Series 2 — Episode 18
Warlock

Production details

Episode 31
Production Number : 3504
VTR/ABC/1854 & 1854A
Teddington Studio 2

Friday 6th July 1962

Insert 1854A - Scene 30A, Steed and Cathy in her car outside the bookshop.

Telecine inserts -

• Scene 8A - Ext. Natural History Museum 30-secs. (5:45–6:11)
• Scene 22A - Ext. Covent Garden & Pub (26:41-)
• Scene 31A (1.45) - Steed drives up in a Triumph Herald and jumps over fence (36:31–38:15)

Saturday 7th July 1962

Running time

Expected: 51′25″ + 2 commercial breaks 2.30
Actual running time with bumpers: 51′12″

The bumpers between the acts are generally 10 seconds from fade in to the “End of Act” bumper to the end of audio before the commercial, a 10 second still without audio, then cut to the next act bumper. This would play with the theme for around 10 seconds. Accordingly, with the episodes being in 3 acts, the running time of the action is approximately a minute less than listed above, minus the opening and closing credits (normally 0′16″, with a 2" fade, and anywhere from 0′41″ to 1′20″, hard cut or 1" fade or mix, respectively).

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

Warlock was not broadcast in Australia so there are no listings for Sydney or Melbourne.

Episode availability

• Video - original footage held by Studio Canal, available on the Studio Canal series 1&2 DVD set
• Script - Tony Pelly’s copy of the camera script and scene breakdown
• Publicity Stills - at least 65

Murders

Click a name to see the face

Transport

Continuity and trivia

1. This episode was the first filmed with Honor Blackman and originally had additional footage introducing Cathy. However, as broadcast was delayed until later in the season this material was cut from the final print and, to some extent, replaced with new footage. It’s fairly clear that the first words between Cathy and Steed were chopped out at the 6:31 (6:25) mark, and new footage is inserted until there’s another sharp cut at 8:43 (8:35) where they return to the original take. There’s another cut at 48:47 (47:30) as they discuss the case in the pub. Honor says, “Thanks, I needed that” and Macnee chuckles in reply when the splice comes in. She then says, “Did you ever find out who Gallion was working for?” (however, this cut is less apparent in the restored footage, and may be because of distortion being cut in previous releases).
   Excerpts from the original script for these scenes are available here
2. It’s odd that it was rescheduled when it was, as it meant the guest star was Peter Arne two weeks in a row.
3. 14:15 — Cosmo asks Neville, “What is the law, Neville?” and Neville replies, ritually, “Do as thou wilt is the whole of the law.” This is a reference to Alister Crowley’s black magic rites from the 1930s.
4. 16:49 — Pathologist’s report on Neville:
   liver slightly enlarged but not excessively, pancreas clear, unusually excessive acidity in the stomach tissues. He tells Steed he died of a coronary thrombosis, with the usual tearing of the artery.
5. 19:48 — Gallion’s previous victims were Watherson, the physicist who shot himself in 1959, and Marshall the engineer.
6. 20:06 (19:38) - Macnee squirts some soda into his glass and it sprays everywhere.
7. 22:59–23:01 — the cameraman loses focus when Steed and Cathy go behind the bookshelf
8. 23:19 — how had they not noticed the dead Mrs. Dunning for so long?
9. 23:31 — a thread appears at the bottom of the screen and stays there until the end of the episode.
10. 26:31 — Cathy says she was born on 5th October, 1930 — a Sunday - and claims it was on the stroke of midnight ( she’s possibly lying to gain Gallion’s interest however she gives the same birth date in The White Dwarf when Steed asks her what her birthday is).
11. 35:03 — severe visual distortion
12. 48:50 — Steed says Gallion was working for Mogom - of course, he should have said Markel, Mogom was Gallion’s strong-arm man and one of his devotees, so Mogom worked for Gallion.
13. Anna Starkey, who plays one of the hooded devotees, was reunited with Honor Blackman in both a 1979 theatrical production of A Little Night Music and a 1987 theatrical musical production of Nunsense.