6.14 - False Witness

[peabody]

Discuss, review and rate False Witness.

Written by Jeremy Burnham
Directed by Charles Crichton

[cyberrich]

This is such a fun episode. One I loved immediately and still do! Mother's very best hideout. That red double decker bus looked great on screen! The final shoot out at the dairy is hilarious! Definitely in my top 10 Tara's. 10/10. Rich.

[Lhbizness]

I really found this episode embarrassing. The plot's more than usually nonsensical, Tara more than usually useless, and Steed more than usually humorless. In fact, Steed seems kind of angry and bored throughout. Sort of like I was.

5/10

[darren]

Aside from the fun of Mother's roving Red bus office, this episode is rather drab. It's Jeremy Burnham second script but not as much fun as his first. Charles Chrichton's direction is one of his weakest, there's no style or flair. The locations is dull.

A disappointing 4/10

[Spaceship Dispatcher]

Really enjoyed this episode. It has a central concept that should be implausably silly and over the top, but that isn't the way it works out on screen. What impressed me most was how Linda Thorson plays the comedy straight, as though Tara is really struggling to overcome the effects of the drug. John Bennett also stood out as a great antagonist of course, and is suitably dangerous and threatening without ever drifting into the realms of the pantomime villain. A very good 7/10 for me.

[Rhonda]

5 from me. Like Tara's role.

[Brigadier Q]

I have a very vivid memory of the end of this episode - Tara in the butter - that I was so overjoyed to discover that my memory was intact, that I was willing to overlook the episode's shortcomings.

Pretty silly plot, this one - but some fantastic London location footage that focuses around St John's Wood and Mayfair. Mother's HQ a delight here (desirable too!). Tara's costume very good too.

I was wondering if they used real milk in the dairy scenes and how the set smelt after a couple of days shooting! That must have been real butter on the surface of the cocoon at the end, though - although I suppose it may have been marg!

Fun, but won't win any prizes for intelligence - nice to hear the poor production sound in the woods scene - obviously shot near a major road!

6 out of 10

[cyberrich]

False witness is the latest episode under review. I'd love to know what you all think of this one. Thanks, Rich.

[Avengerholic]

A silly, rather boring episode. Loved mother on the bus (the false start of the extra in the background as Steed puts up the Bus Stop sign makes me laugh every time) Tara looks fantastic in the latter part of the story, and I loved the close up full face shot of Cyd standing in for Linda as Tara chases the milk float, I can understand why they did it, you have to look really close to see it's not Linda, amazing ! It has one of the worst tag scenes in the entire show, I have a real dislike this one.

[dissolute]

I agree with Ian that the tag scene is terrible but I confess that I had an enjoyable commute into work yesterday watching this. The plot - a psychotropic drug that compells the victim to say the opposite of what they mean - is humorous although obviously flawed, but the cast have a great time with it.

I love the scene where Sir Joseph, under the influence of the drug, spits the words, "Lord Edgefield is the most incorrupt, irreproachable man in the country. An idealist, a philanthropist, a paragon of virtue!"