The Significant Props
of Season 5 (1967-8)

The Avengers
Page 4

Still to come: radios, controls, model boat

Hospital
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Another dingy county hospital. Avengerland seems to be full of drab institutional buildings like this, but I'm not sure of the standards of hygiene in these places.


©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

clue
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MOT-NRU, what could it mean? I'm surprised the doctor doesn't know, as it's just up the road; and a little local investigating would have turned it up straight away, saving Mrs Peel a trip to London. Maybe she had some shopping to do.

Stone's cottage
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

A little place in the country. Literally. Actually, a little place inside Studio 4, note the brickwork and the architrave - you'll see them on every second building in the show. notice that the backdrop of muted woods and fields turns up again in the background of the more obviously fake "exteriors" in the episode "Epic" (below).

Stone's Diary
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Confessions of an Opium Eater. Confessions of a re-animator, more like!
A hefty clue for Steed to follow up on, but he leaves it up to Mrs Peel to investigate while he trundles round to the NRU...

NRU signs
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Ah-ha! Ministry of Technology, Neoteric Research Unit. It's all fitting into place now.
There's something fishy here, why are transistor radios expressly forbidden?

Aerial Cottage
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Aerial Cottage, home of George Eccles and his many radios. Note the quaint old tin mailbox which has been elegantly emblazoned in an Algerian font. Note the exterior shot of the cottage looks a lot like Stone's, mixed in with generic brickwork of railway stations and shops all throughout the series.

Chess opponents
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Around the world... people are still playing chess. I've left out the Memphis Belle's apartment, as all you see of it is the glimpses either side of her shapely, scantily-clad legs. Marvel instead at the "Indian" and "Chinese" sets (although the latter looks more Japanese than Chinese to me).

Killer Banana
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Years before the Killer Tomatoes, the Avengers had the killer banana.

Original plans
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Going back to Professor Stone's original research might just be the way ahead for the villainous doppelgangers, but they have to retrieve them from Mrs Peel first. Strangely not blueprints though, they're obviously roughly outlined circuit diagrams scribbled on butcher's paper. There's probably a ring or two from coffee cups on them somewhere.

Holding cell
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Tie me up, tie me down! Or at least, that's what Pedro Almodovar would say. Here the villainous clones incarcerate our heroine, as well as all the people they are masquerading as. One thing that puzzles me - why on earth would they bother to replace the doctor in charge of a small county hospital?

Experimental section
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Access denied to all but grade A personnel.

Brain transferrer
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Straight out of classic Hollywood horror films, the curled wires and metal band across the forehead evokes images of Frankenstein (vide supra). I wonder if Christopher Lee realised just how much of a homage to his work this episode was going to be before they started filming...

Mrs Peel's flat
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Yet another incarnation of Mrs Peel's flat, but the barest of glimpses. We'll have to wait until the next episode for a good look.

REJECT Steed
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A replica Steed, who didn't quite cut the mustard. Steed might have found Emma's duplicate attractive, but Mrs Peel's less impressed by his.

Security control
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This picture of Steed is more bandied about than any other. It turns up everywhere! It must be the official Ministry picture, often purloined by enemy agents.

Mrs Peel's TV
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Dig the huge, poor quality screen. Dig the remote control with the long cord attaching it to the television. High tech stuff in the late Sixties!
Dig the fact that she's watching a repeat of "The Cybernauts" from the previous season.

Epic

alleyway & garage
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Outside Mrs Peel's flat. the original script takes pains to suggest that it's somewhere near her flat, but not outside. However, why would you park a long way from your own residence? Elegantly reprised with a "fake" version (actually the same set) on the Schnerk Studios sound stage - Emma puts her hand through a brick.

Reel to reel Answerphone
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

High-tech apparatus. Or it was at the time. This isn't the only time that Mrs Peel uses here answering machine, but boy what a clunker! All this before the age of minaturisation.

Backstage & sets
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

The real behind-the-scenes of the Avengers sound stage. This episode is great as it allows the audience to see the production side - or the director's concept of what the audience expects to see on the production side [is this getting too philosophical?] - of the Avengers show.

band saw & pendulum
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Menacing props straight out of classic Hammer horror or European cinema - "The Pit and the Pendulum", "Dr Caligari's Cabinet", "Vampyr" and "Nosferatu" are all evoked with the distorted backdrops and menacing shadows, and classic damsel-in-distress silent fims are evoked by the band saw and the tinkling piano music Schnerk plays. Wonderfully referential, truly reverential, utterly postmodern.

Clapper board
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The Destruction of Emma Peel
A Z. Z. von Schnerk Production
Director Z. Z. von Schnerk.
Date [blank]
Slate 27, Take 1

Fitzroy Lane
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

...and the film Kirby took on it. Drive to Fitzroy Lane, then drive exact four eighths of a mile down it. Why not just say half a mile? It may be a trap! Trap it was, just not acted upon immediately. The original script has Steed being more circumspect about Kirby's old priest disguise, but in true Avengers fashion he does nothing to pursue his suspicions.

Studio gate
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Schnerk studios. Enormous metal gates and an electrified perimeter fence. Pretty impressive, huh?

Graveyard
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A myriad of gravestones, all with Emma Peel carved upon them - well, painted : they are props after all. Creepy.

Vehicles
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One wedding and a funeral. And a car for each. Both Rolls Royces, one a limousine the other a hearse. Notice that the backdrop for this scene and most of the other "exteriors" in this episode is the same backdrop as was employed in the shooting of the cottage scenes in "Never, Never Say Die" (above).

Invitations
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Upon each motor car, a different card.
"R. I. P. Emma Peel" on one,
"You are invited to the wedding of Emma Peel" on the other.

Film posters
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Old-time posters of two oldtimers. Excellent work here, the graphic designers really captured the look of pre- and post-war shocker film posters. Beautiful.

Award
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The Ollingham Award presented to Z. Z. von Schnerk for the Best Cinematography of 1953.

MGM homage
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Not really a prop, but I had to include it in a survey of the postmodernism of this particular episode.

repeating props
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The painting from "From Venus with Love" and the Simon Roberts and Son sign from "The Winged Avenger". There's probably hundreds of other props turning up all through this episode that've appeared in other episodes, but these two stand out.
Not only that, but both copies of the painting - with and without the silhouette - turn up two episodes of The Saint ("A Portrait of Brenda" and "The Power Artist"). The non-silhouette version reappears in an episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

Rushes
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Film of Mrs Peel fighting Kirby, played back as rushes for Schnerk to analyse. And the man isn't pleased. these sequences are terrible! Kirby was supposed to win. This'll mean more revisions, more pink pages and more precious film stock used up.

ranch & saloon
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Very clever. Cutting from the saloon scene to the "Meanwhile... Back at the Ranch" board, and then cutting to Steed entering Mrs Peel's empty flat. More homage to damsel-in-distress silent movie classics, and witty to boot.

The Z. Z. von Schnerk production of "The Destruction of Emma Peel". A tragedy; you see, at the end of the film the heroine dies...
A quick flip through the script and Steed knows what's coming next, and quickly replaces the deceased actor in preparation for a new climax.

A seat for Steed, but not the real one. At least, not just yet... as mentioned above, our quick-thinking hero cleverly stunt-doubles for his own death-double, and the film requires more pink pages as the Avengers rewrite the ending with some unexpected adlibs.

So, the Avengers was filmed on Stage 4 at Elstree.

The first good look we get at Mrs Peel's redecorated flat, and we're seeing the whole set as a set. If that ain't postmodernism, I don't know what is.

The Superlative Seven

A few candles, a few deadly weapons, but no dinner. What strange cutlery they use on this island...

In an alcove off to the side of the dreary dining room lies a row of coffins, one less than the number of our party. Ominous, no?

From deep below the moldering house Kanwitch and Jessel watch all and sinisterly inform the party-goers of their impending doom. How they hid all the closed circuit cameras is anyone's guess, but that's not a flaw that's restricted to "The Avengers".

What better way to end an adventure than with a nicely chilled bottle of champagne, and some glasses to drink it from. All supplied by up on high, along with a teddy bear.

Quack.

A most confusing aircraft. Or, some most confusing aircraft. Certainly, different shots of the 'plane show different vehicles. And have you ever seen an interior of a 'plane that looked like that? I mean, I may not travel on executive or privately owned aeroplanes, but really!

Quite an impressive set! I love this opening more than any other in the series - that bold red tunnel, diminishing off into the distance. Wonderful stuff.

We never get a decent look at it, I'm afraid. So I can't tell you what's written upon it.

The Props

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The Significant Props of Season 5 (1967-8)

The Avengers Page 4

The Significant Props
of Season 5 (1967-8)

The Avengers
Page 4