6.04 - Split!

[MikeR]

(and had been an unmade Emma Peel script, or did I get that wrong? It's been some decades since I read the set's booklet!).

Jaz brings this up in the commentary about it also being a Dennis Spooner script, Clemens says that he wrote it for this season. It wasn't a recycle job.

Jaz’s comments come from an interview Andrew Pixley and I did with Dennis Spooner at the Fan Aid North convention in Leeds in November 1985. This was later written up and appeared in the first issue of the magazine Vulcan in May 1987 and then I reworked it with additional material and it appeared again in my own magazine Action TV (number 14) in August 2007.

After Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell returned to The Avengers at the beginning of the Linda Thorson season they badly needed new scripts and one weekend Brain started writing Split! This happened while he was at home on his farm at Ampthill in Bedfordshire. Brian’s close friend Dennis Spooner was staying with him for the weekend and he assisted in the plotting of the screenplay, which was still being written as the episode went into production.

If you take a look in the Merchandise section, there is a certain book coming out that will give the full details and a whole lot more.

[darren]

(and had been an unmade Emma Peel script, or did I get that wrong? It's been some decades since I read the set's booklet!).

Jaz brings this up in the commentary about it also being a Dennis Spooner script, Clemens says that he wrote it for this season. It wasn't a recycle job.

Jaz’s comments come from an interview Andrew Pixley and I did with Dennis Spooner at the Fan Aid North convention in Leeds in November 1985. This was later written up and appeared in the first issue of the magazine Vulcan in May 1987 and then I reworked it with additional material and it appeared again in my own magazine Action TV (number 14) in August 2007.

After Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell returned to The Avengers at the beginning of the Linda Thorson season they badly needed new scripts and one weekend Brain started writing Split! This happened while he was at home on his farm at Ampthill in Bedfordshire. Brian’s close friend Dennis Spooner was staying with him for the weekend and he assisted in the plotting of the screenplay, which was still being written as the episode went into production.

If you take a look in the Merchandise section, there is a certain book coming out that will give the full details and a whole lot more.

Now this is exactly the reason why I'm soooo looking forward to your book. These kind of details are ten a penny for something like Doctor Who but the Avengers has never had the benefits of such a book before.

[Rhonda]

5 from me. Like Tara's fight.

[Brigadier Q]

A good episode, but not as good as its cast - which was superb!

Poor Linda Thorson must have been a bit tired of being the Damsel in Distress so often, I suspect we haven't seen the last of that yet (if memory serves).

Not as stylish as I would like as yet, but well worth a watch or two.

[Ian Wegg]

I'm watching these on Britbox and for some reason this episode had the original "shooting gallery" titles, rarely seen in the UK.

I agree with most of the previous comments. The downside was that I'd worked out the plot well before the end so the denouement seemed a long time coming and was no real surprise. Nevertheless, lifted by the A-list cast and the welcome return of Steed's 3-litre Bentley.

8/10

[Allard]

Not a favourite, but found it surprisingly good when rewatching it last weekend.

Most noticeable about this one is the alternative title sequence of course.

It definitely has the early Tara King feel over it, some shots could well be The Saint or Randall and Hopkirk. There's the rub, the episode just doesn't sparkle, it isn't really Avengers. But quite well executed, good director helps! And a fine cast. I wonder how this plot would have worked in the Gale era. In the Peel/Tara era it's too dark, the baddies plan is spy-fy enough, but not fantastic . This is a whisky episode, not a champagne one, a bit stronger and less playful. The narrow geographic atmosphere also doesn't help, it all seems to happen in a few miles of each other with a lot of dreary weather driving shots.