A Tribute to The Persuaders

(Brett and Danny in the middle of a caper)

The Persuaders is my favourite show, even ranking above early Hollyoaks and Buffy.

For those of you that don't know, The Persuaders was a 70's series that revolved around two millionaire buddies; Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis), and Lord Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore). They zipped around London, Monaco, Paris, Rome etc. in brightly coloured sports cars solving crimes on behalf of Queen and Country (well, Brett's country anyway) and making wise cracks. Despite their international remit you always knew what city they were in, even though the hotels and locations often looked surprisingly similar, because the city name hovers uncertainly below the opening scene in that charming way of 1970's graphics.

Why they are solving crimes is never certain. There is an old man who used to be a Judge who tells them what to do, sometimes. Sometimes he isn't there. It's a miracle they ever get anything done though, because these two are such different characters. For one thing, Brett is an English aristocrat and Danny is a brought-up-on-the-mean-streets of Brooklyn American! Gosh - I smell trouble! 
If you weren't totally sure on how different they were, the opening credits clear it up for you:

There's Danny Wilde as a child playing in a Brooklyn slum, there's Brett Sinclair wearing a ridiculous Eton uniform, oh look now Danny is a sailor, Brett's in a racing car, Danny is counting piles of money with an oil rig in the background, Brett is doing Lordly things. Oh yeah, now I get it!

("Do you get it Danny?")

Despite the pair being a trifle old, they still bounce off car bonnets on a regular basis, disarm Russian baddies with guns and jump out of windows without breaking a sweat. And they get all the young ladies, which is in no small part down to their dapper dressing and innovative use of cravats. Roger Moore actually designed his own wardrobe, don't you know. It's no surprise that it was his performance in this show that got him the job as James Bond.

These two playboys solve the plots through good old fashioned thumping, and overhearing all the plot details as told by a shadowy evil figure to a predictably moustachioed henchman. They drink all the time and then end each episode by dancing with a pair of girls in a groovy nightclub. They are amazing.

All London business is conducted out of Brett's mint green and duck egg blue apartments, which are the model for my dream flat. Everything that can be gilded, is. Everything that can be wedgewood, is. Everything else is shag pile or tassled. Basically, they are very on trend right now:

The women are nearly as superbly attired as Brett and Danny, the episode with Joan Collins in what I *hope* was a terrible wig, being one of note. Otherwise they all look pretty much like this:

(Note the on trend lavender jumpsuit!)

And they want to sleep with either Danny or Brett. They don't mind which.

I used to watch this with my mum when I was little, and a couple of years ago I bought all the episodes in a box set. Last year I was watching a couple of hours of it a night and researching it on wikipedia afterwards. Apparently Tony Curtis was really rude to everyone on set and Joan Collins didn't like him. This upset me somewhat at the time, but now I think it adds a little frisson to the repartee between him and Roger Moore, knowing that they actually found each other highly irritating.

Key Persuaders Facts:

It had the biggest location budget of any TV series, ever. Probably. Either way they spent millions on going abroad to real locations. This makes it harder to explain why they always stay in identical hotels.

Roger Moore was a producer, sometime director, and fabulous costume designer on the show

Duck egg blue features strongly in the majority of scenes

Most plots involve an identical double of someone, or Brett being hypnotised

Most plots involve gold bullion

The actor who is playing a Russian baddie will choose when and where he wants to do his terrible Russian accent, thank you very much

Brett likes to wear gold medallions

Roger Moore and Tony Curtis performed their own stunts

At some point they will be locked in a cellar. This cellar will be always be full of the same props that allow them to escape

What I have termed 'day-night' is a reoccuring technique whereby the scene is shot in sunny daylight, then a filter is added over the top to make it look like nighttime. This comes out...interesting

The Persuaders is brilliant and a visual delight. Not in an ironic way, in a genuinely good fun way.