Free Gift! Season 1 Script

[Alan]

I've just updated my page for the episode:
http://www.dissolute.com.au/avweb/keel/125.html

and noted that the generally held production schedule for season one is wrong - this had always been considered episode 25, but must have been recorded prior to "The Deadly Air".

Given that it was an ampex recording, how many episodes might be out there, waiting to be discovered?

I've instructed my readers to join the forum if they want to download the PDF and given full credit to Alan wherever I've mentioned it.

I reckon all the episodes are out there to be discovered - or at least there is the possibility of them being out there. The existence of Girl on the Trapeze proved Dave Rogers' information about that episode being put out live (and not recorded) was inaccurate. I would be surprised if any episode of The Avengers went out live, to be honest.

Quite where they may be is another matter entirely!

[Alan]

The page is looking good, by the way, Piers. And thanks for the credit!

By the way, can I correct one assumption that you've come to? When a script mentions AMPEX, it was a term commonly used for recording in those days, and doesn't mean that the recording would necessarily have been on to Ampex tape.

It's a bit like the situation with the Hoover company - they were such a popular brand in the early days that then and even today, you'd be doing the 'hoovering' even if you actually had a Dyson!

[Alan]

Please note that the initial post in this thread now links to the full-size, uncompressed version of the script. It weighs in at about 16MB, so if you wish to download the better version, be aware it will take a little while to arrive!

[dissolute]

The page is looking good, by the way, Piers. And thanks for the credit!

By the way, can I correct one assumption that you've come to? When a script mentions AMPEX, it was a term commonly used for recording in those days, and doesn't mean that the recording would necessarily have been on to Ampex tape.

It's a bit like the situation with the Hoover company - they were such a popular brand in the early days that then and even today, you'd be doing the 'hoovering' even if you actually had a Dyson!

Point conceded, I'll reword the webpage, I was trying to remove jargon and make it more layman accessible - I'll make it say "broadcast quality tape" or something.

[Charlie Parker]

I reckon all the episodes are out there to be discovered - or at least there is the possibility of them being out there. The existence of Girl on the Trapeze proved Dave Rogers' information about that episode being put out live (and not recorded) was inaccurate. I would be surprised if any episode of The Avengers went out live, to be honest.

Quite where they may be is another matter entirely!

But having a recording doesn't deny that the episode went out live, merely it was recorded as it went out. But hopefully the existance of Girl on the Trapeze means that others of the 'live' episodes may still survive and other episodes, hopefully the rest of Hot Snow will turn up at some point.

[Alan]

That's possible, of course, but by 1961, I'd be very surprised if there was a great deal of drama of the complexity of The Avengers still going out live. I still think it's highly likely that Dave Rogers' information on the subject was unreliable, not that I mean to imply that Dave's research was poor, just that he sometimes had to piece things together due to the scarcity of sources available. (Something I'm all too familiar with myself due to the scarcity of info available about the radio series.)

Actually, people should be grateful to Dave for this script, as it was he that passed it into my care several years ago.

[Frankymole]

Oh, that was fun! Particularly the bit when Steed and Keel were holed up in the cupboard, waiting for the "Hampstead bus". Keel sulking away, and Steed taking it all quite cheerfully. "Romantic, isn't it?" I'd have loved to see that played out screen

Is that the one where there's an anecdote from Ian Hendry in (I think) the TV Times Special, he talks of the cupboard falling apart or something else amusing happening! Anyone remember what it was?

[Timeless A-Peel]

Oh, that was fun! Particularly the bit when Steed and Keel were holed up in the cupboard, waiting for the "Hampstead bus". Keel sulking away, and Steed taking it all quite cheerfully. "Romantic, isn't it?" I'd have loved to see that played out screen

Is that the one where there's an anecdote from Ian Hendry in (I think) the TV Times Special, he talks of the cupboard falling apart or something else amusing happening! Anyone remember what it was?

I was thinking about that myself. Yes, it was in the TNA TV Times Souvenir Special. Although in that article, he talked about banging on the cupboard door with Patrick, even though it would have been easy to break the thing (they didn't). In the end, he said an elderly woman came along and let Steed and Keel out, which means they either got locked up in another cupboard in a different episode, or Hendry's memory was failing him.

[Jasper Groat]

That's possible, of course, but by 1961, I'd be very surprised if there was a great deal of drama of the complexity of The Avengers still going out live. I still think it's highly likely that Dave Rogers' information on the subject was unreliable, not that I mean to imply that Dave's research was poor, just that he sometimes had to piece things together due to the scarcity of sources available. (Something I'm all too familiar with myself due to the scarcity of info available about the radio series.)

Actually, people should be grateful to Dave for this script, as it was he that passed it into my care several years ago.

Maybe they were filmed 'as live', which led to the later belief that they were broadcast live.

For the record I also don't believe the assertions that scripts were routinely trashed and/or rewritten on a whim by Hendry and Macnee.

[dissolute]

I'm surprised at how little information I can uncover for the crew listed, at the BFI or IMDB