Diana Rigg talks The Avengers, James Bond

Diana Rigg in a candid interview from 2016.

[@AuntieCharChar]

Diana Rigg was my childhood hero! I remember having to fight to watch "The Avengers". Ms. Rigg was so far ahead of her time- in her personal and professional life. She was amazing in "The Avengers" and has consistently portrayed strong women in her lifetime. Thank you, Ms. Rigg!

[@billgreen576]

She's great in everything especially Detectorists. And who would not want to kiss Diana Rigg whether she had been eating garlic or not.

[@jacquelinemanzano9328]

Diana Rigg was brilliant in The Game of Thrones, I loved her character.

[@RaymondHng]

Daniel Radcliffe runs into one of _The Avengers_ women while working as an extra in this sitcom. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKO2eZKLhMaCb9k

[@whiteknight4396]

I have never heard anyone ever have a bad word for Diana rigg,she speaks beautifully and she behaves like a lady which she is but also she is a wonderful actress. I wish there where more Diana Riggs in the world.

[@margaretbuckley9309]

TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU WHITE NIGHT I THINK SHE WAS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ON THE PLANET I WANTED SO BADLY TO LOOK LIKE HER SHE WAS STUNNING AND A FAB ACTRESS BUT THERES ONLY ONE DIANA RIGG 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

[@johndouglas4528]

Diana Rigg -- all time great.

[@walterpalmer2749]

Diana also starred with Vincent Price in “Theater of Blood”. Watch it if you’re able. Has a great cast and is well scripted, IMO.

[@markjolley3768]

Recently got the dvd of this classic!! Im surprised its not been shown as a tribute...

[@raywhittington1368]

The same lovely looking woman, even in senior years. Great upload.

[@vekemartinez458]

I loved Diana Riggs my hero when I was a little girl I love to see her and I love to see her outfits and her boots in her cute dresses I sometimes played and I pretended I was Diana I Riggs Miss peel

[@bramford7e]

It was a hugely popular series. I'm sure lots of young girls dressed up as Mrs Peel pretending to be her back then.

[@paduapeted49]

+ Rest in Peace Diana Rigg. + Another adventurous life comes to an end.

[@gert-janboot3928]

Just love and admire Lady Diana Rigg

[@tracer740]

There are so many outstanding, beautiful, and talented British actresses but Diana is definitely one of a kind.

[@Anthony-xe2pz]

She was my first love back in the 60s. It's wonderful she's still the amazing star today as then.

[@richardlucero1265]

Who can help, but totally Adore "Emma Peel" (Diana Rigg)! One of my all time big crushes when I was growing up back then!, so full of sexiness!

[@barryh.4220]

In my eyes the only girl on telly who could truly compete with Diana Rigg back then was Alexandra Bastedo of the Champions ...both were stunningly beautiful.

[@annaritaranalli1791]

Different beauties

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Which had a career? Dame Diana was award nominated for 60 years.

[@thomaschacko6320]

@@unowen-nh9ov You’ve made this point before! But do you mean that everything she did in sixty years was “award nominated”? Would that apply to her 70s sitcom “Diana,” which lasted about a month? Even if you were correct, does that give her licence to act like a snooty little twit in this interview?

[@whiteknight4396]

I’ve loved Diana since early teens and have followed her career for years A relative of mine went to school with her in pudsey Yorkshire, she is a great actress speaks beautifully she is a model lady 👍👍❤️

[@astoaper]

I loved her

[@stephenstiles2]

Nearing 80 at this time and looks wonderful

[@davegibbs6423]

She is simply amazing.

[@peternesbitt]

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg DBE (20 July 1938 - 10 September 2020) RIP

[@brianmarshall4753]

Diana rigg RIP 1938-- 2020 😢

[@billedwards9148]

Grew up with her in movies and tv. Love her!

[@UKfan1975]

thanks for posting this, what a legend.

[@SSmith-fm9kg]

God, I was pissed when they killed her in "On Her Majesty's..." That's the only Bond movie I've only watched just one time because of it. She's such and elegant woman...and my first crush when The Avengers aired when I was 11.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

1 critic wrote, "Should have killed him & saved her."

[@thomaschacko6320]

Sure, when “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was first released, many critics were hard on George Lazenby. Just as many were favorably disposed toward him. His problem was basically two-fold: he was the first to replace Sean Connery (so firmly fixed in the public imagination); and, he was a complete unknown. Appreciation for Lazenby - and the film - has grown over the years. In fact the film is now considered among the best. The director, Peter Hunt, decided at the outset to remain faithful to the novel - one of Ian Fleming’s best. That’s why the ending is exactly like the one in the book, including Bond’s closing line.

[@douglasnicholson2934]

Diana is brilliant. True pro ,still working , enjoys what she does. Thanks so much Dame Diana Rigg. Bravo! On core! Also British girls are the best! Bar none! Natural class and charm, British charm. Thanks so much!

[@markjolley3768]

Watch mother love !! Brilliant!!

[@whiteknight4396]

Diana rigg the best bar none she a Yorkshire woman and says a lot,❤️👍👍👍

[@annaritaranalli1791]

She could be miss uk and miss Europe

[@annaritaranalli1791]

Her only daughter has got something of her

[@robertyglesias9673]

I had a major crush on her

[@mariacristinaoyarcevargas7920]

Qué hermosa era Diana Rigg.....siempre la veía en los Vengadores.....Me gustaba como se vestía ...se veía hermosa como fuera ....Hermosa hermosa ......Saludos desde Chile

[@palmhousebookrestoration3284]

Always loved her ❤

[@StellarFella]

The Avengers catapulted her image in a way like no other venue could, but her stage accomplishments dwarfed what she did in this medium.

[@mariobaltazar4160]

She is my alltime favorite bond girl!!!

[@unowen-nh9ov]

& only Bond wife.

[@mw10259]

WOMEN OF 60'S TV EDEN , FELDON, LOUIS , COULDN'T HOLD A CANDLE TO RIGG

[@edwinreid9233]

She was stunning. I grew up in the 90's but on terrestrial TV in the uk, I think pretty much every old TV series got repeated. Though it was hard not to talk about it without some adults saying " that's before your time ain't it " lol

[@adriansazo9075]

Muy hermosa entrevista. Y muy buen capítulo; el número 2 muerte a saldo. Estupenda

[@Greg87601]

I love Diana Rigg leather suit .

[@eymeeraosaka2954]

I used to swoon over her too. The Avengers was one of my favourites...

[@chadhaire1711]

Still swoon on this old hag now?

[@eymeeraosaka2954]

@@chadhaire1711 This is the reality of life....Beauty is only skin deep.

[@chadhaire1711]

@@eymeeraosaka2954 was skin deep

[@davegibbs6423]

The interviewer was really bad. He kept trying to press her into this feminist tool, while she is quite unique. She wouldn't be a tool. She is unique!

[@MrSnappy67]

"Why not present glamour at the same time as self-sufficiency?" : )

[@UKfan1975]

BBC allways seem to be political

[@davegibbs6423]

@@UKfan1975 I know. Several year ago, I went to hear a Q+A with Ray Davies, who is from the old socialist Labour party background, but the interviewer at South Bank only wanted to talk about politics. He was visibly frustrated and talked about the death of the old style under New Labour. He really wanted to talk about his art and that was what all his fans were there for, no matter what their political alliances were. He shone through at the end. These neo-Marxist totalists are suffocating.

[@davegibbs6423]

Back to Diana Rigg. She was awesome!

[@jonsilence]

Agreed, in his worst moments here the interviewer is pandering to a woke feminist agenda and classy cool Diana consistently side-stepped him.

[@paulaprichard2346]

Love her

[@MyUsernameIsGuess]

What a babe!!!

[@billbergendahl2911]

I've been to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

[@thomasnorman4221]

Beautiful lady...Emma...wonderful name

[@fatimasalah4106]

Im morrocan i see watched they séries in Tv in 1972 i like it Chapeau melon et bottes noires Avengers I like them very mutch

[@iconicshrubbery]

Translates from French as "Melon Hat (!) and Black Boots".I loved Diana Rigg when I was a kid and then her replacement Linda Thorson. Childhood heroines, much more fun than mum or schoolteachers. And Mr.Patrick Steed was the perfect Englishman.

[@fatimasalah4106]

@@iconicshrubbery really i like them Sorry for the news series ...

[@robertyglesias9673]

These young guys have no idea that she was smoking hot!!!

[@DariusSarrafi]

I would kiss Diana Rigg even if she ate give cloves of garlic and didn't brush her teeth. What a prima donna Lazenby must've been!

[@RaymondHng]

"It's lingered for 25 years." I hope it was not the garlic breath.

[@thomaschacko6320]

Or, what a stuck-up snob Rigg must have been!

[@PaoloVeneziano1958]

The 'other actor whose name escapes' Diana is Ian Hendry. Hendry was a fine and famous actor. I just wonder why Diana can't remember his name?

[@humandugong630]

Why should she? She wasn't part of The Avengers at that stage.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Because he was problematic? They co-starred in Theatre of Blood, she also worked with Oliver Reed & George C. Scott, all 3 actors drank themselves to death,

[@jeffsullivan2044]

Well, she was in " Theatre of Blood" with Hendry and Vincent Price.....

[@annaritaranalli1791]

Good theatre 's actress too

[@jeffholley8003]

Like is said still pretty

[@markm-qf2fn]

Old grandmother 😂😂😂

[@quitequiet1]

I had one of my greatest disappointment in life when I made a special trip to New York to see My Fair Lady specifically to see her. I remember sitting in the theater before curtain time going through the playbill looking for her biography. To my dismay she had played her last show just one week ago and had relinquished her part to Rosemary Harris. Of course, she passed away a year later so some things were just not meant to be.

[@SteveM-ly7oy]

The other male actor was Ian Hendry - it is well documented. So, in my humble opinion, I don't believe Dame Diana when she says she can't remember who. I wonder if something happened.

[@jeffsullivan2044]

We all get a slip of the memory from time to time. She sets the record straight on who the first truly emancipated female character was though.....that being Mrs. Catherine Gale.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

male

[@jacquelinemilom4164]

Actually George Lazenby was not fired. He was offered the role back for Diamonds Are Forever and turned it down. He chose to leave Bond. And was told by Harry Saltzman and a few others he'd never work again in Hollywood because of it. It has been well known he quit, and the producers never contradicted that story. Yes Harry did say he was difficult afterwards but also maintained he quit. There's been a couple documentaries about it too. So she had it wrong there.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

They paid big $ to bring back Connery, you really think they'd have chosen Lazenby>007?!

[@annaritaranalli1791]

She and gorgeous and stylish blond john richardson would had been of most beautiful screen 's pairs in 007

[@dzeo7569]

I was a big fan of Diana but how could she forget the name of the brilliant Ian Hendry ?

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Sadly, most have, he left The Avengers to drink himself to death.

[@josephgodfrey8468]

That's extremely funny...James Bond has to do a KISSING SCENE with a woman WHOSE JUST EATEN A PLATE OF GARLIC!!!

[@goldenrayofcentralsun1111]

Why did Honor Blackman leave the part?

[@markjolley3768]

Too go into goldfinger

[@goldenrayofcentralsun1111]

@@markjolley3768 she’s such a classy beauty. Diana Rigg too. Them were the days where ppl had dignity n beauty.

[@annaritaranalli1791]

It is an english 📺 show?

[@badlaamaurukehu]

Now if only the BBC et al remembered The Avengers...

[@RaymondHng]

The original network for _The Avengers_ was ITV.

[@annaritaranalli1791]

Only dame rigg could be Emma peel

[@MrSebboxxx]

her part was written for a man - thats really interesting :-)

[@DavidRexGlenn]

Excuse my ignorance, but that was the freshest idea I've heard in a decade, i.e., a part written for a man played by a woman. I wonder if there are examples of this particular casting tweak? For some reason, I got an immediate jones going for a movie with randomly assigned roles between the sexes, races, species...

[@DavidRexGlenn]

Simple search answered my own question en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-gender_acting

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Since Shakespeare.

[@thomaschacko6320]

Strange, then, that Joanna Lumley, Angela Scoular, Terry Mountain, and others involved in the Bond film said how good George Lazenby was to work with. Harry Saltzman had planned to use him in non-Bond productions (which unfortunately never came about). Stuntman Vic Armstrong described Lazenby as “fit, active, and fun, and he enjoyed hanging out with us.” Venerable old “Dame Diana” gets something else wrong: Lazenby WAS invited to do more Bond films; HE turned down the offer due to bad advice. And he himself joked about the garlic business: “If she did eat garlic before our love scene, it tasted like Dom Perignon.” The British press blew that whole thing up, since they were piling on him even before the film came out! Even with her experience, the Dear Old Dame was capable of occasional crap: “The Assassination Bureau,” “The Hospital,” and “Diana” - a US sitcom that lasted about a month! And the film version of “A Little Night Music” was a box-office dud!

[@unowen-nh9ov]

How many times was George award nominated in 6 decade career? Most don't know or care who he is.

[@thomaschacko6320]

@@unowen-nh9ov Nominations and awards - like money - don’t necessarily bestow class on anyone. Rigg proved as much in this and other interviews, in which she blasted Lazenby. Had she limited her comments to appreciating the film and its place among Bond fans, she’d have displayed more grace (despite the prodding of this mediocre interviewer). By the way, Lazenby, to the best of my knowledge, did not respond in kind. In fact, when Rigg passed away, Lazenby wrote a nice tribute to her on Twitter. That’s class! If it makes you feel any better, I enjoyed Rigg’s work in “The Avengers,” and in TV presentations of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “King Lear.”

[@chrisnorton4382]

The Assassination Bureau is not that bad. A lightweight 60s vehicle for Oliver Reed really, and Diana' s part didn't require any great acting. Any number of starlets could have taken the role, so she was wasted.

[@benoit9503]

Always so negative when it comes to george lazenby. Now she is helping her self out by saying he is good but there were so many times she shut him down. Why?

[@postersandstuff]

Its just an opinion....same with Non in Superman , he found Reeve a bit of a jerk to work with

[@unowen-nh9ov]

​@@postersandstuffReeve lived with Robin Williams & acted with Margot Kidder. Non is a nob.

[@thomaschacko6320]

And Lazenby did not respond in kind. In fact, he wrote her a nice tribute on Twitter upon her passing. Class act!

[@airypotty]

And Lazenby tried to brush it off by blaming the press. Straight from the horse's mouth. Chicken pate. Lol.

[@thomaschacko6320]

The British press did play it up; they were biased against Lazenby even before the film came out. Peter Hunt, the director, had some differences with Lazenby; but even he said the press had a field day with trivial matters. Lazenby himself later joked about the garlic business: “If she did eat garlic before our love scene, it tasted like Dom Perignon.” And “Dame” Diana’s rant against Lazenby doesn’t obscure the fact that he was terrific as James Bond.

[@bonnie3447]

Was that a wig.

[@escommentss]

It's all about the Feminatzism. These people truly live in an air tight sealed bubble!

[@annaritaranalli1791]

Maybe she was already unhealty here

[@hank964]

Dame Diana Rigg was great but Joanna Lumley was a hottie in the "New Avengers".

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Different decades.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

So funny she forgets Ian Hendry, she worked with him in classic Theatre of Blood.

[@hank964]

@@unowen-nh9ov Ian Hendry appeared in the first couple years of that show before Rigg even before Honor Blackman but probably it was just an oversight

[@rudyrudy6882]

Thank you Madame, you made my dreams hyper hot,

[@danf4447]

40 years later she is still saying what she had for lunch on a given day... yeh right

[@roquefortfiles]

I could never take British theater actors seriously. I don't care how great you think you are. At the end of the day all you are doing is pretending. This is child's play. There may be some technique and training involved. (ok, to look strong don't blink) but i will never look at actors, be it theater or screen as "Important" . Acting is a SILLY job. It is not something you need to take seriously.

[@TheEchovoices]

she really has aged hard to believe this is the same gorgeous sexy lady

[@solinvictus39]

It is criminal how the years catch up to all of us, especially beautiful women.

[@WndD_74]

Well, with no nips & tucks at 81 this summer, her mind and personality more than make up for aging. Actually, she had been holding up well into her 60s but age has a way of catching up with oneself - you'll see. Hmmm...Diana Rigg's looks aging for several decades or yours staying exactly the way you are. Why there's no competition, you lose.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

​@@WndD_74She said she had work done & worked into her 9th decade.

[@katekleinsteuber7652]

She did not age well.

[@barryh.4220]

Not many people do ....

[@jeffsullivan2044]

That's your opinion Kate, not mine.

[@unowen-nh9ov]

Yes, why she was still being nominated for Tony & Emmys & you're not.

[@tomconnors2429]

Did she fart at 0:23?

[@benkasminbullock]

Bad interviewers don't worry, the BBC has lots of jobs for you even if you have no ability in interviewing.