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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Patrick Macnee, The Avengers and a lament for a lost Britain



My new piece for RT.com OpEdge.

The actor Patrick Macnee, the star of the cult 1960s British adventure series The Avengers, who died last week aged 93, has been widely mourned.
Co-stars and fans paid generous tributes. There was a widespread feeling of sadness - not just because we had lost a fine actor and a very nice man, but also, I believe because of nostalgia for one of the greatest and most inventive television programs of all time- and the era in which it was made. When we mourn Patrick Macnee we are also mourning a more colorful, eccentric and laid-back Britain which sadly no longer exists. The Avengers was a product of a confident, but not aggressive country - the Britain of Harold MacMillan, Harold Wilson and detente- the Britain before Rupert Murdoch came to the country and before the neocon/neoliberal takeover of power which made our politics and our public life much uglier....

You can read the whole piece here.

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