Coming more or less straight off the back of his success as Simon Templar, the rogue spy who helps the helpless under the name of The Saint (which finished broadcasting in 1969), it’s probably fair to say that Lord Brett was mostly a take on Templar, but with much less altruism and much more aristocratic arrogance. But what makes sense of it from a broader perspective is understanding the actors who were cast as each of the persuaders.Īs Lord Brett, there was Roger Moore.
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In a sense, it’s pure fantasy wish fulfilment for the TV audiences of the early Seventies. Money now comes to him easily, so the sharp edge of life had dulled into equally ridiculous cocktails, a veneer of charm, and that Bronx kid, always ready to fight anyone who gets his goat. After that he became an oil baron, and since then he’s both made and lost entire fortunes. Having achieved success, he’s content to bum around Naples, or Monte Carlo, or the next place, seducing women, ordering ridiculously specific cocktails, and fighting anyone who dares put a crimp in his day or his lifestyle.ĭanny Wilde was a scrappy young kid from the Bronx till he joined up to serve in the Navy during the war. Lord Brett Rupert George Robert Andrew Sinclair was born to privilege and has added athletic and motoring success to his family’s list of honours – but that’s about it. The persuaders? Two men from entirely different worlds, both of whom have ended up at the same point in their lives. The persuaders have Judge Fulton (Laurence Naismith) to bring them together and get them working. The angels would later have Charlie (via Bosley). There’s even, in common with other, later variations on a theme, like (of all things!) Charlie’s Angels, a governing figure who occasionally sets our heroes off on their adventures. Fast cars, lashings of dangerous idiot machismo, young women dressed in frequently not a lot, exotic locations, and very much how the other half live is the order of the day for The Persuaders!. If you’re going to get the most out of it, you’re also going to have to forgive The Persuaders! its early Seventies vibe from your position here in the 21st century.
The Persuaders! is actually an odd couple comedy dressed up to look like it’s a hard-hitting show about gentlemen spies taking on a world of evildoers.Īction-comedy then, is the world in which we’re moving – and why not? While Patrick McGoohan was the go-to straight man of serialised drama, with shows like The Prisoner and Danger Man under his belt, there was also clearly room for a little mixture of the thrills and laughter if you had actors who could deliver both (as with Patrick Macnee and his succession of partners in The Avengers).
But if you’re expecting The Persuaders! (yes, really – we’re probably contractually obliged to use the exclamation mark!) to be a hard-hitting, gripping show about gentleman spies taking on a world of evildoers, you might be just a little disappointed. There are TV shows from the 1960s which can still be watched in the 21st century for their plots, their characterisations, and their subtle commentary on the world around them.Īctually, that’s a little unfair, at least as far as the characterisations are concerned.
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