7cb1d79195 Steed and Emma visit a mysterious coastal town where several agents have vanished, and where the locals are not all they seem. The first episode to feature Diana RiggEmma Peel, the third (!) partner for John Steed (Patrick Macnee) is a fine introduction to what became this series&#39; &quot;golden age.&quot; It was also the first episode to use true motion picture film (instead of the ghostly and unsatisfying video tape- transferred-to-film, which had been used both in the Ian Hendry and Honor Blackman eras), allowing the show to be filmed outdoors and even (as in this episode) on location, opening up the series and giving it an immense infusion of realism.<br/><br/>Brian Clemens&#39; ninth &quot;Avengers&quot; script demonstrates why he was the premiere writer for the series. He grabs the viewer&#39;s attention immediately with a bizarre scene – a figure shrouded in black plastic emerges from the sea; then the plastic is torn open from within to reveal a man in a tweed jacket and tie carrying an umbrella! Equally startling is the bearded man on shore who calmly directs the new arrival to the town of Little Bazeley –if plastic-shrouded figures emerging from the ocean were a daily occurrence. The brooding skies and sometimes gloomy night-time setting in this small village are the perfect accompanimentour intrepid hero and heroine try to find out why four agents have disappeared on assignment to this locale.<br/><br/>Still, if nothing else, this episode also illustrates why the two seasons featuring Diana Rigg are the best of this oddball espionage series that,this season wore one, became something of a comedy-drama. For example, Steed arrives at Mrs. Peel&#39;s apartment, where he&#39;s first confronted by a peephole that appears to be a giant blinking eye, to find her practicing her fencing moves. She&#39;s wearing the first of several of her form-fitting &quot;catsuits,&quot; which would become Mrs. Peel&#39;s trademark during the series, this one with a leather strip down the middle of the front and back. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Steed joins her in her fencing, andthey parry and joust suggests a trip to the seashore – only telling her after she assents that he&#39;d already bought train tickets for the trip the day before.<br/><br/>The rapport and repartee between Macnee and Rigg was alreadynatural and easyif they&#39;d worked together for years. It&#39;s enhanced by some small touches that signaled where the series would go – for example, in the train on their way to Little Bazeley, Steed serves refreshments out of a traveling bag that could justeasily be a prop from one of their later &quot;sci-fi&quot; episodes – at one point providing a boiling tea kettle from a bag that&#39;s just sitting on the seat! Later, in visiting the local vicar, Mrs. Peel again wears her catsuit (along with an odd-looking head covering)if it were a common way to dress in mid-60s Britain.<br/><br/>Even without those touches, though, the episode features a crackerjack mystery,the two agents split up to investigate the strange goings-on in the town, then reunite near the end for the climactic confrontation with the evildoers. Unfortunately, Mrs. Peel doesn&#39;t get to demonstrate the martial-arts moves for which she&#39;d become known – most of her fight scene is just her and another woman (and later, a man) wrestling around a barren room. Steed&#39;s &quot;fight scene&quot; is much funnier – he&#39;s closed off in another room against a half-dozen attackers while the camera sticks with Mrs. Peel; but when she finally reaches him, she discovers that he&#39;s dispatched all of them without breaking a sweat!<br/><br/>Both Patrick Macnee and the lithe and lovely Diana Rigg were already in top form that would carry them through their all-too-short two years together. The episode also features an appearance by Patrick Newell, who in the last year of the original series would become the regular agent-in-charge,the Ironside-like &quot;Mother.&quot; Mention must also be made of an appearance by the fine character actor, Alan MacNaughton, who would later play the memorable character &quot;Howarth&quot; in the 1980s mini-series, &quot;To Serve Them All My Days.&quot; After a long break, &#39;The Avengers&#39; returned to I.T.V. in September 1965 with a new production team ( headed by Julian Wintle ). The show was now on film, allowing for more ambitious plots, Laurie Johnson&#39;s theme ( with its famous kettledrum opening ) replaced John Dankworth&#39;s, and most importantly, Diana Rigg had arrived&#39;Mrs.Emma Peel&#39;, arguably the most famous &#39;Avenger&#39; girl of all ( Elisabeth Shepherd was cast originally, but replaced because she had no flair for light comedy ). Like her predecessor &#39;Mrs.Cathy Gale&#39; ( Honor Blackman ), Emma was a widow, fond of leather suits and karate, and possessed a quick wit. Her relationship with John Steed ( Patrick Macnee ) seemed platonic but there were hints given that it could have been deeper. At the start of the episode, Steed visits her at her flat, and it is obvious they are well acquainted.<br/><br/>The show essentially remained the same - a light-hearted espionage romp that got more outrageousit went on. Several agents have vanished mysteriously from the seaside town of Little Bazeley, so the Avengers investigate. They find it strangely underpopulated. The school is empty because the kids are &#39;on holiday&#39; even though it is mid-term. Parish records have been tampered with. At night the sound of marching can be heard coming from the streets. &#39;Blackwood&#39; ( Patrick Newell ) is there to see his brother Tom, the local blacksmith, from whom he has not heard in a long time. A stranger ( Robert Brown ) has taken his place. Blackwood is then found dead on the beach. Nearby is a deserted R.A.F. base. In an air-raid shelter, Steed and Emma find an army preparing to take over the country one town at a time…<br/><br/>Written by Brian Clemens ( who had risen through the ranks to become associate producer ), this gets the &#39;Emma Peel&#39; era of &#39;The Avengers&#39; off to a strong start. Rather than make concessions to the American market, &#39;The Avengers&#39; decided to be ultra-British - and it worked! The opening in which schools inspector Mark Brandon ( Alan MacNaughtan ) walks out of the sea in a protective bubble probably inspired the scene in the 1998 movie in which Steed and Emma walk across the frozen Thames in transparent globes. Terence Alexander ( &#39;Charlie Hungerford&#39; from &#39;Bergerac&#39; ) plays &#39;Piggy&#39; Warren&#39;, the handle bar moustached-landlord of the inn where the Avengers are staying. He appeared several times in the course of the series, most notably&#39;Ponsonby&#39; in &#39;The Correct Way To Kill&#39;. Robert Brown later played &#39;M&#39; in the Bond movies of the &#39;80&#39;s. Juliet Harmer, who plays the schoolmistress &#39;Jill Manson&#39;, went on to be &#39;Georgie Jones&#39; in the B.B.C.&#39;s &#39;Avengers&#39; rival &#39;Adam Adamant Lives&#39;. Patrick Newell made a further appearance in the show - &#39;Something Nasty In The Nursery&#39; - before climbing into a wheelchair to play &#39;Mother&#39;, Steed&#39;s boss. Jeremy Burnham a.k.a. &#39;the Vicar&#39; - wrote several of the best Linda Thorson episodes.<br/><br/>When repeated on Channel 4 in 1996, Charles Catchpole - then television critic of the &#39;News Of The World&#39; - lambasted it because only a few soldiers were on view instead of an army. He has got to be joking. Many modern series would find it tough to put an army on screen, so how did he expect a show from thirty-five years ago to be able to do this? Directed by Roy Baker, whose credits include the best &#39;Titanic&#39; movie ever - &#39;A Night To Remember&#39; ( 1958 ).
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