The New Avengers Season 2 Eps 5 - 7

 

A health farm that is killing people is the premise of `Angels of Death`, the title pertaining to the staff of attractive models who work there yet are also handy with guns and karate. After a number of senior officials die of natural causes, Steed and co are looking for a link between them. Amusingly the victims we see are all with Steed when they pop their clogs so technically he is a link but the viewer knows they’ve recently had a spell at a health farm., Here they are subjected to hallucinogenic injections, a hectic disco session with the girls and spiked drinks followed by a spell in a maze. Though they seem fine the following day any sight of the maze map triggers a fatal reaction as it gives them the ultimate stress.

While some attempt is made by the script to place this in the realms of realistic studies of stress it’s a bit too convenient that nobody ever tells their relatives, workmates or friends they’ve been to this farm so we have over forty mysterious deaths. Considering their line of work its a wonder nobody in the department has questioned such a big staff turnover. The farm is actually run by Russian sleeper agents though why they are never vetted or checked remains another mystery. Still, it makes for an entertaining premise from this distance with several familiar Seventies faces populating the cast including Dinsdale Landen, Terence Alexander, a very young Lindsay Duncan and Pamela Stephenson plus the decade’s tv pin up de jour Caroline Munro who is actually quite good as a villain.

An impressive maze set is the centrepiece and director Ernest Day captures the claustrophobic feel of being trapped. He also adds style to the brief action sequences notably a dust up between some of the angels and Purdey. Gambit’s expressions as he watches the fight are very amusing. Because they’re enemy agents the main villains don’t get much character stuff so rely on the consummate experience of the actors to carry them along. It could be camper actually but the fact that it’s not makes it less of a period piece than you imagine even if all the people in charge are male and not one woman appears to have been considered important enough to be sent to the farm.

So Purdey actually doesn’t seem to have a surname as we learn in the opening scene of `Obsession`. Her name appears as just Purdey on a ballet playbill in a flashback set in 1970. She’s a ballet dancer with big hair and a boyfriend called Larry with whom she plans her future. Only Larry’s father is killed in the Middle East and he then tries to kill a foreign head of state only for Purdey to stop him. It’s the sort of thing that definitely ends a relationship! One of the issues with the first season was that the main trio were without context beyond a few random things so this season has attempted to correct that. Having learned something more about Steed earlier, this is a Purdeycentric episode. Seven years after their split we find Larry in the RAF seemingly one of those efficient types until we see him casually watching a raid going on under his nose at the air base. He’s up to no good.

Turns out his obsessive personality means that not only does he still carry a metaphorical flame for Purdey, but he also carries a literal missile away from under the noses of his bosses for a plan that turns out to be a planned attack on the Houses of Parliament. He’s played by Martin Shaw with that intense approach the actor always favours. Shaw is good value here, keeping the character’s wayward streak under strict control. And guess who his sidekick in crime is played by- its Lewis Collins. At the end he tells Larry “We’re a good team, we should work together again sometime!” A few months after this episode was made Shaw and Collins became The Professionals in ITV’s big hit series with the team up apparently influenced by their on screen chemistry in this episode

Purdey’s usual self control slips several times in an episode that, rarely for any iteration of this series, has an emotional narrative as well as the usual action one. Joanna Lumley therefore gets a chance to show off her acting skills and the earlier Purdey is notably more frivolous and relaxed than the  current tightly controlled persona. I’d say it is an excellent script from Brian Clemens were it not for a certain chauvinistic trait that runs through it including having Purdey being the one serving the drinks at Steed’s party and the final comment “She’s Purdey. She’s a woman.”

Visually it’s a well assembled piece even if there was probably a lot of stock footage used. I’m not sure whether the production team had access to the RAF for a day’s filming or something but the end results are a cut above most programmes of the day who shoved in stock footage that was clearly identifiable. At times it can resemble a recruitment ad for the Air Force with lots of shots of planes taking off and bombs being dropped. The denouement of what is actually a story that tries to maintain a down to earth quality is wonderfully eccentric as Steed parks his jeep on top of a missile to stop it taking off topping what is the best episode of season two so far.

`The Lion and the Unicorn` beats it though. A delightfully playful caper set in Paris, this John Goldsmith penned tale is abut a renowned assassin called the Unicorn who is finally brought to ground in the French capital by Steed, Purdey and Gambit. Ensconced in a somewhat down at heal mansion they don’t have too much time to savour this victory when their prisoner is killed by a bullet meant for Steed. When an un-named Royal dignitary is taken by the Unicorn’s gang in an attempt to exchange prisoners the Avengers have to deal with the big problem of their catch being, as Steed puts it, “a teeny bit dead.”

This appears to be the only New Avengers episode John Goldsmith penned and it’s a pity he didn’t do more as he really seems to get to the heart of what should make this series tick. He mines a rich seam with Steed and successfully balances humour and danger at each turn. The results have all the sparkle of the champagne drunk during proceedings with a light touch enabling the scenario to take on the feel of a farce while still maintaining its roots as a thriller. Ray Austin proves the perfect director to bring it home shooting high and wide, often from above, to capture the lively streets of Paris or, in an impressive opening car chase, the countryside of England.

The episode is full of amusing nods to Parisian society including a brilliant chase which manages to pass through one cliched sight after another but does to with such good humour you can’t help but smile. As he’s directed by Purdey from a rooftop, Gambit drives some sort of souped up ice cream float after a lorry and it could be from a comedy series as the camera only cuts to the passers by the chase affects after it’s happened to catch the facial expressions and mangled possessions! In another scene an assailant escapes by hiding behind a gaggle of nuns.  Even the Unicorn’s body becomes a gag; `hidden` under a rug but with his feet sticking out! The rooms in the grand house are a playground for developments that could just as easily be part of a very dark pantomime.

Naturally Patrick Macnee is excellent throughout in what must surely be quintessential Steed. Cool as a cucumber, humorous and wry, it’s a consumate performance that is to be enjoyed like a good wine. Even the villains are given a levity the series doesn’t normally allow and are all the better for it. Another plus is Laurie Johnson’s music which is allowed more space as several sequences are dialogue free chases and all are accompanied by lashings of wah- wah guitar and funky drumming. It’s so very Seventies and suits the location to a tee. I suppose I’ll never be a fully fledged Avengers fan as aficionados apparently dislike this episode but I found  it witty, charming and a lot of fun.