Series 3 — Episode 18
Mandrake
by Roger Marshall
Designed by David Marshall
Directed by Bill Bain
Production No 3620, VTR/ABC/3255
Production completed: January 16 1964. First transmission: January 25 1964.
Production Schedule
Episode 73
Production Number : 3620
VTR/ABC/3255
Teddington Studio 1
Wednesday, 15th January, 1964
Camera rehearsal | 10.00–12.30 |
Lunch break | 12.30–13.30 |
Camera rehearsal | 13.30–18.00 |
Supper break | 18.00–19.00 |
Line Up | 19.00–19.30 |
Camera rehearsal & 3 VTR Inserts | 19.30–21.00 |
Thursday, 16th January, 1964
Camera rehearsal | 10.00–13.00 |
Lunch break | 13.00–14.00 |
Camera rehearsal | 14.00–15.30 |
Tea break, line up, normal scan, make-up |
15.30–16.15 |
Dress rehearsal | 16.15–17.30 |
Notes | 17.30–18.00 |
Line-up | 18.00–18.30 |
VTR | 18.30–19.30 |
Running time
Expected: 51′25″ – 2 commercial breaks
Actual running time with bumpers: 52′21″
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: | ACT ONE. 5 PEDESTALS. VTR INSERTS & ACT TWO. 3.4.5 & MOLE. ACT THREE. 5 PEDESTALS. |
---|---|
Sound: | 3 BOOMS. |
Telecine: | ABC SYMBOL/AVENGERS OPENING 35 m/m. RAIN LOOP — 16m/m. CAPTION SCANNER. |
Special Requirements: | Smoke Gun or Dry Ice. Lightning Sticks. Practical Rain for VTR Insert of Teaser. Practical Slide Projector in Cathy’s Flat. |
VTR INSERTS. (3): |
|
Transmission
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ATV London | 25/01/1964 | 10.05pm |
ABC Midlands | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
ABC North | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Anglia Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Border Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Channel Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Grampian Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Southern Television | 25/01/1964 | 10.05pm |
Scottish Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Tyne Tees Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Ulster Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Westward Television | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Television Wales & West | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
Teledu Cymru (WWN) | 25/01/1964 | 9.10pm |
International broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ABN2 Sydney | 9/03/1965 | 8.00pm |
ABQ2 Brisbane | 24/05/1965 | 7.30pm |
ABV2 Melbourne | - | - |
ABS2 Adelaide | 14/02/1966 | 8.00pm |
This episode was already scheduled to be broadcast, a week later, while it was being produced.
This episode was not shown in Melbourne as, finding themselves a year behind Sydney, they dropped five episodes to catch up to series 4. In all other Australian regions, this episode was held back five weeks to be the final episode.
TV Times listing




10.5 The Avengers
starring
Patrick Macnee
Honor Blackman
in
Mandrake
By Roger Marshall
Cast
Rev. Whyper | George Benson |
Roy Hopkins | Philip Locke |
Benson | Robert Morris |
John Steed | Patrick Macnee |
Dr. Macombie | John Le Mesurier |
Catherine Gale | Honor Blackman |
Sexton | Jackie Pallo |
Mrs. Turner | Madge Ryan |
Judy | Annette Andre |
Story Editor Richard Bates
Directed by
Bill Bain
Produced by
John Bryce
In which Steed pulls crackers to help Cathy unearth a grisly racket
ABC Television Network Production
Murders
Victim | Killer | Method |
---|---|---|
John Benson | Benson | Arsenic poisoning |
Arthur Turner | Eve Turner | Arsenic poisoning |
(As many as ten other men may have been murdered prior to the events of the episode, although only seven had been ‘treated’ by Macombie).

Continuity and trivia
- The picture is not quite 4:3 so there’s a bar of grey down the right side of the picture.
- 0:51–2:28 — The “practical rain” isn’t considered strong enough, so VTR insert A is filtered with a moving monochrome “rain loop” of slanted lines to represent torrential rain.
- 2:28 — The opening credits feature a cross-fade under the titles, from the coffin in the grave to the skeleton in Macombie’s consulting room.
- 5:25 — There’s a small diagonal smudge dead centre of camera 5’s lens.
- 5:25–6:00 — Mr. and Mrs. Arthur George William Turner lived at The Groves, Hemel Hempstead. Arthur is 48, his “aspiring widow” is 43 “but looks younger”. (The original script has the husband’s age as 58 and goes on to read: “Wife desires change of mate”. The audio is faded out at “Wife desi —” so we miss this last sentence. I don’t know about you, but Madge Ryan does NOT look like a “young 43” to me, she seems terribly miscast.
- 7:37 — there are two dark spots in the top left quadrant of the lens of camera 2 in Steed’s CU. They reappear at 8:50 and presumably elsewhere.
- 8:37–8:53, 16:22–16:31, 17:03, 18:59, 21:32, 23:55–24:40, 26:00, 28:00, 35:33 — interference patterns on screen.
- 10:00 — Steed tells Cathy Benson hated his wife and was always booking her flights on dicey airlines. “He would permutate the next air disaster; if there was fog in the air, Mrs. Benson was in the air!” Cathy replies, “Happy family!”
- 10:30 — Cathy refers to Benson’s father as being Steed’s old boss.
- 12:40 — The closeup of Benson’s headstone is a slide insert. The headstone reads: John Alan Benson — born February 10 1899, died December 29 1963, “Entered into rest”
- 13:00 — the tune that plays when the vicar appears on his bicycle is called “Village Postman” — you hear it a lot in Seasons 2 and 3.
- 18:55 — Phillip Locke fluffs his line: “ring me if it — if anything happens”
- 21:15 — What is Phillip Locke doing? He keeps staring off stage, at camera 6, as Mrs. Turner prepares to sign the cheque. He has been doing this a lot during the episode, seemingly checking positions, or reactions to his lines, from the beginning of the episode.
- 23:13 — A reshowing of the slide at 12:40, this time as a slide in Cathy’s presentation to Steed. It’s accompanied by three more, but we only see two of the others. In all, she showed 11, Steed says 9 were in “Who’s Who?”. Later, we learn seven had been treated by Macombie but as they had already done ‘nine cases’ at this point.
- 24:10 — Blackman skips a line of dialogue — she was supposed to say “But why whip them off to Tinbey?” but instead says, “Can you find out who were their doctors?” Macnee isn’t listening and give the response to the previous line, “Wish I knew.” Honor then has to say “Who was young Benson’s doctor?” to get them back on track — Macnee realises it’s gone wrong and is about to prompt her when she does so.
- 25:22 — Unexpected hilarity in the scene where Steed arrives at the cracker factory — Annette André (Judy) is incapable of putting the boxes on the shelf, and just keeps dropping them on Steed. (The script reads: GENERAL CONFUSION etc. but they go over and above the call of duty.)
- 26:30 — After trying to blow up the balloon, the rest of page 37 of the script is cut, and then Macnee gets his next line wrong! He asks for 3,000 boxes of crackers instead of 3 dozen. He give the correct number a few lines later.
- 26:44 — Sleazy Steed. He checks out Annette’s backside when she turns to get some crackers.
- 27:21 — Another appearance put in by the regular prop, the steel spiral staircase.
- 29:47 — You wouldn’t see it these days — Dr. Macombie is smoking at his desk in his consulting room.
- 32:50 — Macombie dials the very unlikely number 1111 to call Hopkins.
- 33:52 — The backdoor into Macombie’s that Cathy unbolted sticks and the wall bends precariously as Steed tries to open it; a bit of the jamb falls off when he finally kicks it open.
- 34:08 — Steed tips his hat to the skeleton, but only says, “Good evening” instead of the line in the script, “How’s the wife?”
- 34:30 — During rehearsal for the graveyard fight scene, Honor Blackman accidentally knocked out professional wrestler Jackie Pallo for four minutes (she forgot to feint first, then kick, and simply kicked him in the head, knocking him onto the concrete floor of the studio). Blackman was it tears when it happened and sat by him until he recovered.
- 35:27 — A hair gets stuck to the transfer plate at the bottom of the screen. It remains there until the end of Act Two (36:57).
- 36:30 — Second episode in a row with gun-toting vicars, except this time it’s a real vicar and a plastic water-pistol confiscated at choir practice in Bodmin — but we don’t know that until well into Act III (47:05).
- 37:40 — Hopkins plies Mrs. Turner with Veuve Cliquot but she’s wise to him and dismisses him as “a tradesman she has done trade with” in a later scene.
- 41:37 — Whyper’s organ funeral march plays on into the next scene at Macombie’s consulting room for a few seconds.
- 44:26 — The cameraman loses focus for a second when Steed pushes Benson against the mirror.
- 46:20 — the boom microphone appears briefly in the top right corner of the screen, and its shadow dances across the coffin, as the vicar moves down the curch then turns to face Cathy.
- 46:25 — Tinbey doesn’t exist but it must be meant to be near Bodmin Moor, as Bodmin and Coad’s Green are both mentioned.
- 47:40 — Patrick Macnee accidentally says "Julie" instead of "Judy". Despite this, it’s a lovely bit of acting by Annette André, she looks genuinely hurt at Steed breaking their lunch date and fights back the tears.
- 51:05 — The cameraman loses focus for a second when vision switches to the 2/s of the Sexton and Cathy.
- 51:10 — Steed tells Cathy off for bribing the sexton too much. She offered him £100 and Queen’s Evidence when she could have got away with just £50.