Episode 9 - The Hour that Never Was

Episode Rating

The Cars

Who's Killing Whom?

Victim	Killer	Method	click a name to see the face
Milkman	? V*	shot
Hickey	? V*	shot? strangled? (off camera)

continuity and trivia

1. 1:00 - the opening scene of river is Tyke's Water Lake, the same location as the punting scene at the beginning of Silent Dust.
2. 2:00 - to make the Bentley look like it's crashed, they just pulled the bonnet off the engine and propped it up, loosened the spare tyre, pumped some smoke through the engine bay and spun the wheels. Much better than damaging a vintage car! It looks like the broken glass is achieved with cellophane.
3. 4:05 - location filming for the road towards the camp was at Tyke's Water Lake and bridge.
4. 4:47 - Steed speaks of "returning to camp, hunched over the controls, eyes red and rimmed with fatigue, the men groaning in the back". Emma asks if he'd been to the Ruhr and he replies, "No, the local pub".
5. 5:35 - RAF Station 472 Hamelin was a launch-pad for agents during the war and was HQ for 472 Squadron.
6. 6:05 - Emma quips, "Sic friat crustulum" as Steed talks about the base closing down. Steed looks at her quizzically and she translates, "That's the way the cookie crumbles". "The Latin cookie", he replies. This exchange is something that would have been more likely in the higher-brow Cathy Gale days, but we get the occassional smattering of (sometimes tortured) Latin in the Emma Peel years.
7. 9:23 - a guide wire for the cameraman is hastily pulled out of view in the bottom left corner of the screen.
8. 10:44 - the cook has been reposted to RAF Airbase 69 Aden.
9. 13:40 - Squadron Leader Geoffrey Risdale has been reposted to RAF Airbase 931 Singapore.
10. 14:28 - Geoffrey Risdale is played by Gerald Harper, who became the star of the BBC's attempt to copy "The Avengers", "Adam Adamant Lives!" in 1966.
11. 16:00 - vehicle continuity: when Emma and Steed walk past the rescue vehicles, they pass an Alvis tender, Scammell tender and then turn to go alongside the Landrover. In the longshot from the top of the control tower, the Scammell has moved to the near side of the Alvis, so they would have had to pass that first.
12. 16:37 - that's not a rifle shot, the FX is a pistol bullet ricochet, and one of the most over-used FX in the business.
13. 16:57 - the punk band "The Dead Milkmen" supposedly take their name from Ray Austin's performance as the milkman killed in this episode.
14. 18:58 (19:26) - an obvious over-dub of Mrs Peel saying "Steed" as they run across the taxiway - but it's not Diana Rigg's voice!
15. 20:55 - wardrobe continuity: Steed has been wearing a suit with a single vent in the the jacket but here, as they are bombarded by the sonic weapon, he's suddenly wearing a jacket with a double vent, despite this being a 'self-contained' episode where they're supposed never to leave the scene. The single vent jacket reappears a few moments later, then switches back to the double vent again at 29:40, just before he's knocked out by the boom gate. By 31:00, when he's getting out of the car, it's back to the single vent jacket.
16. 32:35 - David Morrell, who has a brief appearance as an RAF officer - his film career was mostly rôles like this - (he's watching his friend play pinball and greets Steed enthusiastically) went on to be a best-selling author of thriller novels.
17. 33:00 - Geoffrey tells Steed that they're all being scattered to different parts of the world - Porky is going to Aden, (along with the cook vide supra) and Wiggins is going to Berlin.
18. The transcript of the episode reveals that Cliff Diggin's character is called Glover.
19. 41:47 - more bondage for Mrs Peel, this time she's been strapped to the dentist's chair.
20. 42:19 - Mrs Peel declares that she's found ampules of "C11, a derivitive of the truth drug used in brainwashing".
21. 42:35 - Mrs Peel incorrectly refers to "nitreous oxide" for the laughing gas, N₂O, which is of course nitrous oxide.
22. 41:45 - there's a hair on the camera lens near top left, it remains until 42:58 when the vision switches to Emma at the window.
23. 46:22 - Billy Westley Jr does the backwards leap as Emma is thrown by Cliff Diggins but up till then Cliff has been grappling with Diana Rigg, the lucky man.
24. 48:29 - the footage is sped up as Emma and Steed chase after the milk float, à la The Beatles or The Dave Clarke Five in their films of the same year.
25. Running time: 49'40"