Erin Gray

It's been said before but it bears repeating; no young boy ever watched Buck Rogers In The 25th Century for the witty dialogue, fantastic effects or convincing action scenes. It was, naturally, the sight of Col. Wilma Deering in a red Lycra one-piece that guaranteed a Saturday night audience on ITV (the BBC offered only posh piece Lalla Ward as a companion to Dr Who). Model-turned-actress-turned-feminist Gray filled the role both admirably and surprisingly leanly for the '80s (there wasn't an ounce of surplus fat inside that space suit). Who wouldn't take her on for a bit of rough and tumble in the L.A. scrubland which doubled for the polluted futuristic outskirts of New New York? There was always that moment, usually just at the end of an episode, when the stoic Deering would finally give in to the wisecracking Buck and bestow a radiant, beaming smile. Worth waiting for.

Sometime around series two, the convincing military uniforms were dropped in favour of what can only be described as roller-blade diner waitress chic, and her hair turned from honey blonde to chestnut brown. When the scripts lost themselves in study of a similar hue - much pottering around with aged scientist William Hyde-White and a retooled Wilma Deering as damsel-in-distress - the fun faded and the show was axed. From thence, Gray went on to make Silver Spoons and a hundred guest appearances in Magnum P.I., The Fall Guy and other such mundane Glen A Larson fare.

However, for a while there, Erin Gray was the second most-sexy Wilma on the telly (after Mrs Flintstone, obviously). Bi-di bi-di bi-di.