Purdey (The New Avengers)


Purdey is a fictional character in the British TV series The New Avengers played by Joanna Lumley from 1976–77. She was a spy working for British intelligence, partnered with John Steed and Mike Gambit.
When Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell first mapped out the characters for The New Avengers - an updating of The Avengers - the female lead character was to have been named Charlie, but the decision was made not to use the name. Lumley is credited with suggesting the character be named Purdey, after James Purdey and Sons, a famous shotgun manufacturer. Lumley also chose the character's distinctive short haircut.
Purdey is a martial arts expert and an expert markswoman, who is often called upon to use her feminine attributes to distract villains. Purdey saw Steed as an attractive, yet fatherly figure, and there was also ongoing banter and playful flirting between Purdey and Mike Gambit.
During the two-year run of the series, no other name was ever given to the character and it was never revealed on screen whether Purdey was the character's first or last name.

Reception

In the British Film Institute's 1996 tribute book, The Avengers, Toby Miller writes: "The New Avengers made a very public and lengthy search for a leading woman. Joan Bakewell likened the eventual choice, Lumley as Purdey, to 'a hockey captain attending a royal garden party'. Richard Afton went far enough to remark that 'sex has taken a long holiday', and Lumley looked back on it from the queer/libertarian-feminist credibility of Absolutely Fabulous to describe her Purdey as 'a huge disappointment, sex-wise'."
Writing of Purdey's debut, Alan Hayes in Avenger World: The Avengers in Our Lives says, "Purdey was certainly no Emma Peel, and her sharp tongue and habit of intentionally making life difficult for Gambit flew in the face of the warm mutual respect between Steed and Peel, so I found that she grated somewhat."