Series 3 — Episode 1
Brief For Murder

Production Schedule

Episode 53?
Production Number : 3600?

VTR recording

1st May, 1963?
This episode doesn’t have a camera script but the episode before it was listed as episode 54, production number 3601 and the one following it is episode 55, production number 3602. It may have been started before Concerto and not completed until later - perhaps due to the location filming on the Thames being delayed.

Running time

Expected: 51′25″ excluding commercial breaks
Actual running time with bumpers: 52′31″

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 credits (normally 0′16″ with a 2″ fade) and closing credits (anywhere from 0′41″ to 1′20″, hard cut or 1″ fade or mix).

Transmission

TV Times listing

Murders

Click a name to see the face

Continuity and trivia

Time codes here include the Studio Canal logo from the remastered 2010 set, which runs for 18 seconds.

1. throughout - A lot of the establishing shots in the episode are very clearly pans over stills - the shots of the Old Bailey, the reflaction in Dicey’s compact, the sequence of Steed going to the Lakin’s with Wescott, and so on.
2. 8:42 — Westcott sprays soda all over the place when he tops his glass of brandy up at the bar
3. 15:30 — 16:24 — Steed asks for Indian rather than Chinese tea, then asks for two lumps of sugar in it.
4. 20:52 — you can see Dicey in the mirror, waiting for her cue to enter the shot.
5. 22:16 — it takes Bart two seconds to get the revolver out of his coat, robbing the scene of it’s full impact.
6. When Steed goes to kill Cathy, she’s on deck, coiling a warp. The rowing boat is tethered to the aft starboard quarter. However, when Miss Prinn sets off in pursuit of Steed, the rowing boat is alongside the port side of the launch.
7. 47:45 — Steed gives his office address as 5/37 Susgate St, SW5, so Miss Prinn’s yoga studio must be number 4 or 6 in the same building. SW5 is Earl’s Court and, of course, there’s no Susgate St.
8. 50:03 — Realising the trap set for them, Jasper telephones Bart in a panic, hoping to destroy evidence before it’s too late, but mixes up the words in his line and tells him:
   “In the bottom desk of the drawer is a bunch of keys...”
   instead of “In the bottom drawer of the desk is a bunch of keys...”