Series 5 — Episode 9
The Correct Way To Kill

Production

Production dates: January–February 1967

After the extensive location shooting of the previous episode we return to a mostly studio-bound episode under the direction of noted feature film director Charles Crichton. The location shoot was in Woodchurch Road, NW6, showing Ivan and Emma Peel arriving at Merryweather's office.

This episode continued the multiple crew policy introduced at the end of 1966 as production was well behind schedule. The script was a rewrite of the Series 3 episode The Charmers written by Brian Clemens, partly because the producers wanted to reuse key stories that American audiences hadn't seen but also because it saved a lot of production time. The scripts are very similar, with some passages almost word for word, but there are notable differences. Olga is no longer an actress hired to play the part and Merryweather is a chiropodist installing radios in umbrellas rather than a dentist installing them in hats.

The episode is notable for the large fencing scene at the end, involving a large number of stunt performers including Dorothy Ford, Alf Joint, Maurice Conner, Rocky Taylor and, I think, Cyd Child.

Regional broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
Rediffusion London	10/03/1967	8.00pm
ABC Midlands	11/03/1967	9.10pm
ABC North	11/03/1967	9.10pm
Anglia Television	10/03/1967	8.00pm
Border Television	12/03/1967	8.10pm
Channel Television	10/03/1967	8.00pm
Grampian Television	17/01/1968	8.00pm
Southern Television	8/03/1967	8.00pm
Scottish Television	11/03/1967	9.10pm
Tyne Tees Television	8/03/1967	8.00pm
Ulster Television	25/01/1968	9.00pm
Westward Television	10/03/1967	8.00pm
Television Wales & West	10/03/1967	8.00pm

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABN2 Sydney, Australia	30/05/1967	8.00pm
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia	3/07/1967	7.30pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia	29/05/1967	8.00pm
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia	11/07/1967	7.30pm
ABC New York, USA	24/03/1967	10.00pm
ORTF2 France	30/07/1968	8.30pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland	1/07/1968	8.40pm
French title	Meutre distingué
ZDF Germany	10/10/1967	9.15pm
German title	Kennen sie Snob?
KRO Netherlands	7/10/1969	9.45pm
Dutch title	Hoe wordt ik een snob?
Svizzera Italiana	14/12/1973	9.00pm
Italian title	un modo corretto di uccidere
Spain	6/11/1967	4.00pm
Spanish title	La forma correcta de matar

Episode Rating

Subject	0–5
Direction	3 stars
Music	3 stars
Humour	4 stars
Intro/tag	4 stars
Mastermind	3½ stars
Plot	3½ stars
Emma	3½ stars
Set Design	1½ stars
Overall (0–10)	7 stars

A worthy effort which doesn’t quite make it to the top. Great dialogue and performances, but the story isn’t quite daft enough to make a truly great Avengers episode.

A couple of dapper city gents meet a foreign agent and dispatch him coldly, if politely.
Mrs. Peel’s is summoned by a doctored newspaper headline - Steed needs her to help him discover who’s killing enemy agents.
When Ivan, the enemy’s top man tries to kill Steed, thinking he was behind it, they team up to discover the third party. Steed pairs up with Olga and Emma goes with Ivan to investigate who is the real killer of the agents. Both sides are being double-crossed by Nutski, Olga’s employer, who has set up a private army masquerading as a school for gentlemen. Following crates of umbrella and bowlers, Olga and Steed catch up to the gang, but are discovered. Emma to the rescue with her trusty foil, and a fencing bout finds Emma and Olga the victors, Nutski impaled on a sword.
Emma finds Steed wearing a Cossack hat the next morning at breakfast, the souvenir of a date with Olga.

The Cars

Marque/Model	Colour	Number Plate
Citroën ID 19 (’57–61 model) {left hand drive}	yellow	70 BLX
Bedford CAS 10/12cwt Mk2 1963 van	dark blue	197 GLK
Mini	dark blue	HJB 830D KLM 820C?

Who’s Killing Whom?

Victim	Killer	Method
Boris Groski	Algy & Percy V*	pistols
Stanislaus Arkadi	Algy & Percy V*	?
Zoric	Algy & Percy V*	dagger
Ivan Peppitoperoff	Algy & Percy V*	?
Dr. Merryweather	Algy & Percy? V*	Stabbed with umbrella
J.Nathan Winters	Algy & Percy? V*	Stabbed with umbrella
Algernon Wynche (Algy) V*	Emma	Sword
Mr. Percival (Percy) V*	Olga	Sword
Nutski V*	Emma	Sword thrown at him.

The Fashions

Emma’s Fashions

Steed’s Fashions

plaid jacket and white skivvy with yellow hat (in style of the pink hat in The Winged Avenger) pale grey shoes, orange dress, navy jacket, black gloves, orange/brown scarf lavender pant suit & dark plum skivvy, white boots orange catsuit with black trim, orange boots white fencing gear red coat with white trim, white skirt

dark taupe jacket single-breasted, green waistcoat, brass buttons, white shirt, green/bronze tie, beige trousers, brown bowler and chelsea boots, black umbrella, mustard handkerchief light grey chalk stripe single-breasted 3-piece suit, white shirt, navy cravat & handkerchief, grey bowler hat & umbrella navy single-breasted 3-piece suit with a peaked collar, 2 butt. white shirt, paisley purple cravat, black bowler hat & umbrella, boots charcoal chalk striped single-breasted suit, white shirt, burgundy cravat above with grey overcoat and brown bowler, grey umbrella & gloves navy single-breasted 3-piece suit with a peaked collar, white shirt, blue/white cravat with flower tiepin above & black bowler, cravat replaced with a blue tie with white dots pale grey double-breasted suit, felt collar, flap pockets, 2 very long vents, wide skirt, grey chelsea boots, umbrella and bowler, white shirt, pale grey cravat, grey Russian fur hat

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:40–4:25 — The joins in the prefab cobblestones are a bit obvious. The painted backdrop is less so.
2. 3:00-10 — Percy’s Luger has the breech open, it wouldn’t have fired.
3. 4:25 — Arkadi is played by the same actor — Romo Gorrara — who appears as the unnamed thug helping the First Assistant do away with Mrs. Rhodes in The £50,000 Breakfast. He appeared in everything made in Britain in the late 60s and 70s. Another regular stuntman, Art Thomas, plays Zoric.
4. 6:08 — You hear the gunshot FX after Ivan drops his pistol.
5. 6:10 — Philip Madoc is replaced by stuntman Joe Dunne vey adroitly for the tumble over the armchair.
6. 8:50–8:55 — Product placement for vodka? I don’t recognise the brand.
7. 14:13 — Steed introduces Emma to Ivan with the words “You haven’t met Mrs. Peel”, despite them meeting in the earlier scene (6:00 onwards) and the script reading “Er… You’ve met Mrs. Peel?” Diana Rigg adds an additional line of dialogue, “I am my choice”, so it looks like the scene was revised before shooting and steed’s introcuction is another send up of English manners.
8. 16:26 and throughout — Is Merryweather’s office the same set as Tom Savage’s studio in The Bird Who Knew Too Much?
9. 17:20, 24:45 etc. — one of the studs of Mrs. Peel’s coat keeps popping open.
10. 20:48 you can just see the shadow of the boom microphone at top left as Steed says what he’s really interested in is a new umbrella handle.
11. 
    20:58 onwards — Steed and Olga pay a visit to J. Nathan Winters, and Steed asks to see some replacement handles for his umbrella. Winters doesn’t think it can be bettered and Steed explains, “it’s a little loose” when Winters draw the sword inside it out a bit. At 20:58 Winters shows him a handle carved into the shape of a dog’s head, which Steed dismisses. Seconds later, [21:03] Winters is holding several shillelagh handles, without moving a muscle!
12. 26:55 — Steep quips, “Half an oaf is better than low bread” when Ponsonby remarks that if his deportment training is only somewhat successful he will have considered his work worthwhile.
13. 34:47 — Olga is chloroformed by Percy after Merryweather refuses to do it.
14. 35:30 — Percy quips, “No use struggling Miss Velowski, we’ve secured you with old school ties.” and Algy chips in with, “The bonds of the old school tie are well nigh impossible to break.” The ties, by the way, appear to be mostly Hertford College Oxford or the Tennis Club tie from Harrow, plus one Old Etonian tie — which Steed identifies later as his old school tie.
15. 37:55 — Mr. Jones can’t get his sword back inside his umbrella.
16. 37:33 — Steed pauses when removing the ties from Olga and notes, “It’s my old school tie” — the pale greenish-blue and dark grey of Eton. Patrick Macnee was indeed a pupil at Eton at the same time as Christopher Lee.
17. 41:13 — You can see the shadow of the boom microphone on the wall above Steed and Olga as they plan their escape.
18. 41:52 — You can see the shadow of the boom microphone in the curtained alcove behind Percy.
19. 39:40 — as Olga approaches the front of the stage you can glimpse the top of the set and the dark studio ceiling in the top left corner.
20. 44:54 onwards — obvious stunt doubles in much of the charm school sequences:
    • 44:54 onwards — Rigg is replaced by Dorothy Ford, I think, for almost the entire sequence.
    • 46:40 — Macnee and Gough — Steed (Rocky Taylor) tackles Nutski (Alf Joint) and disarms Ponsonby.
    • 45:03 — Rigg (Dorothy Ford), Barkworth and Armitage (Maurice Connor) as they fence.
    • 47:29 — Quayle is replaced by a stand-in as Olga joins Emma in fighting Percy and Algy.
    • 45:25 — Alexander (maybe Maurice Connor again) and Macnee (Rocky Taylor) in their fencing scene, very nicely intercut with close-ups of Macnee.
21. 49:10 — the picture of Emma that is revealed on the identification board is a publicity still from A Surfeit of H₂O.
22. Running time: 49′21″