Yahoo News 50 years of The Persuaders!
At 8pm on 16 September 1971 viewers of Granada and Anglia were treated to an exciting world of Aston Martins, Ferrari Dinos and terrible cravats. The rest of the ITV network screened the most expensive British television series to date on the following evening.
The Persuaders! was made by the Independent Television Corporation (ITC), the company famed for its “International Men of Mystery” epics. However, while “abroad” for The Saint or The Champions usually meant some fake palm trees in the backlot of the Elstree studios in Hertfordshire, the new series would feature extensive overseas locations. Our heroes were Tony Curtis as Danny Wilde, a US self-made millionaire, and Roger Moore as Lord Brett Sinclair; suave, witty and with an “interesting” wardrobe.
Naturally, such a pair of international playboys required the finest of motor cars. Moore thought Sinclair would drive an Aston Martin, but production issues meant that the factory in Newport Pagnell could not loan the programme a V8. So instead, they rebadged a six-cylinder Bahama Yellow DBS, chassis number DBS/5636/, and fitted it with GKN alloy wheels. The AM was registered PPP 6H on 15 May 1970: the onscreen registration BS 1 was courtesy of the circus owner Billy Smart.
Newport Pagnell provided an engineer named Carl Seager to look after the DBS, and his first task was to drive it from Buckinghamshire to Monaco. Moore also used the car off-screen for such PR events as opening sales conferences. When filming concluded, the Aston Martin had already covered 5,000 miles; after refurbishment, H. R. Owen of London sold it to a private owner. The DBS now lives in happy retirement somewhere in the UK.
As for Wilde, a Cadillac or Lincoln would have been too vulgar and rather too middle-aged. Instead, his car of choice was a 1970 Dino that an Italian motorist loaned to the programme. The 246GT, chassis 00810, was the 405th example to leave the Ferrari factory in Maranello and cost its owner Giovanni Cavedoni 3,750,000 Italian lire. Today, the Dino is believed to remain in Italy.
The international locations resulted in any number of Fiats, Peugeots and Mercedes-Benz on screen, plus footage of The Red ITC Renault Dauphine of Doom. The most intriguing automotive guest star appeared in a British set story. The Morning After episode featured a very early Leyland PR fleet Range Rover in a scene that can only be described as “back-projected magnificence”.
The Persuaders! may have been budgeted at £2. 5 million, but it still retained many ITC tropes; the 24 episodes made between May 1970 and July 1971 often boasted a fiendish villain and an offbeat approach to automotive continuity. There were also bouts of exceptionally bad dancing, while the fight scenes often involved an actor crashing into some balsa wood furniture.
The show was an international success, except for the all-important US market. In 1972 Moore was cast as 007, and although the producers considered using Noel Harrison as his replacement there was never a second series. However, stations across the globe continually repeated The Persuaders! (and still do), allowing future generations to appreciate John Barry’s theme music, the cars and the quite incredible fashions.
Fifty years on, The Persuaders! is a fascinating curio from the twilight of Swinging London. You have the Aston Martin, the Dino, Curtis adlibbing and Moore uttering such lines as “There’s no need to kneel, I’m a very democratic sort of lord” with aplomb. The critic who ranted, “It is a long time since I have seen on British television a more cliché-ridden load of rubbish than this” was being most unfair. And any show that opens with this theme music is an instant classic of the small screen.
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