Description
"The Winged Avenger"
by Richard Harris
directed by Gordon Flemyng and Peter Duffell
Steed goes bird watching
Emma does a comic strip..
A cloaked figure scales the outside of the tower block after
scratching out 'Simon Roberts' from the office sign. Inside,
the ruthless publisher Simon Roberts (William Fox) is
instructing his son, Peter (Donald Pickering), how to dismiss a
senior staff member instead of making him a board member. Dawson
(A.J. Brown) is summarily dismissed and Peter leaves his father
to his work. The figure swoops down on him from the ceiling - a bird
face and massive talons - and slashes Roberts senior to pieces.
Mrs Peel is busy painting when she's distracted by discovering
Steed has just signed her masterpiece. She's taken to the
publishers' office where they find no way up or down from the
window, and Peter tells them the doors was locked. Examining a
guide to British birds at his flat, Steed tells Emma this is the
fourth identical killing of ruthless penthouse-living businessmen
in the past month.
That night, Peter Roberts is composing letters - one to take
immediate legal action against a debtor rather than offer three
weeks' grace, another to withhold publishing rights from Sir
Lexius Cray, the author of one of their recent best sellers.
He too falls victim to the mysterious figure, a comic-strip
character come to life, who now scratches 'Son' out of the
'Simon Roberts & Son' sign.
Next day, Steed and Emma visit the office and find the window
smashed and the dictaphone still running. They play back the
dictaphone tape. Emma visits Sir Lexius (Nigel Green), posing
as a journalist from a magazine run by the Roberts. She quizzes
him about their deaths while his sherpa butler, Tay Ling (John
Garrie), smiles as he reads about the recent deaths in the
paper. She leaves, more suspicious than before due to Cray's
hatred of the Roberts, and Cray tells Tay Ling she's inquisitive,
but nothing they can't handle - Emma sees him summon his hawk
with a whistle. Later, Tay Ling rings someone, telling them he
knows they're behind the 'recent exploits' in the papers and
how they did them, his employer having received a letter from
Professor Poole, and arranges a meeting...
Steed plans to use the scientific approach - a shoe box model
of the Roberts building - while Emma revisits Cray under cover
of darkness, dressed for action in a catsuit. She hears the
assassin in the garden but is too late to prevent Tay Ling's
death, and she and Cray initially accuse each other of the murder.
Cray finds nothing missing but hid letters from Poole - a man
who claims to have invented boots with which you can walk up
the side of a house. Back at Steed's flat, he's come up with two
solutions: the murderer inflates a small balloon and rises up
the side of the building, he fires a rocket line across to the
window, drop a small trampoline and bounces off it into the window
- OR he bribes the doorman! Emma tells him about Poole's boots
and they visit the professor, who is try out a flying cape on his
country house's lawn. Poole is a mad ornithologist who wishes to
free man of his earthly shackles - by wing or by boot, but denies
the boots' existence.
The Avengers decide to examine the victims - all ruthless
businessmen who care nothing for humanity - and spot the ideal
next victim, Edward J. Dumayn, an industrialist whose automation
drive has put thousands out of work. Dumayn (Hillary Wontner) is
out hunting and berates his gamekeeper, Fothers (John Crocker)
for flushing pigeons instead of game; he demands "something big
this time" and seconds later is mauled by the birdman.
Emma sifts through items found at the scene and finds a comic
book "The Winged Avenger", the illustrations for which eerily
echo recent events, including Dumayn's death. Steed visits
Winged Avenger Enterprises, entering to behold the birdman
attacking a beautiful woman - it the studio models, Julian
(Roy Patrick) and Gerda (Ann Sydney), and the artist, Arnie Packer
(Neil Hallett) feels the model isn't getting into the part -
he demands a rewrite from the author, Stanton (Colin Jeavons)
and they bicker about respective talents and Packer derides
Stanton's mental state. they stop when they spot Steed who asks
for back issues for a nephew.
Emma visits Poole - another catsuit - and finds the books in
the study upside down, and the professor sitting at his desk -
on the ceiling! He reveals the boots use magnetic fields, and
has sold them exclusively to an unknown party representing Winged
Avenger Enterprises. She visits the studio and finds Packer and
Stanton fighting again, and Julian absentmindedly leaving while
still in costume ("sometimes it feels part of me"). She mentions
her magazine has been offered wall-walking boots and Packer
laughs his head off while Stanton looks worried...
That night, Julian is killed at the studio by the Winged
Avenger while trying on his costume again. Steed finds the
body when he returns to the studio, and disarms Stanton, who has
arrived after him. Stanton examines the storyboards and realises
Arnie is writing his own material - including a character called
Elma Peem. They hurry to Poole's house, looking through the roughs
which reflect the events at the manor. Emma takes the Professor's
boots after being chased into the study by the Winged Avenger and
confronts Packer, clearly deranged and thinking himself an
omnipotent righter of wrongs, judge, jury and executioner.
They fight, upside-down, on the ceiling.
Steed and Stanton arrive and burst into the study, gaping up in
amazement. Steed uses the storyboards - 'POW!', 'SPLAT!', 'BAM!'
to knock Packer out the window to his death.
At Emma's flat, Steed draws a picture of a three course meal
while Emma opens some champagne, then produces the real thing
to a 'PING!' of tureen lids - the benevolent avenger strikes again!
Production
| Production dates: |
12/66 |
Drinks |
| Transmission dates: |
Foreign title |
tea (with milk)
champagne (Moët et Chandon)
|
| UK |
18-Feb-67 |
| Sydney |
--- |
| Melbourne |
--- |
| USA |
17-Feb-67 |
| Germany |
10-Jun-93? |
(Der geflügelte Rächer) |
| France |
28-Sep-73 |
(Le vengeur volant) |
| Italy |
10-May-74 |
(il vendicatore alato) |
| Spain |
--- |
(el vengador alado) |
| Holland |
? |
(De gevleugelde wreker) |
