Martin Limon reflects on the life, times and career of the extraordinary Dame Diana Rigg

She was voted one of sexiest women of the 20th century and was famous for her feisty role in the iconic TV series ‘The Avengers’. Diana Rigg became an international star and every schoolboy’s fantasy figure. But she was always much more than just a pretty face and developed into one of the best actresses in Britain, winning numerous accolades.

And in a notoriously insecure profession, this Yorkshire lass from Doncaster and Leeds has seldom been out of work in a career spanning more than 50 years. She made her first professional appearance in 1957 at the age of 17 in the ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’ at the York Festival and her most recent, at 71 in the Noel Coward play ‘Hay Fever’ last year.

Although Diana Rigg was born in Doncaster in 1938, at the age of only two months she was taken to live in India where her father was the manager of a locomotive works. She lived there until the age of seven and was then sent to boarding school in England, spending her holidays with her grandmother back in Doncaster - a no-nonsense woman who, if she found Diana looking at herself in the mirror, would chastise her with the words ‘vanity, vanity.’

When India became independent in 1947 her parents returned home and settled in Leeds sending their daughter to a girl’s school in Pudsey. Diana’s natural spirit of independence meant that she did not fit in with the school’s ethos. ‘You weren’t allowed to question anything at all,’ she said. ‘They were bent on eradicating any sense of self or sex.’ However, the quality of her voice and her acting talents were recognised by one of her teachers and she appeared in the school play of ‘Goldilocks’.

It was this same teacher who persuaded Diana’s parents to allow her to audition for RADA when she was 16 and even though she admitted that she was not a very good student and preferred going to parties to learning her lines she did qualify as a professionally trained actress before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. For two years she played minor roles but the experience of working with other actors in productions like ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ enabled her to hone her performances. Like many other classically trained actors Diana believes that many in her profession today miss out on the kinds of experience she found so valuable in her own training with the RSC. ‘A lot of actors go straight into television from drama school and don’t get much experience of the stage,’ she said. ‘I think that the stage is much more collaborative than either television or film.’

Unfortunately the pay she received was meagre and so she started moonlighting on television shows to make ends meet. It was her appearance in ‘Armchair Theatre’ in 1964 that got her noticed by the producers of ‘The Avengers’. They were looking for a new female lead to replace Honor Blackman for this popular espionage drama series. Diana Rigg was then 26 and auditioned for the show ‘as a giggle’ along with 80 other young hopefuls. Her screen tests with Patrick Macnee, playing the role of the debonaire John Steed, showed that the two could work well together with nice comic touches in the way they reacted to characters and situations. Her portrayal of the feisty Emma Peel: intelligent, independent-minded, skilled in martial arts and with a love of avant-garde fashion came to symbolise 1960s Britain. When the show was sold to the ABC network in the USA and to another 120 countries she became an international star. Once seen as every schoolboy’s fantasy figure she did however feel uncomfortable with the adulation of her fans and on one occasion had to hide in the toilets at the Motor Show to get away from them. In Germany baton-wielding police had to hold back the crowds during one appearance. Diana left the fan mail for her mother Beryl to deal with who could be relied on to inject a dose of good old-fashioned Yorkshire plain speaking into the replies: ‘My daughter is too old for you. I suggest you take a run around the block.’

Despite the fact that the Avengers had made her both an icon and a nominee for TV awards, and even though the producers agreed to triple her salary, she left the programme after completing 51 episodes (1965-1968). She was later to regret the decision telling Patrick Macnee, a lifelong friend, that she wished that they could have gone on working together for another two years.

Diana then went back to her first love, the theatre. Widely regarded as one of the best actresses on the British stage she was prepared to take on challenging and controversial roles and earned a best actress award for her performances in ‘Abelard and Heloise’ (1972) and ‘The Misanthrope’ (1975). Yet not all reviewers were kind and the critic John Simon greeted her nude scene with Keith Michell in ‘Abelard and Heloise’ with derision. This inspired her to write her own book on the worst theatre reviews in history called ‘No Turn Unstoned’ published in 1982.

Diana was now a sought-after actress for major movie roles too. She was particularly busy in 1969 appearing in four films including the movie version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, the ‘Assassination Bureau’ with Oliver Reed and alongside George Lazenby in his first and only outing as James Bond. Playing the part of Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, a spoilt but troubled young woman, she briefly became Bond’s wife in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’.’ However, her time as the ‘action hero’ in the Avengers had left its mark and she told reporters that this sort of James Bond role would henceforth be a rare occurrence.

Diana Rigg made numerous appearances on television in the 1970s and 1980s in major dramas like the Yorkshire Television production of ‘Hedda Gabler’ (1981) and in the BBC’s adapatation of the Charles Dickens novel ‘Bleak House’ (1985). She was also seen in chat shows like those of Russell Harty and fellow Yorkshire star Michael Parkinson. Asked if success had changed her Diane said: ‘The qualities that existed in me as a Yorkshire girl are still there. The main one is a sense of reality for although you are a success there’s that Yorkshire voice in the back of your mind saying you have to keep working at it.’

In fact, Diana kept on ‘working at it’ throughout the 1990s and earned numerous accolades for her stage performances in ‘Medea’ (1992-1994), ‘Mother Courage’ (1995) and ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf’ (1996). For her role as a vengeful wife in ‘Medea’ she won a London Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Tony Award for best actress. Diana’s contribution to the British theatre was further recognised by the award of a CBE in 1988 and in 1994 she became a ‘Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire’, the female equivalent of a knighthood. Her wisdom and acting skills were also recognised in the academic world too for in 1999 she became the Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University and she has also been awarded honorary degrees by Stirling University and Leeds University.

Speaking to Paul O’Grady in 2008, Dame Diana showed that even at 70 she still has a wonderful down-to-earth sense of humour, a zest for life and admitted that she still got nervous on the first night of a new stage production. However, like many stars with acting ‘in their blood’ she has no plans to retire. As she told Michael Parkinson: ‘Growing old is something you have to come to terms with: you have to be philosophical about it, laugh about it and enjoy it. You should not consider retiring: you should keep on trucking until you fall off the twig.’