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The Persuaders! is a British television series, which first aired in 1971 and 1972 in Britain's ITV and on the ABC Network in the United States. The series starred Roger Moore, as Lord Brett Sinclair, and Tony Curtis, as Danny Wilde, both millionaire international playboys, but from very different British and American backgrounds. The premise of The Persuaders television series is in aristocratic Sinclair being forced to team-up with rough-diamond-American Wilde in fighting crime on behalf of a judge (Laurence Naismith), or face jail for a brawl in which they trashed a restaurant. Twenty-four episodes of The Persuaders! were made by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment company, each fifty minutes long and featuring dramatic synthesizer theme music by John Barry.
In some ways, Lord Brett Sinclair was inspired by Roger Moore's earlier performance as Simon Templar in The Saint, and it was first tested in an episode of that earlier series entitled, "The Ex-King of Diamonds". Both roles were similar to James Bond who Moore played for seven Bond films in the seventies and early eighties. Like the James Bond genre, The Persuaders! occurs in a rich, fantasy world of men living high, driving fast cars, and loving beautiful women, often played as much for laughs as for drama. The contrast of personalities of the two main characters (and the rapport of the lead actors) was considered one of the appeals of the series.
The Persuaders! series is known for leading man Tony Curtis's occasional ad-libbing (most notably in-jokes about "Bernie Schwartz", his true name). Curtis commented that ad-libbing was due to the scripts' unrealistic "American" dialogue, which he, as an actor, had to change for the better of the show. At the time, The Persuaders! was the most expensive television series produced, at a cost of £100,000 per episode, with location filming in France, Spain, Sweden and Italy. While it was a huge success in Britain, Europe and Australia, the series made little impact in the US, where it aired opposite Impossible.
The cancellation of the series after only one season came as a surprise to the producers and the stars, however this allowed Moore to assume the role of James Bond, which previous commitments to The Persuaders! and The Saint had prevented him from taking. Three pairs of episodes from the series were later re-edited into three individual TV-movies entitled Mission: Monte Carlo, Sporting Chance and London Conspiracy.
The entire series was remastered for DVD release in Europe in 2001, and North America in 2003.
Remake
A motion picture remake starring Steve Coogan and Ben Stiller is currently in the works.*
Smoking
Roger Moore says he owes his life to Curtis' actions in 'persuading' him to quit smoking. When filming began, Curtis gave Moore a book about quitting, with a picture of a cancerous lung on the back. Moore did indeed give up smoking, and as Curtis commented in March 2006 "That was 35 years ago and we wouldn't be here now if one of us was a smoker." * (However, Moore was seen to still smoke cigars in his 1973 Bond film, Live and Let Die.)
External links
1970s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | ITC Distributions | ITV television programmes | Crime television series
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"The Persuaders!"