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Post by MS on Jul 29, 2015 19:16:33 GMT -5
Trojan Horse:
Season 3, Episode 20.
The setting of this episode is at a racetrack in which the episode title alludes to.
Not bad episode about jockeys as assassins.
Coincidentally some days after watching this episode saw Glue 1.4 Tina/Dominic and that too also had a horse race in it.
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Post by MS on Aug 7, 2015 17:35:33 GMT -5
Build a Better Mousetrap: Season 3, Episode 21. Enjoyable episode with two kooky sisters, a motorcycle gang and the plot about a nuclear facility.
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Post by MS on Aug 13, 2015 23:13:56 GMT -5
The Outside-In Man: Season 3, Episode 22. A spy long thought to be dead suddenly comes back alive. Here he carries out an assassination assignment on a dictator that he was originally given not long before he was thought to have died even though orders on this assassination has since been cancelled. What ensues is not anyone expected and brilliant revelation at that.
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Post by MS on Aug 19, 2015 21:16:10 GMT -5
The Charmers: Season 3, Episode 23. Remade as the Emma Peel episode The Correct Way To Kill. Agents from both sides of the Iron Curtain joined forces to find the third party who has been killing their agents. Steed and Cathy have basically undergoes an exchange programme in their tasks to find the third party. Quite fun that Steed is paired up with Olga. In retrospect should not be surprise that the Warren Mitchell character turned out to be the real villain.
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Post by MS on Aug 28, 2015 21:37:30 GMT -5
Concerto: Antepenultimate episode of season 3. A pianist gets framed for murder of a young girl who in turn was framing him for sexual assault. It seems somewhat bizarre that a perceived sexual assault got presented on this programme that was broadcast in 1964. Absolutely very good mystery that was explored culminating in an assassination attempt on the Trade Minister. Nigel Stock was very fun as Zalenko including what he learnt from watching British television. Zalenko also mentioned that there hasn't been a successful political assassination in Britain since 1812. This was in reference to the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Percival that year.
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Post by MS on Sept 3, 2015 18:31:55 GMT -5
Lobster Quadrille: Season 3 finale. Cathy Gale's swansong and to mark this occasion I had lobster flavoured noodles whilst watching this episode as per its title. Guest stars Jennie Linden and Corin Redgrave as a couple. This casting is somewhat of a curio to Doctor Who fans as Jennie Linden played Barbara in Dr Who and the Daleks and Redgrave's daughter Jemma later played Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in the Doctor Who TV series. In somewhat of a sad coincidence this episode had its US debut on April 6 1991 and Corin Redgrave would die exactly 19 years later in 2010. Not a bad swansong for Cathy and for a moment I thought she got killed in a fire but thankfully she survived. Honor Blackman (Cathy) left The Avengers to work on Goldfinger and on-screen her departure is marked by Cathy going on holiday and declining Steed's request to look into a case whilst on this holiday. In reference to Honor Blackman's then upcoming role as girl thingy Galore in Goldfinger, Steed says that Cathy will be "...girl thingyfooting along those sun-soaked shores..."! Nice farewell for Cathy and it has been nice knowing her.
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Post by MS on Sept 7, 2015 22:47:09 GMT -5
The Murder Market: Season 4, Episode 7. It seems somewhat fortuitous that having already seen the previous six episodes of the first Emma Peel season many years ago that this episode happens to be the first Emma episode that got produced. Steed and Emma investigates a marriage bureau following untimely deaths that is connected with it. This was a very enjoyable debut episode for Diana Rigg as Emma in front of the camera and certainly a surprise on who is truly behind these murders. Impressive on Emma escaping from her funeral and clearly shows the enthusiastic energy from Diana Rigg in taking on Emma in this her first performance of the character.
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Post by MS on Sept 10, 2015 17:22:22 GMT -5
A Surfeit of H20: Season 4, Episode 8. Guest stars the lovely Sue Lloyd who I absolutely adore and love. She should not be confused with Suzanne Lloyd who incidentally was in the previous episode The Murder Market. Unlike a lot of guest actors who appeared in The Avengers, this was Sue's only appearance in TV Avengers. She did however played Steed's partner Hannah Wild in the short-lived stage play of The Avengers and here is a picture of her as Hannah: declassified.theavengers.tv/images/stage/gallery_sue_lloyd.jpg In A Surfeit of H20, Steed and Emma investigated a literally killer rain. In contrast to this rain I saw this episode on a completely sunny day. A well handled episode including the plot use of the killer rain.
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Post by MS on Sept 18, 2015 2:41:24 GMT -5
Dial A Deadly Number: Season 4, Episode 10. Key businessmen have suddenly dropped dead and Steed and Emma investigate these deaths. The method in the killing of these business was pretty neat and one of these perpetrators sure acted with panic when Steed was playing around it when he taunted her on it. The end scene was funny when Emma tasted a wine and Steed asked her how she came up with the correct answer of what it is by smell or taste and said that it was her eyes as she read it on the label!
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Post by MS on Sept 20, 2015 17:25:46 GMT -5
Two's A Crowd:
Season 4, Episode 12.
Steed poses as an imposter of himself as part of his investigation on a Russian spy called Psev.
Steed as his own imposter even convinces Emma of this as that was part of the plan.
Steed doing a double identical act on his own was a little bit confusing along the way but still enjoyable including the villains here being defeated by a toy plane!
Incidentally a main character pretending to be his own imposter would later be used by Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders episode Greensleeves.
Greensleeves is written by Terence Feely who himself was a writer of The Avengers but he did not write Two's A Crowd.
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Post by MS on Sept 23, 2015 0:50:00 GMT -5
Silent Dust: Season 4, Episode 14. An intriguing start to the episode with birds dropping dead. Afterwards the episode kinds of muddle through. I wasn’t quite sure what Steed’s dream of Emma as a moustached man had to do in the context episode but it was a bit amusing. Quite fun seeing Steed and Emma horseriding whilst dealing with the villains. Amusing the episode ends with Steed and Emma on a balloon with uncertainly whether they can get back down safely.
Coincidentally shortly after watching Silent Dust saw Degrassi 13.8 Young Forever which also ended with a balloon but of a small kind and not carrying any passengers.
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Post by MS on Oct 2, 2015 3:31:10 GMT -5
Room Without A View: Season 4, Episode 15. The episode title refers to a hotel where brainwashing has been performed by enemy agents. Coincidentally I have been watching on DVD the Doctor Who story Talons of Weng-Chiang and like this Avengers episode feature Chinese characters played by not so Chinese actors. Not a really spectacular episode as it muddles through and Chessman is rather too vain to be a very good villain.
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Post by MS on Oct 19, 2015 20:35:24 GMT -5
Last week on the Schlocky Horror Picture Show on Television Sydney (TVS) screened Q Planes.
Host Nigel Honeybone said that this movie inspired the James Bond films and The Avengers. With the latter he said that he is not talking about the comics but the TV series starring Patrick Macnee (and not he says Patrick Magee from A Clockwork Orange).
With The Avengers images it included Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson (although Honeybone did not remember Thorson's name) and for The New Avengers it included a picture of Joanna Lumley.
With The Avengers, Honeybone made an error in saying that the Macnee character originally starred in Police Surgeon before being spun-off to The Avengers.
On The Avengers, Honeybone says that Macnee's first companion was played by Ian Hendry (as Dr David Keel).
Honeybone got things backwards with McNee and Hendry because it was Hendry who was the Police Surgeon as a different character and in fact Police Surgeon is unrelated to The Avengers.
It was Hendry who was the original lead actor of The Avengers with Macnee in the first season. Hendry however left The Avengers after the first season and then Macnee took over the lead of the show.
Honeybone also made an error in saying that The Avengers producer Brian Clemens was creator of The Avengers. The Avengers was instead created by Sydney Newman (also creator of Doctor Who).
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Post by MS on Nov 6, 2015 21:30:32 GMT -5
Olivia Poulet is Emma Peel for Big Finish's The Avengers series: scifibulletin.com/2015/11/06/olivia-poulet-is-big-finishs-mrs-peel/ Olivia Poulet had previously performed for Big Finish for their Doctor Who range in Requiem for the Rocket Men & Planet of the Rani. I am currently seeing her in The Thick of It which also featured Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi.
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Post by MS on Nov 24, 2015 0:40:07 GMT -5
The Girl From Auntie: Season 4, Episode 17. The episode title is an obvious allusion to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which ran concurrently with The Avengers. However unlike UNCLE, Auntie is not the name of an organisation but the name of the (male) villain. Other connections between The Avengers & The Man From U.N.C.L.E. can be read here: theavengers.tv/forever/peel1-17.htm
Diana Rigg only has a limited appearance here as Emma Peel as she got abducted. Instead we have Georgie Price-Jones (Liz Fraser) who got hired by Auntie whom she did not meet to impersonate Emma. However Georgie ultimately helps out Steed to find the real Emma. Also guest stars Bernard Cribbins and Sylvia Coleridge. The Girl From Auntie has some similarities with the Doctor Who story City of Death as both featured the Mona Lisa and the first folio of Hamlet. City of Death is a Fourth Doctor story and the said Bernard Cribbins could have been in that story as the Fourth Doctor if by his own admission had not blown his chances to become the Doctor when he stated how violent he wanted his Doctor to be which was contrary to the vision of the Doctor Who producer at the time Barry Letts. Enjoyable episode in which Steed and Georgie made for a good team with Emma indisposed for much of the episode. Also surprising and a little bit disturbing what the aunties turned out to be.
Coincidentally last week saw the Schlocky Horror Picture Show screening of Horror Express on Television Sydney (TVS) in which host Nigel Honeybone mentioned that Horror Express cast member Telly Savalas had played Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in which he killed Emma Peel. Honeybone meant that Diana Rigg,with a picture of her being shown, was in that movie in she indeed met her demise thanks to Blofeld played by Savalas.
Shortly after finding out that Olivia Poulet is Emma Peel for Big Finish I realised that she also plays another Emma in The Thick of It although I don't think this very fact was intentional to her casting as Emma Peel.
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