• title card: white all caps text reading ‘MEDIUM RARE BY DENNIS SPOONER’ superimposed on Freddy falling head first from a bridge
  • Wallace stands still, nearest us, and waits as Richards to hits him over the head, one hand on his shoulder so Wallace doesn’t move
  • Victoria holds her temples as she concentrates, trying to sense that the symbol on the card is the red star we can see
  • Top-down view of the round seance table with all the attndee’s fingers on the glass that moves around it
  • The courier runs for it with Gambit in hot pursuit
  • Steed grooms his horse as he looks over his shoulder and speaks to Gambit and Purdey

The New Avengers, Series 2 — Episode 3
Medium Rare

by Dennis Spooner
Directed by Ray Austin

Production details

Produced:April, 1977

Regional broadcasts

BroadcasterDateTime
Thames Television22/09/19778:00pm
ATV Midlands23/09/19778:00pm
Granada Television22/09/19778:00pm
Anglia Television22/09/19778:00pm
Border Television23/09/19778:00pm
Channel Television22/09/19778:00pm
Grampian Television23/09/19778:00pm
Southern Television22/09/19778:00pm
Scottish Television22/09/19778:00pm
Tyne Tees Television23/09/19778:00pm
Ulster Television22/09/19778:00pm
Westward Television22/09/19778:00pm
Harlech Television23/09/19778:00pm
Yorkshire Television23/09/19778:00pm

TV Times listing

TV Times listing for September 23 1977, 8pm (Yorkshire edition)
Sydney Morning Herald listing for February 13 1978, 8.30pm
The Age listing for February 13 1978, 8.30pm

8.0 The New Avengers
Patrick Macnee
Joanna Lumley
Gareth Hunt
in
Medium Rare

By Dennis Spooner

John Steed and his two assistants, the gorgeous Purdey and the resourceful Gambit, are involved with the supernatural.
Purdey takes to believing in the occult after a medium predicts death for Steed and it starts to come true …

Purdey Joanna Lumley
Gambit Gareth Hunt
Steed Patrick Macnee
Wallace Jon Finch
Elderly man Mervyn Johns
Victoria Stanton Sue Holderness

Director Ray Austin

International broadcasts

ABN2 Sydney, Australia13/02/19788:30pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia13/02/19788:30pm
ABC New York, USA26/01/197911:30pm
TF1 France7/07/19798:35pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland
French titleSteed et la voyante
ZDF Germany
German titleDie Wahrsagerin
KRO Netherlands10/10/19778:25pm
Dutch titleHet medium
Italy26/04/80??
Italian titleUna medium preziosa
Spain2/06/8111:05pm
Spanish titleUna extraña médium
Netherlands: Limburgsch Dagblad listing for October 10 1977, 8.25pm
Netherlands: Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant episode summary for October 10 1977, 8.25pm
USA: Chicago Tribune listing for January 26 1979, 10.30pm
France: Feuille d’Avis de Neuchâtel L’Express listing for July 7 1979, 8.35pm
Spain: ABC Madrid listing & summary for June 2 1981, 11.05pm

Continuity and trivia

There’s a subtle in-joke in having Diana Churchill and Mervyn Johns as an elderly couple worried about a second marriage being blessed by a dead spouse, as they had in fact married each other the year before this, in 1976, and they were widow and widower.

note from George Cowley

Seeds of The Professionals are strewn throughout this episode; not only was John Finch a potential star of the show (he turned the rôle down) but Steed’s accountant contact at B Complex was called George Cowley. Fennell, Clemens and Johnson - and Austin - were all emeshed in the new series and it débuted in London only a scant fortnight after the last episode of The New Avengers was broadcast.

Steed refers to “Graeme Henry” Wallace at one point, so why does his office have the sign “P. Wallace” on it?

Another Ray Austin episode, so you can expect a lot of familiar but uncreditted faces as he lards the show with his stuntmen friends.

This episode has a video Q&A and commentary with Ray Austin, Sue Holderness and Philip Hawkins on the Lives in the Pictures YouTube channel.

The Transport

Marque Colour Number Plate
Removals van beige ?
Audi claret M-538 423
Steed’s Rover 3500 SD1 Automatic lemon MOC 229P
Morris Minor convertible fawn ?
Gambit’s Jaguar XJS red NRW 875P
Purdey’s Triumph TR7 yellow OGW 562R
Ford Cortina dark brown UGW 426M

Who’s Killing Whom?

Victim Killer Method
Freddy Mason George Wallace thrown off bridge
George Cowley Richards thrown over railing and down a ladder
Derek Wigmore Richards silenced pistol
Courier (passer-by) run down while trying to escape Gambit
Click a name to see the face

The Fashions

Gambit’s fashions
  1. dark grey double-breasted suit, peak collar, pale gr shirt, gey/blue diagonally striped tie
  2. grey & white knitted cardigan, dark blue flared jeans
  3. mustard kid leather jacket wide lapels, white pinstriped shirt, brown tie, beige trousers
  4. dark olive cord jacket and velvet flared trousers, grey shirt
  5. grey suit
Purdey’s fashions
  1. brown checked minidress with peter pan collar, brown vest/sleeveless cardigan
  2. loose jacket with elasticated hem, cream shirt, brown & cream check mini tie, cream trousers
  3. red and blue striped dress with orange and yellow detail
  4. dark blue overalls and white collared shirt
  5. wavy patterned purple and white jacket, white peasant dress, white ruff/choker/scarf, mustard calf length boots
  6. black cotton dress, dark brown and black flower brooch
  7. mustard cord suit, frilled cream blouse
Steed’s fashions
  1. navy single-breasted suit, pale blue shirt, purple tie, black bowler and umbrella cane handle
  2. grey single-breasted 3-piece suit, wide lapels, flared trousers, brown tie with wh spot, pale grey shirt, briefly with grey bowler & umbrella
  3. navy single-breasted suit, pale blue shirt, brown tie with blue diamonds, black bowler and umbrella cane handle
  4. gold waistcoat, tan/beige jodphurs, white shirt

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