PATRICK MACNEE REMEMBERED

THIS WEEK AT our facebook fan page, we rememberd the wonderful actor Patrick Macnee who was born on this day in 1922. He was best known for his role as the secret agent John Steed in the British television series The Avengers and The New Avengers.

PATRICK MACNEE and Peter Cushing had the opportunity to work together several times. In 1968 Patrick was very much established in a superb tv programme made in the UK called The Avengers...Peter worked with both Patrick and Diana Rigg on this programme. Later in 1970, they worked together again, Macnee and Cushing both 'landed' in a film called 'Incense For The Damned' aka 'Bloodsuckers' It received a limited release at the time, but seems to have found something of a 'cult-status' in the land of '100 Horror Poor and Weird Films' dvd compilations!! In 1978, the Avengers tv series was rebooted and relaunched and it's first episode, not only brought us Macnee and Cushing ....but also two new side -kicks for Macnee...Gareth Hunt as 'Tough man' Gambit and Joanna Lumley as Purdey.....who not only supplied buckets of sex appeal to the tea time Sunday evening program, but high kicks and a hair style that anyone who considered themselves a bit of a catch, were proudly modeling within days of the first program being broadcast! Lumley had played Cushing grand-daughter Jessica Van Helsing in Hammer films 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' (1973)

MACNEE also shared a close friendship with Christopher Lee, since the pair attended school together (at Summerfields Preparatory School in Oxford) and also performed together several times, including playing Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in two TV movies in the early 1990s, Incident at Victoria Falls and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady. Patrick Macnee died peacefully at his home, in Rancho Mirage, California on 25th June 2015. He was 93.