• title card: white all caps text reading ‘MAN IN THE MIRROR’ superimposed on a shot of the corspe, reflected in the mirror
  • Venus takes a picture of herself in one of the funfair mirrors, just as Trevelyan appears in the background
  • Mrs. Trevelyan confesses to Steed that she falsely identified the corpse as her husband
  • Steed warns Brown he’s in a lot of trouble if he’s hiding the traitor
  • Strong tells Venus they have a coffin for her, Trevelyan to his right
  • Steed, holding his Whippet, Sheba, gives Venus a new brooch

Series 2 — Episode 22
Man in the Mirror

Teleplay by Geoffrey Orme and Anthony Terpiloff
Directed by Kim Mills

Production No 3521, VTR/ABC/2426
Production completed: February 22 1963. First transmission: February 22 1963.

Production details

Episode 48
Production Number : 3521
VTR/ABC/2426
Teddington Studio 1

Schedule

Thursday 21st February 1963

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

Friday 22nd February 1963

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
Notes 17.30–18.00
Line Up 18.00–18.30
VTR 18.30–19.30

Equipment

Cameras: 5 Pedestals
Sound: 3 booms; 1 Lazy Arm; 3 Slung Mics; Stand Mics. as required for Band.
Telecine: A.B.C. symbol only.

Running time

Expected: 51′25″
Actual running time with bumpers: 50′52″

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

BroadcasterDateTime
ATV London24/02/196310.35pm
ABC Midlands23/02/196310.05pm
ABC North23/02/196310.05pm
Anglia Television23/02/196310.05pm
Border Television--
Channel Television23/02/196310.35pm
Grampian Television24/02/196310.35pm
Southern Television23/02/196310.05pm
Scottish Television--
Tyne Tees Television23/02/196310.05pm
Ulster Television24/02/196310.35pm
Westward Television24/02/196310.35pm
Television Wales & West24/02/196310.35pm
Teledu Cymru (WWN)22/02/196310.45pm
ABN2 Sydney--
ABV2 Melbourne--

This episode was broadcast in Italy on 2nd September 1965 (9pm, RAI 1) under the title of “Un uomo nello specchio”. It was one of a limited run of ten episodes from series 2 and 3 that were broadcast on RAI intermittently throughout 1965 and 1966 under the title “Agente speciale”. This was the last episode in the weekly Thursday timeslot on RAI 1; after this episode, the series appeared sporadically on RAI 2.

TV Times listing

TV Times listing for February 24 1963, 10.35pm (London edition)
Stampa Sera listing for September 2 1965, 9pm

10.35 The Avengers
starring
Patrick Macnee
in

Man in the Mirror
Also starring
Julie Stevens

The Avengers theme composed and
played by Johnny Dankworth
Settings by Anne Spavin
Producer John Bryce
Directed by Kim Mills

Steed takes Venus to a fairground in search of a corpse

ABC Network Production

Man in the Mirror was not broadcast in Australia so there are no listings for Sydney or Melbourne.

Episode availability

Murders

Victim Killer Method
Unknown victim Unknown killer ?
Strong Betty kitchen knife
Click a name to see the face

Transport

Marque/type Plate
none

Continuity and trivia

  1. 1:06 — One Six presents some slides of cases to his team of agents. He glances at his watch all the way through, annoyed at Steed’s lateness:
    1. John Cartwright, who led the Hatton Garden raid which netted £200,000 worth of uncut stones which were never recovered and is about to be released after 8 years inside. He’s more interested in who else will greet him than getting the stones, and wants the organisation represented - assigned to Williams as he may remember Yorke;
    2. a £500,000 job they ought to have got a lead on by now - assigned to Smith and Pendleton;
    3. a young woman in a bikini, Inès Cordoba, currently in London for a Brazilian trade agreement - assigned to Marks who is told her phone is already bugged;
    4. James Morgan, a Whitehall courier who disappeared at London Airport when returning from assignment.
  2. 10:41 (10:35) - Venus rolls her eyes when starting the second verse of “There’s Nothing Like Love” - is she finding it hard to remember the lyrics, or is she overwhelmed by how appalling they are?
  3. 11:20–11:47 — for the end of the song, Julie breaks the fourth wall and sings direct to camera.
  4. 19:22 — the boom microphone decends alarmingly into view as Steed and Venus emerge from the Ghost Tunnel, then is whisked away again.
  5. 26:27–26:40 — Venus finishes another song direct to camera.
  6. 27:30–28:06 (27:00–27:30) When Brown is testing the guns in the arcade, the sound effects of the shots aren’t always in synch with the action, in one case being heard just after Brown gives up on a jammed gun and is laying it aside (27:35), in another a second too late, and you hear the trigger click well before the blast (28:05).
  7. Trevelyan says “this will only give us about threee minutes” - the original script says “ten minutes”, so I assume the producer or editor changed the line to increase the tension.
  8. What on earth happens at the end? Do the Trevelyans escape? It seems like they cut a crucial denouement simply to insert the tag scene with Steed giving Venus the brooch (which implies Betty and Brown weren’t arrested as well).
  9. 49:15 — this episode closes out with a variation of the theme music, ending with a tempo change and solo trombone.
Times are from the re-mastered 2009 Optimum Releasing DVD set, any times in brackets are from the previously released DVD sets which had frames with interference or banding deleted, resulting in shorter running times.

The Songs

Venus sings two songs.

This episode sees Art Morgan and Eric Dawson replaced by Lew Grade’s in-house ATV orchestra leader, Jack Parnell and his regular bassist, Lennie Bush. They were musicians Kenny regularly played with at Ronnie Scott’s in the Jack Parnell Orchestra. Parnell did most of the on-set music at Elstree with Kenny Baker, Lennie Bush, Ronnie Verrell and Kenny Powell as accompianist, so it’s odd they’re here billed as the Kenny Powell trio when Jack was the eminent player.

Lyrics in square brackets are not sung by Julie, or inaudible.
Lyrics in red italic have been adapted or ad libbed.
I Know Where I’m Going
Traditional, Herbert Hughes arr. 1945


I know where I’m going
And I know who’s going with me
I know who I love
But the dear knows who I’ll marry

I have stockings of silk
Shoes of fine green leather
Combs to buckle my hair
And a ring for every finger

Some say he’s black
But I say he’s bonny
The fairest of them all
My handsome, winsome Johnny

Feather beds are soft
And painted rooms are bonny
But I would leave them all
To go with my love Johnny

I know where I’m going
And I know who’s going with me
I know who I love
But the dear knows who I’ll marry

From the musical I Know Where I’m Going
There’s Nothing Like Love
Leo Robin and Julie Styne, 1955


There’s nothing Like love,
It’s a grand, grand feeling,
It really is a gift from-
-up above.
What else in the u-ni-verse
- thrills you so?
Nothing.
No, there’s nothing like love.

There’s nothing on earth
-that is more appealing,
Than walking with you fellow,
Hand in glove,
What else gives a person
- that sweet warm glow?
Nothing.
No, there’s nothing like love.

If I ever meet, the boy,
What a lucky girl I’ll be,
There might be greater joy,
Well, if there is
- you tell me!

There’s nothing like love,
when the dawn comes stealing,
And suddenly the stars have
-lost their light,
You’ll look in his eyes and
-he’ll sigh and say,
Thanks for a wonderful night-
And then you’re all alone,
The sky is bright above,
A girl is so aware there’s nothing,
No, there’s nothing like love.
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,
No, there’s nothing like-
Love----

From the film My Sister Eileen

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