The Significant Props
of Season 5 (1967-8)

The Avengers
Page 8

still to come: metal finger.

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

Not the best shot of it here, but this is Dr Mankin's pet project of broadcast power - a little antenna dish projecting power to a table fan.

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

Impossible to see in this shot, or any other capture I could do, but the door actually has painted on it: DR CHARLES GREY AD Mem. Royal Inst. Vic. MBE

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

Caused by exploding people, Dr Grey on the left and Maurice Jubert on the right..

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

Enterprise of the short-lived Maurice Jubert, quite a nice design on the sign - lovely colours and good choice of font..

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

From this unassuming Morris minor van, Haworth dealt out death and destruction with his mobile power broadcaster.

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

Trying to evade the murderous Haworth, Mankin becomes entangled in the barbed wire on a perimeter fence, and is electrocuted, the wire melting and becoming brittle and ashen in appearance. Here Mrs Peel inspects the wire under Mankin's lifeless feet.

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

As rare as hen's teeth, but Steed has one:
PRIORITY PASS
JOHN STEED 370985
LONDON
HAS BEEN PERMITTED ACCESS TO ALL
MINISTRY FILES CLASS A3 67

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

Convincingly sun-blistered sign for the dilapidated research facilities at Risley Dale

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

Well, in a manner of speaking. Best to warm the keys before putting them away again, otherwise one'd be in for a nasty shock.

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

Coated in a thin layer of silica based makeup, with high levels of aluminium to conduct a charge while earthing the wearer, this ugly yet effective makeup make Haworth a truly electrifying character.

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

There's something fishy about that bloke's makeup. errrr... I think that goes without saying, but here Mrs Peel is getting to the bottom of the chemical make-up of the makeup.

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

Wrapped in plastic... wait, that was Laura Palmer, wasn't it? Wrapped in alfoil, Mrs Peel is set up as a trap for an unwary Steed - he will die from electrocution when he tries to free Mrs Peel. Fortunately, he's a very wary Steed, and arrived wearing rubber-soled galoshes, and even brings a pair of wellies for Mrs Peel to wear.

Murdersville

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

Voted best kept village in the county, except for the corpses littering the roads, no doubt. Helping them keep it that way must mean the removal of the same.

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

The Happy Ploughman is the only pub in the village, run by the dastardly Prewitt and his daughter Jenny - who has a kinder heart than most. It the drinkin' and killin' location of choice for most of the locals and their special customers.

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

This pleasant little building houses the village library and reading room, as well as the museum of local antiquities.

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

Rows of dusty books and a couple of locals reading the morning papers while vengeful industrialists pop each other off - I love the way he attaches a silencer to his gun after the librarian points at the huge "SILENCE" sign. Not that attaching a silencer to a revolver would ever work, anyway.

museum

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

A selection of images from the inner sanctum of the museum, where the scold's bridle, chastity belt, stocks and other forms of restraint are kept, and where the villagers imprison those opposed to their ways.

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

The bloody sickle used to fell Forbes is found by Mrs Peel in the middle of the gravel driveway. Another rare glimpse of blood in an Avengers episode.

Paul's watch
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Clue to a violent death. When Mrs Peel returns to the village after visiting Paul's house with Dr Haynes, one of the local yokels¹ is sitting in her car, wearing Paul's snazzy modern wristwatch. She promptly takes the doctor up on his offer of pills, hoping to contact the police.

1. Sounds a bit "Two Ronnies", doesn't it?

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

A bit of a fluff by the props department here, actually. The bad doctor's name is misspelt on the sign outside his house. All the characters, and the credits, refer to him as Dr Haymes, but here it clearly reads DR J.F. HAYNES MD

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

The village telephone exchange hasn't changed since the late Fifties. Look at the awful wallpaper and the lumpy wooden shelves, plus the bakelite receiver and twisted cable plugs for the switch. It was from here that Maggie intercepted Mrs Peel's call for the police, and redirected it to the careless Banks...

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

What a giveaway! The false local bobby, impersonated by a villager by the name of Banks, carelessly reveals to Mrs Peel's eagle eye that he is in fact not a rozzer. No wooden top on duty would wear socks like that, not even a country backwater plodder.

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

Mrs Peel may not have turned anyone into a newt, but she's still treated like a witch. Strapped to the village dunking stool, she's held underwater a dangerously long time by the evil villagers.
(Note that it's Cyd Child getting the dunking, Diana Rigg only did the close-up shots).

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

A hastily-grabbed form of defence for the impending fight with the villagers, Mrs Peel ends up stuck inside this helmet until Steed releases her, whereupon he gets trapped in it.
By the way, when Steed asks why she put it on in the first place, Mrs Peel should have replied, "So that the scene could be done by a stunt double!" (near left).

Mission Highly Improbable

still to come: shrinking ray, pen

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

A bit of fun with this one, Denny Powell reads a copy of Jane Austen's "Emma" while guarding the hallway outside the room in which Mrs Peel is incarcerated.

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

A sensitive base is protected by a whole troop of soldiers, and a well-guarded checkpoint, but it doesn't stop Chivers from making off with the Saracen.

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

This little prefab wooden shack is shrunk, restored and generally abused by the villains, half of the time with Steed inside it.

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

The Metal Fatigue Division's Experimental Shed is off limits to all except authorised personnel, but that doesn't stop the good Captain from breaking a window and getting in.

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

The before and after effects of Rushton's minaturising ray, as demonstrated on a handy crate. Notice that the stencils on the crate were carefully recreated by the props department.

Dial M for Emma
©1961-9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

Here's a work-out for a very little man! Steed heaves on the enormous dial before him to call Mrs Peel to the rescue.

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

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

First Captain Gifford, then Steed, have to deal with almost unusable telephones, enormous before their shrunken frames. Great props, these.

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

Shaeffer's desk swelled to enormous size, or at least that's how it seems to the shrunken Avengers - notice that the calendar on the desk is the same as that used in Death's Door.

I still have one of these somewhere, and I even still have the stereoscopic viewer that was so popular in the Seventies somewhere too.

Little, shrunken Saracens, a pretty large scale model though, it must be around 1/16th scale.

Steed goes to investigate the Saracen on the testing range, after the firing has stopped, and finds the toy Rolls Royce on its running board, left there by the deceased Captain. It's a pity the toy doesn't quite match the full-sized car they used - the toy's a two-door coupé, and the real car was a four-door saloon.

Another outsized set to emphasise the shrunken nature of our lovely heroine. I'll add a picture of Steed (with outsized pen) soon.

Rain's expected, but Steed gallantly (?) offers Mrs Peel his umbrella, somehow mysteriously reminiaturised despite emerging from the Summer house with Steed, restored to full size.

The Forget-Me-Knot

A strange little vehicle this, but its usefulness is quickly discovered - the unconscious Mortimer is bundles into the box and the henchmen ride off pillion-style on the bike.

Steed's flat hasn't changed since the earlier episodes of this season, by the look of it, nor has his temperance. Here he's mixing Slippery Nipples for himself and Mrs Peel.

The amnesia-causing stun gun devised by Burton and operated by his henchmen is a futuristic looking device, and was probably a leftover from some Sci-Fi film made at Pinewood.

While his flat might appear unchanged on the inside, we've never seen the exterior look like *this* before, although the street looks more or less the same. His door is evidence that he lives at number 5, whereas he used to be said to live at number 3.

Mother's place is behind these imposing gates, and this imposing wall... and this imposing gardner. I think it's the same gate as was used for Rathbone's gate in You Have Just Been Murdered, but I could be wrong.

The Glass House, training ground for many a Ministry agent, but none since before Burton's time.
An important clue to who the traitor really is.

This quiet little county hospital has the doctor with the worst bedside manner in the country! Perhaps he was annoyed at having been killed off so quickly in The Bird Who Knew Too Much...

Steed's street


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

The headline that broke Steed's heart.
An many others, from what I read. Peter Peel has miraculously survived his plane crash into the Amazonian jungle, and has finally made it back to civilisation and his lovely wife.

Tara's flat is a bit too modish and Flower Power for my liking, all those telephones and big signs everywhere, you'd never be able to relax properly.

The Props

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The Significant Props of Season 5 (1967-8)

The Avengers Page 8

The Significant Props
of Season 5 (1967-8)

The Avengers
Page 8