The Persuaders! Appreciation Thread, Any fans here of this cult show. Options

[Mharkin]

I love it, I really want to DVD collection, but I have promised myself to wait untill it comes down in price.

I haven't seen any episodes for a long time but just listening to the theme reminds me of how brilliant it was.

[jaguar007]

love it!

[Brian Flagg]

I've said this before, nearly word for word, but it's high time we had a new Persuaders thread!

I have to say that there's something about this show that fascinates me. I'm a big Tony Curtis fan, and I adore Roger Moore, of course, so it was VERY surprising to stumble upon this post-Saint/ pre-Bond show nine years ago. "A Home of One's Own" was the first episode I ever saw. Love the wonderfully witty banter between the two principals, the fashions(!) and the "big-budget" locations. I didn’t even know it existed until 1998, when I caught an episode (“A Home of One’s Own”) on one of the cable networks (“encore” or “Starz!”) that had a rotating theme for each day of the week, that day was mystery, IIRC.

I was born in 1971, so to see--at least thru a TV show-- how the world looked back then makes me think of the early 1970s as not quite the 1960s and not yet the seventies I remember as a little kid (Disco, Aaron Spelling shows). The early 1970s seems to be a blend of both. The Persuaders appears to me to be the bridge between the 1960s "Spy Craze" and the 1970s urban detective shows that dominated the decade. It’s interesting to see a show that took place in Roger’s post-Saint, pre-Bond career. It’s such a brief moment in history. Plus, it opened up the early 1970s for me. Regardless, watching The Persuaders is always a lot of fun.

I have to say that the show's "dated" look is part of what draws me into it in the first place. That whole "Edwardian" fashion that Roger sports as Lord Brett Sinclair as well as the safari suits, scarves as necktie, enormous belt buckles, the “chicks” with miniskirts, middle-aged men with mutton-chop sideburns, all this goes a long way with me. It doesn't explain the madness of that era, but it sure fascinates me...

What really struck me about The Persuaders was its time period. It took place in Roger’s post-Saint, pre-Bond career and it opened up the early 1970s for me.

It’s too bad the show didn’t last longer, but then maybe its appeal lies in the fact that it was just a brief moment in TV history. I’ve always wanted to write some fan fiction chronicling Lord Sinclair’s and Danny Wilde’s continuing adventures. Apparently I’m the only one, as I’ve been unable to find any such fanfic on the web.

[Mharkin]

It’s too bad the show didn’t last longer...

I'm a little torn with this myself. I would have loved to see another series, but if it did happen, then we wouldn't of had Moore as Bond.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

Lovely series, though I prefer The Saint best.

[pgram]

As much as I love sir Roger as Bond, and as much as everyone thinks he was the ultimate Saint, I still think he was never as comfortable as being Lord Sinclair. The whole attitude, atmosphere, light-heartedness of the series was very much RogerMoorish. And you could see Bond's approach to Leiter in LALD is not very dissimilar to Sinclair's attitude towards Wilde...

I loved it.

[HildebrandRarity]

I remember watching repeats as a kid and really liking the theme tune.

I believe Roger Moore owned part of The Persuaders and also modeled his own clothing line on the show.

Also, the show was more popular in Germany than the US from what i've heard over the years.

[MkB]

As much as I love sir Roger as Bond, and as much as everyone thinks he was the ultimate Saint, I still think he was never as comfortable as being Lord Sinclair. The whole attitude, atmosphere, light-heartedness of the series was very much RogerMoorish. And you could see Bond's approach to Leiter in LALD is not very dissimilar to Sinclair's attitude towards Wilde...

I loved it.

I couldn't sum it up better. I watched repeats of both The Saint and The Persuaders! as a kid, but the latter struck me more (I believe it was because of the John Barry theme, too).

[Brian Flagg]

I believe Roger Moore owned part of The Persuaders and also modeled his own clothing line on the show.

Total Look of Debenhams was the name. Apparently, Roger worked with them on it, though I don't know if he made any significant money from it.

[Trident]

I remember watching repeats as a kid and really liking the theme tune.

I believe Roger Moore owned part of The Persuaders and also modeled his own clothing line on the show.

Also, the show was more popular in Germany than the US from what i've heard over the years.

It was vast in Germany! Truly, the big thing. Much like in Great Britain, back in those days we only had three channels of public service broadcasting, one of them only starting to operate at 07.00 pm with an uninteresting program not many people watched. The lions share of the ratings got the two bigger channels. And next to everybody was watching 'The Persuaders'.

Moore was already popular with 'Ivanhoe' and, particularly, 'The Saint'. Audiences loved his style and savoir vivre. Plus, the series aired in Germany at a time when Moore was just announced as new Bond. So it was 'the Bond tv series' for some lesser researched press articles.

Tony Curtis also was a major star over here, most of his films very successful at the box office, his short marriage with Christine Kaufmann an item for the yellow press.

So 'The Persuaders' was eagerly awaited here and a smashing success.

Alas, this was for the most part due to the spoof dubbing of the series, conceived and realized by Curtis' German voice Rainer Brandt. Brandt completely dropped the original lines of the script and heavily extended the banter, quips, one-liners and tongue-in-cheek irony. For this purpose he developed an entirely new streetslang, a mixture of slapstick, tough-speak, Yiddisch, Berliner accent and several other ingredients as well as breaking the fourth wall in the lines of both leading roles and sometimes even minor characters. Remarks about the series itself like 'Junge, lass doch die Sprueche, die setzen ja die naechste Folge ab!' ('Stop those jokes, or they'll cancel the series!') and its actors (Curtis on one occassion answering the phone with his real name 'Schwartz') were frequently used. Even Moore's character 'Sinclair' is a few times referred to as 'playing Bond once more' or similar lines.

This radical dubbing would seem in fact to have been the key factor for 'The Persuaders' success in Germany. The day after the show was aired you could hear the lines of the spoof dubbing all across the country, in tubes and busses, on every schoolyard and playground. And off course in the reviews of the newspapers, which for some reason were quite fond of the unconventional approach.

From what I gather this dubbing custom was also used by several other European countries with success. Namely the French version was a translation of the German script, I'm told.

[Righty007]

Brilliant show. I hope they remake it soon!

[Trident]

Brilliant show. I hope they remake it soon!

Not sure about a remake.

It would have to be very good for me to lure me into watching it. And perhaps even then I'd prefer the original...

[Safari Suit]

I can't see a Persuaders remake being any good. It was a fabulous show, but very of its time, and even watching it now a large amount of the show's appeal is in its period styling.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

I don't know where I heard that they were thinking of a remake with...

Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller !

[Brian Flagg]

I can't see a Persuaders remake being any good. It was a fabulous show, but very of its time, and even watching it now a large amount of the show's appeal is in its period styling.

Exactly. The "dated" quality is part of what I like about it. Pop culture wasn't so cynical, "ironic", and self-conscious back then, and that's refreshing to see. It's also a major reason why my interest in pop culture wanes considerably after, say, 1988.

The book Saints and Avengers by James Chapman has a great chapter on the show and it's largely right on target. The book is expensive, but is available in preview form on Google Reader.

[Righty007]

I don't know where I heard that they were thinking of a remake with...

Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller !

Owen Wilson was never rumoured. We've only heard Stiller + Coogan and Clooney + Grant. Either pairing would be great, IMO.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

I'd prefer Clooney+Grant. No doubt.

[Safari Suit]

I can't see a Persuaders remake being any good. It was a fabulous show, but very of its time, and even watching it now a large amount of the show's appeal is in its period styling.

Exactly. The "dated" quality is part of what I like about it. Pop culture wasn't so cynical, "ironic", and self-conscious back then, and that's refreshing to see. It's also a major reason why my interest in pop culture wanes considerably after, say, 1988.

Heh, I feel much the same, and I was born in 86! On a good day my pop culture interests might stretch to around 1997. That's not to say there haven't been many films, albums, TV shows and so forth made in the last ten years I've loved, but I feel it's been a lackluster decade on the whole. Here's hoping the next one is better!

The book Saints and Avengers by James Chapman has a great chapter on the show and it's largely right on target. The book is expensive, but is available in preview form on Google Reader.

Great book , they have it in my Uni library.

I don't know where I heard that they were thinking of a remake with...

Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller !

Owen Wilson was never rumoured. We've only heard Stiller + Coogan and Clooney + Grant. Either pairing would be great, IMO.

If they have to make it Clooney and Grant would be great casting. Stiller and Coogan... no. Just no. And I like both of them.

[David_M]

I really doubt a remake would work. If you think about it, there is nothing particularly "high concept" about "The Persuaders."

"Two guys with conflicting personalities have to solve crimes together" was already a TV cliche in 1971. And in this case it's "Two very rich playboy boozehounds with an eye for the ladies and fancy sportscars...but trust us, they're very different." At least with "Switch," which aired in the same era, you had an ex-cop teamed with an ex-con. Danny and Brett, aside from one having been born rich and the other being self-made, aren't really poles apart.

The whole appeal of the show, then, comes down to the actors themselves, and Moore and Curtis were dynamite together. (Good thing, too, as most of the stories were too weak to stand on their own). Expecting two other guys to duplicate that on demand is nuts. You can't engineer a thing like that.

Now of course the show has the added appeal of all those retro fashions, cars and hairstyles (and Brett dancing "the Chicken!"), but the only way to keep all that now would be to do a straight-up comedy ala "Starsky and Hutch" or the new "Brady Bunch" movies, where the principals continue to dress like it's the 70s even 30 years later.

I really think that possibly more than any other show I've ever seen, "The Persuaders" derives the lion's share of its appeal from its "time capsule" properties. Enough so to make me wonder if I'd even have liked it had I been old enough to watch it in 1971, when all I had to do to see guys in bell bottoms and mutton chops was to walk out my front door.

[Brian Flagg]

I've given this more thought than should ever be admitted, but I'm pretty sure that if I were in my 30s back then--around 1969-73--that I'd be wearing those "neo-Edwardian" fashions, like ascots, white belts, safari jackets, ruffled shirts etc. like some kind of incandescent Roger Moore...and with a completely straight face!

[ms minniespinney]

It’s too bad the show didn’t last longer, but then maybe its appeal lies in the fact that it was just a brief moment in TV history. I’ve always wanted to write some fan fiction chronicling Lord Sinclair’s and Danny Wilde’s continuing adventures. Apparently I’m the only one, as I’ve been unable to find any such fanfic on the web.

I wholeheartedly agree, I was a big fan of Tony Curtis at the time but the dynamic between the two HUGE stars really made the show for me - I loved it - and still do. It has been re-run on freeview here in the UK recently and very nostaligic watching. I wouldn't say I am a fanatic though, I mean I won't be buying the dvd's.

[ACE]

While we wait for the remake, reboot, reshoots, I found this to be very entertaining and enlightening. Watch Tony Curtis' face after a spectacularly inappropriate remark from Roger...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLQdQhJwJvc

[Zorin Industries]

I've given this more thought than should ever be admitted, but I'm pretty sure that if I were in my 30s back then--around 1969-73--that I'd be wearing those "neo-Edwardian" fashions, like ascots, white belts, safari jackets, ruffled shirts etc. like some kind of incandescent Roger Moore...and with a completely straight face!

Me too. In fact when we have the darker nights I tend to pop out in my Roger / Tony look circa 1972 every other Friday...!

[Brian Flagg]

I've given this more thought than should ever be admitted, but I'm pretty sure that if I were in my 30s back then--around 1969-73--that I'd be wearing those "neo-Edwardian" fashions, like ascots, white belts, safari jackets, ruffled shirts etc. like some kind of incandescent Roger Moore...and with a completely straight face!

Me too. In fact when we have the darker nights I tend to pop out in my Roger / Tony look circa 1972 every other Friday...!

Ahh, it's always a pleasure to meet a fellow gentleman of distinction!

I may have worn those clothes and I may have gone into those early-1970s discotheques, but even I'm not so rhythmically impaired as to attempt a spot-on impersonation of Rog's version of "The Chicken"! Oof!

This post has been edited by Brian Flagg: 28 February 2009 - 20:41

[Hitch]

I've said this before, nearly word for word, but it's high time we had a new Persuaders thread!

I have to say that there's something about this show that fascinates me. I'm a big Tony Curtis fan, and I adore Roger Moore, of course, so it was VERY surprising to stumble upon this post-Saint/ pre-Bond show nine years ago. "A Home of One's Own" was the first episode I ever saw. Love the wonderfully witty banter between the two principals, the fashions(!) and the "big-budget" locations. I didn’t even know it existed until 1998, when I caught an episode (“A Home of One’s Own”) on one of the cable networks (“encore” or “Starz!”) that had a rotating theme for each day of the week, that day was mystery, IIRC.

I was born in 1971, so to see--at least thru a TV show-- how the world looked back then makes me think of the early 1970s as not quite the 1960s and not yet the seventies I remember as a little kid (Disco, Aaron Spelling shows). The early 1970s seems to be a blend of both. The Persuaders appears to me to be the bridge between the 1960s "Spy Craze" and the 1970s urban detective shows that dominated the decade. It’s interesting to see a show that took place in Roger’s post-Saint, pre-Bond career. It’s such a brief moment in history. Plus, it opened up the early 1970s for me. Regardless, watching The Persuaders is always a lot of fun.

I have to say that the show's "dated" look is part of what draws me into it in the first place. That whole "Edwardian" fashion that Roger sports as Lord Brett Sinclair as well as the safari suits, scarves as necktie, enormous belt buckles, the “chicks” with miniskirts, middle-aged men with mutton-chop sideburns, all this goes a long way with me. It doesn't explain the madness of that era, but it sure fascinates me...

What really struck me about The Persuaders was its time period. It took place in Roger’s post-Saint, pre-Bond career and it opened up the early 1970s for me.

It’s too bad the show didn’t last longer, but then maybe its appeal lies in the fact that it was just a brief moment in TV history. I’ve always wanted to write some fan fiction chronicling Lord Sinclair’s and Danny Wilde’s continuing adventures. Apparently I’m the only one, as I’ve been unable to find any such fanfic on the web.

If you like spy/thriller stuff from that unbelievable period in the early '70s when everyone seemed to throw all notions of sartorial taste out of the window, if you like cheap British television series, "middle-aged men with mutton-chop sideburns", pink and orange furnishings, wobbly sets, dolly birds galore, distinctly unconvincing location work, laughable fistfights and one of the world's great patrician drawls - nothing, but nothing, beats the sheer neo-Edwardian elegance of the campest/greatest spy of them all:

Jason King.

Unfortunately, that's just a Wikipedia link. I dare say an investment in a Jason King box set will provide hours of retro pleasure - some of which will be open-mouthed astonishment at King's dress sense and some will be belly-clutching laughter at the sheer unlikelihood of it all. Objectively, it's mostly terrible TV but the aforementioned qualities and the odd witty line and structural conceit make it a treat. Most importantly of all, it's good-natured - everyone involved seemed to have a good time chewing the scenery. It's cheap and cheerful television with a pipe-smoking, Mexican facial-hair brandishing, three-piece-suit wearing, screamingly heterosexual ladies' man as our hero. What's not to love?

It's Moore & Curtis on half the budget and twice the fabric.

[AgentBentley]

I fondly remember The Persuaders as well, though I don't know if I would still enjoy watching it now.
And the title theme is one of my classic favorites, up there with the James Bond theme, Mission: Impossible, The Saint.

More than a year ago, I read something about producer Ashok Amritraj preparing a remake or rather a movie version, but I haven't heard anything since. Certainly, Clooney is a dream for this type of role.

[Blofelds Cat]

So 'The Persuaders' was eagerly awaited here and a smashing success.

Alas, this was for the most part due to the spoof dubbing of the series, conceived and realized by Curtis' German voice Rainer Brandt. Brandt completely dropped the original lines of the script and heavily extended the banter, quips, one-liners and tongue-in-cheek irony. For this purpose he developed an entirely new streetslang, a mixture of slapstick, tough-speak, Yiddisch, Berliner accent and several other ingredients as well as breaking the fourth wall in the lines of both leading roles and sometimes even minor characters. Remarks about the series itself like 'Junge, lass doch die Sprueche, die setzen ja die naechste Folge ab!' ('Stop those jokes, or they'll cancel the series!') and its actors (Curtis on one occassion answering the phone with his real name 'Schwartz') were frequently used. Even Moore's character 'Sinclair' is a few times referred to as 'playing Bond once more' or similar lines.

May at first sound like an idiotic question but does the German DVD release of Die Zwei have English subtitles of the 'interfered with' German dialogue?

[Trident]

So 'The Persuaders' was eagerly awaited here and a smashing success.

Alas, this was for the most part due to the spoof dubbing of the series, conceived and realized by Curtis' German voice Rainer Brandt. Brandt completely dropped the original lines of the script and heavily extended the banter, quips, one-liners and tongue-in-cheek irony. For this purpose he developed an entirely new streetslang, a mixture of slapstick, tough-speak, Yiddisch, Berliner accent and several other ingredients as well as breaking the fourth wall in the lines of both leading roles and sometimes even minor characters. Remarks about the series itself like 'Junge, lass doch die Sprueche, die setzen ja die naechste Folge ab!' ('Stop those jokes, or they'll cancel the series!') and its actors (Curtis on one occassion answering the phone with his real name 'Schwartz') were frequently used. Even Moore's character 'Sinclair' is a few times referred to as 'playing Bond once more' or similar lines.

May at first sound like an idiotic question but does the German DVD release of Die Zwei have English subtitles of the 'interfered with' German dialogue?

No, unfortunately not. The German DVDs don't feature any subtitles. It was luck they included the original English dialogue at all for the publishers knew hardly anybody would want to see this series undubbed. It's a cult thing and this is often what publishers take advantage of when bringing such series on the market. The extras are then generally nothing to write home about...

Perhaps there's better luck with a French DVD of 'The Persuaders'? I was told they dubbed with a translation from the German script rather than using the original. Maybe they included English subtitles of this 'pimped' dialogue on their version?

[scaramunga]

It’s too bad the show didn’t last longer, but then maybe its appeal lies in the fact that it was just a brief moment in TV history. I’ve always wanted to write some fan fiction chronicling Lord Sinclair’s and Danny Wilde’s continuing adventures. Apparently I’m the only one, as I’ve been unable to find any such fanfic on the web.

I wholeheartedly agree, I was a big fan of Tony Curtis at the time but the dynamic between the two HUGE stars really made the show for me - I loved it - and still do. It has been re-run on freeview here in the UK recently and very nostaligic watching. I wouldn't say I am a fanatic though, I mean I won't be buying the dvd's.

They released the series here in the US on DVD by A&E Home Video several years ago. I bought the sets but had only seen the film (2 episodes together) Mission: Monte Carlo. I actually really enjoyed the series a ton. Moore and Curtis are great in the series and work very well together. Very lighthearted fun.

I heard about The Network set from the UK later on. By this point I had picked up an Oppo region free DVD player that could handle PAL DVD's. I had already picked up the UK Network Saint sets and thought those were very well done. I ended up getting the network Persuaders! set as well. Highly recommended. I probably watch The Persuaders more than I actually do The Saint!!

Great show.

[Brian Flagg]

If I ever plunk down for the Network set, it would only be for the bonus features. However, with Network releasing seemingly every ITC show's original soundtracks*, perhaps we Persuaders fans will get that great Ken Thorne underscore on CD, not to mention John Barry's amazing theme.



*Jason King is Network's latest CD release. Never saw the show, but the theme by Laurie Johnson sounds like British game show music, IMO.