Series 5 — Episode 25
The Forget-Me-Knot
by Brian Clemens
Directed by James Hill
Production No E.66.6.25
Production completed: January 19 1968. First UK transmission: September 25 1968. First transmission (USA): March 20 1968.
Regional broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ATV | 26/09/1968 | 7:00pm |
Granada Television | 12/01/1969 | 8:25pm |
Anglia Television | 26/09/1968 | 7:00pm |
Border Television | 6/10/1968 | 8:10pm |
Channel Television | 3/10/1968 | 7:00pm |
Grampian Television | 25/09/1968 | 8:00pm |
Southern Television | 4/12/1968 | 8:00pm |
Scottish Television | 2/01/1969 | 8:00pm |
Tyne Tees Television | 25/09/1968 | 8:00pm |
Yorkshire Television | 25/09/1968 | 8:00pm |
Ulster Television | 26/09/1968 | 7:00pm |
Westward Television | 3/10/1968 | 7:00pm |
Harlech Television | 26/09/1968 | 7:00pm |
TV Times listing
9.0 to 10.0
The Avengers
Patrick Macnee
Diana Rigg
Linda Thorson
The Forget-me-not
Exit Emma. Enter Tara. Two Avengers, one of them Emma, are paralysed by memory-killing darts.
Previously shown on ITV
John Steed | Patrick Macnee |
Emma Peel | Diana Rigg |
Tara King | Linda Thorson |
Sean Mortimer | Patrick Kavanagh |
George Burton | Jeremy Young |
Mother | Patrick Newell |
Karl | Alan Lake |
Designed by Robert Jones
Director James Hill
Producers Albert Fennell
Brian Clemens
ABC Television Network Production
International broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
Thames Television | 25/09/1968 | 8:00pm |
ABN2 Sydney, Australia | 15/11/1968 | 8:00pm |
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia | 5/11/1968 | 8:40pm |
ABC New York, USA | 20/03/1968 | 7:30pm |
ORTF2 France | 20/10/1968 | 8:00pm |
Suisse Romande, Switzerland | 15/04/1969 | 8:20pm |
French title | Ne m’oubliez pas | |
ZDF Germany | 11/08/1970 | 9:00pm |
German title | Auf Wiedersehen, Emma | |
KRO Netherlands | 18/11/1969 | 9:10pm |
Dutch title | Afscheid van Emma Peel | |
Svizzera Italiana | 26/07/1974 | 9:00pm |
Italian title | il non ti scordar di me* | |
Spain | 6/10/1969 | 11:00pm |
Spanish title | Amnesia |
* Italian listings showed this as 10pm, as Italy observed Summer Time and Switzerland did not.
Swiss viewers in 1969 may have been confused as Suisse Romande showed this episode on 15th April 1969, sometimes mistitled as N’oubliez pas in TV listings, but on 10th April 1969 Allemande II (ZDF Germany) showed a music special called Vergißsmeinnicht - translated in French language newspapers as Ne m’oubliez pas.
The Dutch newspaper Dagblad de Stem has a publicity still from the scene where Emma hands over to Tara on the stairs in their edition published on December 29 1967, announcing that Linda was replacing Diana. The existence of a publicity still which had been sent overseas would suggest a finished episode rather one that was halfway through production. However, as the stairway scene was apparently filmed on December 19 1967, it is possible that the production dates are correct. (The production date of January 19 1968 is the documented date for the end of exterior and location filming.)
Episode Rating
Subject | 0–5 |
---|---|
Direction | 3 stars |
Music | 3 stars |
Humour | 2 stars |
Intro/tag | 3 stars |
Mastermind | 3½ stars |
Plot | 3 stars |
Emma | 2½ stars |
Set Design | 4 stars |
Overall (0–10) |
6½ stars |
Why have the cross-over episode? After all it’d never been done before. Maybe Clemens was worried about the quality of the new material (as was Macnee!) and wanted to associate it with that which came before. On reviewing, I’d have to say that it’s not a bad story, and pretty engaging, but would have been better without the slapstick humour.
Mortimer turns up outside Steed’s apartment, not knowing where he is, who he is or why he’s there. He recovers sufficiently to tell Steed that there is a traitor in Mother’s organisation, the shadowy “Ministry” but he cannot remember whom.
Mrs. Peel also forgets what she learns, shot by the same amnesia-drug gun as Mortimer, when the goons recapture Mortimer. Steed is taking the forgetful Mrs. Peel to Mother when they are ambushed - Mrs. Peel kidnapped and Steed pumped full of the drug. His only clue to his identity when he regains consciousness in a hospital is Tara’s phone number, hidden in his boot.
He seeks the help of the new recruit, Tara King, and together they trace two thugs to their hideout. The real traitor is George Burton who has defected to a country that has developed memory-killing darts. With confusion reigning at the Ministry, Steed overpowers the gang with the help of Tara and Mrs. Peel, though no one is quite sure why.
Peter Peel, Emma’s missing husband, has been found alive in the Amazon jungle and she leaves Steed in the capable hands of Tara King, telling her to stir his tea anti-clockwise. Looking out his apartment window as the Peels drive away, Steed is astounded to discover that Peter Peel is the spitting image of himself.
The Cars
Marque/Model | Colour | Number Plate |
---|---|---|
Austin taxi | black | - |
Mini | pale blue | - |
Hillman Hunter | pale blue | - |
Daimler V8250 | silver | - |
Norton motorcycle with sidecar box | red, black box | 431 BY |
Triumph motorcycle | black | NKH 741 |
Bentley 4.5 litre 1927 | British racing green | YT 3942 |
Rover P6 | powder blue | LAN 586D |
Rover P6 | powder blue | LYE 579C |
AC 428 Frua | maroon | LPH 800D |
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow convertible by Mulliner Park Ward (these were restyled in 1971 and relaunched as the Corniche) | silver sand | YMB 20F |
Who’s Killing Whom?
Victim | Killer | Method |
---|---|---|
NONE. What a nice episode for Emma’s farewell... |
The Fashions
Continuity and trivia
- 1:26 — Notice the variation in the opening credits? Steed makes a golf swing with his umbrella, instead of one of his fighting-stick moves.
- 1:34 — Another variation in the opening credits - Steed and Mrs. Peel are facing away from the camera in silhouette, instead of towards it as usual.
- 5:00 — Why do Steed and Mortimer come in the kitchen door? Is there a quick side entrance Steed prefers to use?
- 6:38 and throughout - Steed’s yellow front door doesn’t seem to appear in the street scenes at all, it ought to be nearly opposite the black door with the marble heads, but there is a row of blue stable doors instead.
- 9:06 — There are curved corners at the top and bottom left corners of the screen, presumably from a large flare guard on one of the cameras, as they come and go throughout the episode: They disappear abruptly at 24:57, return at 28:10, dispappear at 34:16 then immediately reappear at 34:21 for the close-up of the crossword. At 34:55 they’re back, then disappear again at 36:10. I can only assume they were on Camera 1 as they appear so often.
- 9:10 — There’s a hair caught at top left of the screen, probably on the camera lens as it remains for the duration of the shot then vanishes.
- 9:33 — Emma tries to jog Sean’s memory with some word association:
black/white, up/down, bed/sleep, attack/motorbike - 17:30 — Steed takes 3 lumps of sugar in his tea.
- 21:07 — The “Glasshouse” is the disused “Mitrum Glass Works”.
- 23:00 — Filson is very quick to decide Steed is a traitor, does he have a grudge against Steed?
- 25:10 etc. - Flashbacks: When Steed is coming round in the county hospital, where he’s being treated by the shockingly unsympathetic Dr. Soames (see below), he experiences a couple of flashbacks to previous episodes with Mrs. Peel as he gazes at the lovely Sally. He also experiences some flashbacks when he sees Tara, and when he gets home.
- 25:10 and 26:00 — “Escape in Time”
- 26:40 — the tree fallingm and ensuing crash and fight, as well as “Escape in Time”
- 26:58 — Sally blurs out and becomes Emma in “Escape in Time”
- 30:18 — Tara blurs out and becomes Emma in “Escape in Time”
- 33:21 — back home: “Escape in Time” again, the kitchen conjured up “Return of the Cybernauts” and the sofa reminds him of “You Have just been Murdered”
Nurse Sally Escape in Time Return of the Cybernauts You Have Just Been Murdered Tara King - 25:55 — Dr. Soames doesn’t bother with the medical evidence and leaps to the conclusion that Steed is a drunk. He then makes the worst possible medical decision and prescribes him a sedative. Nurse Sally is suitably shocked.
- 28:30 — Tara wears an outfit very similar to that worn by Mrs. Peel in Dead Man’s Treasure - tan overcoat with a green scarf.
- 29:35 — “he loves me, he loves me not” - leads Emma to think of Steed
- 31:56 — There’s an obvious model hotel & railway bridge outside Tara’s window. The curtains earlier appeared in the offices of The Litoff Organisation in The £50,000 Breakfast.
- 34:21 — The crossword is filled with gibberish, and none of the answers is “anecdote”.
- 36:10 — Music from the Mackiedockie Court scene in “Escape in Time” plays as Steed enters the grounds.
- 37:25 — Steed knocks Filson out with metal bowler
- 47:14 — he likes his tea stirred anti-clockwise
- 47:25 onwards - Peter Peel is played by Patrick Macnee for the close ups and mid shots, while Paul Weston does the driving away in the long shot.
- 47:25 — the view of the Rolls from Steed’s window is impossible - the car couldn’t have been driving directly away from it down the street.
- Running time : 49′17″
Production notes
- Some people have claimed that there’s proof that this episode was started before Diana left the show, then completed later, as Steed’s sideburns change length in different scenes, but I couldn’t see it myself. .
Brian Clemens, in fact, revealed in the commentary for Split! and Murdersville in the Optimum DVD releases that The Forget-Me-Knot was not an unfinished Diana Rigg episode that was reshot, as has been claimed in the past - he wrote it in three days when reinstated as producer and convinced Diana to return to take part in four days of filming. - Brian Clemens revealed in the commentary for Split! in the Optimum DVD release that the idea of Mother’s office set from The Forget-Me-Knot was stolen from a Powell-Pressburger film (Guards/Guardsmen??). He also revealed that the set was not “dismantled and too expensive to build again” - one need only look at it to see how cheap it would be to build. They simply wanted to have Mother appear in different locations all the time.
- The production date is very misleading, as it is the documented date for the end of exterior and location filming. However, The Dutch newspaper Dagblad de Stem has a publicity still from the scene where Emma hands over to Tara on the stairs in their edition published on December 29 1967, announcing that Linda was replacing Diana. The existence of a publicity still which had been sent overseas would suggest a finished episode rather one that was halfway through production. However, as the stairway scene was apparently filmed on December 19 1967, it is possible that the production dates are correct.
A note on the timecodes
Timecodes for episodes are problematic as each release has its own quirks so the 2009–11 Optimum Releasing/Studio Canal DVD sets have different run times compared to the A&E and Contender DVD sets from a decade beforehand. The newer Studio Canal & Via Vision blu rays seems to be back in line with the earlier releases, except they often have StudioCanal idents lasting 20 to 22 seconds added to the beginning.
The Optimum Releasing/Studio Canal DVD releases were remastered and their frame rate has been changed, resulting in a shorter running time. However, the picture quality has increased markedly. I assume this is because they used a simple 2:2 pulldown (24 @ 25) when converting from the original film masters (film runs at 24 frames per second, while PAL runs at 25fps, the new DVDs are in PAL format).
This pulldown was also the cause of audio errors on many episodes, especially for Series 5, as the audio sped up to match the new rate (4% faster), rather than being properly pitch-shifted. Checking the dialogue sheets, which list the feet and frames of the reels, it looks like the speed change is around 5.04%, so there may be some cuts as well - probably from around the commercial breaks and ends of reels, as they amount to about 25 seconds. All my assumptions are based on the episodes having been filmed on standard 35mm film, which has 16 frames per foot and runs at 24 frames per second, so a minute of footage uses 90 feet of film (1,440 frames).
The audio errors have been corrected in the currently available DVDs, but the 2:2 pulldown remains. There is also the addition of a Studio Canal lead-in, converted to black and white to match the episode for Series Four, but colour for Series Five, adding an extra 18 or 19 seconds to the running time and making it harder to match timecodes with previous releases. It’s annoying that it has been slapped on every single episode, Series 1–3 didn’t suffer this indignity.
The previous Contender and A&E DVD releases didn’t seem to suffer from these problems, so I assume they either used soft telecine and preserved the original 24fps rate of the film (my preferred option in DVDs) or they used 24 @ 25 pulldown (2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 Euro pull-down).
Thankfully, the new blu ray releases for series 4–6 appear to use native 24fps with soft telecine so the running times and pitch all seem to be correct again along with a much greatly improved picture quality, most notably in the Tara King episodes which are finally (mostly) back to their original glory.