The Avengers International Fan Forum

Guillaume · Thingumajig Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Posts: 95

just MY favourite episode...

n°1...always.

tension,suspense.

total adoration of fenton grenville !

mariocki · Winged Avenger Joined: 04 Sep 2008 Posts: 512

Who would have thought he would end up advertising stairlifts and sofas eh?
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anti-clockwise · Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:21 pm Post subject:

anti-clockwise · Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:21 pm Post subject:

Guillaume · Thingumajig Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Posts: 95

darren · Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:26 pm Post subject:

He was about 31 when he did this episode.

anti-clockwise · Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:51 pm Post subject:

Rodders · Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 11:55 am Post subject:

magnificent, terrifying, like a stage play crackling with malevolent energy.
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Lhbizness · Guest

Grand episode all around, with not just one but four fabulous villains, all with their own brand of smarminess. Grenville reminds me of James Bond gone bad, in the best possible way, and he's good match for Steed. I love their little competition at the dinner table and Grenville's evident relish in trying to kill the man who bested him. It's sort of Steed's version of The Joker/Don't Look Behind You. Tara, of course, shows up just in time to get herself tied up, though at least she demonstrates one moment of cleverness in all this. But the episode belongs to Steed, through and through, and Macnee proves that he carry it.

One caveat is their little plot to assassinate the foreign minister (?). It seems like a painfully elaborate way of going about it, though if we take the idea that Grenville's just a sadist, then I guess it makes sense. Then there's Tara's inability to be apart from Steed for more than a day without writing him letters, but that's par for the course.

Might have been slightly improved by keeping to Steed's perspective rather than giving us much of the plot at the start before Steed arrives. It would have extended the mystery and allowed the viewer to occupy the same position of Steed as he figures it all out (as they do in The Joker and Don't Look Behind You).

All in all, a spectacular Steed episode. There should have been more like this.

Frankymole · Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 1:19 am Post subject:

I am glad you liked it, it is a nice example of The Avengers still managing to come up with something new within its "format". I think Tom Adams (Grenville) got to play a Bond style "hero" in some cheap espionage films of the time, so the Bondishness of his villain is a great observation. I like to think this is how Steed and Bond might have been at loggerheads if they ever met. Bond, overconfident with his superficial details of composers and other high-class fripperies, Steed having subsumed such aristocratic hauteur early in his life and moved on to more moral and humanistic pursuits whilst never being afraid of pleasure or overly elevating the 'perfection' of self-denial. Steed actually lives life, whilst Grenville analyses it.
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Lhbizness · Guest

I love anything that features badass Steed and his sideburns. Bonus points for not having to deal with Tara. Wink

Adams actually reminds me a lot of Jean Dujardin, who also played an overconfident secret agent in the OSS 117 films. Grenville's characterization makes me angry from the word go, which is great for the episode. I think you're quite right: Grenville wants to be a man like Steed, but is incapable of it. He pretends to be an aesthete, uses overly aristocratic language, and cannot stand being bested. One of the great attractions of Steed's character is that he's masculine without ever trying to prove it.

Rhonda · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 12:19 pm Post subject:

3 from me. Like the quizes.
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Last Watched : Stop Me If You've Heard This One, But There Were These Two Fellers...

darren · Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 2:40 am Post subject:

I randomly decided to stick this one on.

It's such an unusual and strong thriller of an episode.

Patrick Macnee shows what a superb dramatic actor he was - the subtlety with which you see him noticing that things are wrong whilst playing the eccentric dandy socialite!

Ian Wegg · Have Fingers... Will Type! Joined: 15 Sep 2011 Posts: 417

I was dreading coming here to write a review, I knew I was going to be out on my own. Almost ... I find myself in the rare position of agreeing with Ron.

Liked the vintage car in the hallway and the LWB truck cab Land Rover.
Nice to see John Comer, shame he was killed off in the first few minutes.

Otherwise 50 minutes of tedium broken only by the glaring continuity error of Circe shaking hands with Tara with her right hand.

The ending was a joy, in the same way as an extraction is a joy after toothache.

I could see that this would be an episode that people would love but for me the overall enjoyment level was very low.

3/10

dissolute · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 9:33 pm Post subject:

I've always felt this wasn't an Avengers episode at all, it's too nasty.
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Ian Wegg · Have Fingers... Will Type! Joined: 15 Sep 2011 Posts: 417

darren · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 4:34 am Post subject:

It's psychologically nasty. It gets at you due to the manners of the house invaders. If they were properly thuggish and brutish, it would seem more natural. It's the unease and tension that arises from their politeness (There's a much better word but it's not coming to me presently).

I've always found Murdersville nastier. The villagers aren't diabolical masterminds, they're just simple village folk who got greedy - Mickel and Hubert being in some particularly unpleasant scenes where they're deliberately enjoying tormenting Forbes before they kill him.

I like Take Over a lot but it's not at atmosphere or tone I'd want the whole show to have.

johnnybear · Thingumajig Joined: 01 Feb 2021 Posts: 62

Hilary Pritchard was another of those beauties who should have made more appearances in the series! Tom Adams obviously knew a good looking woman when he saw one even if she wasn't interested in him! she died in 1996 I believe!
JB