Series 5 — Episode 6
The Winged Avenger

Plot summary

Mrs. Peel is busy painting when she’s startled to discover Steed has just signed her masterpiece.
Ruthless businessmen are being killed by a comic-strip character come to life. Good on him, I say.
The illustrator, Arnie, has turned fiction into fact using special climbing boots invented by Professor Poole — with them, you can walk up the side of a house. A battle ensues on the ceiling before Steed uses Batman tactics to bring the Winged Avenger down to earth: POW! WHACK! BLAM!
Back at Mrs. Peel’s apartment Steed draws a picture of a sumptuous supper, then serves the real thing with a ping! of tureen lids.

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Prologue

A cloaked figure scales the outside of the tower block after scratching out ‘Simon Roberts’ from the office sign. Inside, the ruthless publisher Simon Roberts (William Fox) is instructing his son Peter Roberts (Donald Pickering) how to dismiss a senior staff member instead of making him a board member. Dawson (A.J. Brown) is summarily dismissed and Peter happily leaves his father to his work. The figure swoops down on him from the ceiling — a bird face and massive talons — and slashes Roberts Senior to pieces.

Act 1

Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) is busy painting when she’s startled to discover John Steed (Patrick Macnee) has just signed her masterpiece ‘Mrs. Peel’. He pokes his head around it and announces, “We’re needed” while cleaning the brush he just used.¹

She’s taken to the publishers’ office where they find no way up or down from the window, and Mrs. Peel suggests the assailant flew in, which seems to irritate Peter Roberts.

PETER: The door was locked, securely locked. I opened it… and found him, his clothes were torn to pieces… and the marks on him… He’d been clawed to death as though by some bird; some huge, obscene bird.

Examining a guide to birds of the world at his flat, Steed flips past the albatross and sea birds, landing at the golden eagle, which Mrs. Peel observes has attacked man in isolated cases. Steed tells Emma this is the fourth identical killing of ruthless penthouse-living businessmen in the past month.

STEED: It’s very strange, you know, the way successful businessmen always live at the top of buildings.
EMMA: And they were all businessmen…
STEED: And all apparently killed by a bird.
EMMA: (SMILING) A high-flying eagle.

That night, Peter Roberts is composing letters — the first to take immediate legal action against a debtor rather than offer three weeks’ grace, but he coldly dictates that under no circumstances can he allow it and he will proceed with legal action.

The second letter is to withhold publishing rights from Sir Lexius Cray, the author of one of their recent best sellers, and he intends to go to court over it, but then the Winged Avenger’s shadow looms over him… He too falls victim to the mysterious figure, a comic-strip character come to life, who on the way out scratches ‘and Son’ out of the ‘Simon Roberts and Son’ sign.

The next day, Steed and Emma visit the office and find the window smashed and the dictaphone still running. They play back the tape and hear the vitriol against Sir Lexius.

STEED: If the killer didn’t fly through the window, maybe he climbed up the wall… Sir Lexius Cray…
(EMMA SNAPS FINGERS, THEN DOES A WALKING ACTION UP STEED’S ARM WITH THEM)²
EMMA: The mountaineer!

Emma meets Sir Lexius Cray (Nigel Green) on a blizzard-shrouded mountain, which is actually a demonstration of the third ledge of the Eiger inside his upstairs study, and they pause for a cup of tea on the terrace.

After they leave the study, Cray’s sherpa butler, Tay Ling (John Garrie),³ re-enters and smiles as he picks up the newspaper. Mrs. Peel is posing as a journalist from a magazine run by Roberts and Son, and mentions their deaths as they sip tea, much to Cray’s surprise.

SIR LEXIUS: Oh, I knew them alright. Couple of blackguards… shouldn’t speak ill of the dead and all that, but if you want my reaction — it’s good riddance. Neither of them had a heart, and then there was that business over my book…
EMMA: What business?
SIR LEXIUS: They published my memoirs recently and then tried to do me down… tried to do me out of the profits, me!
EMMA: Must have been very galling…
SIR LEXIUS: There were times when I could have taken them both by…

She leaves, more suspicious than before due to Cray’s hatred of Roberts and Son. As she gets in her car, Cray tells Tay Ling she’s inquisitive, but nothing they can’t handle — Emma sees him summon a hawk with a whistle.

Act 2

Later, Tay Ling reads the article about the Roberts being killed and rings someone, telling them he knows they’re behind the ‘notorious exploits’ in the papers and how they did them, his employer having received a letter from Professor Poole. He smiles as they arrange a meeting at midnight…

Steed plans to use the scientific approach — a shoe box model of the Roberts building and all the facts at his disposal, while Emma decides on a more practical approach, revisiting Cray at midnight.

Dressed for action in a catsuit, Mrs. Peel gets out of her car and leaps the hedge⁴ to enter the grounds. She hears the assassin creeping through the garden and approaches the house but she’s too late to prevent Tay Ling’s death. Cray walks in, revolver in hand and falcon on his gauntlet, and they initially accuse each other of the murder.

Checking his desk, Cray doesn’t think anything is missing, and they both step over a comic of “The Winged Avenger” without noticing it. Emma picks up an empty folder which Cray says held letters from Professor Poole — an inventor who wanted him to endorse some boots.

EMMA: Boots?
SIR LEXIUS: Oh, no ordinary boots by all accounts. According to the professor, when you put them on you can walk up the side of a house…

Back at Steed’s flat, they exchange notes, Emma hoping the boots don’t ruin his theory; he retorts peevishly:

STEED: I have two possible alternatives: the murderer inflates a small balloon, he rises up the nearest building, he fires a rocket line across to the penthouse, he drops a trampoline and bounces on it, in through the window — possibility number one
EMMA: And possibility number two?
STEED: He bribes the doorman!

Alarmed at the prospect of vertical salesmen selling vertical souvenirs on the sides of mountains, and needing to know who gets through the window, now they know how, they visit Professor Poole.

Professor Poole (Jack MacGowran) is try out a flying cape on his country house’s lawn when they arrive and barely pays them any attention. The Professor is a mad ornithologist who wishes to free man of his earthly shackles — by wing or by boot — but denies the boots’ existence.

POOLE: Why do you persist in bothering me? Why can’t you leave me alone? Wasn’t the dodo warning enough?
STEED: Dodo?
POOLE: Wouldn’t leave that alone. Now it’s extinct, gone… and so have I!

With that, the Professor slams the door in their faces and locks it behind him. When Mrs. Peel is given a lift to look in the fan light, she’s astonished to see the Professor hanging upside down from a railing on the wall.

Act 3

Steed notes that Poole was lying and Emma decides an after-hours visit is in order. Turning to the victims, Emma notes they were all ruthless businessmen who care nothing for humanity⁵ — and spots the ideal next victim, Edward J. Dumayn, an industrialist whose 99% automation drive has put thousands out of work. Realising he’s a potential victim, they set off immediately.

Edward J. Dumayn (Hillary Wontner) is out shooting and belligerently berates his poor gamekeeper, Fothers (John Crocker) for flushing pigeons instead of game birds. He orders him to get beating and produce pheasants or partridge.

FOTHERS: Yes sir, right away, sir.
DUMAYN: And flush me out something worth shooting at this time. Flush me out something big…

Seconds later The Winged Avenger appears and Dumayn is mauled by the birdman.

Some time later, Emma sifts through items found at the scene while Steed remarks the supposed bird seems to be a well-informed vigilante. Emma finds a comic of “The Winged Avenger”, the illustrations for which eerily echo recent events, including Dumayn’s death.

Steed visits Winged Avenger Enterprises, entering to behold the birdman attacking a beautiful woman — he goes to rush to her aid but the artist gets in his way and he realises it’s just the studio models, Julian (Roy Patrick) and Gerda (Ann Sydney) playing a scene.

The artist, Arnie Packer (Neil Hallett), feels Julian isn’t getting into the part and demands a rewrite from the author, Stanton (Colin Jeavons). Stanton quickly writes a new exhortation — “Ee-urp!”, which Julian loves. Packer and Stanton bicker about their respective talents and Packer derides Stanton.

PACKER: Your stories are dull…
STANTON: Dull?!
PACKER: Dull. My visuals bring some fire into them.
STANTON: And where would you be without plot, eh? Where would you be without me? I breathe life into The Winged Avenger! I make him a reality!⁶

They stop when they spot Steed who asks for back issues for a nephew. Packer can’t resist another cheap shot and insinuates that Stanton is losing his grip, which infuriates the writer. As Gerda leads Steed out, Julian startles them all when, getting into character, he starts shouting “Ee-urp!”

Steed return home and tells Emma about the studio.

STEED: There he stood, large as life; flapping his wings and making noises.
EMMA: Noises?
STEED: Ee-urp, ee-urp! (EMMA LAUGHS)
STEED: That’s probably the bird equivalent of “goodbye and nice to have met you”.
EMMA: Well, I’m off to make a return visit to Professor Poole’s…
(SHE RESTS HER CHIN ON HIS SHOULDER)
EMMA (COYLY): Ee-urp?⁷
STEED: Eee — urp.

At Poole’s house, she finds all the books in the study are upside down, and the professor is sitting at his desk — on the ceiling!⁸ He is annoyed she has come but agrees to talk, revealing that the boots use magnetic fields, and he has sold them exclusively to an unknown party representing Winged Avenger Enterprises — but he hasn’t told the other person he kept a pair.

Mrs. Peel visits the studio and finds Packer and Stanton fighting again — this time over the direction Packer is taking the comic, overriding Stanton’s script. Mrs. Peel is just starting her cover story when Julian absentmindedly starts to leave while still in costume.

JULIAN: Eh? Oh… sorry, I forgot… err… sometimes it seems like a part of me.⁹

Emma claims to be from a company that sells novelty items which has come up with wall-walking boots. Packer laughs his head off while Stanton looks worried and Mrs. Peel can’t work out which of them is more suspicious…

Act 4

That night, Julian is killed at the studio by the Winged Avenger while trying on his costume again. Steed finds the body when he returns to the studio a short time later, and discovers a pile of drawings, showing all the recent victims — and Professor Poole!

Poole meanwhile telephones Mrs. Peel, saying he wishes to talk to her urgently. When she agrees and hangs up, we see that Poole has been coerced to do so by the Winged Avenger.

Back at the studio, Steed has flipped through this sequence as a set of illustrations.¹⁰ As he gazes, baffled, at the last card, Stanton creeps into the studio and points a pistol at his head¹¹ but is quickly disarmed by Steed. Stanton spots the illustration boards and realises Arnie is writing his own material —

STANTON: What’s this… Arnie must be working on his own now, and writing his own stuff too! Look at this… Elma Peem? I never wrote a character of that name.
STEED: It’s an anagram for Emma Peel.

They flick through the next few boards, intercut with the real action playing out, showing Emma arriving at Poole’s house and going inside.

They rush through the night to Poole’s house, on the way Stanton looking through the boards which reflect the events at the manor showing Emma being menaced and chased by The Winged Avenger.

Emma finds the Professor dead and on the ceiling of his study, so che climbs the parallel bars to reach him and takes his boots while the Winged Avenger goes around outside. Packer crashes through the window and cocks a surprised eye at Poole’s body before discovering Emma is now living on the ceiling and ready for him even though he is clearly deranged.

EMMA: The odds are a little more equal now.
PACKER: It won’t do you any good, Mrs. Peel. I am the eradicator of all evils. I deal out justice and vengeance to those whom the law cannot touch… and to those who stand between me and my purpose… I am the Winged Avenger, Mrs. Peel.
EMMA: Just a myth, a cardboard character.¹²
PACKER: Cardboard, Mrs. Peel? Cardboard… (HE RIPS THROUGH SOME OF THE BARS)
PACKER: Creator and creation, fused into one being… indivisible, omnipotent, unstoppable. Nothing — nothing stands in my way. Least of all you, Mrs. Peel… least of all you.

They fight, upside-down, on the ceiling. Steed and Stanton arrive and burst into the study, gaping up in amazement. Steed uses the illustrations — ‘POW!’ ‘SPLAT!’ ‘BAM!’¹³ to knock Packer out the window to his death.

Epilogue

At Emma’s flat, Steed draws a picture of a three course meal while Emma opens some champagne, then produces the real thing to a ‘PING!’ of tureen lids.

STEED: The Benevolent Avenger strikes again!¹⁴

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1. Or did he? The paint on the brush is the wrong colour and the signature only appears in the crash-zoomed close-up, an unusual continuity error. ⭮
2. Mrs. Peel is very flirty and touchy-feely with Steed in this episode. ⭮
3. John Garrie was often cast as Asian characters despite his Mancunian background because of his dark skin, small features and weak chin, allowing the avoidance of yellow face if the few Chinese actors in Britain weren’t available or didn’t want the part. Interestingly, John had long been interested in Oriental mysticism and became an adept of Zen Buddhism in later life, changing his name to John Garrie Roshi and teaching Sati, a distillation of Theravadan Buddhist Satipatthana mindfulness. ⭮
4. Once again, ex-Olympic diver stuntman Peter J. Elliott does this jump. ⭮
5. The subversive champagne of The Avengers, these men are all deserving of their fate because blinkered capitalism is evil. ⭮
6. Great dialogue, hinting that Stanton could be the killer but surely the illustrations are a giveaway. ⭮
7. There are fanciful claims across the internet that Avengers fans greet each other by saying “Ee-urp” but I’ve never heard anyone say it. However, if Diana Rigg had said it to me as she did to Steed here, perhaps I would. ⭮
8. The professor’s hair hangs down because it has been spiked up with hair spray. Once he starts down the wall, wardrobe and make-up step in and fix it back up. When Mrs Peel starts climb the walls later on, they sensibly put her in a tight-fitting hat to avoid much of the hassle. ⭮
9. A bit of misdirection to suggest an unlikely suspect. ⭮
10. It’s a glorious bit of direction and writing, switching between the real and the reimagined, an encapsulation of The Avengers itself. ⭮
11. An episode once again breaking the production guideline about not pointing guns at the head. ⭮
12. A reference to Brian Clemens’ stated aim of making his characters out of “thicker cardboard”, highlighting their fundamental unreality while still infusing them with more substance. ⭮
13. With accompanying Batman themed music. ⭮
14. While said in jest, this may be the only time our heroes are called Avengers in the dialogue. ⭮