Production No E.67.9.8 Production completed: June 13 1968. First transmission: November 13 1968.
Regional broadcasts
Broadcaster
Date
Time
Thames Television
13/11/1968
8.00pm
ATV Midlands
14/11/1968
7.00pm
Granada Television
2/03/1969
8.25pm
Anglia Television
14/11/1968
7.00pm
Border Television
11/05/1969
7.25pm
Channel Television
14/11/1968
7.00pm
Grampian Television
13/11/1968
8.00pm
Southern Television
22/01/1969
8.00pm
Scottish Television
20/02/1969
8.00pm
Tyne Tees Television
13/11/1968
8.00pm
Ulster Television
14/11/1968
7.00pm
Westward Television
14/11/1968
7.00pm
Harlech Television
14/11/1968
7.00pm
Yorkshire Television
15/11/1968
7.35pm
TV Times listing
TV Times listing for November 15 1968, 7.35pm (Yorkshire edition)Sydney Morning Herald listing for December 27 1968, 8pmThe Age listing for December 24 1968, 8.47pm
7.35 The Avengers Patrick Macnee
Linda Thorson
Patrick Newell in All Done With Mirrors By Leigh Vance
Steed’s under arrest and Tara’s on her own … After mysterious happenings at a research station, Steed is confined to Mother’s swimming pool; and Tara is sent out to unravel a msytery.
If this adventure is punchier than ever, blame Ray Austim. He is one of the best-known fight arrangers on television. In this episode—which Ray directs—there is one scene which includes a fall down 365 steps of a lighthouse. To do it, stuntman Joe Dunn had to make 27 separate falls, taking in as many as 20 steps at a time.
Nora Nicholson plays a mysterious landlady; and beautiful Hpnoda Parker plays Mother’s resident assistant. Which is nice for Steed who is Mother’s resident captive in this story.
John Steed
Patrick Macnee
Tara King
Linda Thorson
Watney
Dinsdale Landen
Sparshott
Peter Copley
Barlow
Edwin Richfield
Col. Withers
Michael Trubshaw
Mother
Patrick Newell
Pandora
Joanna Jones
Miss Emily
Nora Nicholson
Carswell
Tenniel Evans
Miss Tiddiman
Liane Aukin
Director Ray Austin; Producers
Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens
The Advertiser listing for January 9 1969, 8pmCourier-Mail listing for February 7 1969, 8pm
International broadcasts
Broadcaster
Date
Time
ABN2 Sydney, Australia
27/12/1968
8.00pm
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia
7/02/1969
8.00pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia
24/12/1968
8.47pm
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia
9/01/1969
8.00pm
ABC New York, USA
2/12/1968
7.30pm
ORTF2 France
4/10/1969
9.55pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland
2/09/1969
8.20pm
French title
Miroirs
ZDF Germany
25/08/1970
9.00pm
German title
Spieglein, Spieglein in der Hand
KRO Netherlands
27/01/1970
9.50pm
Dutch title
Spiegeltje, spiegeltje ann de wand…
TTI Italy
21/12/1980 C51
Italian title
Specchi
Spain
2/02/1970
11.10pm
Spanish title
Efectos de los espeios
This episode was not broadcast in Italy until 1980.
USA: Chicago Tribune listing for December 2 1968, 6.30pmUSA: New York Times listing for December 2 1968, 7.30pmFrance: Le Confédéré listing for October 4 1969, 9.55pmNetherlands: Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant listing for January 27 1970, 9.50pmNetherlands: Zierkzeesche Nieuwsbode highlights for January 27 1970Spain: Spain: ABC Madrid listing for February 2 1970, 11.10pmGermany: Hamburg Abendblatt listing for August 25 1970, 0pm
Germany: Hamburg Abendblatt — Diana replaced by Linda with a photo captioned with a reference to Snow WhiteSwitzerland: L’Impartial listing, photo and summmary for September 2 1969, 8.20pmSwitzerland: Journal de Jura listing, photo and summmary for September 2 1969, 8.20pm
Continuity & Trivia
3:11 — There’s dust and hair on the caption scanner when the credits come up under the titles
3:40–4:20 (4:00) — This episode must have been meant as the first episode of the season, as Rhonda is introduced to Steed for the first time, and Steed has reservations about giving the assignment to Tara; Mother describes sending in female agents as “a new, intuitive approach to things”.
4:56 (4:30) — Steed declares, “I’m innocent, entirely innocent!” Tara takes one look at the bikini-clad girls and says, “Yes, but for how long?”
throughout — Carmoadoc is presumably in Wales.
8:02 and throughout — The wall decorations from Split! & My Wildest Dream are on the rotating arms of the device in the centre of the establishment, as well as on the walls.
8:30 — Linda Thorson slips into her native Canadian accent briefly.
12:26 — (12:00) — Gozzo’s approach to Williams’ house is accompanied by Laurie Johnson’s “March of the Cybernauts” and Gozzo had not been seen yet, so a viewer might have expected him to be a cybernaut.
14:09 — Linda Thorson does some of her own stunts in the fight against Gozzo, notably the first flying kick over the car.
15:04 (14:30) — When Cyd Child puts in the final kick to send Gozzo into the shed, she falls backwards but a second later with the change of angle Linda Thorson resumes the rôle of Tara and is standing up, arms in a karate pose.
15:32 — Tara walks away at the end of the fight with no mud on here trousers, despite having been marked quite a lot during the fight.
16:06 — Seligmann’s view through the binoculars is an identical shot to Tara’s view of the lighthouse moments earlier (presumably either side of the commercial break).
23:59 — there’s a big wad of threads at the top left just as the vision switches to the extreme close-up of the Colonel looking throught the telescope. When the vision switches to Tara entering the lamp room, it becomes a few tangled threads stuck in the corner; they disappear briefly at the camera switch to Tara and Barlow’s close-ups at 24:14, 24:19, 24:22, returning whenever the Colonel is in close-up, or there’s a mid-shot. It disappears completely at 24:52.
25:42 (25:23) — Tara swings the telescope, which had been pointing at the sea, to the right to view the cliffs, but the cliff-edge in question was to the left.
25:44 — There appears to be a big dent in the side of the telescope.
43:15 — Joe Dunne stands up then continues his roll down the stairs. This stunt is widely reported to be the longest stair fall stunt in television history but director Ray Austin revealed it was actually a fifteen-foot set that they kept filming again and again from different angles.
46:00 — There’s colour shift in the back projection sequence when Steed is driving.
Running time: 49′27″
Sparshott’s medals: Military Cross, Korea Medal, United Nations Service Medal for Korea, Africa General Service Medal, General Service Medal 1918–62, General Service Medal 1962, Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
This must have been quite an expensive episode to produce, there’s tons of location filming and the lighthouse sets would have been specially built.
I’d previously written that Ray Austin seems to be emulating Peter Hammond with his choice of shots but Ray recently revealed that a lot of the reflection shots were directed by Johnny Hough, who worked out with Ray that the story was all about reflections so they planned a lot of reflection shots and shots through glass, it wasn’t a conscious emulation of Hammond at all.