David Cameron can learn from The Avengers

Sinclair McKay says the Tory leader could do worse than emulate his fellow Old Etonian — the elegant, ruthless, cucumber-cool TV hero John Steed

Who is David Cameron’s role model? No one quite knows. Of course Dave would like to be a British Obama, but that’s a little far-fetched (for obvious reasons), so here’s another candidate, just as cool as the President but more up Cameron’s street. Like Cameron he’s an Old Etonian but a social progressive; like Cameron he’s a fashionable man-about-town. Basically, Dave couldn’t have a better hero than John Steed of The Avengers. Steed’s an example of how an unabashed posh chap can win over the entire British nation — plus the US as well. Indeed, a close viewing of Steed’s exploits could provide Mr Cameron with many useful top tips for power.

You remember The Avengers. As its star Patrick Macnee once remarked, it was a series about ‘a man who wears a bowler hat and a woman who throws men over her shoulder’.