My, ahem, connections to James Bond and Emma Peel

 

Yes, I agree with seemingly everybody, Sean Connery, who sadly died at 90 last week, was not only the original but the definitive Bond. His masculinity, fortitude, uprightness and suave demeanor not only set the tone for the Bond series over future decades but burned into our minds the image of the real James Bond, a kind of psychological outline that dwelled within whatever actor – and many were extremely good – who played Bond in the years to come. As I started writing this, I mistakenly used the name James Bond as if Bond himself had died – that’s how important Connery’s persona as Bond was. With Connery’s death we have now lost two of the greatest actors of the post war generation – Connery and Diana Rigg, also a famed Brit of film and stage, who died at 82 in September. Rigg as Emma Peel was perhaps the modern era’s best role model of an independent, intelligent – and witty - and formidable female, who also as it happened starred in a spy drama series, this being The Avengers (1961-69). But, like Connery, she transcended that role to become a seminal actress for the ages (and to modern audiences perhaps best known as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones). My personal connections to both? Well, not much. But several years ago, I was on a road trip through the Swiss Alps. Our car was climbing the famed Furka Pass when I saw a small sign stating “James Bond Str” (Strasse or Street). James Bond? Yes, perhaps the most famous scene of Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton 1964) takes place on a few of several of the pass’s very elongated switchbacks where Tilly (Tania Mallet) tries shooting down at Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) but almost hits Bond on the switchback in between. Our car climbed that section only to blow a hose near the top and we were stranded opposite the Hotel Belvédère, a 19^th century classic hotel and now

presumably permanently closed. (We were eventually rescued by the Swiss equivalent of AAA.)  As for Peel, last month I was in Montreal and doing one of my favorite walks, down the stairs from another belvedere, this one looking over downtown Montreal from the top of Mount Royal. The stairway takes you down the mountain’s south side and into the streets of downtown, onto Peel Street to be exact. Ever since a kid growing up in Montreal at the time of The Avengers – one of my favorite TV shows and Emma Peel a definitive heartthrob – I associated Peel Street with Emma Peel. And, descending into the Montreal métro (subway), the Peel metro station embodies to my mind the pop art so indicative of the mid-to-late, aka Swinging Sixties. The station has large multicolored mosaic circles designed by artist Jean-Paul Mousseau and bold solid colored illuminated circles embedded in walls along the waiting platform. With this pop art, if you will, the Peel station, and Emma Peel, were all merged in a young fan’s mind.