User Reviews

Steed has been put in charge of security for M'sieur Roland; a visiting diplomat who is hoping to help with negotiations concerning problems in the Far East. After an attempt on the man's life Steed is convinced that somebody in the organisation he works for must have leaked details of the visit. He is so convinced that he takes Roland's place and sure enough somebody tries to kill him; he is only saved because Dr King tackles the would-be assassin. While Steed is looking for a leak others in the organisation, including superior One-Twelve, suspect that Steed may be the leak. Ultimately it will be up to Steed and Dr King to find the leak and get to his associates before Roland is killed.

This is a solid early episode, one of three where Steed is partnered with Dr Martin King. The case is interesting and there are plenty of suspects who could be the leak, including One Twelve. There is a good amount of action and some fairly tense scenes when it looks as if Dr King was unable to turn up when Steed needed his back up and later when the villain captures Dr King. The villain's motives are entirely plausible. Patrick Macnee is on fine form as Steed and Jon Rollason is also pretty solid as Dr King. Also notable are Arthur Hewlett who plays One Twelve and Anne Godley who plays the wife of a possible suspect. Overall a pretty decent episode.

A foreign diplomat involved in peace talks is the target of an assassination plot. Steed & fellow agent Harvey are assigned security at both ends. But recurring leaks lead Steed to suspect a traitor in his organization. His latest superior, One-Twelve, seems doubtful of this... but later, Steed learns he had the same idea, and actually had someone shadowing Steed's movements, in order to give the man he really suspects the false impression that HE wasn't under suspicion!

Into this spy game mess Steed once more drags a reluctant Dr. King, who'd rather stick to his own job, but his experiences as a medical man and in college sports prove useful.

The last of the leftover "Dr. Keel" scripts filmed (but broadcast 2nd, about a third of the way into the season) once again features Jon Rollason (who would have made a good "John Seward" in an authentic adaptation of "Dracula") and Gillian Muir as his nurse Judy.

The familiar faces for me included Frank Gatliff as Harvey, who's growing health problems leave him concerned for his "expensive" wife. He appeared in no less than 5 AVENGERS episodes, one each with Dr. Keel, Dr. King, Venus Smith, Tara King, and Purdey! (How did he miss both Cathy AND Emma?) My favorite, of course, was "The Eagle's Nest", where he played a doctor resusitating Adolph Hitler from suspended animation. (OH, I'm sorry if that blew the whole plot for anybody...!) He was also on DOCTOR WHO in "The Monster Of Peladon" as a character I REALLY hated who spent 6 tiresome episodes suspecting Jon Pertwee of being the villain. And then of course there was the villain he played in "THE IPCRESS FILE"...

The other highlight was Arthur Hewlett as the cool, too-smooth and devious "One-Twelve", who's so cagey Steed even suspects HE may be the traitor! I've seen him in SHERLOCK HOLMES: "The Six Napoleons" with Douglas Wilmer, and 2 DOCTOR WHO stories: "State Of Decay" (with Tom Baker & Lalla Ward) and "Terror of the Vervoids" (with Colin Baker & Bonnie Langford).

It's a funny thing, in the production order for season 2, Steed's superiors were One-Twelve, One-Ten, One-Seven and One-Six. Seems like a countdown!

I might have enjoyed this a lot more if the sound quality on the DVD were better. I'm guessing A&E Video had trouble finding better copies in some cases. Just got the 2009 Studio Canal version, which in this case has noticable-clearer picture AND sound!