Series 1 — Episode 13
One for the Mortuary

Production details

Studio details: Teddington Two
Production No. 3377
Tape No. VTR/ABC/1263
Transmission: 29th April 1961, 10.00–11.00 p.m.

Schedule

First Reading: 14th April 1961, 2.30 p.m. The Tower, R.C.A. Building, Brook Green Road, Hammersmith W6
Rehearsals: From 14th April 1961 — The Tower, Hammersmith.
Recording: 27th April 1961, 6.00–7.00 p.m.

Camera rehearsal: 26th and 27th April, 1961 in a schedule similar to the other episodes of this time.

Regional broadcasts

ITV Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABC Midlands	29/04/1961	10.00pm
ABC North	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Anglia Television	29/04/1961	10.00pm
ATV	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Southern Television	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Tyne Tees Television	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Television Wales & West	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Ulster Television	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Westward Television	29/04/1961	10.00pm
Scottish Television	-	-
Border Television	-	-
Grampian Television	-	-

TV Times listing

I do not have a copy of the London edition, if anyone has it, I would love to see it.

Episode availability

• Video — no original footage is known to exist; a video reconstruction is available on the Studio Canal series 1&2 DVD set
• Audio — reconstruction in The Lost Episodes vol. 1, by Big Finish
• Script — clean archive copy of the original rehearsal script, from a private collection
• Publicity Stills — 1
• Tele-Snaps — 80

Continuity and trivia

1. Toke Townley put is a marvellous comic turn as the sinister old taxidermist, Bernard Bourg. Looking at series 1 as an entirety, you can see that the forumla for which The Avnegers became world famous is already well in place, where comic actors are interleaved into the plots to make for a really enjoyable experience.
2. The East Kent Times and Mail noted that Anthony Mayne played a “Swiss detective” in “The Avengers” in its April 7 1967 edition, we have tracked him down in this episode.
3. Steed’s agents aren’t much chop when faced with Benson — first Wilson, then Scott, are easily dispatched by the one-eyed assassin.
4. There is a photo in The Avengers by Dave Rogers (ITV Books/Michael Joseph 1984 paperback reprint, p. 20) which is attributed to Toy Trap but is actually from this episode as it shows Malou Pantera and Ian Hendry in Yvette’s artist’s studio flat. Confirmation that it is from this episode is that an almost identical picture is in the Tele-Snaps for the episode, reprinted in the guide booklet that came with the StudioCanal Series 1&2 set.

   

5. This was the first episode of The Avengers shown on Westward Television as it was scheduled in the ITV network for the evening of April 29 1961 when Westward started broadcasting. Westward continued to show all episodes of The Avengers from this point although sometimes the order they were shown in is different to other channels.
6. The only script available for this episode is a rehearsal script which does not have a cast list so we don’t know if the minor players were listed at all.
7. There is a very similar medicine patent theft and repackaging plot in The Deadly Air.