The Persuaders!

In Italy "The persuaders" was called "Attenti a quei due" (it means something like "Pay attention to that two")and was an incredible success. Lord Brett and Danny Wilde were a perfect mix (Aston Martin for the first, Ferrari for the second!) and everybody was sorry this tv serie was only one year long (as well as UFO, another big score of that period). Is still possible to see some of this adventures in one of the many small italian tv, and everytime it make me happy and at the same time sad because of the lot of time has passed by; if you are young enjoy your time, as you get older world is worse!

Lord Brett Sinclair(Roger Moore) and Daniel Wilde(Tony Curtis) fighting crime all over the U.K. and Europe in the name of justice, with two flashy cars and a pair of eyes for the ladies. In a way, it was a good notion that the Producers decided to pull the plug on this series after just 24 episodes, because it adds to the uniqueness and rarity of it all. In another sense they had no choice but to quit whilst they were ahead, well in the U.K. and Europe anyway, because it was the American market that finally decided it's fate-shame really, but how do you come up against an already established cult like 'Mission Impossible' at it's peak.

'The Persuaders!' is prime-time escapism thanks to the combination of two glittering actors both at the top of their respective fields at the time. But what a strange combination, but the whole thing worked. Every series has it's own stand-out and exceptional episodes and this series was no different. The highly recommended ones come in the form of: 'Overture'(the pilot), 'Angie...Angie', 'The Gold Napoleon', 'Someone Like Me', 'Greensleeves', 'Someone Waiting', 'The Morning After' and 'The Long Goodbye'. We also have other due notable episodes like 'Take Seven' in which we see Tony Curtis deliver one of the best comedic performances of the whole series, set in a barber's shop. Finally who could forget the bronx warrior doing his fancy fight scene stunts in 'The Old, The New and The Deadly'. So, there we have some gems amongst gems in a gem of a series, with a great mixture of action and comedy. Enjoy...

Lord Brett Sinclair and Danny Wilde are drawn together by Judge Fulton to use there wasted talents and use them for the fight against crime. Top notch action and comedy the Persuaders were the oddest of couples that got on very well. Lord Brett Sinclair and aristocratic, suave and stylish with clothes to match was the true English Gent. Danny Wilde a millionaire with wit and a very large wallet. Cars, Girls, Guns and one liners was the best combination of this powerful suspense series hat ran for only 2 years, it is a real shame. No one has ever come close to the partnership of Moore and Curtis. Sinclairs lucky number was 7 and he drove an Austin Martin, a pre-James Bond role which made him an international success. Everyone with a thing for action and suspense must watch this.

I have to admit that Roger Moore is one of my favourite actors. He was brilliant in The Saint and I cannot forget his contribution to the James Bond series. In this show, he excelled again along with Tony Curtis.

Anyone who lived during the era this was made knows what to expect. Fights, women, action, crime etc. Moore as Lord Brett Sinclair and Tony Curtis as Danny Wilde looked like they were having a great time as they had fun with beautiful women and battled the usual stereotypical villains.

Fans of The Saint, The Avengers and similar shows will enjoy this. It's just a shame that this only ran for about 23 episodes.

This is a TV show in which the opening credit sequence was even better than the actual programme. To begin with, John Barry's theme music is still one of the best ever written for a TV show - a few years ago I heard it for the first time in nearly 20 years, and I absolutely stopped in my tracks, it was so evocative. Then the montage, which begins by using images to tell the respective stories of the two main characters - Lord Brett Sinclair with his inherited wealth, his City career, an English sporting gentleman, a Formula One racing driver (long zoom shot of racing cars straight from the Golden Age of Grands Prix); Danny Wilde starting in poverty on the Lower East side in New York, but soon becoming an oil magnate (newspaper shot of a ... *gasp* ... nine MILLION dollar oil deal!). Then the next sequence shows the two of them having a great time in various exotic European locations ... champagne bubbles, jewellery put round exquisite necks, gorgeous cars, water-skiing, power boat racing, beautiful women in bikinis, and a roulette wheel. Everything you need to know about the programme, including the strong friendship between the leads, is to be found in this magnificent one-minute sequence.

The modus operandus of the show was to contrast humorous and witty dialogue with tense situations. Anyway, this was never a show for worrying about what the plot was this week - it was a show for basking in the wonderful locations, the beautiful cars, the witty lines and the sexual banter. (Needless to say, both the main characters were depicted as irresistible to women).

Plots direct from Roger Moore's previous series The Saint, plus James Bond exotic locations and a huge Hollywood star in Tony Curtis, makes this an often overlooked gem. And just like Star Trek, the best episode guest stars Joan Collins!