1.20 - Tunnel of Fear

[gusro12]

Hi i`m from Uruguay, i need the subtitles of tunnel of fear to translate it to spanish or the spcript in any language (preferly english) please if you have it send a mail to [email protected] thanks

[dissolute]

PM sent

[Frankymole]

1. Why did they have to frame Henry?

We're never really told why Harry Black is framed by his old army pal Jack Wickram (and we learn at the end that The hypnotist Billy Flowers was with Harry when he broke in). Maybe Harry discovered what was going on. There is often ambiguity with the many characters being potential suspects in early Avengers!

Like John Kruse's excellent Saint scripts this does hang together.

Billy Flowers the hypnotist could tell whether people could be corrupt (and thus safe to bribe into the spy group), Harry Black wasn't. Harry's partner Maxie Lardner was. Wickram had been turned to "the other side" and changed (brainwashed) when captured by the Communists in the Korean War some ten years earlier - he returned as a spy and co-opted others into his "spy gang" either through money or ideology. Harry's partner bought out Harry's half of the Ghost Train, supposedly to help him with his court case, but Harry was hypnotised and framed by Wickram's spy gang (Billy was another member) to get him out of the way and keep the tunnel/computer/cable hack secret. If he hadn't gone to jail, he'd still be unlikely to find the Ghost Train's hidden computer/transmitter as he wouldn't work there any more.

2. How did they steal state secrets to transmit them to whomever?

If that was explained in the episode, I and my friend watching with me, never got it.

The Ghost Train tunnel was sited directly over a telephone cable from Paris to London that carried secret government messages. The spies had installed an electronic computer on top of it, that was capable of "eavesdropping" and collecting the information and sending it to their masters. A very early (the earliest?) "computer hack" on television!

[mousemeat]

Who was it, Leonard White (?) who thought Season 1 was awful? After viewing the disappointing "Tunnel Of Fear", I'm not surprised. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but Ian Hendry seems to be the least memorable Avenger, even beating out Jon Rollason and Julie Stevens for that distinction. I have a hard time warming up to him.

Then it's a minority of at least two, because I also find Keel ... unexciting. I've watched the surviving eps and have been reading through the surviving scripts to see whether my attitude might change, and it hasn't, so far.

I did enjoy Tunnel of Fear, but mostly because Steed is always fun to watch, and he's in his element here as the carnival barker and then later in the faceoff with the villains. As far as I can tell, Steed just seems to have been the more interesting character in Season 1 overall.

Bringing in Cathy Gale and constructing her character the way they did was probably the smartest thing they could have done to keep the show going and to improve it, and groundbreaking on so many levels. She's a much better partner for Steed in a lot of ways, and also more interesting than Keel ever was.

well...then make that three...because I also don't cater to...or warm up to Ian as Steed's partner....the chemistry just isn't there...granted, the show was still young, and trying to find it's mark...so the eventual interaction between Ian and Patrick, isn't quite there..perhaps given time, the writers would have gotten it right...along with a larger budget for better scripts, etc...The show could have ended it's run in that season...lucky for everyone, it did not. Adding Mrs. Gale, was smart, gave the show, legs, and allow it to grow into the series we all love...some 60 years after it's birth..

[Frankymole]

What do you guys think of Hendry in the surviving Police Surgeon episode? Of course he doesn't have a partner to have chemistry with, it being only a half-hour show he didn't need a co-star to lighten the load, but he does have an interaction with actor Michael Crawford as the young tearaway, in a sort of fatherly/avuncular style.

[darren]

I watched Ian Hendry in a film on Talking Pictures TV the other week "Girl in the Headlines", he plays a police inspector aided by Ronald Fraser (The Gravediggers). He's much more playful in the film than the Avengers. It was a very good performance.

In The Avengers, he was the straight man to the quirkier Steed. I like him but he doesn't really sing out at me. But that's only judging from three episodes.

Thanks for the plot points, Frankymole. I really enjoy this episode for the pace, energy and location but it isn't one where I could explain what it's actually about.

[Frankymole]

It's interesting how even with the Tele-Snaps and other synopses to draw on (but no script, and long before this episode was rediscovered) the reconstruction of this episode for Richard McGinlay and Alan Hayes's book still got some points wrong; that had Harry Black's mum living in London, and going down to the funfair with Steed or Keel rather than working there on a shrimp stall. Harry Black was supposedly a previous patient of Dr Tredding's practice and Carol was looking at his medical records, not the letter that was found on him! And the umbrella left in the ghost train car in the titles was supposedly harry's, him having been beaten-up at the fair and going all the way to London for treatment... his ex-convict status was known but thought to be before he worked at the fair...

[paulh]

I've really enjoyed all the episodes that I've seen from season one. Having listened to the audiobook dramatisations of all 26 episodes, I'd say it's as good as season two story-wise. It took me a while to warm to Dr Keel though.

I did like Ian in the surviving episode of Police Surgeon and the dynamic between him and Michael Crawford. It's a shame no other episodes survive. That reminds me, when I first saw The Avengers back in the 1980s it was widely thought the series was a spin off from Police Surgeon. Have no idea how that rumour came about!

[Frankymole]

It's a behind-the-scenes continuation of sorts since it was designed to keep Ian Hendry on the payroll when Police Surgeon was axed. It has most of the same production team and originally Keel was called Dr Brent then Dr Dent in the scripts... but for legal reasons they could never have had him be the same character.

[dissolute]

Yes, I've seen BRENT instead of KEEL in the scripts for Hot Snow and Brought to Book, it's very jarring.