3.07 - Don't Look Behind You

[darren]

Written by Brian Clemens

Directed by Peter Hammond

Production completed: 5 July 1963

[cyberrich]

10/10. My very fave Cathy episode. Even though I prefer The Joker, nothing can detract from the genuinely creepy atmosphere of this classic. Rich.

[darren]

This was an episode that works so well for the as-live studio recordings. The cameramen certainly have to be on their toes, never more than two cameras to a scene and mostly just one (the one camera upstairs for Cathy's room and landing shots which can look down to the hallway and above the kitchen).

Thank goodness the episode was given to Peter Hammond as I can't see it working with anyone else. He really draws out the creepiness and the twisted stylised character performances. Things like the cutting of the apple by Martin (that must have been Hammond rather than scripted) and that wonderful montage of twisted photographs representing his insanity.

The set design from Terry Green was so perfect. They had so many great designers at Teddington Studio doing incredible things on a budget. The hallways forms the centre piece and everything else branches off of it.

Maurice Good is excellent as Martin (Who'd have thought he'd be the only original series actor to turn up in The Avengers in Canada:)) and I've always liked Kenneth Colley as an actor. Janine Gray isn't someone I'm familiar with but she has a certain Linda Thorson look at times and can be rather childlike.

I like that rare film sequence. Shame the original film didn't exist as the telerecordings render it too murky. I love the silly bits like the guys outside the pub cheering as Steed and Cathy drive past. It does feature one of my least liked Dankworth track (I'm assuming it was his) with the seemingly random xylophone hits.

Brian Clemens love of Hitchcock is very clearly showing through and this episode could easily be adapted as a Thriller episode (probably was as I've not seen that show). It's no surprise he chose to resurrect the script for series 5.

Rightly a classic.

10/10

[Charlie Parker]

My personal favourite of all time. Brooding with atmosphere and excellently directed by Peter Hammond. A brooding mix of haunted house and a truly unpleasant villain... Maurice Good proves that the most menacing villains are those who are calm, charming and non-blasé about what his actions.

[Ian Wegg]

I've mentioned before that I'm not keen on studio bound nature of the pre-film era but in this case it works well with a fabulous set (and the one piece of location filming featuring Steed's "new" Lagonda is a welcome early distraction for an old petrolhead like me!)

Very atmospheric, I can imagine the impact this episode must have had when first shown.

A 9 from me.

[Rhonda]

10 for me. I love watching this episode which is a TV 'hammer horror' but a better length than a film. A house with unseen rooms, four-poster beds, spooky, eccentric, just a radio, the fog. An english country house somewhere that you might end up in!

[dissolute]

I feel sure the set with the double staircase shows up again but I'm racking my brain to remember it. Lovely episode, very Hammond with a soupçon of Hitchcock.

[Frankymole]

It definitely feels like a template for Brian Clemens' "Thriller"!

An easy 10/10. Nice to see Steed in a vintage car.

Interesting trivia from David K Smith's site: Honor Blackman says she got into arguments with director Peter Hammond "because he wanted me to be very tough and ready to kill this man at the end, but I felt so sorry for the character. He moved me so much that I had tears running down my face. Peter was quite cross with me, but I couldn't play it any other way." (Honor Blackman speaking to Steven Eramo of Starlog Magazine)

[Allard]

I prefer it over The Joker. Which although it has some lovely Steed-Peel moments tries to be too "televisiony". This one dares to be darker, more tense and works better.

[Frankymole]

My personal favourite of all time. Brooding with atmosphere and excellently directed by Peter Hammond. A brooding mix of haunted house and a truly unpleasant villain... Maurice Good proves that the most menacing villains are those who are calm, charming and non-blasé about what his actions.

The villain being called Martin Gurdmann makes me wonder if the script was written with Maurice Good in mind for casting? A truly diabolical mastermind - one of the first to really fit the phrase. The apple-peeling with a cheese knife, all in one long strip, was probably the most tightrope-walking live performance in the series, and to carry off such an intricate speech at the same time was remarkable (albeit flubbing the year - the script says Cathy betrayed him in 1961 which is much more likely than 1953, especially as the Berlin Wall was erected then meaning there would be refugees to exploit).

I wouldn't want The Avengers to head off in this direction permanently as it is very harsh, but very occasional episodes like Take-Over have done this kind of terror well.

I'm glad to see Kenneth Colley (the Young Man) is still with us! He was excellent. All the small cast were.

The radiogram in Cathy's room was great. My mum had one like that. I used to lie underneath it to listen to the Beatles in stereo.

Anyway I gave it 10/10 again in my brain tonight, not least for the astonishing design, direction and Honor's skilled performance Just don't do the terrorising lone women thing too often, Avengers! This isn't Thriller!

It's really strange watching Peter Hammond playing (very well) the affable, bumbling Lieutenant Beamish RN in The Buccaneers at the moment on Talking Pictures. Knowing he had all this visual inventiveness inside him.