The Avengers International Fan Forum

I wonder just how many episodes included a scene or two from the well worn "hallway" on the studio set?

I get a kick out of discovering yet another scene in the oh-so-familiar hall, that despite the effort of the crew to change wall paper and colour scheme looks 90 per cent the same.

I'm hoping the two scenes below from Invasion of the Earth Men and The Superlative Seven illustrate my point. Other than Steed's and Emma's flat I suggest this area got plenty of air time.

Do you agree? And can you add any other episodes that also feature this hallway?

I guess it is to The Avengers what running down corridors is to Doctor Who!

Just watched an THE BARON last evening and one of the sets could just as well have been a screenshot from THE AVENGERS (or THE SAINT/DEPARTMENT S/....).
Probably a lot of overlap in set builders and as we know in props.

I just doesn't bother me, because it is not a mistake and why watch to just find faults? I quite like spotting these.

The hallway with the pointed archways turns up all over the place - Castle De'ath, Too Many Christmas Trees, The House that Jack Built, What the Butler Saw etc.
The exact same creepy old house set is use for The Joker and The Superlative Seven and I remember that the one in Don't Look Behind You turns up again later as well.

Then there's that cast iron spiral staircase...

Allard wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 8:56 pm Just watched an THE BARON last evening and one of the sets could just as well have been a screenshot from THE AVENGERS (or THE SAINT/DEPARTMENT S/....).
Probably a lot of overlap in set builders and as we know in props.

I just doesn't bother me, because it is not a mistake and why watch to just find faults? I quite like spotting these.

Quite a lot of the furniture seemed to shuttle back and forth in the various Elstree/Borehamwood scene stores, prankster Roger Moore used to hide in wardrobes that were used in The Saint and then jump out of them in the studio for shows like The Avengers (but I presume he hadn't been in there all the time in-between!).

Its like proto-IKEA where a lot of furniture is the same.

ugh....IKEA is the new norm for blandness....lol......then again, there are many who actually like their offerings

Elstree studios had a scenery store filled with stock elements (usually built for whatever big budget movie came to film there). Solid sets were expensive to build as they included scaffolding to hold them together - as a result they'd get redressed and repainted and used for a couple of episodes. The Avengers didn't hold on to most sets for longer than 3 or more episodes. Shows like Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) had a house hallway with stairs that appears redressed for pretty much the whole run of episodes.

The above examples aren't the same.

The pub set from The Town of No Return turns up in The Man-Eater of Surrey Green and Silent Dust.

The set reuse is more apparent in the colour episodes as the turnover of production was much quicker due to the rush to meet American airdates.

Examples:

The opening episodes of season 5 designed by Wilfred Shingleton (before Robert Jones took over as permanent designer from The Living Dead up to Bizarre) pretty much all feature the large mansion house lounge with imposing fireplace seen in Escape in Time and used until The Winged Avenger in various configurations.

The house from The Joker is seen again in The Superlative Seven in a ruined state (or the other way round).

A lounge in The Curious Case of the Countless Clues turns up again in Forget-Me-Knot and Split

The church in Thingumajig becomes Happychap's office in Bizarre.

The underground base from They Keep Killing Steed is repurposed as Mother's different offices twice - entered through a manhole in False Witness and through a telephone box in The Interrogators.

There are loads more examples. It was very common for filmed UK TV shows of the time.

It's not unheard of even now. In series 6 of modern Doctor Who, they built a set to represent the Oval Office in the US White House and the same space got reused in every episode that series usually with added stairs.

re using sets, etc...has been going on for eons....Adventures of Superman (1951-1957) did similar stuff, like that as well..Irwin Allen, also reused sets, etc

cinema window dressing ...lol

More hallway

From The Joker

The prop department was sure kept busy!