1.19 - Toy Trap

[Frankymole]

A recent(ish) interview with the elusive Sally Smith! She played Bunty in Toy Trap (1961), who was a family friend of Dr Keel's. She is more famous for playing Dr Corder's daughter in the superb 1963 series The Human Jungle opposite Herbert Lom.

http://blogheriti.blogspot.com/2019/02/ ... ather.html
"When I wrote my blog post on Naked You Die I stated that I was particularly struck by the performance of Sally Smith as Jill. I'd assumed Sally Smith to be an anglicised name for an Italian actress, so I was delighted to discover that she was actually British. Given my previous experience in tracking down long-lost stars of relatively obscure films I made a significant effort to find Sally. I tried her old Linkedin account, I wrote to her previous addresses, I even found her ex-husband and former lawyer, all to no avail. It was only after a year and my having basically given up that I was contacted out of the blue by Sally's former agent who saw the blog post and agreed to help me meet her. And so it was that on a wintry morning in a seaside town on the South Coast I introduced myself to the wonderful Sally Smith in Costa Coffee. Just to be clear, she was expecting me."

[Tredding On Thin Ice]

As everyone has said, this is incredibly heavy stuff.

One can’t even begin to imagine the film-era series taking on a topic like this.

Even in S2&3 this would have felt a bit extreme. But here in S1, while it is still extremely sordid, it doesn’t stick out as somehow not being in the spirit of the show.

Keel’s amazing speech at the end is just perfect. All of the pressure Steed has already brought to bear on him just explodes out into the open and threatens to fracture their relationship. It’s a brilliant moment plot of the show and for actual, real character development. If we’re honest, we all love this show in spite of very little overall character development. So Hendry’s speech as Dr. Keel is particularly amazing.

My only complaint is that this should have been the final episode of Series One. That would have given Keel’s speech a lot more impact and explained the disappearance of Dr. Keel really well.

I have no idea when they would have known Hendry wasn’t going to renew his contract, so I’m sure it was well after this episode was shot. But it just seems like it would be a far more satisfying turn in the narrative if it could have been in the final episode rather than a couple of months before the end of the first series.

Keel is clearly very close to the end of his rope with Steed and his little games by this point, and it works really well independently. But in the context of the series as a whole, it packs far less of a wallop than it could have if it happened a liiiiiiiittttllllleeee bit later in the overall narrative of the show.

The closest we ever get to revisiting this topic is at the end of ‘Kill The King’ a few episodes later, when Steed specifically asks Dr. Keel “why do you devote so much time to my little projects?”, and then very quickly decides to retract the question. In that instance, Keel seems to prefer to ignore the entire topic while Steed clearly feels the need to not push it.

There must be a heck of a lot we don’t see that happens off screen that keeps drawing Steed and Keel together. But since we don’t ever see it, and are left to presume it is all due to the murder or Dr. Keel’s fiancée.

Obviously that’s a massively traumatic and life-shaping event. But how much avenging does an Avenger have to do as therapy for the loss of his future spouse?

[Frankymole]

A great idea to have this episode, or a similar scene with Keel getting everything off his chest, at the end of series 1.

The trouble is, they didn't know when the series was coming to an end, even near the end of the series! It was meant to be 39 episodes long (9 months), but was suddenly and unexpectedly cut short by the Equity actors' union strike. Indeed, they still had some scripts remaining to record - Mission to Montreal and Dead On Course, notably, as well as introducing Venus Smith as a third Avenger who was meant to alternate with both Steed and Keel to lighten the load of line learning for both established actors (so we might've got a Steed-less, Keel/Venus episode)!

Though I have warmed to Venus, especially the revamped, more spunky version of her later episodes, I do think Keel's nurse/receptionist Carol would've been great to develop further - she gets some action in a few episodes and proves a capable Avenger, and we never really saw whether a romantic relationship might've been hinted at with Keel (a precursor of the will they/won't they of Steed and his later partners)...

So if they'd planned to put such a heavyweight episode as this near the end of the series it might never have got made - which would've been a shame, as it is great. Keel and Steed's confrontation is a dramatic peak, but the buildup to it is well done too with Keel increasingly tense about Bunty being involved (though she is willing to help, and slightly resents Keel's in loco parentis concerns).

As to "how much avenging does an Avenger have to do as therapy for the loss of his future spouse?" I'd say, well about 24 episodes' worth Interestingly, Cathy lost her husband due to murder during a revolutionary uprising, but doesn't seem to cite it as a reason to combat criminals (maybe she does for the ones who incite violence, but it is never made clear; we know Venus is inveigled somewhat unfairly and often against her will, and early on doesn't even seem to know what Steed is up to or what his aims are - which makes me think less of Steed, but fits in better with the murky, James Mitchell/Callan-ish world of espionage the early Steed is meant to inhabit. Mrs Peel has the most obscure motivation of all - she just seems to avenge because she enjoys it and it's something to do when she has no husband to share life with).

Maybe Keel has a fellow feeling for each new victim they avenge, especially if his young ward Bunty is nearly a victim herself.