Series 2 — Episode 22
Man in the Mirror

Production details

Episode 48
Production Number : 3521
VTR/ABC/2426
Teddington Studio 1

Schedule

Thursday 21st February 1963

Friday 22nd February 1963

Equipment

Running time

Expected: 51′25″
Actual running time with bumpers: 50′52″

The bumpers between the acts are generally 10 seconds from fade in to the “End of Act” bumper to the end of audio before the commercial, a 10 second still without audio, then cut to the next act bumper. This would play with the theme for around 10 seconds. Accordingly, with the episodes being in 3 acts, the running time of the action is approximately a minute less than listed above, minus the opening and closing credits (normally 0′16″, with a 2" fade, and anywhere from 0′41″ to 1′20″, hard cut or 1" fade or mix, respectively).

Regional broadcasts

International broadcasts

This episode was broadcast in Italy on 2^nd September 1965 (9pm, RAI 1) under the title of “Un uomo nello specchio”. It was one of a limited run of ten episodes from series 2 and 3 that were broadcast on RAI intermittently throughout 1965 and 1966 under the title “Agente speciale”. This was the last episode in the weekly Thursday timeslot on RAI 1; after this episode, the series appeared sporadically on RAI 2.

Man in the Mirror was not broadcast in Australia so there are no Australian listings.

TV Times listing

Episode availability

• Video — original footage held by Studio Canal, available on the Studio Canal series 1&2 DVD set
• Script — Tony Pelly’s copy of the camera script and scene breakdown
• Publicity Stills — at least 2

Murders

Click a name to see the face

Transport

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:06 — One Six presents some slides of cases to his team of agents. He glances at his watch all the way through, annoyed at Steed’s lateness:
   
   1. John Cartwright, who led the Hatton Garden raid which netted £200,000 worth of uncut stones which were never recovered and is about to be released after 8 years inside. He’s more interested in who else will greet him than getting the stones, and wants the organisation represented — assigned to Williams as he may remember Yorke;
   2. a £500,000 job they ought to have got a lead on by now — assigned to Smith and Pendleton;
   3. a young woman in a bikini, Inès Cordoba, currently in London for a Brazilian trade agreement — assigned to Marks who is told her phone is already bugged;
   4. James Morgan, a Whitehall courier who disappeared at London Airport when returning from assignment.
2. 10:41 (10:35) — Venus rolls her eyes when starting the second verse of “There’s Nothing Like Love” — is she finding it hard to remember the lyrics, or is she overwhelmed by how appalling they are?
3. 11:20–11:47 — for the end of the song, Julie breaks the fourth wall and sings direct to camera.
4. 19:22 — the boom microphone decends alarmingly into view as Steed and Venus emerge from the Ghost Tunnel, then is whisked away again.
5. 26:27–26:40 — Venus finishes another song direct to camera.
6. 27:30–28:06 (27:00–27:30) When Brown is testing the guns in the arcade, the sound effects of the shots aren’t always in synch with the action, in one case being heard just after Brown gives up on a jammed gun and is laying it aside (27:35), in another a second too late, and you hear the trigger click well before the blast (28:05).
7. Trevelyan says “this will only give us about three minutes” — the original script says “ten minutes”, so I assume the producer or editor changed the line to increase the tension.
8. What on earth happens at the end? Do the Trevelyans escape? It seems like they cut a crucial denouement simply to insert the tag scene with Steed giving Venus the brooch (which implies Betty and Brown weren’t arrested as well).
9. 49:15 — this episode closes out with a variation of the theme music, ending with a tempo change and solo trombone.

The Songs

Venus sings two songs.

• “There’s Nothing Like Love” [10:18 (10:11), 1:30 long]
  • Listen to “There’s Nothing Like Love”
  • 
    Watch “There’s Nothing Like Love”
• “I Know Where I’m Going” [25:07, 1:36 long (24:33, 1:34 long)]
  • Listen to “I Know Where I’m Going”
  • 
    Watch “I Know Where I’m Going”

This episode sees Art Morgan and Eric Dawson replaced by Lew Grade’s in-house ATV orchestra leader, Jack Parnell and his regular bassist, Lennie Bush. They were musicians Kenny regularly played with at Ronnie Scott’s in the Jack Parnell Orchestra. Parnell did most of the on-set music at Elstree with Kenny Baker, Lennie Bush, Ronnie Verrell and Kenny Powell as accompianist, so it’s odd they’re here billed as the Kenny Powell trio when Jack was the eminent player.