The Avengers - You Have Just Been Murdered ( 1967 )

Terence Canote, the blogger behind A Shroud of Thoughts, is hosting the 8th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon and this year I could not resist sharing an episode from one of the best British shows of the 1960s - The Avengers. 

The Avengers were comprised of the crime-fighting duo of John Steed ( Patrick MacNee ), a dapper English gentleman, and his good friend and colleague Mrs. Emma Peel ( Diana Rigg ), a spunky young woman with a talent for karate. Together, they worked as field agents for the "Ministry", a top-top secret intelligence agency that handled highly unusual cases involving British defense and security. 

Unlike most crime dramas of the era, The Avengers was unique because the cases were strange and uncommon. For example, in The Bird Who Knew Too Much, they had to track down a missing parrot who memorized information about a secret missile base; in The Man-Eater of Surrey Green they tangled with a man-eating plant from outer space; in Dead Man's Treasure, they partook in a treasure hunt on a car rally to retrieve secret papers; and in The Cybernauts, had to wrestle with a robotic killer (!). Yet, our intrepid heroes handled all of these strange occurrences with customary British nonchalant efficiency and a good deal of humor. 

The Avengers ran for six seasons, between 1961 and 1969 with Honor Blackman co-starring with Patrick MacNee in the first three seasons and Linda Thorson taking over in the last season. Like most of the show's legion of fans, I feel the best episodes were from the "Emma Peel Era" with Dame Diana Rigg, especially the color episodes of 1967....which brings us to You Have Just Been Murdered, Episode 21 of Season 5. 

In this classic, Steed receives a call from millionaire Gilbert Jarvis asking to have a word with him about a private matter. He tells Steed he has "just been murdered". A fair-haired well-suited man broke into his apartment and shot him! Only he didn't. It was a fake killing. But the intruder leaves an ominous calling card with only the words You Have Just Been Murdered printed on it. 

At a cocktail party at George Unwin's mansion, Steed and Mrs. Peel have a chat with Lord Maxted, chairman of British Banking, who informs them that a number of his clients have suddenly withdrawn £1,000,000 in cash. Sounds like blackmail. Gilbert Jarvis has just requested a million-pound withdrawal as well, which leads Steed to dash over to Jarvis' apartment...only to find that he has just been murdered - this time for real. 

The Avengers' cases are not mysteries that you are intended to solve. Quite the contrary, usually the audience sees what is happening and it is Steed and Mrs. Peel who need to put the pieces of the puzzle together to find the criminal. In this case, we clearly see that multiple millionaires are being threatened by mock stagings of their own death. If they pay the £1,000,000 blackmail, they will be left alone, otherwise, they die. 

It's a clever premise for an episode, one of many clever plots penned by Philip Levene for the series. He was the screenwriter behind other Avengers classics such as From Venus With Love, The Fear Merchants, Death's Door, Something Nasty in the Nursery, and Return of the Cybernauts. 

After Jarvis' death, the other victims of this blackmailing killer are doubly alarmed....but, in typical British fashion, not afraid enough to pay the ransom and "give in to the scoundrel". When George Unwin ( Barrie Ingham ) becomes the next target, Steed urges him to let Mrs. Peel and himself take the matter in their own hands, but Unwin insists he can defend himself and puts in a good effort, too. 

What makes this episode so enjoyable is its most ingenious plot and its appealing villian: the boisterous and scheming Mr. Needle, admirably played by George Murcell, a very familiar face in British television during the 1960s. The banter between Steed and Mrs. Peel and the location filming around Elstree ( especially Tyke's Water Lake ) are an added plus that make for an altogether delightful bit of viewing. 

To see a full list of The Avengers episodes, check out Wikipedia's summary here. And if you really want to explore the series, then stop by these two fan sites, which have some excellent material to gander at: 

The Avengers Fan Site 

The Avengers Forever 

And lastly, but not leastly, be sure to head on over to A Shroud of Thoughts to read more entries in The 8th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon. 

In This House of Brede ( 1975 )

"There is only one special friend here in this house for any of us. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'. This is the first and greatest commandment."

In 1975, Diana Rigg starred in the two-hour GE Theater production In This House of Brede as widow Philippa, a successful middle-aged London businesswoman who leaves "the world" to enter Brede Abbey, a Benedictine monastery, as a cloistered nun. 

This CBS television movie was loosely based on author Rumer Godden's engrossing masterpiece of the same name which was published in 1969. Both the novel and the film span a ten-year period and focus on Philippa's growth from a cold bitter woman to a compassionate and loving nun. 

When we first meet Philippa she is stern-faced, independent, and not particularly likable. She comes to Brede for the wrong reasons. She comes seeking a refuge from her past, "a place where God would be all and there would be no need of ever saying 'I love you' to another human being again". And then Joanna arrives. This sweet young novice makes Philippa realize just how deeply she longs for the love of the daughter that was taken from her years before. 

Philippa thought she could leave the memory of her daughter's death behind her but Sister Joanna's presence serves as a living symbol of the event. At first, she despises the girl for that reason but as her hatred transforms into love she comes to see Joanna as a gift from God ( the Biblical meaning of the name Joanna )....until Sister Agnes informs the abbess of their affection for each other. Special friendships within the community were frowned upon by the order. Philippa then realizes she must break away from Joanna. 

"It is such a bother loving people.....one always suffers in the end" 

In Godden's novel, Philippa was just one part of a rich complex tapestry that centered around the true heart of the novel - Brede itself. It is a beautiful novel that contains stories within stories, all of which unfold randomly, slowly revealing personalities and messages of wisdom. 

An accurate transcription to film of such a narrative would have resulted in an immense production - but it would have made a fabulous mini-series. Instead, to condense the story to its two-hour time frame, screenwriter James Costigan eliminated many of the characters and shifted the focus on Philippa's struggle to overcome her grief; rewriting the story to accommodate this. The resulting script had its good and bad points. While Costigan managed in part to capture the essence of the book, certain scenes were overly sentimental and the behavior of some of the nuns seemed improbable. 

In the novel, one of the more prominent characters was Sister Cecily, an angelically beautiful postulant that quickly becomes a favorite with Abbess Catherine and Dame Maura, the precentrix. Costigan eliminated the character of Dame Maura and cleverly transformed the bond she shares with Sister Cecily into a mother-daughter relationship between Dame Philippa and Sister Cecily, whom he renamed Joanna....which so happens to have been the name of Philippa's deceased daughter. As New York Times critic John J. O'Connor described this reworking, "It's a trifle too pat, considerably more calculating and less interesting. That much understood, In this House of Brede still emerges as inspired television." 

Indeed, it is an excellent production, and it is one of those rare films that saves its best moments for the final quarter. Cinematographer Christopher Challis ( Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ) beautifully photographed it, and the cast and crew traveled to the small village of Millstreet in County Cork, Ireland to film scenes amidst the authentic background of Drishane Convent, an impressive structure that serves a majestic purpose. This building becomes as much a part of the film as any of the characters. 

Dame Diana Rigg, who, for her part, was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress ( Juliet Mills won for QB VII that year ), enacted the spiritual growth of Dame Philippa with great conviction. 

In This House of Brede also benefited from top-notch performances from Judi Bowkers as Sister Joanna, Denis Quilley as Philippa's former lover Sir Richard, and Nicholas Clay. Gwen Watford ( Cleopatra, Taste the Blood of Dracula ) perfectly captured the strong yet gentle and understanding nature of Abbess Catherine, while veteran English actress Pamela Brown ( I Know Where I'm Going, Lust for Life ) was an ideal Dame Agnes, intelligent but with a dangerously suspicious mind. 

"Whenever things seem too much for you, go down to the bottom of the garden and turn, and look back up here at Brede riding against the sky like a great proud ship. And think of all of us within - your sisters. Think of those who were here a hundred years ago and those who will be here a hundred years from now: this long unbroken line of care and companionship."

Click here to view In This House of Brede on Youtube. 

Dead Man's Treasure - The Avengers ( 1967 )

The Avengers has long been one of my favorite television series, so, when A Shroud of Thoughts announced the 3nd annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon, I naturally chose to write about a classic from the 1965-1967 "Emma Peel Era" of The Avengers - "Dead Man's Treasure". 

This episode features Ministry agents John Steed ( Patrick MacNee ) and Mrs. Emma Peel ( Diana Rigg ) embarking on a motor rally in order to retrieve a top-top secret paper from you-know-where that a courier hid in a treasure chest, which happens to be the prize for winning the rally. However, this top-hush document is not so secret after all, and information of its whereabouts has leaked out....not only to the enemy agents who murdered the courier, but to a third agent as well. Hence, Steed and Mrs. Peel must not only match driving skills with their competitors, but also contend with a deadly killer on the rally. 

"Steed Rallies Around,

Emma Drives for Herself "

Treasure rallies have been around since the late 1940s, but few movies or television shows feature this fun sport ( with the exception of Walt Disney's Diamond on Wheels ), so "Dead Man's Treasure" is an especial treat to a rally enthusiast like myself. Unlike regular rallies that have teams ( made up of a driver and navigator ) who try to reach certain checkpoints within a precise time slot, treasure rallies instead have these drivers put their puzzle-solving skills to use and solve riddles to find the location of their next checkpoint. The first team to solve their way to discovering the final destination is the winner. If you ever participated in a treasure rally you would know that it is a thrilling jaunt that takes you to locations you never knew existed in your hometown. 

In Steed and Emma's case, the clues take them to some familiar and typically quaint English locations that were used in other Avengers episodes, such as the village of Aldbury ( a.k.a. Little Storping in the Swuff from "Murdersville" ) and Benstead's house ( Shenley Hall in Hertfordshire ) which also was Jordan's house in "The Bird Who Knew Too Much". 

 "Swingingdale.....get a move on!"

All of The Avengers episodes have such intriguing beginnings but "Dead Man's Treasure" ranks among the best with the courier, having just been shot, racing towards Steed's flat to stagger in and utter the words "red....treasure chest" just before expiring. The series had a no-blood rule ( something that should be implemented in many of today's television shows ), but for this episode they broke the rule for drama's sake. Steed and Emma manage to deduce that the "red treasure chest" the courier had mentioned must in some way be connected to the invitation to the rally, and so they attend it. Once at the rally they do not expect to have new partners assigned to them. Poor Steed is stuck with Miss Penny ( Valerie Van Ost ) who enjoys rattling on about her numerous ex-husbands, while Emma is partnered with Mike ( Norman Bowler ) an affable young man at first, who later takes dangerous measures to ensure he wins the prize. Neil McCarthy and Edwin Richfield also star as two particularly amusing villains who are bent on sabotaging their competition. 

It is the location settings in this episode, the spunky Mancini-esque background music, and the light-hearted way that Emma and Steed handle the race that makes this such a fun way to spend an hour, but "Dead Man's Treasure" also features some witty lines that are up to the usual Avengers-class standard. For example, when a heavy parcel arrives for Steed in the mail, Emma inquires "Lead weights for your diving boots?", to which Steed replies, "Rock cakes from my Auntie Penelope". Steed takes a glance at Miss Penny's legs while racing towards a checkpoint and, distracted, he unintentionally makes a sudden turn, quickly saying "Short skirt.....er, short cut!". High octane stuff!

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If you have not yet discovered the wit and tongue-in-cheek hijinks of The Avengers, be sure to give the series a try. To learn more about The Avengers and check out reviews of episodes like "Dead Man's Treasure", click here. Also, stop by A Shroud of Thoughts to read other blogger's reviews of their favorite television episodes.