Series 5 — Episode 10
Never, Never Say Die

Regional broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
Rediffusion London	17/03/1967	8.00pm
ABC Midlands	18/03/1967	9.10pm
ABC North	18/03/1967	9.10pm
Anglia Television	17/03/1967	8.00pm
Border Television	19/03/1967	8.10pm
Channel Television	15/03/1967	8.00pm
Grampian Television	24/01/1968	8.00pm
Southern Television	12/05/1967	8.00pm
Scottish Television	18/03/1967	9.10pm
Tyne Tees Television	15/03/1967	8.00pm
Ulster Television	1/02/1968	7.30pm
Westward Television	15/03/1967	8.00pm
Television Wales & West	17/03/1967	8.00pm

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABN2 Sydney, Australia	6/06/1967	8.00pm
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia	10/07/1967	7.30pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia	5/06/1967	8.00pm
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia	18/07/1967	7.30pm
ABC New York, USA	31/03/1967	10.00pm
ORTF2 France	13/10/1968	8.00pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland	29/01/1968	9.10pm
French title	Interférences
ZDF Germany	7/11/1967	9.20pm
German title	Duplikate gefällig?
KRO Netherlands	21/10/1969	9.10pm
Dutch title	Ontmoeting met een dode / Onsterfelijk ?
Svizzera Italiana	28/06/1974	9.00pm
Italian title	gli indistruttibili*
Spain	29/01/1968	4.10pm
Spanish title	Jamás, pero jamás, digas: ¡muere!

* Italian listings showed this as 10pm, as Italy observed Summer Time and Switzerland did not.

Episode Rating

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

An engaging and thrilling episode, even if it becomes all too apparent what’s going on long before the denouément. Lee is superb as the humourously-named Dr. Frank N. Stone (Lee having played Frankenstein for Hammer Films prior to this rôle).

Steed interrupts a rerun of “The Cybernauts”, because he needs Mrs. Peel’s help with a corpse that will not die.
The body keeps on walking off and destroying radios. Professor Frank N. Stone of the Neoteric Research Unit is a dead ringer for the body, and Steed’s suspicions are aroused. Mrs. Peel and the local doctor are abducted and trapped within Stone’s laboratory — but Steed detects the fake doctor and rushes to the rescue. The replicant of the Professor is discovered to be the genuine article by his three-day growth, and the Avengers attempt to fight their way out. Dr. James uses Steed’s transistor radio to disable the replicants, and the Avengers discover doubles of themselves, Steed’s being marked REJECT.
The Avengers return to their television — and discover you would never be able to tell a plastic politician from a real one.

The Cars

Marque/Model	Colour	Number Plate
Morris Oxford Series IV Traveller	blue/white two tone	HOA 994D
Austin LDO/Wandsworth 1959 Ambulance	white	YLD 259
Bedford J1 Ambulance	white	KBF 979 (Nº 53)
VW Kombi van	white/blue	-
Morris Oxford/Austin Cambridge	black	-
Triumph TR4	light blue	-
Land-Rover SWB soft-top — no canvas	dark green	VX 897
Lotus Elan S3	glacier blue	SJH 499D

Who’s Killing Whom?

Victim	Killer	Method
George Eccles	Professor F.N. Stone V*	Beaten & strangled

The Fashions

Emma’s Fashions

Steed’s Fashions

red chinese silk with purple pattern pant suit tan suede coat, high collar, white woollen skivvy, tan trousers, white boots blue catsuit with white trim (1)

grey single-breasted 3-piece suit with 4 buttons, slanted flap pockets and 2 very long vents, bowler hat & umbrella, white shirt, blue tie grey herringbone single-breasted suit, waistcoat, white shirt red tie brown and green hunting blazer with dark brown paisley cravat, houndstooth trousers, white pinstriped shirt, brown suede boots brown and green hunting blazer with dark brown paisley cravat, houndstooth trousers, pale khaki shirt, brown suede boots light grey chalk stripe single-breasted 3-piece suit, blue cravat & handkerchief dark single-breasted taupe jacket, green waistcoat brass buttons, white pinstripe shirt, dark brown cravat, beige trousers, brown bowler and chelsea boots, black umbrella black/midnight blue tuxedo with silk facings and piping on trousers, pale blue ruffled shirt, blue velvet bow tie, black dress shoes

Continuity and trivia

1. 2:22 — Nice stunt work by the stand-in (or is it Christopher Lee?), rolling off the bonnet of the car.
2. 3:52 — In the intro scene where Steed appears on Mrs. Peel’s television set, she’s watching The Cybernauts from the previous season — very postmodern!
3. 4:45 — Mrs. Peel uses the unlikely expression “All the symptoms of death.”
4. 5:56–6:05 — Christopher Lee walks out onto a different stretch of road than the rest of the action takes place on (5:53), and the stuntman doesn’t land next to a puddle either — he hits his head on the rear wheel of the car, which must have hurt!
5. 7:38 — Is Steed long-sighted? The way he holds the MOT-NRU note suggests so.
6. 10:17 — The old man is steering his RC model boat around Tyke’s Water Lake.
7. 10:20–11:55 — the close-ups of the hands on the controller don’t look like Arnold Ridley’s hands, and the sleeves are orange-brown rathen than beige.
8. 13:12/14:39/15:28/17:18- — Professor Stone’s replicant is shot several times in the chest by the Sergeant, but when we next see him marching through the woods the holes have gone.
9. 15:10 — Penrose is wearing an Old Etonian tie.
10. 
    16:11 — If Professor Stone’s cottage has “not been lived in for weeks” (31:15), how come there’s a fresh loaf of bread, a pat of butter, half-eaten sandwich and a tankard on the table? It’s not as though the replicant would need them.
11. 17:30 — Patrick Macnee has a stunt double for the fight scenes — it’s Rocky Taylor, and while Christopher Lee does most of his, Bill Cummings stands in for the scene (18:10) in which he’s captured by the NRU men.
12. 
    18:55 and throughout — The somewhat obvious painted backdrop seen through the door of the cottage reappears in Epic in the scenes with the church — and it’s wrong for this episode, as the woods outside are much denser than the backdrop looks. Not only that, but it’s Autumn ouside in the woods, with barely a leaf left on the branches, and the backdrop shows full Summer.
13. Professor Stone has a copy of Venus: Our Sister Planet in the bookshelf that Steed falls against.
14. 19:17 — Steed goes back for his bowler hat but leaves his shotgun behind (it doesn’t reappear, so this isn’t technically a continuity error — he’s just forgetful).
15. 19:25 — The film is sped up for when Steed jogs through the woods to make him look like he’s running.
16. 23:18 — Stone is wearing a Keeble College, Oxford, tie.
17. 24:14 and throughout — There’s a hair caught on the camera lens, on the right hand side of the screen, for Diana’s close-ups when she’s near the door inside the cottage.
18. 29:04 — Similar to Something Nasty in the Nursery, Steed’s outfit is swapped alarmingly when he’s entering and leaving buildings. When he leaves the Neoteric Research Unit the first time, he’s seen passing the Transistor Radio warning in the suit he wears on his second visit.
19. 31:30–32:50 — there’s a thick thread stuck to the camera lens at bottom centre in the shots of Stone and Penrose.
20. 35:40 — Homage to Hammer & Amicus Film as Lee recreates his waking vampire in the close-up.
21. 36:52 — the small wad of folded notes Mrs. Peel draws from behind the drawer doesn’t look anything like the pile of A3 she’s holding a second later.
22. 38:48 — How does Penrose know who Mrs. Peel is when he asks for her to hand over the plans?
23. 40:53 — How come the duplicate Dr. James can’t smash through the door?
24. 43:00 — the close-up of the computer lights is taken from The Hidden Tiger.
25. 47:35 — Our first sight of Emma’s redecorated flat, but it’s very brief.
26. 47:45 — Moët et Chandon product placement.
27. Running time: 49′17″