Series 5 — Episode 21
You Have Just Been Murdered
by Philip Levene
Directed by Robert Asher
Steed chases a million
Emma runs off with it
Production No E.66.6.21
Production completed: August 22 1967. First transmission: October 25 1967.
Regional broadcasts
| Broadcaster | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Rediffusion London | 26/10/1967 | 8.00pm |
| ABC Midlands | 28/10/1967 | 9.05pm |
| ABC North | 28/10/1967 | 9.05pm |
| Anglia Television | 28/10/1967 | 9.10pm |
| Border Television | 29/10/1967 | 10.05pm |
| Channel Television | 26/01/1968 | 7.30pm |
| Grampian Television | 25/10/1967 | 8.00pm |
| Southern Television | 27/10/1967 | 8.00pm |
| Scottish Television | 28/10/1967 | 9.10pm |
| Tyne Tees Television | 28/10/1967 | 9.10pm |
| Ulster Television | 2/11/1967 | 7.30pm |
| Westward Television | 26/01/1968 | 7.30pm |
| Harlech Television | 23/06/1968 | 7.25pm |
The TV Times listing below is attributed to the Lodon edition but announces the episode as being at 9pm instead of 8pm.
TV Times listing
9.0 The Avengers
starring
Patrick Macnee
as John Steed
and
Diana Rigg
as Emma Peel
in
You Have Just Been
Murdered
By Philip Levene
In which Steed chases a million and Emma walks off with it
Cast also includes
| Unwin | Barrie Ingham |
| Lord Maxted | Robert Flemyng |
| Needle | George Murcell |
| Rathbone | Leslie French |
| Jarvis | Geoffrey Chater |
| Skelton | Simon Oates |
| Chalmers | Clifford Cox |
| Hallam | John Baker |
| Morgan | Les Crawford |
| Nicholls | Frank Maher |
| Williams | Peter J. Elliott |
Designed by Robert Jones
Music by Laurie Johnson
Directed by Robert Asher
Produced by Albert Fennell
and Brian Clemens
Executive Producer
Julian Wintle
ABC Television Network Production
International broadcasts
| Broadcaster | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| ABN2 Sydney, Australia | 21/11/1967 | 8.00pm |
| ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia | 1/01/1968 | 7.30pm |
| ABV2 Melbourne, Australia | 20/11/1967 | 8.00pm |
| ABS2 Adelaide, Australia | 9/01/1968 | 7.30pm |
| ABC New York, USA | 24/01/1968 | 7.30pm |
| ORTF2 France | 22/09/1968 | 8.00pm |
| Suisse Romande, Switzerland | 12/02/1968 | 8.50pm |
| French title | Meutres à épisodes | |
| ZDF Germany | 26/03/1968 | 9.15pm |
| German title | Sie wurden soeben ermordet | |
| KRO Netherlands | ||
| Dutch title | ||
| Svizzera Italiana | 9/11/1973 | 9.00pm |
| Italian title | sei appena stato assassinato | |
| Spain | 12/02/1968 | 4.10pm |
| Spanish title | Acaba usted de ser asesinado | |
Episode Rating
| Subject | 0–5 |
|---|---|
| Direction | 4½ stars |
| Music | 3½ stars |
| Humour | 3 stars |
| Intro/tag | 3½ stars |
| Mastermind | 5 stars |
| Plot | 3½ stars |
| Emma | 4½ stars |
| Set Design | 4 stars |
| Overall (0–10) |
8½ stars |
I like characters and suspension of disbelief, so this episode appeals to me on many levels. A well structured and excellently performed piece with a strong, consistent plot. Nice use of televisions.
Millionaires are being intimidated by blackmailers staging
mock murder-attempts — each time receiving a card that reads
"You have just been murdered"
One is actually killed, then Unwin pretends to agree terms and
sends a bomb instead, not knowing that Steed and Emma are on
the case — and Mrs. Peel has now gained possession of the
suitcase. She is kidnapped by Needle and his gang, whose
hideout is, naturally enough, in a hay stack. Emma is rescued
from destruction by the timely arrival of Steed, but Needle
escapes with the briefcase, only to end up at the top of a
tree.
Steed is distraught to discover he is one short of a million,
saying no-one has ever heard of a
nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-
niner-aire, but Mrs. Peel offers to supply the missing money,
making him a millionaire — in halfpennies!
The Cars
| Marque/Model | Colour | Number Plate |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Model L 144A 3-Window Town Sedan by Willoughby 1928 | burgundy/black | TE 7855 |
| Lotus Elan S3 | glacier blue | SJH 499D |
| Jaguar Mk II 3.8 | silver | 933 HYL |
| Reliant Scimitar SE4a coupé | white | ARF 956D |
| Bentley Speed Six 1926 | British racing green | RX 6180 |
| Gypsy Caravan | green and brown | - |
| Land-Rover | blue/white | 695 EAC |
Who’s Killing Whom?
| Victim | Killer | Method |
|---|---|---|
Gilbert Jarvis  |
Skelton V* | Pistol |
| Nicholls V* |
Emma | Impaled on a sickle |
| Needle?? V* | (Unwin) | Bomb in suitcase |
| Unwin?? | Skelton V* | ? |
| Skelton?? V* | Steed | ? |
The Fashions
Continuity and trivia
- 2:47 — Jarvis is completely out of focus in the close-up.
- 4:43 — Steed has an enormous Ansaphone to record his telephone calls.
- 10:45 — Breaking the rules: there’s a bloodspot on Jarvis’ shirt, despite the bible of this era stipulating blood was not to be shown.
- 11:57 — Cyd Child runs to the car and drives off.
- 13:02 — Cyd gets to climb the wall and jump to the tree as well.
- 13:42 — The lion that was “the last thing [Sir Andrew] saw before [he] died” from Death’s Door is outside Rathbone’s front door.
- 19:01 — There’s nothing written on the glass bottom of the tankard in the midshot, but at 19:04 in the close-up, there it is.
- 21:45 — A stand-in drives Rathbone’s car in the long shots.
- 22:52 and throughout — The location for “Bridge Farm” is Tyke’s Water Lake and bridge.
- 24–25 — There’s some excellent intercutting of Diana mid- to close- shots with Cyd’s action work in the fight scene with Frank Maher.
- 30:57 — Unwin’s phone number is 7913, but I’m not sure which exchange he was on.
- 32:51 — Needle starts his broadcast with “Welcome to Channel B”.
- 36:44 — Steed has a CB radio in the Bentley today, it must be pretty crowded under the dashboard.
- 37:32 — Is it Rocky Taylor or Paul Weston driving the Bentley? It’s hard to tell, but it’s not Patrick Macnee.
- 39:45–4:05
During the fight scene in the river, Mrs. Peel’s hair goes from dry to very wet, then dry, then wet again.
Dry...
wet...
wetter...
dry!...
©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved - 41:10–42:30 — After the fight, her hair dries a bit too quickly on the way to the hay stack, and at one point is wetter again. By the end, it’s been restyled and lacquered!
wettest...
wet...
drier...
too dry...
©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved - 41:26–41:31 — Along the way to the haystack, the dolly of the camera is in view for a few seconds (it’s much more obvious on a computer than on a television — you see almost all the wheel, and see the chalk distance marker go round a few times).
- 43:00 — the television camera is labelled “Needle TV” — must have been a regional ATV station...
- 46:00 — How did they not hear Steed climb on the roof?
- 48:20 — Emma hands over a 1947 ha’penny to make the million — ha’pennies, that is; which is still a tidy £2,083 6s. 8d.
- Running time: 49′17″
- Both the lead actors fell ill during filming, Macnee twice being absent. This led to him having to do back-to-back filming in the evenings. At one point, he was filming scenes for three different episodes.
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.