British TV.

Although not as prodigious as it's US counterpart, British TV has still produced some great bad girls over the years. So here are a few series and villainesses who have graced British television screens both in the past and more recently.

Let's take a trip back to the swinging 60's. Before he became the third James Bond Roger Moore starred in a long running TV series based upon the Leslie Charteris character 'The Saint'. In this still popular series Simon Templar was pitted against criminals and police alike as he rescued damsels in distress and the occasional damsel who was out to cause some distress including the woman in gold from 'Goldfinger' (Shirley Eaton). Despite it's age it is much better than the 1970's series 'Return of the Saint' starring Ian Ogilvy (also shown) and the travesty of a film starring Val Kilmer.

The Saint 1 The Saint 2 The Saint 3 The Saint 4 The Saint 5 The Saint 6 The Saint 7 The Saint 8 The Saint 9 The Saint 9 The Saint 10 The Saint 12 The Saint 13

No overview of villainous ladies on British TV would be complete without reference to the ITC production company. Sir Lew Grade commissioned several adventure and crime series in the late sixties and seventies and often brought over American stars in a vain attempt to crack the American TV market. Tony Curtis starred in 'The Persuaders' with Roger Moore and a very entertaining series it was. The duo often found themselves dealing with double crossing women the most lethal of whom are shown below. The list of villainesses include Cyd Hayman and Hannah Gordon are both stalwarts of British TV.

The Persuaders 1 The Persuaders 2 The Persuaders 3 The Persuaders 4 The Persuaders 5 The Persuaders 6 The Persuaders 7 The Persuaders 8 The Persuaders 8 The Persuaders 10 The Persuaders 11 The Persuaders 12 The Persuaders 13 The Persuaders 14

Not convinced? - here are some vidcaps from the best Persuaders episode from a femme fatale point of view 'Take Seven' The young woman is Sinead Cusack

The Persuaders 15 The Persuaders 16 The Persuaders 17 The Persuaders 18 The Persuaders 18 The Persuaders 19 The Persuaders 20

Whilst 'The Persuaders' was a pretty light hearted the crime series 'The Professionals' most certainly was not. This was a buddy buddy series starring Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins with Gordon Jackson as the head of the British Criminal Intelligence service CI5. Spies, terrorists and big time criminals were all in the sights of Bodie (Shaw) and Doyle (Collins) and the action packed series was, quite rightly, very popular. There was an unsuccessful attempt to resuscitate the series on satellite TV but for one reason or another I didn't quite get round to seeing it, which is a real shame as the episode 'Miss Hit' is allegedly a hitwoman classic. Here are a selection of deadly ladies the original team tangled with including a deadly oriental hitwoman who starred in the episode 'Found in a Graveyard'.

The Professionals 1 The Professionals 2 The Professionals 3 The Professionals 4 The Professionals 5 The Professionals 6 The Professionals 7 The Professionals 8 The Professionals 9 The Professionals 10 The Professionals 11 The Professionals 12

Let's skip a few decades and bring this article up to more recent times and talk about 'The Vanishing Man' and the remake of 'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'. For those Brits amongst the readership you'll know that what both these series have in common is that the lead roles are played by actors who are really comedians. You'd have thought that producers would have learned their lesson with 'Dalziel and Pascoe' where two comedians had to be replaced by more mainstream actors but no. Neil Morrissey played the 'Vanishing Man' which is a take on the HG Wells 'Invisible Man' story. The series flopped so badly no more episodes are planned. In the scenes shown he is pitting his wits against an evil woman scientist (and she was the only good thing in the series) who seeks the secret of invisibility.

Vanishing Man 1 Vanishing Man 2 Vanishing Man 3 Vanishing Man 4 Vanishing Man 5 Vanishing Man 6 Vanishing Man 7 Vanishing Man 8 Vanishing Man 9 Vanishing Man 10 Vanishing Man 11 Vanishing Man 12

'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)' is an update of the classic 1970's ITC series and stars Reeves and Mortimer, two extremely funny men who are miscast in these roles. I know it is meant to be light hearted and tongue in cheek but any reasonable character actors  could have done a better job (like Kenneth Cope and Mike Pratt did in the original series). Gripes aside the series isn't as bad as 'The Vanishing Man' and did get a second series though its long term future is far from assured. The BIG plus as far as I was concerned was to see Branna (Elena) Brajic again (she was the first villainess in the 'Bugs' TV series), as the leader of a cult of women assassins. Here are some scenes from that particular episode.

R & H 1 R & H 2 R & H 3 R & H 4 R & H 5 R & H 6 R & H 7

Just to prolong the agony for those of you who can't watch or don't like British TV here are a few scenes from a strange one off show called 'Hotel'. Buried away with little publicity you get the impression this is a show the production company isn't too proud of. It is basically a comedy about a terrorist takeover of a country hotel where the US president (Lee Majors no less) is staying. It tries desperately to be like 'Airplane' or  'Naked Gun' where every line is meant to be funny and if it isn't there's another gag coming along in a minute. Unfortunately the scattergun jokes are just a bit too silly to be funny but overall I found it a harmless if rather wasteful way to spend an hour or so. Shown are a few images of the lovely Lysette Anthony who plays the chief terrorist's chief aide who gets a real buzz out of killing people.

Hotel 1 Hotel 2 Hotel 3 Hotel 4 Hotel 5 Hotel 6

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