Series 3 — Episode 16
The Little Wonders

Production Schedule

Episode 72
Production Number : 3619
VTR/ABC/3254 + Inserts
Teddington Studio 1

Thursday 2nd January, 1964

Friday, 3rd January, 1964

Running time

Expected: 51′25″ excluding commercial breaks
Actual running time with bumpers: 51′44″

The bumpers between the acts are generally 10 seconds from fade in to the “End of Act” bumper to the end of audio before the commercial, a 10 second still without audio, then cut to the next act bumper. This would play with the theme for around 10 seconds. Accordingly, with the episodes being in 3 acts, the running time of the action is approximately a minute less than listed above, minus the opening credits (normally 0′16″ with a 2″ fade) and closing credits (anywhere from 0′41″ to 1′20″, hard cut or 1″ fade or mix).

Equipment

VTR Inserts:

• 36:14 — 3254 A — The blackboard opens to reveal a murderous Sister Johnson, armed with machine gun, end of act two
• 49:05 — 3254 B — Fingers leads Cathy into the classroom then Steed appears and arrests all of the ‘clergymen’, end of act three.

Transmission

This episode was already scheduled to be broadcast, a week later, while it was being produced.

This episode was not shown in Australia, for fear that it may bring the clergy into ill repute (as if they weren’t doing that themselves enough already!)

TV Times listing

Murders

Click a name to see the face

Continuity and trivia

1. The picture is not quite 4:3 so there’s a bar of grey down the right side of the picture.
2. 1:39 — there’s a spot on the lens of camera 2, almost dead centre of Beardmore’s forehead.
3. 1:47 — David Bauer fluffs his line: “I have an appointment — appointment in Lambeth”.
4. 4:30 — Harbuttle, aka Sachs, is also known as the Vicar of Ndola and runs the biggest protection & extortionist racket in White Africa and is reputed to be a member of Bibliotek, a Commonwealth mafia — he was also (13:42) wanted for armed robbery in Britain.
5. 6:24 — Steed lists his exercise as “Chemmy, Bezique and a bit of Baccarat”. (all casino card games — chemmy is ‘Chemin de Fer’, a variation of Baccarat — James Bond and John Drake play it a lot).
6. 11:00, 36:17 and throughout — the blackboard has two times tables and an example of division and multiplication:
   

   					2)346
   					173
   						7 x
   					 1211
   				

   …which is far too complex a mathematical problem for the infants’ room.
7. 11:20 — there’s a spot on the lens of camera 2 almost dead centre, another spot up and to the left of centre, and a hair almost dead centre. You can see the top left spot again at 15:10 as he and the nurse walk down the hall, and again around 35:00 when Steed and Cathy are talking. It appears again at 45:55 and 48:24 so is presumably on the camera throughout the episode.
8. 11:25 — Lois Maxwell fluffs her line:
   “I was going to suggest that you retired on the final day, Bishop, to give the delegates a chance of straightening out other- eh- straightening out any misunderstanding that may have occurred.” instead of “I was going to suggest that you retired on the final day, Bishop, so that delegates could have the opportunity to settle any little differences that might arise”.
9. 12:39 — Patrick Macnee fluffs his line, referring to Rev. Harbuttle’s bags being in Cathy’s flat, fluffs his line: “Now that he’s found your belongings here”. instead of “Now that he’s found his belongings here”.
10. 13:18 — Another fluffed line: “Three top members of the organisation have come in from various parts of the country” instead of “Three top men of the organisation have arrived from different parts of the world”.
11. 14:37, 19:00 — the convocation delegates: the Reverend Garfield Percival (The Coalman) from the Caribbean; Ricky from Goosebay; Mal; Harry, Archdeacon of Bangkok; Fingers the Frog, Vicar of Toowoomba; and Sid, Dean of Rangoon. The Dean of Wanganui was unable to attend — he was delayed by a funeral in Sydney; his own!
12. 16:10 — Steed announces himself as the Vicar of Mabote. Later (20:05), he tells Harry that his close friends call him Johnny the Horse.
13. 22:39–37:12 — a hair appears at bottom right of screen, probably stuck in the transfer plate, it remains until the beginning of Act Three.
14. 39:19–39:44 — there’s a flare guard slightly over the lens of camera 5, causing a shadow at the top left corner of the screen during the panning shot and zoom in on the Bishop. It’s retracted slowly near the end of the shot and is gone when vision returns to camera 5 after the cut to Steed.
15. 49:05 — diagonal smear near top right of the lens of camera 2 as Fingers leads Cathy up the hall (beginning of VTR insert B).
16. Cross-pollination: Steed introduces himself as the Vicar of Mabote (aka Johnny the Horse) and Mark Heath, playing The Coalman, played Colonel M’bota in the Danger Man episode “Loyalty Always Pays” about 18 months later.
17. What kind of Harley Street heart specialist is Beardmore?? The man smokes like a chimney throughout the episode.