DYNAMIC DUOS PART 14: WE'RE NEEDED, MRS PEEL. Murderers, cutthroats and spies beware! Her Majesty's government has John Steed and Emma Peel! You don't stand a ghost of a chance. From Soviet double agents to mechanical men, The Avengers would fell them all with a brolly and a karate chop. While many partners aided the oh-so-British Steed over the years, it's unanimous that the best teaming was Diana Rigg with Patrick Macnee. Their on-screen chemistry and playfulness is legendary. While Macnee remains whimsically nonchalant like a British Dean Martin, Rigg combines extreme femininity with kickass physicality; she can be supremely lady-like while she's mopping the floor with you! The character name "Emma Peel" is famously derived from the main object of the show's producers: to provide a partner for Steed who would have tremendous man appeal -- shortened to "M-Appeal". Thus one of greatest TV characters was born. Of course, this character would have meant nothing without Dame Diana Rigg bringing her to vivid, intriguing life. And what intrigue! The infamous Hellfire Club episode where Emma is dressed in a leather cat suit with a studded collar is the stuff of legend -- and made every straight adolescent male fall so deeply in love with Emma Peel that we've all yet to recover. Unbelievably, the 26-year old Diana Rigg didn't think she was right for the part (Heaven Forbid!) and only auditioned for "a giggle". All us impressionable young boys are certainly glad she did! One now grown-up fella was quoted in "New York Newsday" with the following opinion of Mrs. Peel: "Give a man a pudding and Diana Rigg during the lunch hour and experience shows he will be a thing of slobbering contentment from start to finish." England never swung so much as when John Steed arrived at Emma Peel's doorstep and stated: "Mrs. Peel, we're needed."