Looking back on Diana Rigg's career it's remarkable how few feature films she made, but then the British film industry was in a dodgy shape in the 70s and 80s and she always seemed to be the sort of actor who would take six months off to live with a lover in a commune... But anywhere here is my top ten of Diana Rigg that deliberately excludes The Avengers because it is too easy
1) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - my favourite Bond movie, and she's one of the best Bond girls. It is the most three dimensional part - the trashy party girl who finds a new meaning in life, an erratic gambler, superb lover and car driver. Brilliant decision to bring her in to compensate for Lazenby's inexperience. The scenes where she flirts with Telly Savalas to buy time for Bond's assault on Piz Gloria are a definite series highlight.
2) The Assassination Bureau (1969)- swinging sixties at its most random: Rigg plus Oliver Reed plus Savalas plus... Jack London??? Basil Dearden maybe wasn't the most ideal director for the material but it is interesting.
3) The Hospital (1971) - the only Paddy Chayefsky people seem to talk about any more is Network but this take on the medical system also has moments of brilliance too (if you can look past yet another Chayefsky subplot about a middle aged man schtupping a younger woman) and Rigg is terrific.
4) Theatre of Blood (1973) everyone who has received a bad review dreams of doing to critics what Vincent Price does in this hugely entertaining movie with Rigg matching him ham for ham
5) Diana (1973) - look I've never seen this but I just love the idea Diana Rigg was given her own sh*t sitcom... it was like a rite of passage at the time for British actors (Rachel Roberts was in one too)
6)The Great Muppet Caper (1981) - splendid fun, genuinely clever script, fantastic Charles Grodin-Miss Piggy love story
7) Evil Under the Sun (1981) - one of the reason Agatha Christie is so successful is that the person murdered always deserves it and Diana Rigg is fabulous in this movie (which is actually quite solid I feel it just needed a few bigger stars)
8) King Lear (1983) - this film tends to get forgotten because it was shot on video tape from memory but I can still recall Olivier and Rigg tearing it up
9) Witness for the Prosecution (1982) - a film in the shadow of the Billy Wilder version but I always really liked it and Rigg is extremely good
10) Game of Thrones - great end-of-career part... in a show full of terrific characters Riggs was still a stand out, a no-nonsense practical matriarch
She should have made more movies but I get the impression she did exactly what she wanted to in life.
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