MAXINE GORDON celebrates the return of Charlie's Angels.

ONCE upon a time there were three little girls who went to the Police Academy... So began the story of Charlie's Angels - and my love affair with the hit TV show from the Seventies.

The Spice Girls may have ranted on about Girl Power, but the catch-phrase really belonged to Charlie's Angels.

For those of you too young to remember, the Angels were three stunning police women-turned-private investigators, who worked for mysterious boss Charlie.

And we'd never seen anything like them. More high-kicks and hair-flicks than wings and halos, they were an overnight sensation. Gunslinging went hand in hand with glamour as the Angels turned what was traditionally a man's world into a girl's one - with the aid of as much lip-gloss as lip.

And in this world, they were joined by other TV female action heroines such as Wonder Woman and the Bionic Woman. But what made the Angels so special - and their appeal so enduring - was that Charlie's trio were real gals. They didn't need a magic cape or a microchip to give them the power to triumph over evil. No, it was their mix of charm, kung-fu chops and good old-fashioned sleuthing that crowned them the girls on top.

As for the Angels themselves, a huge part of their appeal was that they were three very different characters, which women could identify with and men could dream about.

Sure, they were crude stereotypes - pretty blonde Jill (Farrah Fawcett), curvy brunette Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) and wise head girl Sabrina (Kate Jackson) - but we didn't mind.

After all, what young woman didn't want to be a Charlie's Angel?

Farrah Fawcett's hairdo - all long layers and soft flicks - was the most copied in its day and the Angels' outfits were trend setters.

As a youngster, I remember spending many a happy hour playing at Charlie's Angels with my sister and cousin. We didn't have the Farrah hairdo, but we did have toy guns, complete with caps, which we'd fire at every imaginary baddie in our neighbourhood.

But there was only one problem. We'd have to take it in turns to play our favourite: Sabrina. After all, she was the one who got to wear the trousers and what use was Girl Power if you couldn't get to be the boss?

I must have been nine when I stayed up late with my family to watch the first ever episode of the show back in the late Seventies - and yet I remember it as if it were yesterday.

Like many other fans, I tuned in to watch the special Charlie's Angels night on Channel Four earlier this year, and I'll admit the re-runs of the show proved it was very much of its time. From the vantage point of the super-sophisticated 21st century, Charlie's Angels looks cheesy and, dare I say it, naff. They could do with a make-over. And so I'm hugely looking forward to the new Charlie's Angels movie - already a box office hit in the States - with its new generation of high-kicking heroines: Natalie, Dylan and Alex (actresses Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu).

As we might expect, the Angels have been re-created as thoroughly modern millennium Millies, with special skills listed as computer hacking, skydiving and wizardry with high-tech gadgets.

But I'm delighted to discover some things never change - they are still experts in martial arts, which means they can still give the baddie a good kicking.