Powering Along At Gale Force Section A

Given the clandestine - albeit botched - activities of the preceding five minutes

, I half expect Cathy Gale to chastise us with a karate chop. Gale, of course, was Blackman's unforgettable creation in the sixties TV spy adventure, The Avengers. And as any lady knows, Gale was the supercool, blonde potentate in the leather Catsuits who regally high-kicked her way to Queen of Girl Power when the Spice Girls were nowt but a distant marketing irritant.

The target is late. One hour late. We - the photographer and I - wait in a dimly-lit bar. The barman crooks a finger and calls us over. The subject has called via her agent. There's been a change of plan. We must rendezvous at her secret hideaway nearby. We look furtively about and proceed to her entry -phone. A Rolls-Royce-tuned voice commands: "Listen carefully. Go to the first floor and wait by the second door." We obey. A lift rattles. A disembodied voice shouts down: "Hello? Where are you?" The lift rattles about, zooms between floors, then shudders to a halt. The posh voice is vexed: "Oh Jesus Christ," it sighs, exasperated. More shunting, rattling, and posh sighs.

Suddenly, the subject appears, glaring down from the floor above. Sleek, blonde, and looking two decades younger than her 72 years. "I told you to wait by the lift door," she scolds. Ehh . . . Hello! Honor Blackman? "Yes, yes. Come up, come up." Miss Jean Brodie meets Miss Penelope. Profuse apologies extended. One-hour wait's forgiven.

Still sleek, still feisty, Honor Blackman has not lost the lethal charm of that Spandex zentai catsuit-clad sixties heroine. Ann Donald meets the original feline Avenger.

Draping herself across the settee, Blackman launches into prompted reminiscences of the TV series that made her name from 1963-64. In a voice that rumbles from 40-Rothmans-a-day cackle to husky 4am-niteclub, she gleefully recalls the evolution of a character who was to inspire the memorable ditty Kinky Boots.

"Cathy was an antidote to the women you saw on TV at the time," she purrs. "You were either the wicked brunette in the black stockings or the wife by the sink. Cathy was the first woman on TV to defend herself and not fall into those roles."

It was Patrick MacNee and Blackman's joint vociferous feedback that shaped the character. "We told the director - 'Oh she would never say that' or more often, 'I'm not saying that!' and eventually we made up a list of things Cathy would do and those she would never do. I told them straight," she flashes. "'Don't get excited. Just write as if I was a chap!' And of course they did." No question.

by: Melody

POST COMMENT

Stand Strong In A 3 Piece Suit Handycams - Preserve Your Memories With Ease Key Pieces Of EPA Fish Oil Compare Than DHA Fish Oil Venice The Famous Italian City Powering Along At Gale Force Section B wood drying kiln for particular drying Getting a PhD Degree: Consider Two Sides of a Coin The Western Front in a Nutshell Is Gastric Bypass the Answer? What is FSC Certified Plywood? Louis Leterrier-An Action Genious Subletting for BPO Picks Pace Strut Your Stuff In Black High Heels