Persuaders

By Champagne Meadow

Well one can't imagine an equivalent TV event these days. Roger Moore, fresh from his international success as 'The Saint' and Tony Curtis (still a big Hollywood star) shared top billing in this comedy/action/adventure series. Wittily written, but ultimately funny because of it's stars' on-screen chemistry, it ran for one series of 24 episodes.

Following the adventures of two millionaire playboys - one English Lord Brett Sinclair (Moore) and an American Wall Street self-made man , Danny Wilde (Curtis), who are recruited by a judge (Laurence Nesmith) to get involved in cases where the law cannot get directly involved, the series followed their exploits across Europe and Britain. Great to see a lot of early Super70s London locations.

As with Moore's previous series, a mixture of real on-location settings and dodgy (though not for it's time) British film studio back-lots, and many of the scripts and directors similarly connected to 'The Saint'.

There have long been rumors that Curtis proved to be an awkward customer on set, but watching his on-screen performance is a joy - he puts in an extraordinary amount of his own stunt-work and keeping a straight face (sort of) throughout.

The fashions of course (Moore designed his own clothes) are classic early Super70s, Curtis keep his leather gloves on at all times - echoes of Steptoe there, and one could drool over the cars - Aston Martin for Moore, Ferrari for Curtis.

A number of famous or pre-famous supporting actors are on hand throughout the series, including Moore's future on-screen boss, Bernard Lee ('M') and believe it or not, Lionel Blair and Peter Sallis (Voice of 'Wallace' in 'Wallace and Gromit' and Clegg from 'Last of the Summer Wine').

Best of all, Moore and Curtis get into drag for an episode 'A Death in the Family' which is like a Super70s version of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'.

Shame there was only one series, but Moore was soon to take on the role of Bond and shoot into superstardom for the next decade.

Thankfully, the entire 24 episode series is now available on DVD: Set 1, set 2. Roger Moore fans may also be pleased to learn that the entire The Saint series is also now available.

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The Persuaders had one of the best, most engaging theme songs in all of TV history IMHO; almost spine-tingling. It wonderfully established an ambiance of intrigue and glamour to start each episode. --Lair

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