Series 4 — Episode 12
Two’s a Crowd

Production

Production dates: 12–28/05/1965

Another Philip Levene script, submitted on February 1^st 1965, was again poorly received by ABC Programme Controller Brian Tesler, who disliked the use of lethal model planes and ships and dreaded that the references to Russians would create a diplomatic incident. He also thought the idea of Steed having an evil twin would confuse viewers, forgetting that they had already done the same thing two years earlier in Man with Two Shadows (and Dr. Keel had twice been a near-twin of a criminal in the first series). Backing Julian Wintle and Philip Levene up, ABC’s script supervisor Anthony John pointed this out, but rewrites were still required and this was assigned to Brian Clemens. Four rewrites later, Tesler though they had now made the first half of the script nonsensical and amendments were being made all way up to 21 May, halfway through filming.

Tesler also complained about the enormous cost of some of the models, coming in at £500 each (£8,000 in today’s terms). As there was ample product placement during the episode, perhaps trhey came to a commercial agreement to reduce the cost.

Roy Baker was assigned directorial duties and made extensive use of location work, both at The Boltons SW7 in London, as well as Watford Town Hall, Tyke’s Water Lake & Haberdashers’ Aske School in Hertfordshire near the studios. He assembled a stellar guest cast for the episode and hired an extraordinary number of extras and filming seems to have gone without any hitches as they wrapped in two weeks despite script rewrites coming in until halfway through.

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Italy and Switzerland appear to have never broadcast this episode, France first saw in in the 1990s repeats on FR3.

In Spain, after firmly announcing that The Avengers was forbidden to children when the series first started, there seems to have been a change of heart. After eight episodes, the show was moved to the children’s timeslot of Monday afternoons starting with this episode.

Episode Rating

The lady vanishes — was La Rigg on holidays for this one? She seems completely superfluous. Otherwise, I find this a very funny episode, but humour alone cannot carry it.

The Fashions

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

Click a name to see the face

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:30 etc. — it wouldn’t have been obvious back in the Sixties but you can see the wires holding up the model plane.
2. 2:32 — The caption scanner was dirty so when the titles are superimposed dust and hairs appear all over the screen.
3. 3:56 —
   
   The War Department file on Colonel Psev is labelled COL. PZEV P/56079 — we must assume the department guessed at the spelling as the bomb for Brodny has it as “Psev” and the name is later revealed (43:43) to be an acronym derived from the lead antagonists’ initials : Pudeshkin Shvedloff Elena Vogel.
   One of the files turns up again, for no apparent reason, in Small Game for Big Hunters
4. 5:18 etc. — there’s a lot of product placement for AIRKRAFT and AIRFIX models in the episode. As there are memos discussing going over budget due to buying the expensive large radio controlled kits, I suspect they came to an advertising arrangement with the suppliers.
5. 5:27 & 32:29 — The phone in the Embassy is labelled Leadenhall 7141 — have they stolen it from the stockbroker’s bar in Dial a Deadly Number which had an identical phone?
6. 5.31 — casual Sixties sexism — the director zooms out as Elena answers the phone, but the shot zooms out to just frame her legs.
7. 7:59 — there’s a thread caught on the edge of the camera at the bottom.
8. 9:26 — and product placement for P. Garnier with a bottle of Crème de Violettes.
9. 10:40 and throughout — Some of the extras in the back row of the reverse shots are also sitting to the left of the catwalk.
10. 11:00 — overt Sixties sexism, as Webster pinches the model’s bottom when the commentator says “adds that tiny pinch”.
11. 12:37 — more overt Sixties sexism, Steed keeps his “eye on the target”, as the commentator says, by pointing his telescope at the model’s bottom, which she wiggles.
12. 14:52 — Social realism in The Avengers: Steed asks Major Carson if he’s always squeezed the toothpaste from the middle and Caron replies he never did until after he was married. It seems to be an obsession of British script writers as a similar bone of contention occurred in As Time Goes By (it’s true too, I also didn’t squeeze the tube until after I was married, and regularly resqueeze the tube to fix it).
13. 18:45 — Ivenko has just been sent to order a replacement model but the close-up shows that Steed has already put it back together.
14. 21:37 — Ivenko calls the chauffeur who answers the Embassy door to Emma, “Grischa” — Гриша is a familiar contraction of Grigorij or Georgi used in Slavic countries. The background outside the door is somewhat obviously a painted backdrop.
15. 22:00 onwards — you can see Ivenko’s shadow coming from out of shot as Mrs. Peel pokes about the Embassy.
16. 25:22 — you can see the shadow of the camera crew as Steed approaches the sofa.
17. 31:59 — Ivenko’s file is labelled IVENKO, SERGEI TRANSFERRED on the outside; the paper inside is headed 56076, IVENKO, SERGEI and has been stamped FOR ELIMINATION. The rest of the writing seems to be a type-written letter from Ernie Granja warning about the threat of Communist rising from the British Labour Party.
18. 33:29 onwards — The shots of Vogel at the controls and watching through the binoculars are all marred by a hair, curled into a crescent and stuck to the bottom left corner of the camera lens.
19. 34:08 onwards — The perennial location scout’s favourite, Tyke’s Water Lake, is used for the location of the Embassy gardens where Ivenko is shot by the model submarine.
20. 36:14 — the Lancaster bomber is in the marking of AJ-G ED 932, which was Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s Avro Lancaster B Mk III Bomber used in the Dambuster Raids on 17 May 1943.
21. 36:22 — Vogel takes out a map and points out the location of Steed’s flat, close to Charing Cross station.
22. 36:40 — Brodny says, “Yes, yes, my mother always used to say to me… ‘Sergei душенька’, she said, ‘you are slow witted’ ... and as for tact, initiative -” but in The See-Through Man he says his name is Vladimir Jaroslav Brodny rather than Sergei Brodny. (душенька means “Darling, sweetheart, dear” in Russian.)
23. 40:04 — the white phone that Pudeshkin answers is labelled ROYAL 90715.
24. 42:00 — the white phone is now labelled Maida Vale 2659.
25. 45:35 — Pudeskin is a cypher expert, Shvedloff handles sabotage and elimination, Elena handles finance and administration and Vogel handles planning and operations. (Julian Glover correectly pronounces Vogel in the German manner, with the V closer to an English F)
26. 46:39 etc. — once again, you can see the wires for the model planes.
27. 47:19 — Macnee says “So Plessey and I set out to prove it” — but the character’s name is Major Carson! Diana Rigg repeats the name at 49:16, so I’ve listed him in the credits as Major Plessey Carson.

28. 49:06 — you can see the wires on the bomber as it takes off.
29. 48:32 — there’s an oft-repeated story about Diana Rigg having never ridden a horse before they filmed Silent Dust, but here, two months earlier, she is apparently at Tyke’s Water Bridge on horseback and cantering with ease. The blu-ray tells us the truth, it’s a stunt double for Diana Rigg is the long shots of the riding.
    Patrick Macnee meanwhile is rising the same grey horse he rose in that episode, which had previously been ridden by Laurence Olivier in Henry V.
30. Running time: 49′53″