Were Steed and Emma friends or lovers? I can't tell from the few episodes I've seen. Also, why did they call her Mrs. Peel? She didn't seem to have a husband anywhere.
By the way, I think her style of martial arts was Kung Fu. Although, she could really throw a classic right cross...
Diana Rigg, definitely one of the prettiest actresses ever!
Depends on who you ask. Brian Clemens (head writer) and Patrick Macnee are of the impression that Steed and Emma did have a brief fling but are now just friends. Diana Rigg said that she viewed the two as being nothing more than a pair of flirts who threw witty banter at each other but never went beyond that.
But it's ultimately up to us as viewers as whether we feel the two "did the deed" or not. I'm of the opinion that they may have gone as far as sharing an intimate kiss once but never went beyond that.
Besides, would you still continue to address a woman by her married name once you went to bed with her?......
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I always got the impression that, in the back of her mind, Mrs. Peel felt that her missing husband might still be alive. And thus remained more or less "faithful" to him as long as there was faint hope that he may return someday.
At the remove of so much time now, it occurs to me that I don't recall the series with Emma Peel's ever having referred to how long her husband was missing. We tend to assume a real time connection between the years Diana Rigg was on the show and the fictional time period where the Peels were separated by his being missing. Nor do we see or hear anything about what was being done to find him, or what the thinking was about his likelihood of returning.
All this of course would have been relevant to a wife waiting for her husband's possible return, as it would also be relevant to a swinging batchelor like Steed who might otherwise have at least considered a closer and more permanent relationship with a suitable woman.
I think these factors tend to argue for Mrs. Peel's character being reluctant to be Steed's lover. But again only to the point of ambiguity - there is a good deal on the other side, and if in fact she felt she was actually a widow, with no real prospect of her husband's return, that would have meant her character would have been a quite different situation.
Even in her situation a longer period of time with no good news might have had an effect on her. But if it was a shorter period, it would have been easier to endure and maintain hope.
I'm sure I read an interview in a New Avengers magazine I bought at the time in which Macnee clearly implied that he thought they had a sexual relationship.
shareBrian Clemens himself thought so too. But since they never made that canonical or anything, aside from, perhaps, in their own minds, I consider whatever each individual viewer believes to be valid.
Someone was wondering why Steed always addresses Peel as "Mrs." despite the fact that she considers herself as a widow (dixerunt so many Avengers scholars, albeit I haven't seen the evidence first-handedly). And this was held as evidence against the Steed-Peel relationship being anything more than a flirtsy man-woman friendship - that utopian, mythological beast everybody has heard about but that never actually materialized anywhere 🤔. Anyhow...
I think one must keep in mind that this was a 60s show. And a very genuine embodiment of virtually everything that was TV-compatible considering what societal TV conventions were in fact between 1965 and 1967 inclusively (the Peel years). It just so happens that the Peel episodes were riding that wave which was building up and about to crash precisely when every taboo of the past was tumbled down in the streets to be replaced by a high-octane propulsion of all forces that had been repressed until then by the keepers of the Old Order: sexual promiscuity going hand in hand with the assertion of freedom by women thanks to the pill, but also freedom of saying this and everything else that had to be camouflaged by archaic witticisms, freedom of showing it too - slowly in cinema first, but certainly not on TV. Failing to take the historical context into account when discussing films or TV shows is a very common mistake nowadays - and something that always needs to be corrected if anyone genuinely wants to understand the actual meaning of these works. Of course, laziness or ignorance can't be always avoided and some souls prefer to believe in their own small universe as the actual center of the big one... Personally, I always try to collect as much info and reference points before defending any thesis.
Of course the "lovers" hypothesis holds pretty well if one uses the right filter and decoder for that period. Steed could never address Peel as "Miss" and at the same time behave with her the way he was, and vice versa! Couldn't, wouldn't happen, period. TV suits would have had the time of their lives trying to explain such familiarity between woman and man "friends" ! But to understand this completely, one has to have either lived as an adult (young or otherwise) during these years, or have immersed completely in a wide spectrum of media documenting this critical period. Those were wonderful years in many ways, but I was still too young at the time to fully understand all the sexual innuendos and double entendres of which this show is wonderfully replete and which make many of its old charm.
Naturally, it's also plausible that the writers were just pulling our legs with the idea and that Peel and Steed were just friends. Odd, risqué as presented, but plausible - and a LOT less fun if you ask me.
Ultimately, there is no definitive answer because we lack the book of rules, if any, that the writers, producers and actors were actually using. Hey! Even MacNee and Rigg disagreed on that very question, as someone was pointing out earlier in this thread! (As the societal sexual psyche would have it, Rigg says they were "just friends" (boring but safer for her as a woman) whereas Macnee says "lovers" -yummy, and far more interesting - just like any healthy hetero would say referring to a sex goddess such as his gloriously appetizing partner).
Therefore, I prefer to play this RPG with the mind of a big bad wolf and have them going all the way while the camera is not watching. Hehe! I'm such a pervert 😇.... Never mind!
Is it safe? What is safe? Is it safe? Yes, very safe? Is it safe? No, not at all! Is it safe? Aaahh!
despite the fact that she considers herself as a widow
porfle,
I agree with your implication, that being that in fact I do not believe Mrs. Peel at any time referred to herself as a widow, and since her husband was missing, she had to have been holding onto hope for his return, which he eventually did.
What I do not think the show ever addressed was how long her husband had been missing.
Lovers, definitely.
If Diana Rigg/Emma Peel claimed otherwise, she was merely being discreet.
For me, the tipoff is the melting look Steed gives Emma when she pins that carnation to his lapel during the opening sequence. It speaks volumes!
I must side with the folks who call Steed and Mrs. Peel "flirty friends."
The only time Steed ever called "Mrs. Peel" by her first name "Emma," was in
"The Forget-Me-Not" episode which was at the end of the Steed-Peel Era and
introduced Tara King (actress Linda Thorson). As Emma was leaving to join her
husband found alive (and looking remarkably like Steed), Steed said "Thanks
Emma." Mrs. Peel looks slightly shocked as she realizes that this is the first
time Steed has ever called her by her first name.
Also, this was the only episode in the original 161 episodes to be "bridged."
Emma met Tara on the staircase as she was leaving and Tara was coming up to
Steed's apartment. I don't recall Cathy Gale ever meeting Emma Peel. And
Steed's original male partner Dr. David Keel (actor Ian Hendry) never met
Cathy Gale either.
There's also the time in the "Who's who" episode when Steed has had his body switched with a bad guy named Basil and he calls Mrs. Peel "Emma" (before she also had her body switched). She gives him a quizzical look like something's not right. I think their relationship was supposed to be ambiguous. They were not real people. 😉 It was all TV fun.
shareYou are correct, friends, co-workers, even partners.
Friends of course.
Diana Rigg is very great in Game Of Thrones ... or was while she was in it.
Obviously friends with benefits.
shareSteed and Peel remind me of the Scotty and Midge relationship a bit in 'Vertigo.' They were mates who had long given up the idea of being an item. At least that's the way I see the characters. In the case of Emma Peel I think it's important that she remains a professional equal. I like to think they were just a couple of flirts who loved to tease each other but their jobs came first.
share