The Avengers Forever: Guest Essay

	Guest Essays Page 2 of 14

THOUGHTS ON PURDEY
by Iain Clarke

Thoughts and opinions on The New Avengers remain as controversial today among the fans as ever. Although the Tara era for many is regarded as being bad, at least the majority of fans treat it as part of the Avengers Pantheon, unlike TNA. However, it is strange to note then that those who would support Tara in that way ignore Purdey, a creation obviously based more on Tara's role than that of Cathy or Emma, and who is arguably the most intriguing of the Avenger girls.

In a way, a show for a new era needed a different type of heroine. The Swinging Sixties had become the Cynical Seventies. Death and violence were all too real, and fantasy, to an extent, had fallen out of favour. Look at the hit UK TV shows of the time: The Sweeney, The Professionals, Target, Starsky and Hutch. Sci-fi was OK as long as it had a hard edge—look at Doomwatch, Survivors, or the dark undertones of Blake's 7. Doctor Who tended to be the only light relief, and even that was deemed excessively violent at times. While a lot of these shows had feisty women, either as regulars, supporting actors or villains, women in the 70s were either sex symbols, or too hard to reach.

Purdey reflected this, but in a much more confused kind of way. She was a cross between the typical seventies heroine and Tara. Sadly her character was never as fully defined as Emma or Cathy. Aspects of her could change from week to week, or indeed between series. In the first series especially there was a great difference between the character on the page and the one that Jo was pushing out of our screens!

The Purdey of the first series was an amalgam of Tara by definition and Emma by nature, to an extent. Purdey seemed to spend the whole time wearing a succession of rather silly frilly party frocks. She may have been the new agent compared to Gambit or Steed, but surely there was no reason to be wearing clobber that was so out of keeping with the job. Even Tara, although having to cope with the excesses of fashion at times, managed to get into some suitable clothing from time to time. This was also where we found the kinkiness factor removed. Blatant leg shots of Jo, while I'm sure are pleasing to some, are simply obvious, compared to a lot of the understated kinkiness of the original.

Purdey's Tara-like aspects were the character's main weakness a lot of the time. Aspects were made worse, however, with the passage of time. For a start, the redefinition of Steed's character was having to play a more paternal role with Purdey than he ever did with Tara. Trouble is, she also has a number of suitors that want to look after her, too. Gambit I can deal with in the first series; it provides for some good flirty banter which veers wildly between old married couple and sibling rivalry under Steed's "fathering" (or maybe "mothering" might be more appropriate?). Character aspect one to sort out: Which relationship did she have with Mike here? At times, her jealousy and occasional tenderness towards him would suggest the former (although that would later change). Character aspect two under this was the rest of the male population. In nearly every episode Purdey has to ward off a potential suitor or father figure, sometimes with a sharp tongue, and other times someone would kill them before they got the chance. A lot of the villains did a lot of drooling, too. While the other girls would have the occasional admirer, they weren't subject to this much attention, and frankly it gets tiring.

The next Tara-like aspect, which should have been changed, was the inexperience. OK, so at least we had an agent here, rather than a gifted amateur super-woman. However, we've done the inexperience thing before with Tara. Sometimes Purdey would be able to make the male aggressors in her life underestimate her and she'd get the better of them, but sadly these opportunities were few and far between (although at times she could show she was just as dangerous, as Jo's performance suggested). A lot of the time she was subject to the old clonk on the head/chloroform routine that Tara always seemed to suffer, and it would be left to Steed or Gambit to come and get at her. Purdey seemed to lead either herself or others into obvious danger at times, too, which just didn't fit in with the strong defiance Jo was giving her. They also used the plot device of using her to get to Steed far too often. Surely he had more weak spots than that.

However, when we got to the second series opener, "Dead Men Are Dangerous," the use of this device would be appropriate. Here, Steed's enemy had attacked everything else that was dear to him, and this was merely the coup de grace before he tried to kill him. The emphasis in the relationship had also changed, too. Purdey was now suffering from the Tara trait of being in love with Steed. At various points in the series she would try hopelessly to flirt with him and get underneath the professional facade, be very jealous of other female attention he received (Steed's "girlfriend of the week" noticeably dropped off here), especially Emma, and defined her position with Gambit early in the series opener as being more fraternal (this still didn't stop Mike trying, though). But this was one aspect of Tara on which they did improve. Rather than have her waiting for his every call, watching his every move in awe, and being completely obsessed, both Pat and Jo, in collusion with the script writers, managed to make the relationship much more subtle and underplayed.

At least in the second series they managed to get her into some better clothing (even if her hair does look at bit shaggy towards the end—but who care?). They also managed to develop some of the good season points of her character further. For a start, Purdey was wonderfully eccentric—whether it was making Marshmallow Pies, talking about the Gold of the Sierra Madre during a car chase, or just some of her eccentric view points on life. She also seemed to have this strange habit of emblasoning her name across duty wear, not making this secret service altogether that covert. Perhaps the biggest mystery around her character is her first name. Even when she was a dancer, she still seemed to be just "Purdey!"

The last of these facts comes from the rare thing in The Avengers Pantheon—the emotional character explanation episode. "Obsession" was one of the finest TNA episodes, and showed us the real heart of one of the Avenger girls. Cathy would sometimes get rueful about the death of her husband (but not for long), Emma hardly seemed to be bothered by the disappearance of her husband, and Tara was as carefree as a young single woman should be. Purdey, however, had a great loss in her past, and the suggestion was that perhaps half her persona was a defense mechanism. Even in the face of an ex-lover about to shoot her down, she is still angry and upset when Gambit is forced to kill him. She is much more emotional and caring than her predecessors; we get to see the concern and love she has for her colleagues more than we do by the other three.

All in all, Purdey makes for an intriguing mix of old and new. Sometimes the mix is more successful than not, but the bad bits do tend to rankle more than they did with Tara, probably because we know which past mistakes should have been rectified, and because Jo's performance went so much against it. But, as Pat says, she is arguably the spiritual successor to Emma: emancipated, defiant, flirty, and a touch of will she won't see with Steed. However, she is much more in the green nature of Tara. To an extent a lot of the mystery surrounding her character goes to some pretty vague and contradictory character plotting, but there can be no denying that Jo's compelling portrayal more than makes up for this. See what you think for yourself.