The Avengers Dossier, Page Seventeen

Here's a look at one of the many talented guest-stars who appeared in episodes of "The Avengers".

LIZ FRASER

In "The Girl From Auntie", Liz Fraser is Georgie Price-Jones, an actress hired by a shadowy organization to pretend to be Mrs. Peel. 

Born in 1930, Liz Fraser began her acting career as part of a touring theatre company in the early 1950s. In 1955, she was part of history when she appeared in commercial television's first live play, "The Geranium" on ITV. From that point forward, most of her work-life was split between the television screen and the big screen.

Fraser's early career was spent mostly playing blondes busty blondes with low IQs. She is best remembered for her roles in the entries in the "Carry On...", "Adventures of..." and "Confessions of..." comedy film series during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1970, she was also regularly spotted as one of the sexy ladies who would either chase, or be chased by, the star of "The Benny Hill Show."

As the 1970s drew to a close, Fraser made a hard push to leave the ditzy blonde she had been typecast as behind, and, her skills as a dramatic actress finally came to be appreciated. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, she balanced dramatic character roles with comedic parts, primarily on television but also increasingly on stage.

By the early 1990s, investments in stocks and rental properties had led to Fraser being financially comfortable to the point where she became very selective in the roles she accepted, and by 2000, she had all but retired from acting and public life. She continued to act, however, with her final role being in an episode of the long-running police procedural television series "Midsomer Murders".

Fraser passed away in 2018 at the age of 88.

The Avengers: The Girl from Auntie

The Girl from Auntie (1966)
Starring: Patrick Macnee, Liz Fraser, Diana Rigg, Mary Merrall, Alfred Burke, Yolande Turner, Ray Martine, and Bernard Cribbens
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Government "trouble-shooter" John Steed (Macnee) returns from vacation to find a strange woman (Fraser) has assumed the identity of his partner, Mrs. Peel (Rigg). When assassins start popping up, intent on getting rid of the imposter, Steed finds himself working just as hard at keeping her from harm, as he is at finding out what has happened to his partner and friend.

"The Girl From Auntie" is a really fun episode that strikes a balance between suspense and silliness with such skill that it's difficult to be sure who is and isn't involved with the villains until late in the episode. Even Steed has a more difficult time than average unraveling what's going on, due in no small part to the fact that an assassin who racks up an impressive body count during the episode appears to be a harmless little old lady.

The main mystery of the episode revolves around Gregorie Auntie, the owner of a brokerage house that promises it can secure any object the client wants--be it antiquities, modern art, rare collectables... or even people (although that last one is only known to a very select clientele). It's established early on that this organization that has abducted Emma Peel, and the action revolves around Steed trying to find and rescue her before she's sold off to a foreign power for the state secrets she knows, so I'm not breaking my "no spoilers" rule by mentioning it. Alfred Burke, as Auntie, and Yolonde Turner as his femme fatale sidekick are perfect as the operators of this mysterious business, being equally adept at playing silly or sinister as the moment of the story calls for--almost like personifications of what makes this episode work so well. (If fact, these characters are so much fun that they are added to the list of ones I wish could have come back for additional appearances.)

Speaking of things are the equal parts serious and silly, Diana Rigg's Emma Peel character spends most of this episode in a giant birdcage, dressed in a skin-tight, feather-festooned outfit, awaiting the auction that will decide her future. Watching this episode in 2021, I suspect there's less of a sense of danger surrounding Emma Peel's situation--there are many more episodes featuring her to come--but in 1965, it might have seemed to viewers that Peel was on her way out: Steed had never had the same partner for a sequential stretch of episodes as long the ones so far in Season Four. (I don't know if they were testing the waters with Liz Fraser or not.. her character certainly feels like she could be a replacement for Rigg's Emma Peel, especially with her strangely calm reactions to the dead bodies that keep dropping around her, but ultimately she's just one of the many quirky characters that come and go through the series. The actual reason for Rigg's light involvement in this episode and script is probably tied to scheduling realties; there's an episode coming up where she's at the center of the action for the vast majority of it.)

This is another excellent episode that's swiftly paced, features a strong script, and is a lot of fun. Even minor supporting characters--one of which even have names, like the cab driver who ferries Steed around for a good part of the episode--gets some very funny bits.