Purdey is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

in the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

TV series '' The New Avengers'' played by

Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an English actress, presenter, former model, author, television producer, and activist. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992 ...

from 1976–77. She was a

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

working for

British intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and d ...

, partnered with

John Steed Major The Hon. John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed usually known as John Steed, is a fictional character and the central protagonist on the 1960s British spy series '' The Avengers'' and its 1970s sequel '' The New Avengers'', played by Pa ...

( Patrick Macnee) and

Mike Gambit Mike Gambit (or Michael Gambit) is a fictional character in the British TV series '' The New Avengers'', played by actor Gareth Hunt. Overview Gambit was John Steed's first male partner since Drs. David Keel and Martin King in the original '' T ...

(

Gareth Hunt Alan Leonard Hunt (7 February 1942 – 14 March 2007), known as Gareth Hunt, was a British actor best remembered for playing footman Frederick Norton in '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' and Mike Gambit in '' The New Avengers''. Early life Alan Leon ...

Character history

When

Brian Clemens Brian Horace Clemens (30 July 1931 – 10 January 2015) was an English screenwriter and television producer, possibly best known for his work on '' The Avengers'' and '' The Professionals''. Clemens claimed to be related to Mark Twain (Samuel ...

and

Albert Fennell Albert Fennell (29 March 1920, in Chiswick – 17 April 1988) was a British film and television producer. Fennell's film career began as a production designer and writer. His work as a film producer included ''Next to No Time'', (1958), ''Peepin ...

first mapped out the characters for ''The New Avengers'' - an updating of '' The Avengers'' - the female lead character was to have been named Charlie (or Charley), but the decision was made not to use the name. Lumley is credited with suggesting the character be named Purdey, after

James Purdey and Sons James Purdey & Sons, or simply Purdey, is a British gunmaker based in London, England specialising in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles. Purdey holds three Royal Warrants of appointment as gun and rifle makers to the British and oth ...

, a famous shotgun manufacturer. Lumley also chose the character's distinctive short haircut.

Character biography

Purdey is a martial arts expert practicing

savate Savate (), also known as boxe française, savate boxing, French boxing or French footfighting, is a French kickboxing combat sport that uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of English boxing with graceful kicking techniques. ...

(learned, according to her, during her time with the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

, who let her go for being too tall) and (true to her namesake) an expert markswoman, who is often called upon to use her feminine attributes to distract villains. She is a motorcyclist and expert tap-dancer. Purdey saw Steed as an attractive, yet fatherly figure, and there was also ongoing banter and playful flirting between Purdey and Mike Gambit (although the series never indicated anything more in her relationship with either man). During the two-year run of the series, no other name was ever given to the character and it was never revealed on screen whether Purdey was the character's first or last name.

Reception

In the British Film Institute's 1996 tribute book, ''The Avengers'', Toby Miller writes: "''The New Avengers'' made a very public and lengthy search for a leading woman. Joan Bakewell likened the eventual choice, Lumley as Purdey, to 'a hockey captain attending a royal garden party'. Richard Afton went far enough to remark that 'sex has taken a long holiday', and Lumley looked back on it from the queer/libertarian-feminist credibility of ''

Absolutely Fabulous ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (also known as ''Ab Fab'') is a British television sitcom based on the ''French and Saunders'' sketch, "Modern Mother and Daughter", created by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The show was created and written by Saund ...

'' to describe her Purdey as 'a huge disappointment, sex-wise'." Writing of Purdey's debut, Alan Hayes in ''Avenger World: The Avengers in Our Lives'' says, "Purdey was certainly no Emma Peel, and her sharp tongue and habit of intentionally making life difficult for Gambit flew in the face of the warm mutual respect between Steed and Peel, so I found that she grated somewhat (my opinion of her would eventually soften considerably)."

References

Fictional British secret agents Television characters introduced in 1976 The Avengers (TV series) characters {{tv-char-stub

Character history

Character biography

Reception

Further reading

References