Series 1 — Episode 12
Dance with Death

Production details

Studio details: Teddington Two
Production No. 3376
Tape No. VTR/ABC/1241
VTR Recording: April 13th 1961, 18.00 — 19.00
Transmission: 15th April 1961, 10.00 p.m.

Schedule

Wednesday, 12th April 1961
Camera Rehearsal	10.30 — 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, 13th April 1961
Camera Rehearsal	10.00 — 12.30
Lunch Break	12.30 — 13.30
Camera Rehearsal	13.30 — 15.30
Tea Break, Line Up, Normal Scan, & Make-up	15.30 — 16.15
Dress rehearsal	16.15 — 17.30
Line Up	17.30 — 18.00
VTR RECORDING	18.00 — 19.00

Equipment

Cameras: 4 Pedestals
Sound: 3 booms
Telecine: A.B.C. Symbol, slides, 35mm mute inserts.

Total running time: 57.10 = Play portion: 52.30 + 2 commercial breaks of 2.05 & 2.35

The actual running time is written in biro on Barbara Forster’s camera script, noting that they exactly matched expecting running time:
Act 1: 19.59
[break] 2.05
Act 2: 14.09
[break] 2.35
Act 3: 18.22

Errata

The Northern edition neglected to credit Johnny Dankworth in bold text.

TV Times listing

Regional broadcasts

ITV Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABC Midlands	15/04/1961	10.00pm
ABC North	15/04/1961	10.00pm
Anglia Television	15/04/1961	10.00pm
ATV	15/04/1961	10.00pm
Southern Television	15/04/1961	10.00pm
Tyne Tees Television	15/04/1961	10.00pm
Television Wales & West	15/04/1961	10.00pm
Ulster Television	15/04/1961	10.00pm
Westward Television	-	-
Scottish Television	-	-
Border Television	-	-
Grampian Television	-	-

Episode availability

• Video - none
• Audio - reconstruction in The Lost Episodes vol. 2, by Big Finish
• Script - Barbara Forster’s copy of the original camera script, with annotations in biro, lead pencil and red pencil, from a private collection
• Publicity Stills - none (there are six photos often credited as being from this episode but they are either from a pre-production promotional photo shoot or possibly from Nightmare)
• Tele-Snaps - none

Continuity and trivia

1. The cameramen for the episode were allocated cameras as follows:
   1. John; 2. Mike (Baldock); 3. Dickie (Jackman); 4. Roy
2. Classic misdirection in this episode with Beth suggesting that Major Carswell may be the murder suspect but he turns out, after a momentary suspense at the end of Act 2, to have been unwittingly helping Steed is the case.
3. Stee’d claim that “I’ve got no influence with the police” does not seem to be in line with the plots of other episode throughout series 1; maybe he’s just annoyed with Keel’s whiny complaining. Indeed, in Brought to Book he’s secretly working with Inspector Wilson and by the time of The Yellow Needle he can commandeer RAF aeroplanes and has Inspector Anthony completely defer to him when he returns to London.
4. Norman Chappell delivers some much-needed comic relief into the hotel scenes as the porter (is that a Shakespeare reference?). He raises his eyebrows at “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” who have arrived at the hotel with no luggage when Steed says he didn’t intend to make a long stay. Then, when he catches Steed boring a hole in the bathroom door, gasping in shock when Steed says he won’t come and talk to the manager about it as there’s a girl in the bathroom!

   Luggage scene, Steed and Beth are there, posing as “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”

   LOUNGE
   [Pick them up. TIGHTEN on Steed & Porter]
   PORTER: Excuse me, sir, your boot, is it locked?
   STEED: My boot.
   PORTER: Of your car, sir.
   STEED: Oh, yes, I think it is. Why?
   PORTER: I’ll get your luggage out sir.
   STEED: Oh, we didn’t bring any luggage.
   [3 CLOSE UP PORTER]
   PORTER: No luggage. (You can imagine the deadpan voice and raised eyebrows!)
   [1 A/B]
   STEED: No, you see we don’t contemplate a long stay. (No doubt his eyebrows hit the roof)
   PORTER: No, sir.

   Bathroom door scene, Steed has been drilling a hole in the door to keep an eye on Philip

   [3 MS Doorway. Pick up Porter. CRAB L DIAGONALLY into 2-s. with Steed.]
   PORTER: Hul-lo! Boring holes, eh?
   STEED: Yes.
   PORTER: I see. I think you’d better come down and talk to the Manager
   STEED: Sorry old boy, I haven’t time.
   PORTER: Well, the manager’s not going to like it. Come along sir.
   STEED: I can’t help that. There’s a girl in that bathroom!
   PORTER: Yes sir. Come along!
   

5. The show producer, Leonard White, was so taken by Angela Douglas’ performance and comic timing that he considered her for a permanent rôle in the show.
6. This was the first episode broadcast over the wider ITV network - eight regions in all, in the same timeslot - and used the fortnightly schedule starting the episode before it as it would be alternating the Saturday night slot with ATV’s own drama serial, Deadline Midnight. The regions that showed the episode were ATV London, ABC Midlands, ABC North (Granada), Anglia, Southern, Tyne Tees, Television Wales & West, and Ulster Television. These regions show every episode from this point on except Ulster, which did not show any episodes from Series 2 or Series 3, returning to the fold for Series 4.
7. Leonard White sent a memo instructing that Hunt the Man Down and this episode make reference to the surgery having been redecorated as they built a new set when sales talks with ATV were finalised. The repetition is so that the new regions knew they’d redecorated a set that they had never seen... which seems a waste of time to me.
8. This episode was somewhat overshadowed - and disrupted - when Dennis Vance, who has directed Please Don’t Feed the Animals, attacked Janice Willet, who was also a director for Iris Productions. They had broken up in February 1961 after she called the police following a violent altercation at her flat. On the first day of camera rehearsals for this episode he threatened her with a knife in the street then later entered her office and stabbed her several times. Police and ambulance were called and Vance surrendered quietly to the police while Janice went to hospital accompanied by Norman Kay, Iris Productions’ music producer, who was now her boyfriend. Accordingly, the press was full of reports of the incident rather than covering the episode that was going out that week.
9. The camera script lists the last slide as being “AN A.B.C. NETWORK PRODUCTION” but, as this is after Diamond Cut Diamond when the last slide was changed uniformly, it was almost certainly actually broadcast as “An ABC Production”.