The Persuaders!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Persuaders! | |
|---|---|
 North American DVD release |
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| Genre | Action Adventure |
| Creator(s) | Robert S. Baker |
| Starring | Tony Curtis Roger Moore |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 50 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | September 17, 1971 – February 25, 1972 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Persuaders! is a British television series, which first aired in 1971 and 1972 in Britain's ITV and on the ABC Network in the United States. The series starred Tony Curtis, as Danny Wilde, and Roger Moore, as Lord Brett Sinclair, both millionaire international playboys, but from very different American and British backgrounds.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
The basic storyline of the The Persuaders television series is that two men from completely different backgrounds, but equally matched in other ways, team up (with some reluctance) to fight crime.
- Rough diamond Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis) grew up in the back streets of New York and joined the US Navy. He later made himself a fortune in the oil business.
- Lord Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore) was born into a wealthy aristocratic English family and was educated at Harrow and Oxford. He was a racing driver for a short time.
Now globe-trotting playboys, the two men meet while on holiday on the French Riviera and tension sets in almost instantly. In the course of an argument they thrash a restaurant and are arrested. They are taken to the private home of a judge (Laurence Naismith) who offers them a choice: go to jail or fight crime. The pair grudgingly agree to join forces.
Sinclair and Wilde then travel the world fighting gangsters, spies and other crooks. They enjoy a relationship of friendly bickering and if there is any rivalry it is usually over the token female guest star (who often ends up dumping both of them).
[edit] Inspiration
In some ways, 'Lord Brett Sinclair' is a continuation of Moore's earlier character 'Simon Templar' in The Saint. The idea of The Persuaders first was tested in an episode of The Saint titled The Ex-King of Diamonds, wherein Templar was paired with a Texas oilman played (Stuart Damon) in a gambling escapade set in Monte Carlo.
Both of Moore's roles were similar to James Bond, whom he portrayed in seven films from 1973 to 1985. Like the Bond genre, The Persuaders! occurs in a rich, fantasy world of men living the high life, driving fast cars, and wooing beautiful women; it is played for laughs and for drama. The contrast of personalities of the two protagonists (the rapport between the leading men) is the appeal of the series. The male chauvinist sexist attitude of the series dates it, yet it remains a popular television programme.
[edit] Production
At the time, The Persuaders! was the most expensive television series produced, at a cost of £100,000 per episode, with location filming in France, Spain, Sweden and Italy.
Twenty-four episodes of The Persuaders! were made by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment company, each fifty minutes long and featuring dramatic synthesizer theme music by John Barry.
Guest stars included Terry-Thomas and Joan Collins. In her autobiography Second Act, the latter wrote in some detail about how Moore and Curtis did not get on, citing Curtis' foul temper as the main reason.
Curtis's occasional ad-libbing (most notably in-jokes about "Bernie Schwartz", his true name) was, according to Curtis, due to the scripts' unrealistic "American" dialogue, which he, as an actor, had to change for the better of the show.
The cancellation of the series after only one season came as a surprise to both the producers and the stars. However, it did allow Moore to assume the role of James Bond, which previous commitments to The Persuaders! and The Saint had prevented him from taking. Some sources say Moore was offered substantial pay to make a series two, but turned it down to play James Bond.[citation needed]
[edit] Impact
Lew Grade was always keen to break into the American TV market which is why he kept coming up with series featuring American actors (Man in a Suitcase, The Champions). Failure to do so would lead to cancellation, as is what happened here. While it was a huge success in Europe and Australia, the series made little impact in the US, where it aired opposite Mission: Impossible. In Britain, while it was moderately popular with audiences, it received extremely hostile reviews in the national press.
When the pilot episode Overture was screened as part of Channel 4's nostalgia strand TV Heaven in 1992, that series' host, Frank Muir, said in a Radio Times interview that The Persuaders "must have been the best bad series ever made...absolute hokum."
Due to its idiosyncratic synchronisation, the series was a huge success in Europe (especially in Germany and France) where it is frequently repeated on terrestrial TV. In France it is known as Amicalement votre (Your Sincerely). Editors added ironic dialogues and word-plays which do not exist in the original script.
Three pairs of episodes from the series were later re-edited into three individual TV movies entitled Mission: Monte Carlo, Sporting Chance and London Conspiracy.
The entire series was remastered for DVD release in Europe in 2001, and North America in 2003.
[edit] Remake
A motion picture remake starring Steve Coogan and Ben Stiller is currently in the works.[1]
[edit] Smoking
Roger Moore says he owes his life to Curtis' actions in 'persuading' him to quit smoking. When filming began, Curtis gave Moore a book about quitting, with a picture of a cancerous lung on the back. Moore did indeed give up smoking, and as Curtis commented in March 2006, "That was 35 years ago and we wouldn't be here now if one of us was a smoker." [2]. However, Moore did continue to smoke cigars on occasion, and is seen doing so both on screen, most notably in Live and Let Die, and in behind the scenes footage from several DVD releases of his Bond films.
