Series 1 — Episode 7
Diamond Cut Diamond
by Max Marquis
Production No 3371, VTR/ABC/1141
Production completed: February 18 1961. First transmission: February 18 1961.
TV Times summaryTwo beautiful women make it difficult for John Steed to keep his mind on his work when he joins an airline to find a murderer
The following episode summary is written from the published synopses and other previously published material as this episode is now lost. The final filmed production may have been different.
Plot summary
Steed poses as an airline steward, hoping to be invited to join a diamond-smuggling racket. After a wild party he awakes to find himself accused of a hit-and-run death. Dr. Keel confirms his innocence but Steed allows himself to be blackmailed into smuggling a package. Having raised their suspicions, Dr. Collard and Fiona Charles arrive to dispose of Steed, but Keel arrives to prevent any more killing.
John Steed (Patrick Macnee) has a meeting with his boss, One-Ten (Douglas Muir), at a house near Heathrow airport that used to be the residence of an air steward called Harcourt.
One-Ten tells him to impersonate another air steward called Ryan who had been arrested in Australia for smuggling as he suspects Harcourt before his supposed suicide was a smuggler and may have in fact been murdered by his bosses. The next day, Steed shows up to Globe Airlines to start his new job and meets Fiona Charles (Sandra Dorne), the young blonde nurse who assists the airline’s medical officer, Dr. Collard (Hamlyn Benson). He also meets a pilot called Sharp with whom he’ll be flying to New York the next morning.
The return flight goes without a hitch and, now baptised by an Atlantic run, Steed is invited to a raucous party with all the air crew that night.
Steed is woken by a phone call the next morning and a sinister, muffled, voice on the line tells him to read the papers then check his garage. He sees all the headlines reporting a hit and run murder by a lunatic driver and, to his dismay, he finds his car with a bent radiator and mudguards, one covered in blood.
He travels to Dr. Keel’s surgery where Carol Wilson (Ingrid Hafner) lets him in. Steed tells Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) that he’s being blackmailed - he has no recollection of anything after the party 1. Dr. Keel performs a few tests and tells him he couldn’t have driven at all last night as he had been pumped full of depressants.
Steed returns to the house and receives a visit from a tearful Fiona who tells him that she, too, is being blackmailed. She hands him a package saying that it must get to a contact in New York otherwise she’s doomed. On cue, the phone rings - it’s the voice again, delivering careful instructions for the package’s delivery. Fiona tearfully begs him to do what he’s told for both their sake and Steed agrees.
Steed and Sharp once again fly to New York uneventfully but this time Sharp and Steed go to a party in New York. Steed meets the glamorous Stella Creighton (Joy Webster) who asks for the package and takes it from him.
Upon his return, he discovers Dr. Collard and Fiona waiting for him at Harcourt’s house. The doctor pulls a gun on him and tells him they are the smugglers and they have decided he’s too risky a courier after his furtive visit to Dr. Keel. Harcourt tried something similar and he had to die. Fiona is shocked when Collard waves the gun at her as well, saying she has compromised his operation by bringing Steed in.
Collard sneers at them and explains his plan: The police will find their bodies and come to the conclusion that Steed killed her and then shot himself in remorse. Before he can carry out his plan, Dr. Keel arrives and he and Steed overpower the startled Collard.
Steed turns on Fiona and explains that they had already worked out the set-up and had set a trap for them. Bursting into tears once more, Fiona agrees to turn Queen’s evidence so the gang will be rounded up.
- This part of the plot bears a striking resemblance to the plot of the Danger Man episode The Professionals. ⭮