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The Persuaders is a British television series, which first aired in 1970 and 1971. 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 inconsistent premise of the The Persuaders television series is in aristocratic Sinclair being forced to team-up with rough-diamond-American Wilde in fighting crime in behalf of a judge (Laurence Naismith), or face jail. Twenty-four episodes The Persuaders were made by Lew Grade's ITC company, each fifty (50") minutes long and featuring dramatic synthesizer theme music by John Barry. Some critics have called this one of the finer television series ever made, anywhere.
In some ways, the "Lord Brett Sinclair" was inspired by Roger Moore's earlier work in The Saint, and it was first tested in the series episode, The Ex-King of Diamonds. Those roles were similar to the James Bond 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, subtly, as much for laughs as for drama. The contrast of personalities of the two main characters (the rapport of the lead actors) is used to great effect in creating and telling interesting, light stories. Seen from the contemporary, modern perspective, this adult series is outrageously, politically incorrect.
The The Persuaders series is known for leading man Tony Curtis's occasional ad-libbing (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. While it was a huge success in Britain, Europe and Australia, the series made little impact in the US, where it aired opposite Mission: Impossible. Given that the majority of the series was filmed in England (though with substantial location filming in France, Spain, Sweden and Italy) and was very English in flavour, it is perhaps not surprising.
The entire series was remastered for DVD in 2001.
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