Series 5 — Episode 5
The Bird Who Knew Too Much

Production

Production dates: October-November 1966

An apparently early episode, as some parts were filmed at Elstree and in the surrounding area, where The Avengers had to start the production run as the Pinewood Studios had been booked out by other ITV series. Roy Rossotti, who had filmed all the early tag scenes with the vintage cars at Beaulieu Motor Museum, was sacked as director of this episode and replaced by the ever-dependable Peter Graham Scott, with Alan Hume directing photography in place of Wilkie Cooper. Rossotti was not a popular director but was probably dismissed for running over allocated days, but as every director for the colour series seems to have done that it’s unsure this was the reason.

Filming used a lot of location work, from the Elstree backlot used for the trees and canal, as well as the fire tower, in the opening sequence. We saw an appearance of Shenley Hall for Professor Jordan’s house but the pool across from his house was at Splash Land, Stanbrough Park, Welwyn Garden City (now demolished and replaced with a completely new pool and surrounds). It’s about ten miles away. The pool has been completely redeveloped since the Sixties. The sequence in London outside Pearson’s flat was filmed on Randolph Road W9.

The script was based on a treatment by Alan Patillo that Brian Clemens turned into a full shooting script and incorporated many of Clemens’ Hitchcockian references, from the title through to some of the set pieces.

Regional broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
Rediffusion London	10/02/1967	8.00pm
ABC Midlands	11/02/1967	9.10pm
ABC North	11/02/1967	9.10pm
Anglia Television	10/02/1967	8.00pm
Border Television	12/02/1967	8.10pm
Channel Television	10/02/1967	8.00pm
Grampian Television	27/12/1967	8.00pm
Southern Television	8/02/1967	8.00pm
Scottish Television	11/02/1967	9.10pm
Tyne Tees Television	8/02/1967	8.00pm
Ulster Television	28/12/1967	7.30pm
Westward Television	10/02/1967	8.00pm
Television Wales & West	10/02/1967	8.00pm

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABN2 Sydney, Australia	25/04/1967	8.00pm
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia	29/05/1967	7.30pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia	24/04/1967	8.00pm
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia	6/06/1967	7.30pm
ABC New York, USA	10/03/1967	10.00pm
ORTF2 France	16/07/1968	8.30pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland	22/04/1968	9.15pm
French title	L’oiseau qui en savait trop
ZDF Germany	29/08/1967	9.15pm
German title	Ein Vogel, der zuveil wußte
KRO Netherlands
Dutch title
Svizzera Italiana	18/01/1974	9.00pm
Italian title	il capitano crusoe
Spain	16/10/1967	4.10pm
Spanish title	El pajarraco que sabía demasiado / el pájaro que sabía demasiado

This episode was originally scheduled in the United States for February 10 1967, but was pre-empted by Escape in Time and shown exactly a month later, on March 10 1967, instead.

The Netherlands seems to have not broadcast this episode during the show’s first run.

Episode Rating

Subject	0–5
Direction	4½ stars
Music	4 stars
Humour	4½ stars
Intro/tag	4½ stars
Mastermind	3 stars
Plot	3½ stars
Emma	4 stars
Set Design	3½ stars
Overall (0–10)	8½ stars

One of my favourites, even if it’s not quite in the top five. The characters are well played, the locations engaging and a fast-paced and thrilling storyline make for a great episode.

Steed eschews the telephone for more primitive communications means, and Emma gets an arrow in her wall.
Steed and Mrs. Peel investigate the deaths of two agents, killed by Robin and Verret. Strange photographs taken in a no-flying exclusion zone of sensitive government installations lead them to Sam, a pretty model and the photographer she works for. First Steed, then Emma pose for the camera, before Mrs. Peel is captured and placed in a lethal booby trap. Steed’s continued preference for entering by the window saves her, and they’re back on the trail. The key clue rests in the mind of Captain Crusoe, a prize parrot that has disappeared. Twitter is dispatched but Cunliffe proves to be the real culprit.
With the gang trussed up, Steed proposes they meet a bird, basted in red wine. but he has to shoot it first.

The Cars

Marque/Model	Colour	Number Plate
Bentley Speed Six 1926	British racing green	RX 6180
punt	varnished oak	-
Austin 1800	maroon,white interior	JYT 518D
Austin 12/4 saloon	blue	… 1483
Lotus Elan S3	glacier blue	SJH 499D
Vauxhall 1905 Owned by Lord Montagu and on display at Beaulieu — National Motor Museum.	yellow	MV 9942

Who’s Killing Whom?

Victim	Killer	Method
Percy Danvers	Robin V*	Machine-gun
Frank Elrick	Robin & Verret V*	Pushed off scaffold into wet cement
Mark Pearson	Verret V*	Pistol

The Fashions

Emma’s Fashions

Steed’s Fashions

navy and purple art nouveau shift over navy bermuda shorts tan skirt & jacket with high collar, scooped waist tan long-sleeved dress (mid-thigh length) with white shoes (maybe dress of above?) (1) union jack and hat! lilac sundress with blue & white patterned jacket blue zippered catsuit with orange trim, ring at neck & waist, mid-dark blue boots white dress, ankle length, six or seven small buttons, cloth covered, at the cleavage. Over layers of diaphanous cloth — there has been the suggestion that this is a housecoat or dressing gown or robe, with the implication that very little is being worn underneath. purple short catsuit thing with white trim, white garter boots and hood/hat windscreen thing — an indescribable outfit!

mid brown single-breasted 3-piece suit with felt collar, 1 button at waist, matching bowler, white shirt, dark brown tie grey double-breasted overcoat & bowler, white shirt, purple tie, charcoal suit pale grey double-breasted suit, felt collar, flap pockets, 2 very long vents, wide skirt, grey chelsea boots, umbrella and bowler, white shirt, grey tie with white spot grey double-breasted overcoat on top of above grey single-breasted 3-piece suit with triangular flap pockets. bronze tie, beige shirt grey single-breasted 3-piece suit with 4 buttons, slanted flap pockets and 2 very long vents [continuity error] above with black bowler & umbrella dark grey double-breasted overcoat over below grey single-breasted suit with flap breast, dbl flap right w, sgl fl left, 2 button waist 2 vent, pale grey tie & bowler hat & umbrella, white shirt

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:44 — Danvers has a wet knee, but his knee is dry again at 2:00 as he runs down the tow path. It’s nearly dry when he leaps the barbed wire a bit later.
2. 3:38, 7:06, 18:49–24:55, 30:37 — The bird sculpture which receives Steed’s arrow in the intro winds up in Tom Savage’s studio (18:49–24:55) — a much sought-after piece! You might remember it from the offices of Art Incorporated in The Girl from Auntie.

   The sculpture appears in the first six episodes on this season, turning up for the last time in The Winged Avenger (there are no scenes in Emma’s flat in The Living Dead, and she’s redecorating it in The Hidden Tiger, after which all the furniture has changed).

   As Pat models…	and as Emma does	…but wasn’t it here?

3. 10:14 — In the matted projection studio shot of Steed & Emma arriving outside Pearson’s flat, there’s a thread caught in the camera at top right and the picture is washed out.
4. 11:03 — When Steed lifts Mark off the floor, there’s a thread caught in the camera at bottom right.
5. 
   12:50 — When Steed and Mrs. Peel arrive to see Pearson (10:10), they drive down a wide street with no side streets, and all the buildings plastered white, yet Verret and Robin are keeping watch across the street, parked in a side street alongside a red brick building (notice their wing mirror in the last shot of the sequence). Steed’s Bentley seems to have been replaced with a light blue Cortina as well.
6. 12:50 — That’s a stand-in for Diana Rigg walking down the street.
7. 
   15:08 — It’s those doors again! This time at Heathcliff Hall, they were also seen in From Venus with Love, Escape in Time, and The See-Through Man.
8. 16:18 — Twitter mentions a few of the bird owners — the Duke of Duffup and Lady Cynthia Cashwash — the Duke of Duffup was also one of Steed’s fake references in What the Butler Saw.
9. 16:23 and throughout — Diana Rigg keeps saying “Captain Caruso” instead of “Captain Crusoe” … I think she only gets it right once in the whole episode.
10. 
    
    16:47 — Ever noticed that Sam and Steed have lunch at the same tow path that Danvers was chased and killed? And the “lunch” appears to be champagne, assorted biscuits, tea and brandy!
11. 
    18:20 — Tom Savage’s studio must be near Mackiedockie Court (Escape in Time), as they’re both near the same Stone Street. And they must both be near Purbright & Co. (Quick-Quick Slow Death) which is on Mackiedockie Street.
12. 24:43 — The boom microphone briefly dips into shot as Emma reaches for the hat.
13. 26:24 — One pigeon refuses to leave the basket and Verret has to shake it out.
14. 27:57 — Why doesn’t Robin kill Steed? He knows Verret has already been given orders to kill him and failed.
15. 31:18 — Steed rings Mrs. Peel on 379 3654 in this episode.
16. 31:34 — Mrs. Peel has an answering machine, back in 1967 … a big reel-to-reel tape job (it’s an Ansafone). She was keeping up with Steed, who had one in The Fear Merchants.
17. 33:26 — there’s a hair caught on the camera lens, top left, in the close-ups of Emma in the chair.
18. 34:02 — this shot was used as a basis of a panel in the Diana for Girls comic
19. 36:10–42:15 — A major continuity error at Jordan’s house — Emma parks her car at an angle across the driveway in front of an old Austin 12, in front of the front door of the house (36:13), but the Lotus has mysteriously vanished when Robin turns up in his Austin 1800 — only Jordan’s Austin 12 is visible is the long panning shot across the front of the house (36:44). Furthermore, the Lotus reappears in its previous position when Mrs. Peel runs for the cover of the brick wall, Jordan covering her as she approaches Robin (41:51).

    Emma casually parks her car	But where is it now?	Now it’s back!

    
    
20. 40:30 — Those ornate Georgian doors make another appearance at Jordan’s house, now painted primrose.
21. 42:08 — Cyd Child takes over from Diana Rigg, sneaking around the car and climbing the barbed wire fence. She then rushes the ladder — you can see a pigtail very briefly fly out from under her wig — and gets up on the high board with Robin, but some parts of the fight are done by Peter J. Elliott (see below).
22. 
    43:07 — Mrs. Peel might dive off that diving board, but Diana Rigg didn’t! That’s stuntman Peter J. Elliott diving off the board after first kicking Robin (probably another stuntman) off. There’s a brief shot of Cyd Child backing up on the diving board to dive in so maybe the director didn’t like her dive.
23. 45:22 — There’s a thread stuck in the lens for this back-projection scene as well, it was probably filmed at the same time as the scene at 10:14.
24. 
    45:22 — There’s a yellow colour shift in a driving scene because of the backdrop projection — making Mrs. Peel’s blue catsuit a deep green and muting Steed’s tie.
25. 46:50 — There’s a stand-in for Anthony Valentine but not Patrick Macnee in the fight scene.
26. 48:45 — Joe Dunne standing in for Anthony Valentine in the fight scene.
27. 48:28 — You can tell they’ve reversed the film of the car driving backwards — all the smoke from the exhaust is going into the exhaust pipe.
28. This episode is riddled with Hitchcock references -
    1. The title is a clear reference to The Man Who Knew Too Much.
    2. Professor Jordan was the villain in The 39 Steps.
    3. Everyone believes Captain Crusoe to be a person, which is similar to a plot twist in The Man Who Knew Too Much, involving Ambrose Chapel.
    4. Villains using birds in their schemes appear in Sabotage.
    5. A pair of killers (one more prominent than the other) appears in North By Northwest.
    6. Mistaken identity is prominent and also occurs in North By Northwest, and many others.
29. John Wood and Patrick Macnee are the only actors to appear in the original series and the 1999 The Avengers film.
30. Running time: 49′19″