RIP Alexandra Bastedo (The Champions, Ab Fab)

[DRW50]

http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a543391/champions-star-alexandra-bastedo-dies-aged-67.html

Alexandra was the female lead on The Champions, a 1968-69 adventure series which also had a brief run on NBC. Stuart Damon and William Gaunt were the other two leads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvNPVKOiZtU

Bastedo was a committed animal rights activist for many years, and made other films and TV appearances.

I remembered her from her role in one of my favorite Ab Fab episodes, Fat (which doesn't seem to be online unless you want to buy it). The episode revolved around Edwina obsessively trying to lose weight, because her old rival from long ago was popping in for a visit. After trying, and failing, to seriously lose weight, the climax of the episode is

[DRW50]

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jan/13/alexandra-bastedo

[Cat]

The Champions! The British version of The Men From U.N.C.L.E crossed with the Saint crossed with Thunderbirds. Produced by Lew Grade who also produced my fave 60s TV show The Persuaders which starred Tony Curtis and Roger Moore!

Alexandra Bastedo was incredibly glamourous (I love those couture 1960s fashions even more than 1950s fashions), and I am sorry to hear that this animal lover has passed away while still relatively young, and to cancer, too. RIP.

[DRW50]

My father loved The Persuaders. He never saw this one, although maybe it's on Netflix.

I didn't realize what a low budget these shows had. They look so stylish.

[Cat]

The Persuaders was never low-budget -- in fact it was one of the most expensive TV projects of the time and filmed out in Monte Carlo at times because Moore and Curtis loved it there. Not to mention, the salaries of the two leading men couldn't have been small.

The Champions looked good because of the actual film stock they used, which made the show look like a movie and not TV. The cast looked sleek and wonderful (Bastedo in particular looked like a supermodel) but that's fairky easy to do if you have a talented hair and wardrobe department. The opening credits were punchy as so many British shows of the time were (the Brits excelled at composing great TV show themes in the 60s and 70s).They put in lots of incidental shots of Geneva and whatnot to cover the fact that everything else was filmed in a small studio and probably quite cheaply and quickly. And they cast three relative unknowns (at the time) so salaries couldn't have been too much of an issue.

[DRW50]

True. I wonder how much The Saint cost.

I was reading that The Champions did 3 episodes on a submarine set to save money. That's pretty clever, actually.

So did any of you ever see her second Ab Fab appearance? I got pretty tired of the show after the first two seasons, it just got too mean for me (I know that doesn't make sense), and too repetitive.

[Cat]

It makes perfect sense. Ab Fab was horrible and unfunny the last few seasons. In fact, only the Olympics special from last year (where Stella McCartney showed up as the stuck-up ass she is IRL) saved Ab Fab's reputation from the quick sand.

I remember AB's first brief appearance but not a second one -- she was def hired because of 1960s/The Champions connection. She and Joanna Lumley were, of course, a very particular type back in the 60s -- the English rose turned stunning ice princess (although IRL of course they were/are neither). And Lumley was in the 1970 version of the Avengers! Damn, what a small world British TV was back then (and probably still is). It's just like with Danish TV with all the people who appeared on The Killing or The Bridge showing up on Borgen (and DRW, if you don't know what those shows are, you should check them out. The originals, I mean).