I hope there’s a tinge of disgrace about me. Hopefully, there’s one good scandal left in me yet.
Dame Diana Rigg
Thus begins the first line of One Tough Dame, a promising start to Herbie Pilato’s deep dive into the life and career of the boldly charming British actress. A much beloved seven-time Emmy nominee, Rigg’s acting career spanned just over sixty years at the time of her passing in 2020. Her most well-known roles include the secret spy Emma Peel in The Avengers (1965–1968), Mrs. James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), and Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017). Diana Rigg also demonstrated a great love for theater and acted in many productions, including Medea (1993–1994) on the West End and Broadway, My Fair Lady (2018) on Broadway, and several London productions of Shakespeare’s works. All of this to say that it is an unfathomable mystery to me how I never heard of such an accomplished and famous woman before reading this book.
Tales of Diana’s charm and wit appear in abundance, but I find her confidence and ability to know her own worth the most inspiring. While filming The Avengers in the 1960s, Rigg discovered that she not only made less money than her male co-star but she was also making less than the cameraman. As she once said about the situation, “If something is unjust you have to fight it” and fight it she did, despite being villainized by the press and the entertainment industry for speaking out about this pay gap. I find the quotes from Diana Rigg absolutely delightful and the most redeeming quality of the book at large. Especially memorable contributions also come from Diana Rigg’s family and friends, such her daughter Rachel, whose words beautifully describe the heartwarming yet devastating experience of her mother’s passing in 2020.
But apart from these inclusions, Pilato elects to feature an overwhelming sea of different voices to the point of confusion within a text supposedly written by him. It is frankly baffling how extensive the appearance of these quotes are, particularly when it comes to reviews of Rigg’s work. These review sources derive from just about every corner of the internet, including sites such as amazon.com, screenrant.com, imdb.com, commonsensemedia.org, letterboxd.com, and on and on and on. While this variety could potentially provide insight, this incessant inclusion of online reviews feels unnecessary and a misuse of the book’s 256-page count. The frequency and length of these contributions begin to wear on the reader, as the page turns, time and time again, only to be met with entire page-long quotations. Much of what Pilato does write himself is only there to introduce a quote by providing context or he is simply linking one quote to the next. Now, to his credit, I can confidently say that, as someone who was entirely unfamiliar with Diana Rigg, I did learn a great deal about her acting career and her personality, as well. It is admirable that Pilato seeks to leave “no turn unstoned” (the quippy title of Diana Rigg’s book) in covering Rigg’s work, but it does feel excessive that he discusses nearly sixty of her acting credits chronologically and in a fairly in-depth manner. Pilato is clearly passionate about Rigg and her work, but unfortunately these detailed and lengthy plot descriptions bulk up the book and get repetitive.
For instance, on pages 80 and 81 of One Tough Dame, the author focuses on Diana Rigg’s role in Theater of Blood (1973), a comedy-horror movie. For context, the movie is extremely meta in depicting a disgruntled Shakespearean actor and his daughter (Diana Rigg), who seek murderous revenge against critics. While this is an interesting premise and a notable project in Diana Rigg’s career, Pilato gets sidetracked in the weeds of the plot description as he rattles off a long list detailing how every murder within the movie occurs. He describes ten deaths and each of the ten Shakespearean deaths that they mirror, taking up close to an entire page, as he so often does with these unnecessary additions. This would be a more minor distraction if only this did not so frequently occur throughout the book, ultimately plaguing the flow of it and dulling the reader’s experience. Pilato is nothing if not thorough, but he has created what I would call the perfect coffee table book, one that is not digestible in a few sittings but also not likely to entice a reader to pick it up for too long before growing bored and putting it back down.
While Pilato tends to get lost in the text, a quote from the woman herself is always strategically placed around the corner to pull you back in. She speaks bluntly and honestly in sharing her experiences and doling out bits of wisdom wrapped in a funny story. It’s no surprise that these quotes are my favorite part of the book, but I dare say Herbie Pilato must feel the same. Despite his many missteps, his love and admiration for Diana Rigg is unmistakable. Pilato functions as a collector rather than an author as he synthesizes a large number of sources to give as much information as possible about Diana Rigg’s acting career. While I believe Pilato’s execution could have been better, he nevertheless pays homage to the fascinating, playful, and heartfelt story of Diana Rigg. Thanks to One Tough Dame, her memory lives on with an opportunity not just to learn about a legend, but also to get to know the woman behind the image.
Author Biography
Elizabeth Stengell is a current senior at the Georgia Institute of Technology majoring in Literature, Media, and Communications. She is a member of the Georgia Tech Online Editorial Board for a spring 2025 dossier of Film Matters Online and greatly enjoys all things cinema and literature.
Book Details
One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg, Herbie J. Pilato (2024)
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 256pp., ISBN: 978-1496837974 (hbk), $35.00
