Series 1 — Episode 2
Brought To Book

Production details

VTR: Thursday, 12th January 1961 18.00 — 19.00
Camera Rehearsal: Wednesday, 11th January 1961, 10.00 a.m.
Studio details: Teddington Two
Production No. 3366
Tape No. VTR/ABC/1054
Transmission: Saturday, 14th January 1961, 10.00–11.00 p.m.

Schedule

Wednesday, 11th January 1961
Camera rehearsal	10.00 — 12.30
Lunch break	12.30 — 13.30
Camera rehearsal	13.30 — 18.00
Supper break	18.00 — 19.00
Camera rehearsal	19.00 — 21.00
Thursday, 12th January 1961
Camera rehearsal	10.00 — 12.30
Lunch break	12.30 — 13.30
Camera Rehearsal	13.30 — 15.00
Tea break, line-up, normal scan, and make-up	15.00 — 15.45
Dress rehearsal and notes	15.45 — 17.30
Line-up	17.30 — 18.00
RECORDING	18.00 — 19.00
N.B. There will be a 5 minute break for re-setting between Acts 1 & 2. Ampex will be re-cued.

Equipment

Cameras: 4 Pedestals
Sound: 3 booms, grams, tape, distort & tannoy effects, 4 practical telephones
Telecine: ABC symbol, horse-racing film (silent, 35mm) + slides

Total running time: 57.10 = Play portion: 52.30 + 1st break: 2.05 & 2nd break: 2.35 (VTR: 5.00)

Regional broadcasts

ITV Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABC Midlands	14/01/1961	10.00pm
ABC North	14/01/1961	10.00pm
Anglia Television	-	-
ATV	1/04/1961	8.35pm
Southern Television	1/04/1961	8.35pm
Tyne Tees Television	1/04/1961	8.35pm
Television Wales & West	-*	-
Ulster Television	-*	-
Westward Television	-	-
Scottish Television	-	-
Border Television	-	-
Grampian Television	-	-

* TWW and Ulster, after screening Hot Snow on March 18 1961, appear to have have failed to broadcast the second episode a fortnight later as their listings show an episode of 77 Sunset Strip in its place.

TV Times listing

This was accompanied by a mini-article, as follows:
New doors into the underworld
Looking around the TV studios I saw a preview of next Saturday’s episode of The Avengers. The episode, “Brought to Book”, culminates the first part of the series where Dr. David Keel (played by Ian Hendry) tracks down his fiancée’s murderers. It also opens new doors for Keel’s entry into the underworld and ensures his dedication in the fight against crime.
Two charming young actresses brighten this criminal setting. They are Joyce Wong Chong, who comes from HongKong, and blond beauty, Carol White.

Episode availability

• Video - none
• Audio - reconstruction in The Lost Episodes vol. 1, by Big Finish
• Script - clean archive copies of the original camera script and rehearsal script, from a private collection
• Publicity Stills - 4
• Tele-Snaps - none

Continuity and trivia

1. A PDF of a rehearsal script for this episode is now included on the Optimum DVD set for Seasons 1 & 2.
2. The floor manager listed in the rehearsal script is Peter Bailey but the final camera script has him replaced by Patrick Kennedy.
3. For many years, the Big Man in the first part of this story, Hot Snow was though to have been played by Robert James as he was the central gang leader in the second part. This assumption was made in Dave Rogers’ books and the error has been repeated ever since. However, a camera script of Hot Snow has been found and it makes no mention of who plays the Big Man at all. Watching and listening to the parts with the Big Man partially on screen, I’m guessing he was played by Philip Stone, who also plays Dr. Tredding, putting on a cockney accent and donning a smoking jacket for his Blofeld-style scenes (noting that this was filmed before Blofeld had ever been described or filmed) - it’s certainly not Robert James’ bony hands in those shots!
   Vance being the Big Man would contradict Spicer’s confession at the end of this episode, which implies Mason was the gang leader in question. He also names Peters who was the other thug alongside Spicer when Mason slashes Pretty Boy. Another possible indicator is the actor playing Mason, Charles Morgan, actually was a big man, whereas Robert James who played Ronnie Vance was tall and skinny. This is also backed up by Vance’s gang all being new characters in Brought to Book. Spicer continues but Charlie is dead and Johnson seems to have gone missing. Maybe he “floated out on the tide”.
4. This was the 2nd episode produced, with rehearsals scheduled from 31st December, 1960 at the RCA Building in Hammersmith. Camera rehearsals at Teddington Studio Two were on 11th January and 12th January, 1961, and recording to AMPEX tape on the 12th January, 1961.
5. Filming took place at Studio Two, ABC TV Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex. The production number was 3366.
6. This episode was definitely stored on tape as it was broadcast in different regions on different dates; this early example of not being filmed and broadcast live is further evidence that all episodes were recorded onto tape and we hope the missing episodes may yet be located.
7. A memo dated March 30 1962 proposed a replay season for the nine episodes not broadcast by ATV and Anglia and also the first two episodes, which had been seen on ATV but not Anglia. This proves that all live episodes had been recorded any may yet be out there somewhere.
8. Peter Hammond’s camera script has a lot of his trademark style - there’are a lot of close-up shots of Steed’s umbrella in the Rising Sun scenes in Act 1 and he introduces a recurring motif where Inspector Wilson inititally appears reflected in mirrors before coming fully into view.
9. Keel threatens a criminal with a hypodermic syringe which turns out to be filled with a relatively harmess liquid, something he does again in The Frighteners.
10. The camera script has changes from the rehearsal script. There is an anecdote about Ian Hendry tearing up the original and declaring it “crap” but that does not seem to be born out by the minor changes, although some of the more waffly dialogue has been removed or edited. The most notable changes are:
    1. Keel is nicer to Carol in her first scene, and refrains from mansplaining so much.
    2. The episode opens with a voice over exposition by Philip Stone instead of there being a painful scene of dialogue between Stone’s Dr. Tredding and Hendry’s Dr. Keel which has Keel says he “feels awfully like a child” - maybe this was the bit that Hendry tore up?
    3. Carol and Dr. Tredding’s conversation after Keel leaves contains some of the exposition lost above and paints Carol as more competent, resourceful and understanding.
    4. A lot of Steed’s lines during the snooker game are now delivered by Mason.
    5. Ronny Vance’s long scene bragging about being a man of culture and spending £9000 on decorating his house become a single line where he tells Keel he wants him to become his personal physician.
    6. Carol and Tredding worrying about Keel being under a strain is completely cut, as is Tredding’s mention of rumours about Keel.
    7. Keel comes up with the code phrases instead of Steed.
    8. At the end of Act 2, Carol has more lines and wishes Dr. Keel good luck.
    9. The assault on the bookmaker’s offices is tones down dramatically, and no longer has any shot-gun toting hooligans driving around in cars.
    10. Keel’s little speech to Spicer, “She was young, she had a full life ahead of her.... but you made it a short one...!” is cut.
    11. Spicer rats on Mason, Lloyd, Peters, Jim Murphy and Bart Martin instead of Mason, Freddy Martin and Lilly Vincent.
    12. Lila pours a drink over Spicer to revive him, instead of Dr. Keel using a bottle.
    13. The hypodermic contained a “harmless barbituate” instead of a truth serum (although the rehearsal script describes sodium pentathol as a harmless barbituate).
    14. The overly wordy ending is reduced, unfortunately losing one of the best lines and having a line about picking up kidney bowls added... strange. My first summary of the ending was:
        Steed laughs and tells him, “A few minutes ago I stood in this bar and slandered you as an amateur... I was wrong. You’re as professional as they come”. He offers Keel an ongoing job assisting him in defeating crime, telling him crime is a disease. Steed declines to name the organisation he works for and, foreshadowing Emma Peel by several years, says “We’ll only call on you when you’re needed - really needed”.
11. The episode ends with two hints of the Emma Peel future, perhaps unsurprisingly as this episode was written by Brian Clemens:
    1. Steed delivers the familiar line from the colour Emma Peel episodes, “You’re needed”:
       KEEL: (HESITATES) I .... have a flourishing practice....
       STEED:It won’t suffer I promise you. We’ll only call on you when you’re needed - really needed.
    2. The very last lines of the rehearsal script of the episode foreshadow the American “chessboard” introduction sequence some four years later - these lines were cut from the final camera script:
       STEED: A good professional and an inspired amateur - I’d say, put them together and you have one of the strongest things on earth.
       (TO KEEL) And this time you saved my life.
12. This episode has Steed working with the police - but only letting Inspector Wilson know what he’s up to, for security reasons, which flies in the face of his claim in Dance with Death that “I’ve got no influence with the police”.
13. The TV Times accidentally printed the notice “(Carol White appears by permission of Independent Artists)” a week later, at the bottom of the listing for Square Root Of Evil. According to the camera script, it was broadcast in the end credits of this episode.
    The London edition of TV Times for March 26-April 1 1961, when this episode was broadcast to the region nearly four month later, still did not have the notice about Carol White appearing by permission of Independent Artists.
14. This episode was first broadcast to the ATV London, Southern, and Tyne Tees regions on 1st April 1961, the same night as Midlands, Northern and Anglia were showing Please Don’t Feed the Animals. Accordingly, to make network schedules stay in line, Please Don’t Feed the Animals was deliberately given the same target running time as this episode.