• title card: white all caps text reading ‘TRAP BY BRIAN CLEMENS’ superimposed on Williams leaping over a barbed wire fence
  • The double agent Murford makes a phone call in the pouring rain, his black hat and overcoat little protection from the elements
  • The New Avengers struggle to keeps their seats after the pilot opens the door and leaps out
  • Gambit aims his makeshift bow and arrow, the bow and the hand holding it blurring as they near the camera
  • Soo Choy make a show of how he will execute Gambit with his sword
  • Soo Choy’s men are led away, tied to the back of the jeep Gambit is driving

The New Avengers, Series 2 — Episode 6
Trap

by Brian Clemens
Directed by Ray Austin

TV Times summary

A drugs syndicate boss has to regain his reputation and decides to execute Steed, Purdey and Gambit to “prove” himself.

Plot summary

The Avengers help the CIA bring down a Mafia drug deal but the Chinese Triad boss behind the deal swears revenge on them. The double agent Murford lures the Avengers onto a plane which crashes on Soo Choy’s estate. Improvising weapons, the defeat many of Soo Choy’s army but Gambit is eventually captured and about to be beheaded. The ego of Soo Choy is his own downfall, as he wishes the Avengers to see each other killed and Steed and Purdey again turn the tables and the villains are defeated.

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Williams (Larry Lamb) spies on the manor house of Soo Choy (Terry Wood) with a directional microphone but before he hears the details of a drug deal, a guard shoots at him and he runs for his life - without much luck, as he’s shot leaping a fence and crashes his car as he succumbs to the wound. He switches on a homing device as he collapses...

...and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) and Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) follow the trace. They reach him just before he pegs out and he tells them, “Drug drop, Wednesday.. Windsor”. Meanwhile, in New York, Soo Choy and three other gang bosses - Dom Carlos (Robert Rietty), Arcarti (Ferdy Mayne) and Mahon (Bruce Boa) - discuss the impending drug deal. The New Avengers stake Windsor out, and are joined by CIA agent Marty Brine (Stuart Damon) who gives Purdey an English history lesson and charms her at the same time. They trap the courier (Vincent Wong) and he shoots Marty and escapes, but is killed after falling from a car park roof.
The Dons, angry at Soo Choy’s failure, ridicule him and he swears revenge on those who made him lose face - his assistant, Yasko (Yasuko Nagazumi) contacts Tansing (Kristopher Kum) who sends a ninja to steal the drug bust file from the Ministry, dispatching two guards and an official on the way. Soo Choy orders the New Avengers be brought to him and executed. Tansing decides to use a double-agent, Murford (Barry Lowe) to trap them using the security alert “Red alert minus 21” (and counting) to get them to a rendezvous. Gambit is reluctant to leave his girlfriend (Ann Maj-Britt) but the countersigns are all correct so he heads for the airport; so too John Steed (Patrick Macnee) who leaves his date Miranda (Annegret Easterman) at his house. At the airport, Murford confiscates their guns “so they can get through customs”, leaving them unarmed and unaware - and the only people on the plane. The gang bosses arrive at Soo Choy’s hide out where he shows them the execution blocks for the New Avengers...

On the plane, they realise they travelling the wrong direction but when they try to enter the cockpit, the pilot floods the compartment with gas which Gambit disperses by depressurising the cabin. Coming to investigate, the pilot is sucked into the void and Steed and Gambit try to bring the plane under control. Soo Choy, bragging about his revenge is discomfited to learn they’ve lost contact with the plane but consoles himself with the sure knowledge they are already dead. Carlos doubts their death so Soo Choy decides to investigate the crash site, well inside his domain.

They have of course all survived unscathed - except for Steed’s broken arm - and manage to evade Tansing’s search party. They reach the borders of the estate but realise they’d never cross the open country to escape so turn back to face their enemy. Gambit constructs a dodgy bow and arrows, and a spear. They kill four of their pursuers but Gambit is caught in a tiger trap when he tries to steal a jeep. Purdey and Steed overcome Tansing after his men leave with Gambit, who is brought before Soo Choy and has his head put on the block and Choy places his sword against his neck... He is reprieved by Choy’s ego - he wants the New Avengers to see each other perish. Steed disguises himself as Tansing and radios in to say Steed is dead and the girl caught - they infiltrate Soo Choy’s base, overcome Soo Choy and his guards and capture the syndicate. Once again, Arcarti rightly calls Soo Choy a “dumb head”

Purdey and Gambit laugh about having a cargo of “Chinese takeaway” as they drive off with Soo Choy and his men.

Production details

Produced:March, 1977
First broadcast:
  • London: 16/11/1976
  • Midlands: 1/11/1976
  • Sydney (ABN-2): 30/01/1978
  • Melbourne (ABV-2): 30/01/1978
  • USA (CBS): 2/03/1979
  • France (TF1): 23/06/1979

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