Series 6 — Episode 21
Take Me to Your Leader
Teleplay by Terry Nation
Directed by Robert Fuest
Production No E.67.9.22
Production completed: November 29 1968. First UK transmission: February 28 1969. First transmission (USA): February 10 1969.
Regional broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
Thames Television | 5/03/1969 | 8.00pm |
ATV Midlands | 28/02/1969 | 7.30pm |
Granada Television | 15/06/1969 | 8.25pm |
Anglia Television | 30/07/1969 | 8.00pm |
Border Television | 12/03/1969 | 8.00pm |
Channel Television | 28/02/1969 | 7.30pm |
Grampian Television | 5/03/1969 | 8.00pm |
Southern Television | 28/05/1969 | 8.00pm |
Scottish Television | ||
Tyne Tees Television | 5/03/1969 | 8.00pm |
Ulster Television | 28/02/1969 | 7.30pm |
Westward Television | 28/02/1969 | 7.30pm |
Harlech Television | 28/02/1969 | 7.30pm |
Yorkshire Television | 8/03/1969 | 8.00pm |
TV Times listing



8.0 The Avengers
Patrick Macnee
Linda Thorson
Patrick Newell in
Take Me To Your Leader
By Terry Nation
John Steed and Tara King face one of their toughest “cases” when Mother is suspected of defecting to the enemy.
John Steed | Patrick Macnee |
Tara King | Linda Thorson |
Stonehouse | Patrick Barr |
Mother | Patrick Newell |
Captain Tim | John Ronane |
Cavell | Michael Robbins |
Major Glasgow | Henry Stamper |
and
Penelope Keith, Hugh Cross, Elisabeth Robillard, Michael Hawkins, Sheila Hammond, Bryan Kendrick, Raymond Adamson, Matthew Long, Cliff Diggins, Wilfred Boyle.
Executive in Charge of Production Gordon L. T. Scott; Designer Robert Jones; Director Robert Fuest; Producers Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens


International broadcasts
Broadcaster | Date | Time |
---|---|---|
ABN2 Sydney, Australia | 11/04/1969 | 8.00pm |
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia | 9/05/1969 | 8.00pm |
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia | 1/04/1969 | 8.30pm |
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia | 17/04/1969 | 8.00pm |
ABC New York, USA | 10/02/1969 | 7.30pm |
ORTF2 France | 28/11/1970 | 8.35pm |
Suisse Romande, Switzerland | ||
French title | L'homme au sommet (TF2:7) | |
ZDF Germany | ||
German title | Koffer, Koffer, du mußt wandern | |
KRO Netherlands | 25/03/1971 | 9.36pm |
Dutch title | Het koffer-mysterie | |
TTI Italy | 18/12/1980 C51 | |
Italian title | Portami dal tuo capo | |
Spain | 27/04/1970 | 11.10pm |
Spanish title | Condúzcame con cuidado |
This episode was not broadcast in Germany or Switzerland.






Continuity & Trivia
- 2:03 — Shepherd had his face covered in shaving foam a moment earlier but now it’s all gone.
- 3:08 — Mother’s superior is codenamed Grandma.
- 4:24 — There’s a crate marked FF 70/9, obviously left over from Have Guns — Will Haggle.
- 8:13 — That’s a trilby on Captain Andrews... (8:22) ... but now it’s a bowler hat.
Patrick Macnee must have been on holidays, as the original synopsis has him at the airfield with Tara when Trent is killed, and all the second unit filming has the stuntman, Paul Weston, in the bubble car wearing a bowler hat.
- 8:34 — The x-rays of the suitcase are reused in Thingumajig, puportedly being x-rays of the thingumajig.
- 11:09- The “Cremorne Hotel” signs are clearly acetate stuck to the pillar.
- 13:21 — Bored Steed pulls out a hip flask... and Condon takes the opportunity a few moments later to steal the case.
- The contacts announced by the case:
- Trent (10:44): You wil take me to room 27 of the Cremorne Hotel in Sloane Street, the reservation being under the name of Richard Strauss.
- Condon (15:07): You will take me to number 11 Heston Avenue at 8 o’clock this evening, you will ask for Miss Graham. That is all.
- Sally (20:45): You will take me to the telephone box in Cranley High Street. You will stand in the box at precisely 9 o’clock when I will issue further instructions. That is all.
- 23:04 — Your next contact has already passed the telephone box and identified you. You will now go to a place of safety where the transfter can be made. Your contact will follow you. That is all.
- Cavell (25:56): You will take me to room 6 in Colton House. Before doing so, however, there is a matter of security to be taken care of. You will kill your last contact. Repeat, you will kill your last contact.
- Tim (34:29): Take me to number 84 Patrick Street and leave me there at midnight precisely.
- Shepherd (39:18) : At precisely 8am you will deposit me outside the luggage loading bay at King’s Cross Station. That is all.
-
- Jackson (41:28): You will take me to St Bartholemew’s church, deposit me in the Cunningham family crypt. That is all. / 42:50 : I thank you in your co-operation in bringing me here. Unfortunately, in the interests of security, sacrifices have to be made. I am a substitute case, designed to mislead any pursuers. To maintain security, it is necessary you do not survive. The crypt is hermetically sealed and I will shortly emit a poison gas. To make your last minutes more comfortable, I contain a small gift. Thank you and good-bye.
- Wilson: Mother’s warehouse hideout.
- 47:00 and throughout The vault set is reused as Mother’s headquarters in Who Was That Man I Saw You With? and Simon Juniper’s shop, albeit whitewashed, in Pandora (the three episodes were filmed one after another).
- 47:00 : My final collection is long overdue. I must assume I’ve fallen into the wrong hands. I will self-destruct myself and my contents in 15 seconds.
(This announcement is faked, devised by Steed to flush out the traitor).
- 19:03 — Steed’s pretty ineffectual in this episode. First he lets Condon spirit the case away while he pours himself a whisky, and then he gets knocked out by Miss Long as he’s trying to bribe Sally to recover the case after losing it a second time.
- 19:00–19:15 — There’s a small hair at the bottom right corner in the close-ups of Penelope Keith, most visible at 19:12.
- 19:33 — The Georgian music from Escape In Time in played while Tara and Audrey perform their balletic fight.
- 19:40 — You can see it’s clearly Cyd Child slamming the piano lid on Audrey’s fingers.
- 21:48 — There’s a small hair top right of screen in Stonehouse’s CU (He’s wearing a Guards tie, by the way).
- 25:30 — Tara’s flat has those terrible curtains from the Litoff Organisation in The £50,000 Breakfast.
- 30:26–33 — There’s a small hair curled at top centre of the screen.
- 32:47 — Cyd Child doing the judo (of course). Gerry Crampton is John Ronane’s stunt double.
- 33:22 — Steed hits Tim on the head with his steel-crowned bowler hat.
- 37:17 — Hawkin’s stuntman (Gerry Crampton) looks nothing like him. Patrick Macnee has his usual stand-in, Paul Weston, in this fight.
- 43:00 — Couriers must have been running for quite a while if there are two skeletons of past couriers in the crypt.
- 43:33–45:50 — The case delivers a bottle of Meudon et Heim champagne which Tara (actually, Cyd Child) ends up giving to the vicar when she steals his car. I’ve never heard of the brand so it’s probably prop wine; it certainly turns up a lot in this series.
- 45:13 — Another FF rifle ammo crate from Have Guns — Will Haggle.
- It seems sad that Bryan Kendrick’s last known performance before dying of a heart attack in early 1970 will never be seen — that is, this episode; he’s in the cast list but never appears on screen as he plays Philipson, the mask-wearing agent hidden in the scarecrow.
- Running time: 50′14″
The Transport
Marque | Colour | Number |
---|---|---|
BSA B25 Starfire 1967 motorcycle | blue and white | MOJ 767F |
Trojan 200 Type 603 1963 Bubble Car | red | CMU 574A |
Rolls-Royce 40/50 h.p. ‘Silver Ghost’ 1923 H.J.Mulliner tourer (chassis number 46LK) | pale lemon | KK 4976 |
Austin A60 Cambridge 1966 | pale grey/grey | GAM 354D |
Triumph 2000 Mk I 1968 | white | MVC 336G |
Morris 1100 Mk I 1967 | red | PLE 831E |
Morris Mini Minor Mk I 1962 | pea green | 574 KR |
Who’s Killing Whom?
Victim | Killer | Method |
---|---|---|
Holland | Shepherd | sword hidden in clarinet |
Trent | (Captain Andrews) | motorcycle accident |
Shepherd | Steed | impaled on cello stand |
Colonel Stonehouse | (Tara) | opened wrong case, which was boobytrapped |

The Fashions
Tara | Steed |