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Production Number: 3377 • Tape Number:
VTR/ABC/1263 |
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PLOTLINE |
Steed meets a
contact, Wilson, to hand over some top-secret
microfilm. This contains the chemical formula
for a new drug called Morgantol, which Wilson
must take to Geneva. Suddenly, they are set upon
by a mysterious, bowler-hatted assailant, who
fatally stabs Wilson and injures Steed. He does
not get away with the formula, however, which is
destroyed by Wilson in his final moments of
life.
Steed
retreats to a health club, where he meets Keel
and explains the situation to him. Another batch
of microfilm is being prepared, and Steed asks
Keel to secretly transport it to Geneva. The
doctor is due to fly out there to a World Health
Organisation conference in any case, so his
journey should not arouse suspicion. Well aware
of the potential benefits and also the possible
dangers of the new drug, Keel agrees.
The
replacement microfilm is delivered to Keel's
surgery by Scott, a fellow agent of Steed. The
microdots are concealed in an admission card for
the WHO conference. However, before he has a
chance to brief Keel about arrangements for its
delivery, Scott is surprised by Benson, the man
in the bowler hat. Benson is unable to locate
the microfilm, but he succeeds into deceiving
Keel. The doctor flies out to Geneva completely
unaware that his invitation contains the
valuable secret formula.
When Keel
arrives and checks in at his hotel, he is
attacked by Benson and rendered unconscious. He
awakes to find himself in the company of the
Swiss police, who suspect him of murder – a
murder carried out with the very gun that they
found in Keel's hand...
Read the
full story in
Two Against the Underworld |
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PRODUCTION & ARCHIVE |
The Avengers: Series 1, Episode 13
Production Completed: Thu 27 Apr 1961
Recording Format: 405 Line B/W Video
Archive Holding: DOES NOT EXIST
John Cura Tele-Snaps: Photographed
Reconstruction: Made 2010
Audio Adaptation: Big Finish, 2014 |
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES |
UNITED KINGDOM: Sat 29 Apr 1961
Never transmitted outside the UK |
UK REGIONAL PREMIERES |
ABC
Midlands: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
ABC North: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
Anglia: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
ATV London: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
Border: Not transmitted
Grampian: Not transmitted
Scottish: Not transmitted
Southern: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
TWW: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
Tyne Tees: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
Ulster: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm
Westward: Sat 29 Apr 1961, 10.00pm |
CHARACTERS & CAST |
Dr David Keel
John Steed
Carol Wilson
Benson
Scott
Pallaine
Yvette Declair
Borsh (Concierge)
Dubois
Maid
Bernard Bourg
Wilson
1st Thug
2nd Thug
Henry
Aircraft Passengers
1st Ambulance Man
2nd Ambulance Man
2nd Detective
3rd Detective |
Ian Hendry
Patrick Macnee
Ingrid Hafner
Peter Madden
Ronald Wilson
Dennis Edwards
Malou Pantera
Steven Scott
Frank Gatliff
Irene Bradshaw
Toke Townley
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited
Uncredited |
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK |
Not released. |
DVD EXTRAS |
StudioCanal, UK:
'Mission Brief' reconstruction by Alys and
Alan Hayes,
narrated by Nick Goodman, combining off-screen Tele-Snaps
with a newly-written narration. |
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PRODUCTION CREDITS |
Writer – Brian Clemens
Series Theme & Music – Johnny Dankworth
Designer – Robert Fuest
Story Editor – Patrick Brawn
Producer – Leonard White
Director – Peter Hammond |
Production Assistant – Paddy Dewey
Floor Manager – Patrick Kennedy
Stage Manager – Barbara Sykes |
Other credits
not available |
Studio –
Teddington 2
An ABC Network Production |
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ONE
FOR THE MORTUARY • DECLASSIFIED |
-
Production
Brief...
The first series of The Avengers was written
by a large pool of writers. Undoubtedly the most
significant writing 'find' of the series' first year
was Brian Clemens, who contributed two scripts for
1961 including this one. Clemens would ultimately
become the most influential contributor to the
series, writing more than a quarter of all episodes
of The Avengers and The New Avengers,
as well as story editing and eventually producing
the series.
-
In an internal
memo issued to directors Don Leaver, Peter Hammond
and Robert Tronson and story editor John Bryce on
Monday 6th February 1961, producer Leonard White
complained that "far too much 'drink' (in the form
of hard liquor) is being consumed in these episodes
and especially by our 'Doctor Keel'. At first, when
used with subtlety, it had some value, but now it
has become an excuse to 'pad' and is giving an
unsympathetic and nauseating slant to the
characters. We should all use our ingenuity to
overcome this immediately." One for the Mortuary
appears to have been the first script in which this
directive took effect. In the previous episode,
Dance with Death, Keel and Steed had been
downing whisky and cocktails in a bar, but here they
do not touch a drop. Instead, Keel has a tonic
water.
-
The cast convened
for a first reading of the One for the Mortuary
rehearsal script at 2.30pm on Friday 14th April 1961
at the Tower, RCA Building, Brook Green Road,
Hammersmith, London. Directly after this, rehearsals
commenced at the same venue. Camera rehearsals took
place on Wednesday 26th April 1961 from 10.30am in
Studio 2 at ABC Studios, Broom Road, Teddington
Lock, Middlesex. The cast and crew reconvened in
Studio 2 the next day, Thursday 27th April 1961,
with the final recording taking place between
6.00 and 7.00pm. The episode was transmitted from
videotape two days later on Saturday 29th April 1961, with a planned start and end time of
10.00pm to 11.00pm.
-
On Location...
Although the episode is partially set in Geneva, the production never
left the London area, with the great majority of the
foreign locales being achieved in studio. However,
the Tele-Snaps reveal that at least one sequence was
filmed on location, an airport scene featuring Ian
Hendry (as David Keel) and Malou Pantera (as Yvette
Declair).
-
Location work for
this episode was shot on high resolution 35mm
black-and-white film.
-
The rehearsal
script also mentions the use of stock footage of a
busy airport terminal and of an aircraft taking off,
representing Keel's departure from London, though it
notes that these scenes could be deleted if
necessary. It also calls for stock footage of a
plane in flight and touching down to land, as well
as a subsequent establishing shot of Bernard Bourg's
building with Keel (played by a double) approaching
the door. However, it is not known whether these
shots were included in the final programme.
-
Trivia...
This is the first episode to have been photographed
off-screen by commercial photographer, John Cura.
Under the company name 'Tele-Snaps', Cura ran a
unique service from 1947 until his death in 1969,
whereby he could provide actors and production staff
with a visual record of how their television
productions appeared on screen. Avengers
producer Leonard White became aware of this service
and used it extensively throughout the 1960s.
Fortunately, White had the foresight to preserve
these photographs and consequently, Avengers
fans now have some visual record of thirteen of the
missing episodes of Series 1. The Tele-Snaps have
been reproduced in a superb booklet that accompanies
the Series 1 & 2 Avengers release from StudioCanal UK
and these images have also been utilised to create
reconstructions of these episodes, which also appear
on the StudioCanal DVD range.
-
The rehearsal
script for One for the Mortuary has the
dubious distinction of being the first script for a
missing episode to be discovered after that
episode's reconstruction had been produced. At the
time, the reconstruction, by Alys and Alan Hayes,
was forced to rely on just the Tele-Snaps and
existing synopses. The discovery of the script has
clarified a number of matters about the story:
-
In the opening
scene, Steed meets his contact (who is named as
Wilson) in order to hand over the secret medical
formula, not merely to discuss it as previously
assumed. It is Wilson who is supposed to deliver the
formula to Geneva, rather than Steed.
-
The injured man
seen in the third Tele-Snap after the opening titles
appears to be Benson's fellow thug, who is fought
off by Steed, rather than a colleague of Steed
acting as a lookout.
-
Steed leaves Keel
under no illusion about the seriousness of his
mission. It is Benson who indirectly causes Keel to
be unaware that he is carrying the top-secret
microfilm. Keel is due to fly out to the World
Health Organisation conference in Geneva anyway,
rather than taking Steed's place.
-
The identity of
Benson's employer is not revealed to the viewer
until the third act. Prior to that point, he has a
different tone of voice when he speaks to Benson and
his face is not shown – all the viewer sees is a
hand moving chess pieces.
-
Scott calls at
the surgery for Keel, not for Steed as previously
assumed.
-
Scott is
seriously injured but not killed. He manages to
inform Steed that Keel has not been briefed about
the secret formula he is unwittingly carrying.
-
Rather than Keel
arranging for Yvette to stay at his hotel, so that
he can tend to her, the doctor takes Yvette to her
own apartment, which is close by.
-
Pallaine is
motivated by a burning resentment, because he
initially worked on the development of the new drug,
and he feels that he is due some financial reward
for this. His bitterness appears to have driven him
insane.
-
Before we get too
caught up with the idea that the script holds all
the answers, there are certain respects in which the
transmitted episode differed from the rehearsal
script, as evidenced by the Tele-Snaps and other
sources. It would appear that the story underwent
some revisions before it went before the cameras. In
these respects, the reconstruction is a more
accurate representation than the script:
-
In the script, Benson is described as wearing an
eye patch and carries a sword stick concealed in an
umbrella. The Tele-Snaps show him wearing glasses
with one darkened lens, while the umbrella appears
to have been changed to a walking cane.
-
Steed gets dressed sooner in the Tele-Snaps than
he does in the script. The images show Steed
dressing during his meeting with Scott, whereas at
this point in the script he is still clad in towels.
-
In the script, Carol attends to some filing while
Scott is waiting for Keel, whereas she is clearly
sewing in the Tele-Snaps.
-
The senior police officer is not named in the
script, he is simply referred to as SWISS DETECTIVE
or SWISS TEC. Contemporary TV listings indicate that
the character was subsequently given the name
Dubois.
-
Brian Clemens had scripted an amusing scene in
which Steed rescues Keel from the police by
pretending to be a member of the hotel staff,
carrying an enormous basket of laundry and speaking
in an outrageous French accent. Steed overwhelms
Dubois with laundry, allowing him and Keel to escape
through a window and down a fire escape. One of the
Tele-Snaps shows that Steed actually arrives in his
regular clothes, while Keel appears to exit calmly
through the door, which tallies with the account in
Dave Rogers' The Complete Avengers that Keel is
released into Steed's custody. Another Tele-Snap
shows Dubois making a telephone call that does not
take place in the script, so perhaps in the
transmitted episode he contacts a higher authority
for verification of Steed's credentials.
-
When Pallaine arrives at Bourg's shop in the
script, he is backed up only by Benson. In the
Tele-Snaps he has at least two more henchmen with
him.
-
The images show that Pallaine gets his hands on
the admission card, which is more than he does in
the script.
-
Keel appears to exchange dialogue with Dubois in a
Tele-Snap towards the end of the episode. This does
not occur in the script. The detective is possibly
giving Keel some assurance that he is no longer a
murder suspect, a fact that is reported by Steed in
the script.
-
Bourg is simply forgotten about at the end of the
script, but he is shown bound and gagged in the
Tele-Snaps. He appears to have some dialogue after
he has been released by Steed and Yvette. We can
only guess at what he says, but given his own
predilections and a recurring theme of the script,
it is probably something to do with life and death.
-
A Matter of
Life and Death would have been a most suitable
title for this episode, so much so that one wonders
whether it actually was the working title at some
point. Quite apart from the customary levels of
physical threat that one finds in an Avengers
episode, and the dual nature of the wonder drug
Morgantol (which can kill or cure), the phrase
itself and variations on it ("a matter of life and
death", "could be life or death") are uttered on a
number of occasions by various characters throughout
the script.
-
And Finally...
This was the first Avengers episode to be
transmitted by Westward Television. This ITV region
launched on Saturday 29th April 1961, and One for
the Mortuary formed a part of their opening
night's schedule. The episode was the ninth highest
rated programme in the region (including BBC
programmes) for the week.
Plotline by
Alan Hayes • UK Transmissions by Simon Coward, Alan Hayes
and John Tomlinson
Declassified by Alan Hayes with Richard McGlinlay
With thanks to Piers Johnson,
Tim Trounce, Jaz Wiseman and
StudioCanal for their
kind assistance |
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