Series 3 — Episode 17
The Wringer

Production Schedule

Episode 71
Production Number : 3618
VTR/ABC/3231
Teddington Studio 1

Thursday, 19th December, 1963

VTR Inserts:

• 42:03–43:30 — Scene 43 & 4 (shots 189–190) - Steed and Cathy in the culvert & bushes, escaping the interrogation facility.
• 50:04–51:34 — Scene 51 (shots 248–251) - tag scene - Steed keeps fussing over Cathy trying to make the coffee with one hand while he’s being fitted by Lovell, her other in a sling, but it’s he who spills the coffee.

Taping was stopped for approximately 5 minutes between the scene in Lovell’s shop and the fire tower scene as they turned around the cameras:

		BREAK - APP. 5′00″
		CAM. 1 MOVE TO POS. C - EXT. FIRE TOWER
		CAM. 2 MOVg TO POS. E - INT. FIRE TOWER
		CAM. 3 MOVE TO POS. B - INT. FIRE TOWER
		CAM. 4 MOVE TO POS. D - INf. FIRE TOWER
		CAM. 5 MOVE TO POS. B - INT. FIRE TOWER
		CAM. 6 ON ROSTRUM - POS. A - INT. TOWER.
		BOOM A MOVE TO POS. 2 — M.I.5. OFFICE
		BOOM B MOVE TO POS. 2 — INT. FIRE TOWER
		BOOM C MOVE TO POS. 2 — INT. FIRE TOWER
		

Friday, 20th December, 1963

Running time

Expected: 51′25″ excluding commercial breaks
Actual running time with bumpers: 51′58″

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).

Equipment

Transmission

TV Times listing

Murders

Click a name to see the face

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:57 — They don’t mention it on screen, but the script explicitly mentions Oliver and Charles briefing Steed at an M.I.5 Office.
2. 5:10 — Cathy queries Anderson’s procedure and Steed replies, “You’ve been reading the official handbook again.”
3. 5:50 — Steed describes Anderson: “He’s reliable. By all the books he shouldn’t be - lousy shot, can’t swim, writes poetry. But! He’s reliable”.
4. 8:36 — Steed calls Primrose 0042 to speak to Cathy.

9:04 — Between the scene at Lovell’s shop and the fire tower scene, all the cameras had to be turned for the new sets and there was a break of 5 minutes to do so. There’s a cut at the end of the shop scene and several lines were dropped:

LOVELL: I hope Anderson really is all right.
STEED: So do I.
LOVELL: Well, now. What about your next fitting?
STEED: Oh, you know me. I’ll drop by.

5. 11:46 — Hal’s short wave radio is the same one that Newman was using at the beginning of the previously produced episode, Dressed To Kill.
6. 14:00 (13:40) — Shades of The Prisoner, do you think Patrick Macgoohan watched this episode? When Steed tells fellow operator Anderson “Nobody retires, ever.”
7. 19:25 — slight loss of focus on the change of shot to Steed sniffing the cup of coffee.
8. 20:32 — the sound changes to echo and distort as Charles speaks, but it should have happened from the beginning of the scene. Also, (at 20:48) Charles looks at Steed rather than Hal when he asks, "Are these the allegations you have made?"
9. 24:52–25:02, 26:52–55 (24:33) onwards — Return of The Fly : yet more remastering problems with flies in the Canal+ studios landing on the transfer box.
10. 26:13, 33:35 — telecine insert on monitors - Steed in cage.
11. 26:48 — Charles has something stuck to his bottom lip.
12. The Wringer tries to brainwash Steed with:
    • 24:50 — time dislocation, suggesting it’s much later than it really is.
    • 27:22, 34:25 — film of a tropical beach.
    • 28:18 — drugged coffee.
    • 28:34, 34:05 — psychedelic swirling hypnosis patterns and loud white noise [Steed counters this (30:08) by focusing on his watch]
    • 29:40 etc. - time dislocation (randomly resetting the clocks)
      • 29:40 — 2:30 compared to 8:16
      • 31:28 — 1.00 on both (but Steed lost his watch outside the cage just before this point so it may have been altered)
      • at this point he’s given lunch, just one hour after breakfast
      • 33:20 — The Wringer even tries time dislocation on Cathy when she arrives.
      • 34:58 — they both say 4:25 (confirmed by Cathy)
    • 30:48, 34:37 — film of WWII British artillery batteries, at very high volume.
    • 32:17 — autosuggestion by voice over and sound effects.
    • 34:09 — clock pendulums and the appropriate sound effects, mixed over the swirling patterns.
    • 34:13 — photographs of faces, mixed with the pendulums and swirls.
    • all of the above, mixed and faded in together.
13. 34:43, 35:59 — telecine of Steed & Cathy in the cage on the monitors
14. 36:02 — compression artefacts on a bad frame
15. 37:51–38:03 — Douglas Cummings struggles with the lock and takes 8 seconds to open the gate to let Cathy out.
16. 40:10 — the end of Steed’s cage is clearly missing, revealing the film screen, but Cathy still goes to open the door.
17. 45:33 — small smudge up and left of centre in Charles’ medium shot
18. 46:05 — £2 14/6 owing on the library book Proust that Steed lent Anderson
19. Barry Letts (Oliver) is most famous for producing many, and directing several, of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who stories; he did the BBC directors’ course shortly after this episode and subsequently moved to the other side of the camera.
20. Peter Sallis (Hal Anderson) is best known these days as the voice of Wallace from the Nick Park “Wallace and Gromit” animated films.
21. Douglas Cummings (Murdo) was last see as the sleazy Fatty Barker in The Gilded Cage.