Regal Rigg taught us we ARE the feistier sex

For men of a certain age everywhere, diana rigg’s death will have come as a body blow. But millions of us women, too, are reeling from the loss of a superstar we worshipped and emulated.

When I was a young girl in the Sixties watching The Avengers on our black and white TV, my favourite game was playing emma Peel, kick-boxing my big brother Michael — aka the baddie.

My baggy black tracksuit was her shiny, skin-tight black leather catsuit — a garment she later told us it took 45 minutes to squeeze into, which was a ‘total nightmare’. Like all of us, she was prepared to suffer for her looks.

forget that feminist icon germaine greer, born one year after rigg. Here was a woman who made girls all over the world believe we were born equal to men. She was what we aspired to be, sexy, gorgeous, empowered — and deadly.

Unlike greer, Peel showed us that we didn’t have to burn our bras, we just had to believe in ourselves and have the confidence to take on anyone.

When she discovered the cameraman on The Avengers was being paid more than her, she downed tools and catsuit until she got parity with the crew. Her salary was increased from the equivalent today of £3,500 a week to £10,500.

diana rigg taught us how to stand our corner. She knew her value and fought for it — even though she was vilified for doing so. ‘I was painted as this mercenary creature,’ she said, ‘when all I wanted was equality.’ She was the personification of girl Power decades before the term was invented.

A natural beauty as accomplished performing Mrs Peel as she was Shakespeare, rigg was pumped up by confidence and supreme talent and a true belief in the potential of womankind.

What a contrast to the woeful female TV star whose disappearance from our screens also made the news this week — Kim Kardashian. She is just pumped up by facefillers and fakery.

As for the moaning matriarchs of the #MeToo movement, rigg would never have had truck with them. Asked how she dealt with predatory TV and movie executives when she was young, she said she dismissed their advances as though they never happened and treated them with scorn, the ultimate rebuttal.

now that’s how every wronged woman should avenge herself.