The sisters are doing it for themselves as they prove they don’t need us heroes to save them from a sticky situation, but man do we like watching them in action! For the past forty years the goggle-box in the corner of our living room has given us a selection of female martial arts action heroines, all of whom we’d like to get caught in a tight spot with...
The rise and rise of the television female action hero
...and why she gets our pulses racing...
Did anyone get a chance to catch the remake of the Bionic Woman in the past few weeks? Well, it has been confirmed, they’ve cancelled the show. More’s the pity. Granted, after the first couple of episodes it was badly written with thin, humourless storylines but the programme makers missed their greatest asset; the main star’s Michelle Ryan’s assets! She ran and kickboxed her way through a series of thinly veiled scenarios by a ridiculous secret organisation but who cares – did you see her doing those one-armed pull ups? Now that’s Bionic!
1963 Brought us the delectable secret agent who drove the Lotus Elan, flirted with John Steed and karate chopped her way through more baddies in her tight ‘Emma Peelers.’
Yet the female action heroine on television is nothing new. Cast your mind back to the sixties and you have a bevy of beauties gracing the little box in the living room corner and never mind if they appeared in black and white, they still twirled, kicked and charmed their way into our senses. First up we’ve got Honor Blackman who played Cathy Gale in The Avengers. In 1962 she tumbled into the series as John Steed’s amateur assistant clad in her shiny leather fighting gear. However, for the first time in this increasingly permissive decade she didn’t need rescuing as she could throw the bad guys around herself using Judo. And there is nothing sexier in woman who wears leather than finding yourself on your back after she has chucked you over her shoulder.
How can we mention The Avengers without mentioning Diana Rigg AKA Mrs Emma Peel? 1963 Brought us the delectable secret agent who drove the Lotus Elan, flirted with John Steed and karate chopped her way through more baddies in her tight ‘Emma Peelers.’ Again though, this was no damsel in distress as often she was the one to rescue Steed from a tight spot, the best being machine gunning down an entire firing squad in the ghostly episode, ‘The Living Dead.’ However, what the quirky English television series delivered that nearly gave the prudish American nation a stroke and got itself banned was the episode ‘A Touch of Brimstone.’ Shot in black and white but ignites a blaze of colour in your imagination is the image of Emma Peel in the Hellfire club wearing the outfit she designed herself as The Queen of Sin. Oh dear God! Carried away by the main villain as his plaything, he certainly lives to regret his actions when he tries to bully her with a whip and this is where Mrs Peel comes into her own, she gives the baddie a right good kicking and throws him down a big hole to his death.
From this vibrant British series in the sixties we move on a couple of decades as Hollywood wakes up to the fact that we love a woman who can kick arse. The Amazonian Lucy Lawless fights and completely upstages Hercules in Xena; Warrior Princess as she defends the ancient world from evil in a short leather skirt and thighs that would crush a tree and don’t forget her little blond gal-pal Gabrielle. However, the blond high kicking cutie that really got everyone’s pulses racing was the petite woman who had the speed and strength to fight the vampires, Buffy. Well, Sarah Michelle Geller certainly slayed us with her martial arts antics and pointy stake. When fighting down the hordes of monsters she used a variety of styles with most of her techniques being taken from Taekwondo but don’t forget her slayer nemesis, Faith, the Slayer who turned bad. The dark-haired siren played by Eliza Dushku as the bad girl indulged us by turning to the dark side and there’s nothing we like more than a bad girl holding a stake, especially if she drives a motorbike.
Top Ten Female on Screen Martial Arts Actors
The female martial arts action hero is here to stay and has actually been around in both the east and west from much longer that we’d imagine. After all, who can resist a woman who is beautiful, well dressed and can kick the crap out of a bad guy if he steps out of line! Lesley Jackson looks at her choice top ten female martial arts stars....
Last but not least in the list of television’s luscious action heroines is the purple-haired Leela from Futurama. Often seen kicking in her fictional martial art of Arcturan Kung-Fu we can see past the fact she only has one eye as when you’ve got a body like that, who cares! Leela, the captain of a space ship, is often to be seen with some futuristic firepower and that is something else we like in a woman, the ability to weld a weapon. Men love a woman with a gun, bo staff or stake and as the legendary Gene Hunt in the recent television series ‘Ashes to Ashes’ says to Detective Inspector Alex Drake in her 1980s imaginary world as she is about to lead a raid holding a pistol:
Fun and Entertainment 
The sisters are doing it for themselves as they prove they don’t need us heroes to save them from a sticky situation, but man do we like watching them in action! For the past forty years the goggle-box in the corner of our living room has given us a selection of female martial arts action heroines, all of whom we’d like to get caught in a tight spot with...
delectable secret agent who drove the Lotus Elan, flirted with John Steed and 
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