Series 4 — Episode 16
Small Game for Big Hunters
by Philip Levene
Directed by Gerry O’Hara
Production No E.64.10.17
Production completed: October 1 1965. First transmission: January 11 1966.
Production
Production dates: 16/09 – 1/10/1965
Once again, Programme Controller Brian Tesler disliked another Philip Levene script. The first draft was sent to him on May 25 and returned on June 2 with the verdict that even though he found the finale enjoyable, it was too wordy without enough action for the first three quarters (presumably because he couldn’t use his usual science fiction complaint).
A second version was dispatched on June 29 but once again revisions were requested; it may have been shelved for a while as it was not until September 14 that the final script was sent, and accepted two days later without further comment, which was lucky as they were about to start filming.
Gerry O’Hara returned to direct his second episode, which would be his last for the show. In contrast to the previous episode, there was a lot of location filming done for the episode, with the house Starveacres in Radlett doing double duty as both Dr. Gibson’s house (the front and driveway) and Colonel Rawlings’ house (the back of the house and extensive formal garden). The teaser and tag scenes were filmed at the familiar haunt of Tykes Water Lake.
This episode saw a lot of the special John Bates monochrome outfits for Mrs. Peel and she truly looks magnificent in them. They would go on sale to the public after a splash of photo shoots of Diana Rigg wearing them hit the press 26-7 September 1965.
Regional broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
Rediffusion London | 14/01/1966 | 8.00pm |
ABC Midlands | 15/01/1966 | 9.05pm |
ABC North | 15/01/1966 | 9.05pm |
Anglia Television | 13/01/1966 | 8.00pm |
Border Television | 16/01/1966 | 9.35pm |
Channel Television | 15/01/1966 | 9.05pm |
Grampian Television | 14/01/1966 | 8.00pm |
Southern Television | 15/01/1966 | 9.05pm |
Scottish Television | 11/01/1966 | 8.00pm |
Tyne Tees Television | 14/01/1966 | 8.00pm |
Ulster Television | 14/01/1966 | 8.00pm |
Westward Television | 15/01/1966 | 9.05pm |
Television Wales & West | 15/01/1966 | 9.05pm |
TV Times listing




8.0 The Avengers
starring
Patrick Macnee
as John Steed
and
Diana Rigg
as Emma Peel
in
Small Game for Big Hunters
By Philip Levene
In which Steed joins the natives — and Emma gets the evil eye …
Cast also includes
Col. Rawlings | Bill Fraser |
Simon Trent | James Villiers |
Professor Swain | Liam Redmond |
Dr. Gibson | A. J. Brown |
Fleming | Peter Burton |
Razafi | Paul Danquah |
Tropical outfitter | Tom Gill |
Lala | Esther Anderson |
Kendrick | Peter Thomas |
Music by Laurie Johnson
Directed by
Gerry O’Hara
Produced by Julian Wintle
ABC Television Network Production



International broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ABN2 Sydney, Australia | 31/05/1966 | 8.00pm |
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia | 14/06/1966 | 7.30pm |
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia | 7/06/1966 | 7.30pm |
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia | 27/06/1966 | 8.30pm |
ABC New York, USA | 4/04/1966 | 10.00pm |
ORTF2 France | 25/04/1967 | 8.00pm |
Suisse Romande, Switzerland | 8/10/1966 | 9.40pm |
French title | Petit gibier pour gros chasseurs | |
ZDF Germany | 4/04/1967 | 9.15pm |
German title | Afrikanischer Sommer | |
KRO Netherlands | 11/09/1967 | 9.35pm |
Dutch title | De slaapziekte | |
Italy | 26/11/80 C51 | |
Italian title | Piccolo gioco per grandi cacciatori | |
Spain | 3/07/1967 | 4.05pm |
Spanish title | Presa chica para grandes cazadores / Un juego simple para grandes cazadores |
Italy did not show this episode in the 1960s, the Italian titles are from the Tele Torino International broadcast in the 1980s, and DVD releases.






Episode Rating
Subject | 0–5 |
---|---|
Direction | 3½ stars |
Music | 4 stars |
Humour | 3½ stars |
Intros/tags | 3½ stars |
Villains | 3½ stars |
Plot | 4 stars |
Emma | 4 stars |
Sets/Props | 4 stars |
Overall (0–10) |
7½ stars |
A wildly improbable scheme, but it just might be possible. Jungle fights and silk sarongs enhance a rip-snorting episode (a lot of the snorting coming from Bill Fraser). Another episode that reminds me of The Goodies, so bonus points there.
The Fashions
Emma’s Fashions | Steed’s Fashions |
---|---|
|
|
The Cars
Marque/Model/Type | Number Plate |
---|---|
Bentley | YT 3942 |
Lotus Elan S2 | HNK 999C |
Singer Vogue Estate | CDU 922B |
canoe | - |
Who’s Killing Whom?
Victim | Killer | Method |
---|---|---|
Lt. Razafi | Lala V* | stabbed |

Continuity and trivia
- 1:13 & 1:22 — The establishing shot of the woods pans past the same tree twice.
- 2:00 — The Goodies stole the idea of a man fleeing through the jungle, only to end up by a milestone outside London for their episode, “The Lost Tribe” — only they played it for laughs.
- 5:59 onwards — the Kalayan symbol used throughout the episode was used by W. Somerset Maugham on the cover and titlepage of his books. Originally a Moorish symbol called the hamsa which depicts Fatima’s hand warding off the evil eye. Used upside down, as in this episode, it is supposed to bring bad luck. Maugham had it printed on his book The Hero upside down by mistake, quickly corrected for the second printing.
- 16:04 — When Lieutenant Razafi ransacks Steed’s Bentley, he opens a War Department archive box containing the file on Colonel Rawlings, which strangely also contains one of the files from the Colonel Psev incident — Two’s A Crowd — spelled the same way and with the same serial number, 56079.
- 19:42 — Kalaya is in Africa, so why is there a tiger’s head on the clubhouse wall? Actually, where is Kalaya? The native population vary between African, American and Asian, the clubhouse has lions, tigers, warthogs, a zebra, and a leopard and an array of native implements and weapons — Zulu and Indian — I’m sure I saw a knobkerry, and the poison darts seem to be South American.
- 22:16 — As Steed and Simon Trent first enter the indoor Kalayan jungle, the foliage in the upper right foreground moves quite noticeably as the boom bumps into it while moving backwards.
- 22:23 — The old favourite prop, the cast-iron spiral staircase makes another appearance.
- 22:48 — Emma is reading “Tribal Customs of Kalaya” by E. D. W. Grantham, it looks to be a hand-painted prop.
- 23:14 — The sign outside the Colonel’s hut reads:
Kalayan Settlers
and
Ex-Servicemen’s Association
Club House
Members and Guests only
Pres. Colonel P.R. Rawlings. Late 17th Fusiliers. - 27:18 — Post-modernism: Colonel Rawlings dreams of returning to Mother England and buying a house in Hertfordshire, which is of course what he’s already done.
- 37:08 — the telephone at Gibson’s cottage is labelled Buckby 489.
- 40:34 — It seems a bit bright for midnight when Emma crosses the garden.
- 46:52 — That’s not Patrick Macnee swinging out of that tree, it’s his stunt double Rocky Taylor (best seen in Escape in Time). Rocky also does Steed’s fight with Trent at 47:26. Trent, I think, is being played by Terry Richards in the fight scene.
- 49:49 — the river backdrop behind then in the back projection epilogue is from too low a point of view, making it look like their canoe must be half under water.
- 50:10 — back on location at Tyke’s Water Lake.
- Running time: 51′09″
A note on the timecodes
Timecodes for episodes are problematic as each release has its own quirks so the 2009–11 Optimum Releasing/Studio Canal DVD sets have different run times compared to the A&E and Contender DVD sets from a decade beforehand. The newer Studio Canal & Via Vision blu rays seems to be back in line with the earlier releases, except they often have StudioCanal idents lasting 20 to 22 seconds added to the beginning.
The Optimum Releasing/Studio Canal DVD releases were remastered and their frame rate has been changed, resulting in a shorter running time. However, the picture quality has increased markedly. I assume this is because they used a simple 2:2 pulldown (24 @ 25) when converting from the original film masters (film runs at 24 frames per second, while PAL runs at 25fps, the new DVDs are in PAL format).
This pulldown was also the cause of audio errors on many episodes, especially for Series 5, as the audio sped up to match the new rate (4% faster), rather than being properly pitch-shifted. Checking the dialogue sheets, which list the feet and frames of the reels, it looks like the speed change is around 5.04%, so there may be some cuts as well — probably from around the commercial breaks and ends of reels, as they amount to about 25 seconds. All my assumptions are based on the episodes having been filmed on standard 35mm film, which has 16 frames per foot and runs at 24 frames per second, so a minute of footage uses 90 feet of film (1,440 frames).
The audio errors have been corrected in the currently available DVDs, but the 2:2 pulldown remains. There is also the addition of a Studio Canal lead-in, converted to black and white to match the episode for Series Four, but colour for Series Five, adding an extra 18 or 19 seconds to the running time and making it harder to match timecodes with previous releases. It’s annoying that it has been slapped on every single episode, Series 1–3 didn’t suffer this indignity.
The previous Contender and A&E DVD releases didn’t seem to suffer from these problems, so I assume they either used soft telecine and preserved the original 24fps rate of the film (my preferred option in DVDs) or they used 24 @ 25 pulldown (2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 Euro pull-down).
Thankfully, the new blu ray releases for series 4–6 appear to use native 24fps with soft telecine so the running times and pitch all seem to be correct again along with a much greatly improved picture quality, most notably in the Tara King episodes which are finally (mostly) back to their original glory.