Joanna Lumley Movies
The daughter of a high-born British military major, actress Joanna Lumley was a model before entering films with 1968's Some Girls Do. In 1976, she took on the Diana Rigg-like female lead on the British TV action series The New Avengers, costarring Patrick MacNee of the old Avengers. Joanna also costarred in two of Blake Edwards' Pink Panther movies of the '80s. Thoroughly jettisoning her previous cool-glamour image, Joanna Lumley costarred with Jennifer Saunders in the 1993 British TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous as a pair of boozing, bawdy functionaries in the '90s fashion world (the series was picked up by the American cable network Comedy Central in 1994). So popular was Ms. Lumley's characterization of potty-mouthed, cheap-thrill-seeking Patsy that, shortly after the premiere of Absolutely Fabulous, she was being imitated in TV commercials by comic actor John Cleese!On the big screen she appeared in Cold Comfort Farm, James and the Giant Peach, and The Cat's Meow before returning to her signature role as Patsy Stone for another run of Absolutely Fabulous in 2001. After that she could be seen in Eurotrip, and provided voiceover work in both Doogal and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. She starred in the series Clatterford, and had a prominent part in the 2011 project Late Bloomers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 2000
- G
Beverly Joubert and Derek Joubert, a husband-and-wife team who've won widespread acclaim (and a certain amount of controversy) for their beautiful but unflinchingly realistic wildlife documentaries (including Eternal Enemies and Wildlife Warriors), wrote and directed this feature-length drama that uses footage of animals in the wild to tell a story about elephants in their native environment. After the death of its mother, a baby elephant named Whispers (voice of Debi Derryberry) grabs the tail of Groove (voice of Angela Bassett), a pachyderm exiled from her tribe. Groove is hardly the nurturing type, but the child won't let go, and soon she bonds with the youngster as they make their way through the dangers of the jungle in search of the Great River, a fabled paradise for their kind. Anne Archer, Joanna Lumley, and Alice Ghostley are among the actors who provide the "voices" of the animals; the entire film was shot at the Chobe National Park in Botswana, South Africa, a nature preserve where the Jouberts live and work. Whispers: An Elephant's Tale was financed and released by Walt Disney Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Joanna Lumley, (more)
Tim Burton returns to the dark but fanciful animated style of The Nightmare Before Christmas with this stop-motion black comedy. Victor (voice of Johnny Depp) lives in a small European village in the 19th century, where he is pledged to marry Victoria (voice of Emily Watson), a partnership arranged by their parents. The two only meet the day before their scheduled nuptials, and Victor performs disastrously in the wedding rehearsal. Later that evening, while he is walking through the woods and hopelessly practicing his vows, he puts Victoria's wedding band on what looks like a branch. Victor quickly discovers this was a big mistake; as it happens, he has put the ring on the skeletal finger of the enchanted Corpse Bride (voice of Helena Bonham Carter), who then whisks him off to a dark and mysterious netherworld where they are now married. Victor is frightened in the land of the dead, and even realizes that he has fallen in love with his true fiancée, Victoria, so he searches for a way back to his own world. Directed by Tim Burton in collaboration with animator Mike Johnson, Corpse Bride features a stellar voice cast, including Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Joanna Lumley, and Danny Elfman (who also composed the film's musical score). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, (more)
Clichéd, slow-paced, and with a well-worn storyline, this melodrama revolves around the sad tale of Olivia (Lisa Eichhorn), a woman who falls in love with Rollo (Michael York), a married man, and then suffers torment when she becomes pregnant and realizes she has no choice but to abort the baby. Predictable from the very beginning, this mediocre film is raised up several notches by Lisa Eichhorn's interpretation of Olivia. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael York, Lisa Eichhorn, (more)
- 1982
- PG
Two years after the death of Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards tried to exhume his corpse in this pastiche of clips and out-takes from the old Pink Panther films. The plot concerns the legendary "Pink Panther" diamond which is once more stolen. Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is again enlisted to find the stolen bauble. When he follows the trail of the diamond to another country, he leaves on an airplane that is soon reported missing. Television reporter Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley) then sets out to interview old acquaintances and associates of Clouseau, including Lady Litton (Capucine), Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) and Sir Charles Litton (David Niven), who recall their experiences with the bumbling inspector. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, David Niven, (more)
- 1998
John Schlesinger directed this razor-sharp retelling of the familiar Demon Barber legend, previously a Victorian penny-dreadful by Christopher Bond (The Story of Pearls), a stage play by George Dibdin-Pitt, a Tod Slaughter film (the 1936 Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street), and the 1979 Stephen Sondheim stage musical (Sweeney Todd). Sondheim's musical has been televised in a production with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury heading the cast. This John Schlesinger drama, scripted by executive producer Peter Shaw, is set in turn-of-the-century London where bald barber Sweeney Todd (Ben Kingsley) runs a cutting-edge business with an affluent clientele. He also has several sidelines, including the sale of his murder victims' jewelry, plus a profitable agreement with Mrs. Lovett (Joanna Lumley), who uses an industrial-size meat grinder to prepare her tasty "meat pies" for her unsuspecting customers. American insurance investigator Ben Carlyle (Campbell Scott), tracking $50,000 worth of missing diamonds, encounters corruption throughout the city as he attempts to solve the case. Victorian London locales seen here were actually filmed in Dublin. Shown April 19, 1998 on Showtime. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ben Kingsley, Joanna Lumley, (more)
- 1977
Teaming up with CIA agent Marty Brine (Stuart Damon), the New Avengers foil a huge drug deal engineered by Mandarin crime boss Soo Choy (Terry Wood). In retaliation, Soo Choy lures Steed (Patrick MacNee), Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) into his lair, then hunts them down like animals. Just in case anyone has missed this episode's resemblance to Richard Connell's classic short story "The Most Dangerous Game", let it be noted that the villain intends to claim our heroes' heads for his trophy room--and he already has three personalized chopping blocks at the ready. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
Ian Hendry, who as Dr. David Keel had been one of the original stars of the original Avengers, is here cast as Gunner, an amnesiac secret agent. Having been missing for seventeen years, Gunner suddenly shows up, and just as suddenly recovers his memory, providing a strange coded message. This new information may or may not be able to lead Steed (Patrick MacNee), Purdey (Joanna Lumley) and Gambit (Gareth Hunt) to the whereabouts of a notorious double agent known only as the White Rat. As usual, however, the villain gets the upper hand along the way, forcing the New Avengers to gamble with their lives. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
The gimmick on this episode is a mind-transfer machine which drains all conscious thoughts from people, leaving them in a vegetative state. The villain of the piece steals the machine, hoping to harvest a secret code from the minds of three captured agents, each of whom knows only a portion of the code. Steed (Patrick MacNee), who devised this "selective memory" strategy, must go it alone to stop the villains. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
In exchange for providing valuable information to the government, a convict is set free. But no sooner has the prisoner set foot on the "outside" than he is mowed down by enemy gunfire. The New Avengers try to find out what he was going to tell, and why he was killed--with a tattered paperback copy of a Western novel as their only clue. Ingredients essential to the outcome of this story are a marathon cross-country chase and a deadly game of cards. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
The touch of Midas (Gilles Millinaire) is hardly golden in this episode. It seems that the young called Midas is a carrier of every known disease, and can kill with the slightest contact of his fingertips ("They died of everything!" is the diagnosis whenever one of his victims is found). Enticed with a huge prize of gold, Midas agrees to wreak havoc on England in general and the Avengers in particular on behalf of a sinister foreign diplomat. The pot is sweetened when Purdey (Joanne Lumley) is kidnapped and offered up as Mida's companion for the evening--an experience which of course will have fatal consequences for our heroine. Raiders of the Lost Ark bad guy Ronald Lacey guest stars as Hong Kong Harry. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
Unicorn (Jean Claudio), a top enemy agent, is accidentally killed by his own comrades during a shootout. To fool the Other Side, the New Avengers arrange an elaborate hoax to make it appear as though Unicorn is still alive. Unfortunately, the villains have captured a foreign Prince in hopes of exchanging him for Unicorn--and the Prince has been wired to explode in case the exchange goes awry. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
Previously seen on two episodes of the original Avengers, those malevolent metallic menaces, the Cybernauts, are at large again. This time, the man behind the Cybernaut invasion is Kane (Robert Lang), a crippled and disfigured double agent who has a score to settle with John Steed (Patrick MacNee). Part of the scheme involves the "rebirth" of the supposedly dead Kane with a new Cybernautic body--and the superpowers that go with it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
In the second of four New Avengers episodes filmed in Canada, a rogue KGB agent has trained a band of mercenary criminals to destroy a top-secret security installation, thereby hurtling the Canadian Intelligence system back to the 1950s. Worse still, the bad guys are all-powerful and virtually invulnerable. Steed (Patrick MacNee, Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) must find a way to stop these modern-day gladiators, who have already left behind a trail of murdered secret agents. This episode was briefly banned from British TV due to "excessive violence." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
The New Avengers begins its two-season run with "old" avenger John Steed (Patrick Macnee), as fastidious and gentlemanly as ever, teamed with two new, young, and attractive partners: Purdey (Joanna Lumley), a sexy, cool-headed martial arts expert (sound familiar?), and Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt), a rough-hewn ex-mercenary. Their first assignment sends the trio to the remote island of St. Dorca, where another secret agent has already met his doom at the end of some poisoned fishing hooks. The new avengers must pick up where their dead comrade left off and seek out a kidnapped scientist. Their search takes them to a sinister monastery, populated by a very Teutonic-looking band of monks which is preparing to thaw out "Germany's Greatest Treasure," cryogenically frozen since 1945. Biggest surprise: guest star Peter Cushing is not the villain of the piece! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
Purdey (Joanna Lumley) heads to an obstacle-laden firing range in hopes of breaking Steed's (Patrick MacNee) perfect marksmanship record. Five of Steed's previous associates have attempted the same thing at the same range, have fallen short of a perfect score by a mere fraction--and have promptly died of poisoning. Unless Gambit (Gareth Hunt) can run the range and score 100%, Purdy will be Victim Number Six. Roy Boyd, the actor cast as Bradshaw, was a last-minute replacement for frequent Avengers guest star Frederick Jaeger), who caught a cold during filming and was "demoted" to a smaller part. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1976
Government scientists develop a knockout gas, designed to peacefully quell terrorist uprisings. The gas, and its antidote, inevitably fall into the Wrong Hands, those hands belonging to a gang of crooks who plan to send all of London off to slumberland so that they can embark upon a wholesale crime spree. To prevent this, the New Avengers once again go undercover--with Purdey (Joanna Lumley) posing as a department store window mannequin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
Larry Doomer (Martin Shaw), ex-fiancee of New Avenger Purdey (Joanna Lumley), is determined to get even for the death of his father. To this end, Doomer has targetted an Arab diplomat for assassination. Unfortunately, Doomer's misguided missile will not only wipe out the diplomat, but all of the Parliament as well. Guest stars Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins) were later reteamed on the popular British action-adventure series The Professionals. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
An international swindler intends to destroy Steed (Patrick MacNee) by framing him as a turncoat and a murderer. Somehow or other, a fake spiritualist, Victoria Stanton (Sue Holderness), picks up on the villain's plans and warns Steed. It would seem that Victoria is able to anticipate the bad guy's every move--but can she be trusted? And if not, what new dangers lie in store for our bowled-hatted hero? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
In the conclusion of the two-part story, a malfunctioning Soviet satellite has reactivated Russian "K" agents throughout France and England, transforming the agents into homicidal zombies. The New Avengers think they can rest easy upon confirming that all 250 K agents are dead--until they learn that there were actually 252. Once they have disposed of Number 251, our heroes must somehow prevent the last, unknown K agent from assassinating an equally unknown but very high-profile official, thereby launching World War 3. Parts one and two of K is for Kill were telecast in the US as a "feature film" on March 23, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
In the first episode of a two-part story filmed in France, a Russian "K" agent, imbedded as a "sleeper", commits mass murder and then drops dead, aging rapidly as he expires. This occurs in 1965; twelve years agent, another long-imbedded "K" agent is likewise reactivated and likewise launches a murderous attack--this time on an empty house. Steed (Patrick MacNee) and his associates find out that there are 250 sleeper agents throughout France and England, all programmed to be activated by a Soviet satellite--which is now malfunctioning, unleashing death and destruction on an unsuspecting world. Former Avengers costar Diana Rigg appears as Emma Peel in scenes culled from the 1960s episodes "The Winged Avenger" and "The Hidden Tiger". Parts one and two of K is for Kill were telecast in the US as a "feature film" on March 23, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gareth Hunt, Joanna Lumley, (more)
- 1976
Steed (Patrick MacNee), Purdy (Joanna Lumley) and Gambit (Gareth Hunt) foil the latest mission of Soviet agent Perov (Peter Jeffrey). In retaliation, and in defiance of his superiors, Perov reactivates several "sleeper" agents who have been squirreled away throughout the U.K. for the past 20 years. At first, it would seem that Perov's sole motivation is to kill the Avengers--but there's far more to his sinister scheme. This is the episode in which Gambit poses as a pop star and Purdey impersonates a squealing teenage fan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
The title character in this episode is Purdey (Joanna Lumley), who has been abducted by the Other Side. In order to save Purdey's life, Steed (Patrick MacNee) must agree to hand over top-secret allied defense plans. Unaware that Purdey is in danger, Gambit (Gareth Hunt) reluctantly sets about to "terminate" Steed as a traitor and a murderer. Simon Oates, here cast as Spellman, also played John Steed in a British stage adaptation of The Avengers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
The New Avengers wrapped up its first season with an episode which writer Dennis Spooner has confessed was based on "Attack of the Alligators",an installment of the "Supermarionation" series Thunderbirds (with, it would seem, a bit of "Monty Python" thrown in). An illicitly developed growth liquid seeps into the London sewer system, creating a giant, deadly rat. Kidnapped by the scientists who created the liquid, Purdey (Joanna Lumley) is set up as bait for the king-sized vermin--and our girl must also contend with a passel of killer tomatoes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
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