hurt one day.' He worried an awful lot about me but the show wouldn't have been quite the same without the judo.
"We were usually so tired at the end of the first week of rehearsals for an episode," says Blackman. "Patrick would always say, 'Darling, don't you think a good lunch is in order? Wouldn't that be a good idea?' We used to go to one particular restaurant and have a very good meal, whereas normally we went to the pub next door for sausages or something. Patrick is still a loving and caring friend and we talk with each other fairly regularly."
In December 1963 Blackman announced that she was leaving The Avengers to appear as Pussy Galore in the James Bond film Goldfinger starring Sean Connery. Though several attempts were made to persuade the actress to change her mind, Blackman's decision was final. She was to leave in the third season's final episode Lobster Quadrille.
"When I first signed for The Avengers I think it was for something like nine months," explains the actress. "At the end of those nine months the program was such a success that they came and asked if I would sign for another two years. I said that I would sign for two years altogether but not for an additional two years. I felt that if I stayed too long the scripts would start deteriorating. Anyway, it was long enough to play the part, otherwise, you're stuck in that same type of role forever and people can't think of you as anybody else.
"Everybody was quite startled when I decided to leave especially since the program was about to go onto film and into color. It was a bombshell, I'm afraid, for everybody, that I was going, but I thought my decision was right and I still think it was right. It was two years of a show every fortnight for the entire year. I used to stand up for hours and hours after rehearsals for clothes fittings as well as go to the gym for my judo. I also used to do an enormous amount of publicity for the series, as did Patrick. It was very, very tough going but great fun.
The fun continued up until the end. "If you remember, in the last episode Steed says something to Mrs. Gale like, 'You're going to be pussyfooting around on some beach.' He worked that into the dialogue because everybody in Great Britain knew where I was going, so it was sort of an in-joke."
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of ABC TV (UK), so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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