Series 4 — Episode 11
Man-eater of Surrey Green

Production

Production dates: 31/05 — 11/06/1965

Philip Levene’s script was delivered on May 10^th 1965 to Brian Tesler at ABC, who approved it with no amendments. Three weeks later, filming started with Sidney Hayers directing and the crew made full use of the glorious early Summer of 1965 with extensive location filming around the British Rail Study Centre in Hertfordshire and in Borehamwood.

Stunt doubles were required for John G. Heller, Diana Rigg, and Patrick Macnee. They were George Fisher, Billy Westley Jr, and Cliff Diggins respectively. Diana Rigg and Derek Farr did the stunt where Mrs. Peel leaps at Petersen, and it really was Athene Seyler being dragged away by the plant tendril.

Filming was completed without any major issues and the episode completed on June 11^th.

Brian Tesler, however, was displeased with the end result and thought the science fiction element had gone too far. Levene’s pastiche of Day of the Triffids, Village of the Damned, and Quatermass, he thought, was a step too far. He grudging approved the episode but ordered Julian Wintle to move it down the broadcast order. It was show six months after it was filmed, but that was little different to most of the episodes from the frist shooting block of Series 4 so it appears Wintle ignored Tesler’s request.

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Italy appears to have never broadcast this episode. Science fiction seems to have been unpopular and contemporary French, Swiss, and German broadcasts also did not include it.

In Spain, it was originally scheduled for 14^th March 1967 but pre-empted by The Cybernauts.

Episode Rating

More science fiction, but it doesn’t gel as well as other forays into the genre. A great bit of ad libbing by the principals and a decent script, but not great. Remind you of Doctor Who as well? The story was treated better there.

The Fashions

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

Click a name to see the face

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:27 — Laura declares, “Reared from seed, Amnesis gloris, the first in captivity!” This appears to be a fictional plant... the closest I can find is Hermesias grandiceps (aka Brownea grandiceps Jacq.) However, this could be supposed to be a rarer taxa of Browneae. The most likely possibility is they’ve invented a name for a rare orchid, which would fit the script as the alien plant induces amnesia in its victims. Cattleya chloris and Trevoria chloris are both South American orchids first described in the 1890s. All three of these plants are South American, so they may have just jammed the two together to invent a new species. The script transcriber had trouble as well, it reads “Amnicus Gloria (?)”.
2. 4:33 — Steed’s cut rose has become a plastic rose when we cut to the scene in Steed’s living room.
3. 4:47 — Laura Burford is an expert in plant diseases (not deceases, as the transcript says!)
4. 6:16 — Sir Lyle’s house is later reused as the location for the museum in The Danger Makers and the home of Lord Daviot in The See-Through Man.
5. 6:39–48, 13:57–14:16 — There’s a thread caught in the lower edge of the camera lens in the MS of Steed getting out of the car. It reappears when he returns to the car seven minutes later, showing these two sequences were filmed together.
6. 10:44 — the venus fly traps are very fake and clearly mechanically controlled.
7. 12:59 — we briefly see the shadow of the boom microphone in the wall as Steed leaves Sir Lyyle’s office.
8. 15:43 — The barn is reused as a location in Silent Dust (now Strangeways Farm, Rowley Lane, Borehamwood).
9. 15:45 — Mrs. Peel was wearing white lace stockings at Steed's flat but when they get to the barn she's wearing white calf-high socks.
10. 20:52 — Errant nonsense; Mrs. Peel, speaking of Mars and the Moon, tells Steed, “recent photographs show whole areas of vegetation”. Did they really believe that in 1965? Certainly not for the moon that was well known to be lifeless. It's true that in May-June 1965 there had yet to be any close photos of Mars and some people thought the seasonal changes of patterns on the planet surface might have been plant life rather than dust storms. That all changed a month later when Mariner 4 showed that the Martian surface was more like the moon.
11. 22:45 — Petersen’s number is Surrey Green 1141.
12. 22:50 — The outside is The Three Horseshoes and village green, Letchmore Heath, but the pub interior set is the same one as in Silent Dust.
13. 27:17 — Wing Commander Davies’ medals are the same as Geoffrey Ridsdale’s, this time only the first two are pinned back to front, the rest are in the correct position:
    Distinguished Flying Cross, General Service Medal, (backwards, with the GSM first and the DFC back to front)
    1939 to 1945 Star, Air Crew Europe Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45.
14. 28:05 — the cameraman loses focus when Carter walks behind the lamp and down stage.
15. 29:05 — He’s listed in the credits as Sir Lyle Peterson but the sign outside his property reads “Petersen Estate”.
16. 30:44 — Miss Sheldon declares that the plant needs “Hydrochrome Oxidase” to grow — an enzyme only found in humans. Philip Levene appears to have invented this enzyme but there is a series of Cytochrome c Oxidases which exist in mammals. The enzyme is used for the respiratory system, helping convert oxygen into energy.
17. 

    34:06 — Act Three starts with a slow, close panning shot showing Mrs. Peel’s outfit, panning up her body and when we see her face, Diana Rigg yawns and turns away from the camera, whereupon Steed enters. I assume the intention was to start the Act suggesting that Mrs. Peel is now being mesmerised by the plant’s influence, but it's not entirely clear. Is Diana Rigg bored by science fiction, or dismissive of the attention of the male gaze? Answers, as always, on a postcard.

18. 36:07 — Mrs. Sheldon says about the herbicide, “Nothing more effective than propionic acid. A teaspoonful of this would kill a large oak tree.” But propionic acid is not a herbicide, it’s an anti-fungal saturated fatty acid which can inhibit the growth of mould and bacteria, so is most commonly used as a preservative for food and stock feed or a pesticide; it’s also used on video and audio tape to inhibit mould growth.
19. 37:03 — Sir Lyle’s window is suddenly closed again.
38:09 — five past 6
20. 38:50 — the cameraman loses focus on Emma and Steed as they approach Joby’s stall in the pub, the camera focusing on the wooden backboard.
21. 41:22 — Looks like George Fisher doing the stunts for John G Heller.
22. 41:38 — Miss Sheldon declares, “Oh, Yucca gloriosa! You should see it in the summer.” Except it’s not, it’s an Agave, probably an Agave americana or Agave diformis, but I’m no expert. There’s a Yucca next to it, which she ignores.
23. 47:00 — stunt double for Diana (overshoulder throw and the mid and long shots of the fight) — it’s probably Billy Westley Jr but he looks too bulky to me; the stunt double for Patrick Macnee looks like Cliff Diggins.

24. There’s a bit of debate about the scene where Steed kills the giant plant with the weed killer. Some believe him to be dousing Mrs. Peel with the stuff, so when she’s dragged into the gaping maw of the horrific beast the beast will die, but I think that’s not the case, and here’s my reasoning:

    • 47:47 — Steed and Emma clash heads, knocking Emma out.
    • 47:55 — Steed orders Dr. Sheldon to fetch the herbicide while he heads off to stage left, stepping over Mrs. Peel as he does so.
    • 48:08 — Peterson, who has gone to guard the door says, “For heaven’s sake, hurry”, — there’s a strange cut in the scene then he crosses to Steed who starts pouring herbicide, apparently on Mrs. Peel’s unconscious body. (Unfortunately for my theory, the stuntman can be seen breathing at this point).
    • 48:28 — but! we only see top half of the ‘body’ as it’s doused and then dragged away by a tendril.
    • 48:35 — at stage left (the direction Steed headed earlier), after the body passes, the camera pans up a mannequin which was previously whole, with its top half missing.
    • 48:42 — Miss Sheldon, cowering behind Steed in the doorway asks, “Do you think it’ll work?”
    • 50:02 — Steed turns around as the plant starts to convulse and die and goes into the corridor behind, where Emma is lying on the ground, face up and not wearing her jacket, recovering from the head-butt received in the fight — too quickly for her to have returned from the plant’s grasp.

    It's true that there's a shot showing the body being dragged and it's a stunt double rather than a mannequin, but it's possible that they needed a person as the mannequin might have bounced about.

25. 50:28 — in the back-projection shot of the tractor towing our heroes away on the hay cart, there’s a hair caught in the top right corner of the camera lens.
26. Running time: 51′58″
    The transcript from 1980 records a total length of 4685 feet 12 frames or 52 minutes — the exact time for that length of film would be 52:03 so I am assuming we've lost a few frames of black here and there at the ends of the reels (there were six reels of film for the episode, of varying lengths). The latest remastered bluray is 52:18 but include about 20 seconds of StudioCanal ident at the beginning.
    The Reels:
    1. Reel 1: 793 feet 8 frames
    2. Reel 2: 786 feet 13 frames
    3. Reel 3: 990 feet 8 frames
    4. Reel 4: 826 feet
    5. Reel 5: 677 feet 7 frames
    6. Reel 6: 611 feet 8 frames
27. Brian Tesler, Production Controller for ABC Television, considered this script to be too ‘science fiction’ and sternly warned Julian Wintle that it ought to be broadcast late is the schedule. Wintle pretty much ignored him and it was shown six months after completion which was about the average gap for the first half of this series and less than for many other episodes. From episode 16 onwards, the gap reduced rapidly as they ran further behind schedule and the last episode went to air only 18 days after it wrapped.