Miss Davies (The Champions)

Miss Davies (no first name given) is a villainess in the British action/crime tv series The Champions (UK 1968 - 9) episode Project zero (first UK broadcast on ITV 12 March 1969). She was played by actress Jan Holden (1931 - 2005). The Champions were 3 secret agents, Craig Stirling (Stuart Damon) Richard Barrett (William Gaunt) and Sharron Macready (Alexandra Bastedo) who possessed a number of extraordinary special powers.

Story -

The sinister Dr Voss (Rupert Davies) is kidnapping scientists who are taken to a remote part of Scotland where they are to create a new super weapon called a fission gun for him. The scientists are deceived into thinking they are working on a government project. The Champions team are tasked with investigating the mysterious disappearance of so many top scientists. Masquerading as scientists themselves, they infiltrate the criminal's Scottish secret base laboratory. They manage to rescue the scientists and sabotage the criminal's scheme, in the course of which the leading villains are killed.

Role in the story -

Miss Davies is henchwoman to Dr Voss, seemingly in charge of security and other matters at the secret lab/ base.

Appearance and character -

Miss Davies is a classy looking, attractive ash blonde in her 30s, with large, very pale blue eyes. She comes across as a matter of fact, cold blooded, and ruthless. She tortures Richard Barrett for information, seeming to be indifferent to any suffering she may cause, though we don't see her getting any particular pleasure from it - so she is very callous, but probably not actually a sadist.

Fate -

The Champions instigate a rebellion by the scientists and they manage to take over the base. However, Dr Voss and Miss Davies escape to the plane outside, which contains the completed fission gun. The villains intend using the gun on the base (where Stirling, Barrett and the scientists have been locked in) killing all who are inside. However, Sharron Macready had sabotaged the weapon earlier, so that when the criminals try to use the fission gun to exterminate the base, the plane is blown to pieces instead, killing Dr Voss, Miss Davies, and the aircrew.

Viewpoint -

The Champions had a low count when it came to villainesses/henchwomen, especially ones that had a significant role in the story. Miss Davies is something of an exception then. It's a part that has nothing in it which could not have been equally played by a man, so it's nice that they didn't do that here and gave Jan Holden a chance to display some female villainy on the series. Jan Holden played villainesses in a few 60's UK TV shows (The Avengers, The Baron), and like her contemporaries Justine Lord, Yolande Turner and Patricia Haines, her looks, voice, and manner could readily suggest an attractive woman with a cold blooded, unsympathetic personality. The torture scene is a moment where a less callous kind of villainess would often have started to show some scruples and divided loyalties in these sorts of action dramas, but Miss Davies remains quite indifferent - not necessarily enjoying torturing, but treating it as "all in a day's work". The demise of Miss Davies, in the plane is a disappointingly anonymous exit for one of the more notable 1960's British TV villainesses.

Miss Davies (The Champions)

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