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Blind in One Ear: The Avenger Returns
The star of the 1960s TV series "The Avengers" recalls his unusual childhood and familial relationships and the adventures and misadventures of his later life as a celebrity
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 22, 2011
Liked it! Plus, it is signed by the author. My mother waited in line for over an hour to get a copy for me.
September 2, 2015
Good for show biz historians and completist fans, but a whole lot of rambling junk for most everyone else.
I grew up watching The Avengers on PBS, so I have a childhood fondness for the character of John Steed. When Patrick Macnee passed on, I heard about this book and thought I'd see what his thinking and memories might reveal.
The first half of the book is the most interesting. The author pours out a relentless series of observations and quips up to about the time he gets out of World War II. While most of it isn't particularly deep, the scope of his subject matter manages to summon a fairly clear picture of his young life.
The picture he paints of the upper classes in Great Britain during this time is not a flattering one. They come off as generally dysfunctional, self centered, and often psychotic. It's hard to imagine him coming out of that upbringing without some kind of damage to his psyche.
If I had to hazard a guess, his response seems to have been to develop a defense field of whimsy coupled with hyper awareness of detail. This would explain why he either focuses on pure external events or presents his feelings as an observation.
For example, he exhibits a bit of a rogueish side as a youngster. During his time at school, he runs a bookie operation for horse racing using his dad's superior knowledge of horses.
He gets money out of it, gets the older school boys off his back, and the satisfaction of his dad liking him because the old man thinks his son is finally taking an interest in horseracing. It becomes so successful that the local organized crime figures give young Patrick a talking to about it, and then run him out of the business entirely.
There's no self-reflection in this story, nor is there any insight in the details he shares. There's a part missing that would explain how he put this together and where the talent for it came from. He describes the meeting with the thug threatening to break his nose with the clinical, lighthearted attitude of a squire slumming about town.
That's too bad. There are other stories of a similar nature (he gets expelled for distributing pornography to his classmates!), so I sense there's a major revelation of character in this carousing, gambling aspect of his young schoolboy life, but he never elaborates.
After that part of his life, the book turns its focus towards his acting career and loses any momentum it had going for it. His story becomes a recitation of parts played, broken up by the occasional family milestone common to actors--marriage and kids at a distance, divorce looming, hooking up with cast members, the career popularity roller coaster, and so on. Here, his lack of depth makes for a tedious and obscure read.
Now, we not only have vital aspects of his formative character glossed over, but the development of his life suffers a similar fate. The destiny that leads up to his defining role ends up being a pile of detritus you have to sift through for any kind of insight.
He hangs out with some huge names in show biz--Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, and Roger Moore to name a very few--yet his encounters with them come off as name drops on what feels like a resume. Stories to amuse autograph seekers on the way to the pub.
It's a wasted opportunity. A good editor would have encouraged him to break things up and focus more intently on fewer highlights with more specific detail and reflection. The guy was a workhorse for parts, so I'm sure a lot of chaff was already cut out, but come on, cut to the meat and make it good.
I mean, sure I would love to hear him talk about being Count Iblis on Battlestar Galactica, or how he managed to find himself in what (I think) is his truly best one liner of all time--as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg in Spinal Tap: "Tap into...America!"
I get that you have to pare things down. But really? A minor mention of his role in The Howling as "that werewolf movie?" This was the best that could be put down on paper?
Avengers fans will find the details lacking. There's really only two good stories--the one where he propositions Honor Blackman after a shoot (where her response is awesome and puts him rightly in his place) and his description of the behind-the-scenes creative struggle to introduce a female counterpart to John Steed in the show.
That struggle is gobbsmacking when you consider today's entertainment. Here we are, 50 years later, having the exact same argument over including competent, believable, and humanized female characters in popular culture as back then. It still takes an immense amount of psychological energy to try something that by all accounts should have always been a no brainer.
Other than those two gems, there isn't much else to read about. He soon moves on to his career post-Avengers and the wrap up of his life in California. Important events rush by without much explanation or analysis, but by then I was resigned to the style.
This book could have been a lot better.
I grew up watching The Avengers on PBS, so I have a childhood fondness for the character of John Steed. When Patrick Macnee passed on, I heard about this book and thought I'd see what his thinking and memories might reveal.
The first half of the book is the most interesting. The author pours out a relentless series of observations and quips up to about the time he gets out of World War II. While most of it isn't particularly deep, the scope of his subject matter manages to summon a fairly clear picture of his young life.
The picture he paints of the upper classes in Great Britain during this time is not a flattering one. They come off as generally dysfunctional, self centered, and often psychotic. It's hard to imagine him coming out of that upbringing without some kind of damage to his psyche.
If I had to hazard a guess, his response seems to have been to develop a defense field of whimsy coupled with hyper awareness of detail. This would explain why he either focuses on pure external events or presents his feelings as an observation.
For example, he exhibits a bit of a rogueish side as a youngster. During his time at school, he runs a bookie operation for horse racing using his dad's superior knowledge of horses.
He gets money out of it, gets the older school boys off his back, and the satisfaction of his dad liking him because the old man thinks his son is finally taking an interest in horseracing. It becomes so successful that the local organized crime figures give young Patrick a talking to about it, and then run him out of the business entirely.
There's no self-reflection in this story, nor is there any insight in the details he shares. There's a part missing that would explain how he put this together and where the talent for it came from. He describes the meeting with the thug threatening to break his nose with the clinical, lighthearted attitude of a squire slumming about town.
That's too bad. There are other stories of a similar nature (he gets expelled for distributing pornography to his classmates!), so I sense there's a major revelation of character in this carousing, gambling aspect of his young schoolboy life, but he never elaborates.
After that part of his life, the book turns its focus towards his acting career and loses any momentum it had going for it. His story becomes a recitation of parts played, broken up by the occasional family milestone common to actors--marriage and kids at a distance, divorce looming, hooking up with cast members, the career popularity roller coaster, and so on. Here, his lack of depth makes for a tedious and obscure read.
Now, we not only have vital aspects of his formative character glossed over, but the development of his life suffers a similar fate. The destiny that leads up to his defining role ends up being a pile of detritus you have to sift through for any kind of insight.
He hangs out with some huge names in show biz--Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, and Roger Moore to name a very few--yet his encounters with them come off as name drops on what feels like a resume. Stories to amuse autograph seekers on the way to the pub.
It's a wasted opportunity. A good editor would have encouraged him to break things up and focus more intently on fewer highlights with more specific detail and reflection. The guy was a workhorse for parts, so I'm sure a lot of chaff was already cut out, but come on, cut to the meat and make it good.
I mean, sure I would love to hear him talk about being Count Iblis on Battlestar Galactica, or how he managed to find himself in what (I think) is his truly best one liner of all time--as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg in Spinal Tap: "Tap into...America!"
I get that you have to pare things down. But really? A minor mention of his role in The Howling as "that werewolf movie?" This was the best that could be put down on paper?
Avengers fans will find the details lacking. There's really only two good stories--the one where he propositions Honor Blackman after a shoot (where her response is awesome and puts him rightly in his place) and his description of the behind-the-scenes creative struggle to introduce a female counterpart to John Steed in the show.
That struggle is gobbsmacking when you consider today's entertainment. Here we are, 50 years later, having the exact same argument over including competent, believable, and humanized female characters in popular culture as back then. It still takes an immense amount of psychological energy to try something that by all accounts should have always been a no brainer.
Other than those two gems, there isn't much else to read about. He soon moves on to his career post-Avengers and the wrap up of his life in California. Important events rush by without much explanation or analysis, but by then I was resigned to the style.
This book could have been a lot better.
August 13, 2016
Just re-read this for the first time in 20 years, and it is still enjoyable. I always thought Macnee was very cool as John Steed in "The Avengers". Steed was dashing yet tough, and got to adventure with beautiful women like Diana Rigg and Honor Blackman. Macnee wrote this in 1988 when he was 66, and was very open about his life, foibles and all. I had the distinct impression that Macnee would have become an upper-class twit had he not become an actor.
September 11, 2021
This book gave me the impression that Macnee was ahead of his time in many ways such as his understanding of sexual identity, and that he was badly damaged by his alcoholic parents and by WWII. His parents were no doubt damaged by WWI, and the death and poverty that came after. They all resorted to alcohol to numb the senses to avoid dealing with the guilt and grief and trauma.
His mid-life crises that led to his getting some professional help for all that guilt and grief and trauma, for stopping smoking, and for eventually stopping drinking, were discussed with a light touch, as if it still hurt too much to discuss it at any great length. He clearly had several breakdowns, and his family and friends and doctors helped him recover.
His reconciliation with his children was touching, but filled with sadness, too. They sound like lovely people, more a credit to their mother, I would assume, since she brought them up. The couple married too young due to the war, and had children too soon due to the poor family planning means of the time. The financial responsibility of a family was too much stress for the young Macnee, adding to his depressions and drinking, and massive guilt.
For much of his life Macnee was a louche lush. As I have read several actor bios from that era, I know that he was in great company with that. The difference here seemed to be that he actually felt guilt for things, which I noticed other actors did not appear to. Macnee lived long enough to mend his ways, and to enjoy a long, long career as a jobbing character actor.
Many of his work opportunities came via friends who seemed to want to help the basically decent man who was damaged by his bizarre childhood, and by his wartime blitz experiences, and his naval career protecting the English Channel from U-boats. Like many children of alcoholics, Macnee seemed to be sweet and kind when sober, which appeared to give him many loyal friends.
His blunt honestly about all areas of sexuality and gender was refreshing to read, especially in a book published so long ago. It might have put off some readers at the time, and still put off some readers today, who are not aware of these variations in human sexuality.
I gave full stars for the book for his bravery and honesty, but also for his discretion when protecting some of the people by giving them nicknames or not naming them at all. He clearly did not aim to hurt people with this book, nor to settle scores, which I am sure he could have done by naming names and telling tales. He took the high road.
As for his early career in Britain on stage, I had to pause often to look up on the internet who and what he was writing about. But that was fun too, since I learned a lot like that!
His mid-life crises that led to his getting some professional help for all that guilt and grief and trauma, for stopping smoking, and for eventually stopping drinking, were discussed with a light touch, as if it still hurt too much to discuss it at any great length. He clearly had several breakdowns, and his family and friends and doctors helped him recover.
His reconciliation with his children was touching, but filled with sadness, too. They sound like lovely people, more a credit to their mother, I would assume, since she brought them up. The couple married too young due to the war, and had children too soon due to the poor family planning means of the time. The financial responsibility of a family was too much stress for the young Macnee, adding to his depressions and drinking, and massive guilt.
For much of his life Macnee was a louche lush. As I have read several actor bios from that era, I know that he was in great company with that. The difference here seemed to be that he actually felt guilt for things, which I noticed other actors did not appear to. Macnee lived long enough to mend his ways, and to enjoy a long, long career as a jobbing character actor.
Many of his work opportunities came via friends who seemed to want to help the basically decent man who was damaged by his bizarre childhood, and by his wartime blitz experiences, and his naval career protecting the English Channel from U-boats. Like many children of alcoholics, Macnee seemed to be sweet and kind when sober, which appeared to give him many loyal friends.
His blunt honestly about all areas of sexuality and gender was refreshing to read, especially in a book published so long ago. It might have put off some readers at the time, and still put off some readers today, who are not aware of these variations in human sexuality.
I gave full stars for the book for his bravery and honesty, but also for his discretion when protecting some of the people by giving them nicknames or not naming them at all. He clearly did not aim to hurt people with this book, nor to settle scores, which I am sure he could have done by naming names and telling tales. He took the high road.
As for his early career in Britain on stage, I had to pause often to look up on the internet who and what he was writing about. But that was fun too, since I learned a lot like that!
July 16, 2015
Patrick Macnee is the unforgettable John Steed from "The Avengers", the cult British TV series from 1960s (remade in 1998 as a US movie; it has nothing in common with the recent same-titled movies based on comics). The series, running in the 1961-1969 period, was shown all over Europe, in the US, and in many other countries. It is widely considered one of the best cult series in the history of TV, a sentiment that I readily agree with. "The Avengers" might in fact be the second- or third-best series I have ever watched, mostly thanks to Mrs. Peel - by the way, Diana Rigg's bio is waiting on my shelf - and John Steed. (I am sure there can be no doubt which cult TV series is by far the best in the history of mankind, right?)
"Blind in One Ear" (1988) is Mr. Macnee's autobiography: the author first leads us through his unusual childhood in an aristocratic and truly idiosyncratic family. Mr. Macnee's Mama watched little Daniel Patrick "through the bubbly blur of Dom Perignon", the feared "Uncle" Evelyn wanted "to make a good woman of him", and his Pa was rarely around. Patrick matriculated from Eton, often considered the best public (meaning exclusively private) school in the world, although his final period at the college was marred by quite some naughtiness. This part of the memoir is totally fascinating. Alas the story of long, long years of young Mr. Macnee trying to succeed as an actor, moving from place to place, including the US and Canada, waiting for his big break is, frankly, boring; even frequent dropping names of actors whom he met and worked with, like Laurence Oliver, Richard Burton, Vivien Leigh, Montgomery Clift, and many, many others does not relieve the monotony.
The Big Break comes in 1960 when Mr. Macnee is hired to play John Steed, one of the two leading characters in "The Avengers". He stars in four separate series (with Ian Hendry, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson), not to count the much later "New Avengers" (with Joanna Lumley as Purdey). The role of Steed has completely defined his legacy, which Mr. Macnee is first to admit: the series "brought the fame and money I'd always longed for", he writes.
"Blind in One Ear" is mostly a good read: the author is quite honest in assessing his successes and failures, the first third of the memoir is enthralling, and the writing sparkles with sly humor throughout the book. Here's just one small sample: "[...] my true moment of greatness came when I was asked whether I'd met Vivien Leigh. My answer was received with awe. Then a second question was asked. I had to say that although I'd longed to, I had not."
Two and three quarter stars.
"Blind in One Ear" (1988) is Mr. Macnee's autobiography: the author first leads us through his unusual childhood in an aristocratic and truly idiosyncratic family. Mr. Macnee's Mama watched little Daniel Patrick "through the bubbly blur of Dom Perignon", the feared "Uncle" Evelyn wanted "to make a good woman of him", and his Pa was rarely around. Patrick matriculated from Eton, often considered the best public (meaning exclusively private) school in the world, although his final period at the college was marred by quite some naughtiness. This part of the memoir is totally fascinating. Alas the story of long, long years of young Mr. Macnee trying to succeed as an actor, moving from place to place, including the US and Canada, waiting for his big break is, frankly, boring; even frequent dropping names of actors whom he met and worked with, like Laurence Oliver, Richard Burton, Vivien Leigh, Montgomery Clift, and many, many others does not relieve the monotony.
The Big Break comes in 1960 when Mr. Macnee is hired to play John Steed, one of the two leading characters in "The Avengers". He stars in four separate series (with Ian Hendry, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson), not to count the much later "New Avengers" (with Joanna Lumley as Purdey). The role of Steed has completely defined his legacy, which Mr. Macnee is first to admit: the series "brought the fame and money I'd always longed for", he writes.
"Blind in One Ear" is mostly a good read: the author is quite honest in assessing his successes and failures, the first third of the memoir is enthralling, and the writing sparkles with sly humor throughout the book. Here's just one small sample: "[...] my true moment of greatness came when I was asked whether I'd met Vivien Leigh. My answer was received with awe. Then a second question was asked. I had to say that although I'd longed to, I had not."
Two and three quarter stars.
January 5, 2012
Bit disappointed. Loved the unusual early life and respect for his honesty. I was not that interested in the stage and TV details but then I suppose that's what a lot of others would be interested in.
May 31, 2021
Am I reviewing the person or the quality of the biography? or both?
As a person Patrick was a womaniser, adulterer, heavy drinker, self centered, and cared little for his two children for the first 15 or so years of their lives. As a fellow human being I was not impressed.
As a biography the book is an okay read. Patricks parents and their strangeness made interesting reading. Many of the plays and films/tv shows are covered very briefly, even The Avengers is only given light coverage (although he has written a separate book about his Avengers experience so I will let him off) but the theme (for me at least) throughout the biography was his list of conquests.
I had to find a secondhand copy as this book is out-of-print and having now read it I can see why it is no longer in print. Its okay, but not great. I only read it as an Avengers fan so that I could know more about Stead. Unfortunately I didn't particularly like what I discovered.
As a person Patrick was a womaniser, adulterer, heavy drinker, self centered, and cared little for his two children for the first 15 or so years of their lives. As a fellow human being I was not impressed.
As a biography the book is an okay read. Patricks parents and their strangeness made interesting reading. Many of the plays and films/tv shows are covered very briefly, even The Avengers is only given light coverage (although he has written a separate book about his Avengers experience so I will let him off) but the theme (for me at least) throughout the biography was his list of conquests.
I had to find a secondhand copy as this book is out-of-print and having now read it I can see why it is no longer in print. Its okay, but not great. I only read it as an Avengers fan so that I could know more about Stead. Unfortunately I didn't particularly like what I discovered.
March 26, 2024
The writing is good. Macnee has a breezy humorous style and made me laugh out loud more than once. The story of the marionette production of the story of Queen Victoria had me in stitches. As with Christopher Lee's autobiography, the best of the book is the beginning - Macnee's childhood.
August 4, 2008
Patrick Mcnee is every bit the eccentric character as any role he played on TV or the movies.
This is very warts and all as he talks about his fairly dysfunctional family and unusual upbringing and his time as an actor.
Entertaining, Mcnee is a witty storyteller, but it tends to lose steam after the Avengers is cancelled and he goes into his big new age, finding himself phase.
This is very warts and all as he talks about his fairly dysfunctional family and unusual upbringing and his time as an actor.
Entertaining, Mcnee is a witty storyteller, but it tends to lose steam after the Avengers is cancelled and he goes into his big new age, finding himself phase.
December 10, 2012
Rather disappointing. The best part is his somewhat odd childhood. After that we get a string of accounts of his career, and he comes off as an amiable man but intelectually lightweight- a hard working but minor actor who had the good fortune to be cast in one perfect role. After THE AVENGERS there's nothing else of interest in his career, or in the book.
March 9, 2015
Patrick Macnee has had an interesting life - best known for his role in "The Avengers", and he attempts to tell his tale. Unfortunately, he dwells far too long on his odd childhood and brushes over the interesting times he must have had as an actor. You end up with the impression that he's a narcissist more than an actor.
October 25, 2012
A must for any fans of the show. Macnee had the weird childhood indeed!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews