The Art Inc Receptionist (The Avengers)

'A henchwoman in the 1960's UK spy/crime/action TV series The Avengers'. She was played by actress Yolande Turner (1935 - 2003)
Appears in -
The Avengers (UK 1961 - 69)
Season 4. Episode 17 -
The girl from Auntie First broadcast in the UK on the ITV network on June 6 1966.
The story -
Emma Peel has been kidnapped and replaced by an innocent imposter. John Steed investigates the sinister organization which has its legitimate front as "Art Incorporated" - a cover for a vicious criminal gang headed by Gregorio Auntie, specialists in "acquiring" (ie stealing) anything at all ("the unobtainable obtained" is their motto) for anyone - as long as a buyer is willing to pay enough for it. It's Auntie who has kidnapped Emma, she's very valuable as someone who knows many secrets useful to enemy powers. Auntie puts her up for sale to the highest bidder. But Steed, infiltrating Art Inc undercover as a potential Mrs Peel buyer, thwarts Auntie, destroying his evil organization.
Appearance -
She is white woman in her late 20s with short wavy hair. She's beautiful, but her sharp features give her a somewhat malevolent appearance. She has a rather harsh voice with an upper class diction. She wears 2 different tight mid length skirts in the episode.
Character -
She's an example of the sort of very ruthless, cold blooded, and incorrigible female villains the series could present on occasion. She's clearly an efficient organizer of Art Inc's criminal business. Her complete lack of scruple is shown when she directs the killing of those who are inconvenient/a threat to the organization, and she seems to get some satisfaction out of doing it. She's cowardly, a trait displayed in her last scene with Emma.
Weapons -
She is seen holding a gun, but she never uses it to shoot or threaten in the episode. When guarding the caged Emma, she carries a whip.
Role in the story -
She has a desk at the reception area of Art Inc. She initially deals with any clients who come into the office. She assists Auntie in the practical arrangements concerning criminally acquiring valuables for sale to clients. She's also seen ordering murders. Along with a male thug, she guards Emma during the auctioning of Mrs Peel.
Fate -
When Steed breaks into the cellar where Emma is being held in a cage, he takes on the male guard. Meanwhile, Mrs Peel glares at the receptionist and begins to move in a threatening way towards her. This seems to unnerve the cowardly receptionist, who begins to panic and flails at the cage with her whip. This gives Emma the chance to grab the receptionist's arm - Emma pulls the mortified villainess towards the cage, bending a bar with one hand - with the other she forces the receptionist's head between the bars. She then bends the bar back again trapping the evil henchwoman. Emma then reaches for the cage keys on the ensnared receptionist's belt. Defeated, her head trapped humiliatingly in the cage bars, the receptionist is now a prisoner.
Notes -
The title of this episode is obviously a play on the name of the then popular US tv show The man from UNCLE.
Though an important secondary villain, the receptionist is never named. Stranger still, she does not appear in the character/cast list on the original broadcast episode. There's no credit for Yolande Turner.
Despite her lack of any credit in this episode, Yolande Turner would return, playing the main villain this time - Miss Pegram - in the Avengers Season 5 episode The £50,000 breakfast . Once again, her villainess would be defeated by Emma Peel. At least this time Yolande had a named character and was given a credit!
An unseen Yolande Turner also provided the voice for the mastermind ventriloquist's puppet in another Season 4 episode "How to succeed...at murder".
Viewpoint -
The Avengers did serve up a good number of female villains over its run - which took in most of the 1960s - however, the duo played by Yolande Turner were among the most evil and incorrigible. Although her Receptionist is a lesser role than Miss Pegram in The £50,000 breakfast, Turner uses her limited screen time here to create a really icy, cruel and sexy villainess in The Girl from Auntie. Turner's voice is a great asset, beautiful diction, commanding expression, all with a definite upper class tone in the voice, give this villainess an impression of her being a spoiled, greedy and ruthless girl from a wealthy and privileged background making a career in crime. In fact, one would think that the Receptionist, rather than Auntie was the REAL head of Art Incorporated going on the two performances here. The series was certainly dipping into kinky areas in episodes like this - with Turner showing off her her legs posing with a gun, Emma locked in a bird cage, guarded by a whip toting woman, and a final conflict between the heroine and villainess involving trapping the bad girl between bars. Turner's Miss Pegram may have been a full on lead villainess, not a (nominal at least) subordinate like the Receptionist, and a much more feisty fighter when it came to her showdown with Emma, but, as a fan of cowardly villainesses of not much use in a fair fight, and for a number of other reasons, I do favor Turner's earlier black and white bad girl more!
- Zippgun
==Gallery==
The Art inc receptionist (Yolande Turner).jpg|The evil receptionist (Yolande Turner)
The evil receptionist... the fake Mrs Peel wIll have to be eliminated! (Yolande Turner).JPG|"The false Mrs Peel will have to be eliminated!" - the receptionist (Yolande Turner)
The receptionist and her gun (Yolande Turner).JPG|The receptionist and gun (Yolande Turner)
0608 005.jpg|The EB gives us a breeze of upskirt!!!
The receptionist - an icy bad girl (Yolande Turner).JPG|The receptionist alerted (Yolande Turner)
Yolande1.gif|The armed receptionist displays her shapely legs
Auntie3b.jpg|Really sexy format of legs...
The receptionist with Auntie (Yolande Turner with Alfred Burke).JPG|The receptionist and Auntie (Yolande Turner with Alfred Burke)
The receptionist v Emma. Mrs. Peel grabs the panicking whip wielding bad girl (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg).JPG|The receptionist finds her whip doesn't help (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg)
Yolande2.gif|She tries to tame Emma with her whip but fails
803d0945bcd5b777fb0a07da068e8a48.jpg
Mrs Peel pulling the panic striken receptionist through the bars (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg).JPG|The receptionist can't resist Emma (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg)
Girl from auntie receptionist.jpg|Emma the strong! (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg)
MV5BNjM1YmI1OGEtMDk3ZS00NjUzLWIzY2YtY2UzNWFjY2U5Y2E3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM5NzI3OTA@. V1 SY1000 CR0,0,1333,1000 AL .jpg
The receptionist vs Emma Mrs Peel deals with the bad girl (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg).JPG|Emma pulls the receptionist between the bars (Yolande Turner with Diana Rigg)
Yolande3.gif|Emma deals with her foe by grabbing her head and...
Yolande4.gif|...yanking it through the bars of the cage
Yolande5.gif|Emma opens the cage with the captured keys and leaves her foe trapped
The defeated captive receptionist (Yolande Turner with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg).JPG|The trapped evil receptionist (Yolande Turner with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg)
85fdc0603fb6d34e1b3e16abe0b70f5a.jpg
7186e783520018146e958f397f924242.png|The winner takes it all...!!!
Category:1960s
Category:Business Villainess
Category:Callous
Category:Catfight
Category:Comical Defeat
Category:Coward
Category:Freud Buster
Category:Gangster
Category:Greedy
Category:Henchwoman
Category:Humiliated
Category:Kidnapper
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Mass Murderer
Category:Nameless
Category:Neutral Evil
Category:Robber
Category:Sociopath
Category:Villainess Is Stuck
Category:Whip
Category:Fate: Arrested