Series 3 — Episode 3
Man with Two Shadows
by James Mitchell
Designed by Paul Bernard
Directed by Don Leaver
Production No 3605, VTR/ABC/2799
Production completed: June 21 1963. First transmission: October 12 1963.
Production Schedule
Episode 58
Production Number : 3605
VTR/ABC/2799 & 2799A-F
Teddington Studio 1
Thursday, 20th June, 1963
Camera rehearsal | 10.00–12.30 |
Lunch break | 12.30–13.30 |
Camera rehearsal | 13.30–15.30 |
Tea Break | 15.30–15.45 |
Rehearsal Inserts | 15.45–16.45 |
Line Up & Make Up | 16.45–17.15 |
VTR INSERTS A,D,C,D,E & F | 17.15–18.00 |
Supper break | 18.00–19.00 |
Completion of VTR inserts & Camera rehearsal | 19.00–21.00 |
Proposed running order for taping VTR inserts — Thursday, 20th June, 1963
- Tape 1
- VTR/ABC/2799A :
DANIEL MOYNIHAN as ‘real’ Gordon up to point of being shot. - VTR/ABC/2799B :
PATRICK MACNEE as ‘real’ Steed walking up to front door of chalet, putting key in look.
- VTR/ABC/2799A :
- Tape 2
- VTR/ABC/2799C (utilising Insert ‘A’) :
DANIEL MOYNIHAN as ‘double’ Gordon (dark shirt & slacks). Reactions cut into replayed Insert ‘A’, following on continuously to form one complete sequence. - VTR/ABC/2799D :
PATRICK MACNEE as double Steed (town suit) & PHILIP ANTHONY as Cummings - VTR/ABC/2799E :
PATRICK MACNEE as ‘double’ Steed (dark shirt & slacks) & GEORGE LITTLE as Sigi - VTR/ABC/2799F (utilising Insert ‘D’) :
PATRICK MACNEE as ‘double’; Steed (dark shirt & slacks) Entering chalet, hiding in shower. Re-playing ‘B’, continuing inside shower, gun biz.
- VTR/ABC/2799C (utilising Insert ‘A’) :
Friday, 21st June, 1963
Camera rehearsal | 09.00–12.30 |
Lunch break | 12.30–13.30 |
Camera rehearsal | 13.30–14.30 |
Tea break, Line Up, Normal Scan & Make-Up |
14.30–15.15 |
Dress rehearsal | 15.15–16.30 |
Notes | 16.30–16.45 |
Line-up | 16.45–17.15 |
VTR (discontinuous) | 17.15–18.30 |
Running time
Expected: 51′25″ + 2 commercial breaks
Actual running time with bumpers: 51′20″
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 credits (normally 0′16″ with a 2″ fade) and closing credits (anywhere from 0′41″ to 1′20″, hard cut or 1″ fade or mix).
Equipment
Cameras: | 1 Mole Crane 2 Pedestal 3 Pedestal 4 Pedestal (Studio zoom) 5 Pedestal (Used instead of crane during latter half Act 2) |
---|---|
Sound: | 3 booms & fixed mics., grams, F/X |
Telecine: | Opening AVENGERS film |
Caption scanner: | Captions |
Slide: | 1 — ABC Production slide |
Transmission
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ATV London | 12/10/1963 | 10.05pm |
ABC Midlands | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
ABC North | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
Anglia Television | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
Border Television | 12/10/1963 | 10.05pm |
Channel Television | 12/10/1963 | 10.05pm |
Grampian Television | 13/10/1963 | 10.35pm |
Southern Television | 12/10/1963 | 10.05pm |
Scottish Television | 12/10/1963 | 10.25pm |
Tyne Tees Television | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
Ulster Television | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
Westward Television | 12/10/1963 | 10.05pm |
Television Wales & West | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
Teledu Cymru (WWN) | 12/10/1963 | 9.50pm |
International broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ABN2 Sydney | - | - |
ABQ2 Brisbane | - | - |
ABV2 Melbourne | - | - |
ABS2 Adelaide | - | - |
Man with Two Shadows was not broadcast in Australia so there are no Australian listings.
TV Times listing

10.5 The Avengers
starring
Patrick Macnee
Honor Blackman
in
Man With Two Shadows
By James Mitchell
Cast
Gordon | Daniel Moynihan |
Charles | Paul Whitsun-Jones |
Steed | Patrick Macnee |
Borowski | Terence Lodge |
Cathy | Honor Blackman |
Rudi | Douglas Robinson |
Sigi | George Little |
Julie | Gwendolyn Watts |
Dr. Terence | Geoffrey Palmer |
Miss Quist | Anne Godfrey |
Cummings | Philip Anthony |
Holiday camp official |
Robert Lankesheer |
The Avengers theme composed and
played by Johnny Dankworth
Settings by Paul Bernard
Directed by Don Leaver
Produced by John Bryce
In which Steed hides from himself and Cathy is ordered to kill him
ABC Television Network Production
Murders
Victim | Killer | Method |
---|---|---|
Gordon | False Gordon | shot |
False Steed | Steed | shot |

Continuity and trivia
Time codes here include the Studio Canal logo from the remastered 2010 set, which runs for 18 seconds.
- 0:00 — this episode starts with the lightning flash graphics, the first episode of the season to do so.
- 3:44, 15:31, 16:11, 18:29,23:04, 40:33 — minor distortion.
- 4:20 — Pieter Borowski, whom Steed first met in 1947, has been brainwashed and given multiple personalities: a Gestapo commandant (Obersturmbahnführer Ranoke), a Russian nobleman who died in 1860, a New York thriller writer (Theodore Kaplan) “and Heaven knows what else besides.”
Borowski was born in Stepney, London; the Gestapo commandant was born in Hanover and the writer in New York. - 4:36, 39:47 — major distortion.
- 12:26 — Borowski hasn’t been in the West since 1959, but he has a 1963 brochure for Baxter’s Holiday Camp — the first definite clue, laid by the other side to get Steed to the holiday camp.
- 21:34 — A minor recurring theme of the season, Steed is seen reading a English-language copy of “Tintin in Tibet”. Steed has just reached the bit where, just as they decide to abandon their search, Tintin spots Chang’s scarf caught on a rock high up on a cliff, page 36. (you can see identifying panels of page 37 in the bottom corner of the right-hand page).
- 22:49 — Steed again claims not to smoke when Gordon offers him a cigarette — a claim he also made in The Nutshell.
- 25:30 — Miss Quist declares it can’t be Gordon because the bicuspid and filling she extracted the week before from the real Gordon is in the impostor’s mouth.
- 28:23 — the setting behind Cummings is clearly a cloth backdrop.
- 32:40 — Charles states that Steed is their only agent who’s been captured — for four days — and managed to get away.
- 34:00 — After replying with all the correct counter phrases, Cathy quips, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (correcting the script which reads “Quis custodies custodebit.”) The phrase means “Who guards the guards?” and is a quotation of Juvenal. Charles smiles and replies, “Rem acu tetigisti” (You’ve hit the nail on the head, literally, you have hit it with a needle, a quote from Plautus). Can you imagine a television show (other than QI, of course) having an exchange in Latin these days?
- 40:04 — Just after Iris leaves, having obtained the Minister’s autograph, the boom mic dips into shot at to top left of the screen.
- 46:50 — Steed identifies Rudi as Rudi Hengel, born in Vienna, 1932. mother Austrian, father unknown.
- 47:33 — white interference spots across the screen.
- 48:06 — Cathy and Rudi engage in a surreal fight scene with the ballroom music in the background.
- 49:36 — Steed enters Cathy’s apartment and says, “Well, how is Mrs. Whizz Bang Wallop? … What’s for breakfast?”
She glares at him and says, “Cook it and see!” These lines don’t appear in the script at all and are probably ad lib. - 50:42 — Steed proves he’s “the same man she knew a year ago” by whispering something in Cathy’s ear. She bursts out laughing and he joins in.