Series 4 — Episode 14
Silent Dust

Production

Production dates: 14/06 — 2/07/1965

In contrast with his problems with Philip Levene’s scripts, Roger Marshall’s script for Strictly for the Worms, as this episode was originally titled, was readily accepted by ABC Programme Controller Brian Tesler. It was received by Tesler’s office and approved pretty much straight away as filming started in mid June.

This was another episode that took advantage of the glorious 1965 Summer, with extensive location shooting around Tykes Water Lake, Well End, Deeves Hall and other location in easy reach of the Elstree studios where the interior sets were constructed. Roy Baker had assembled a brilliant guest cast who demonstrated some proficiency on horseback and delivered a beautifully bright episode that belied the dark undertones of the subject matter.

Filming proceeded without a hitch, Cliff Diggins and Ray Austin doing the difficult stunt work, although Patrick Macnee did all his own riding and some vaulting of walls. Roy Baker interspersed stock footage of a fox hunt with footage of his actors in a convincing manner and evokes a sequence from The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) in the climactic hunt. He also pay homage to Peter Hammond, using one of his trademark shots through glass at the end of Act I.

Three months after filming, Julian Wintle sent a memo on October 4^th informing staff that the episode title had been changed to Silent Dust but some promotional material used both titles.

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Italy did not show this episode in the 1960s, the Italian titles are from the Tele Torino International broadcast in the 1980s, and DVD releases.

This episode was scheduled for May 2 1967 in the Netherlands, appearing in listings in Dagblad de Stem and Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant but is not in the listing for that date in Leidsh Dagblad — it seems the documentary about the Nazi Reichcommissar who install a reign of terror in Holland during World War II, Wie was Arthur Seyss-Inquart? took two hours, as “Dodelijke mest” reappears a couple weeks later, on May 30 1967 — although different papers give different times of broadcast! Dagblad de Stem incorrectly says 9.20pm, giving The Avengers only half an hour, but Leidsh Dagblad says 9pm.

Episode Rating

Marshall’s writing is superb, larding the script with literary references, but the central plot is unrewarding with the villains being run of the mill.

The Fashions

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

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Continuity and trivia

1. Roger Marshall’s script was somewhat inspired by Rachel Carson’s book "Silent Spring" (Houghton Mifflin, 1962), about the environmental dangers of pesticides, particularly to birds. The book was a sensation and lead to the banning of DDT.
2. 1:36 — the first few birds to fall are thankfully obviously stuffed, the rest seem to be thrown in the air and let fall. The very first one we see fall lands as a different bird!
3. 2:10 onwards — the punting scene on the river or lake was filmed at Tyke’s Water Lake.
4. 3:06 — Mrs. Peel comments on the wine, saying “Let’s hope it may give me the strength to make the return journey”, and Steed replies, “Well, I hope it gives me the strength to pull the cork!”.
   In the original script, Mrs. Peel simply sarcastically asks, “Good for blisters?”
5. 3:15 — Steed quotes Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 6 — “the temple-haunting martlet”.
6. 5:00 onwards — The information about the black-capped petrel is correct, this rare Caribbean bird was found, “exhausted and disoriented in the middle of Norfolk in 1850” (https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/black-capped-petrel) It’s no longer correct though as long after this episode was made, a dead petrel was found on the tide-line of a Yorkshire beach in 1984.
7. 5:24 and throughout — Quince’s spectacles have holes in the middle of the lenses so the actor can see normally, just as Harold Kasket’s do in Stay Tuned.
8. 6:07 — You can see a flare guard in view at the top right of the screen.
9. throughout — it’s the same old barn buildings used in the location shooting as in Man-eater of Surrey Green — the interior shots confirm it beyond doubt (now Deeves Hall Cottage, near Ridge).
10. 7:45 — Scenes 10-18, where Steed is with the Minister, were written to be straight after Quince asking Mrs. Peel where all the marlets have gone but the episode has been reordered so scenes 19, 19A & 20 (Mellors stopping them in the field to Omrod talking to Juggins in the barn) come first. This moves the scripted USA commercial break to after when Juggins says “Lucky for you I am, isn’t it?”
11. 10:16 — Silent Dust is described as an organo-chlorine fertilizer that went wrong, killing first the earthworms, then the birds. The minister says it has it’s own built-in early warning system — the birds disappear.
12. 14:17 and 14:48 — Clare says her father died in the cold snap at the end of March, then tells Omrod he has been six months dead, putting the events in late September, but filming took place in June/July, so the clothes and exterior shots don’t fit the storyline.

13. 15:20 onwards — The outside of the Stirrup Cup Inn is Well End Lodge, Well End, but it’s the same pub interior set as in Man-eater of Surrey Green, with the exterior door moved to a different wall.
14. 15:27 — Croft, showing one of his roses to Mrs. Peel, quotes Francis Thompson’s “Daisy” (1893) stanza 10, and Mrs. Peel chimes in with the concluding line :

    The fairest things have fleetest end,
    Their scent survives their close:
    But the rose’s scent is bitterness
    To him that loved the rose.

    In reply, she misquotes Robert Herrick’s 1648 poem “The Rose”, which Croft readily identifies. Why do I say misquotes? She says “ne’er a rose without a thorn” but, as printed in the script but in Hesperides, the poem is:

    The Rose.
    
    Before Mans fall, the Rose was born
    (S. Ambrose sayes) without the Thorn:
    But, for Mans fault, then was the Thorn,
    Without the fragrant Rose-bud, born;
    But ne’er the Rose without the Thorn.

15. 17:41-50 — Juggins’ identifying tattoo looks very fake.
16. 18:07 — Roy Baker ends Act I with an homage to Peter Hammond, Mrs. Peel’s face distorted and reflected through Quince’s broken spectacles. Ray Austin did a similar thing in All Done with Mirrors.
17. 18:21 — when Mrs. Peel tells Steed about Quince being frightened by Omrod’s gamekeeper Mellors, he chortles and, referring to “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, says, “Mellors? not the gamekeeper?”
    Oliver Mellors was the gamekeeper central to the plot of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the character here has the same name and occupation.
    Privately published in 1928 but banned in unexpurgated commercial editions in the UK until Penguin Books published it in paperback in 1960 and was prosecuted by the government in the trial Regina v Penguin Books Ltd. “Penguin Books was prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, 1959 at the Old Bailey in London from 20 October to 2 November 1960.” (dedication in the 1961 second edition, which went on to thank the jurors for returning a not guilty verdict).
18. 20:00 — Emma looks on as Steed chats up Beryl, playing shove ha’penny.
19. 24:45 & 26:59 etc. — Cliff Diggins is doing Patrick Macnee’s stunts again.
20. 26:05 onwards — after scooping some unknown powder into an envelope with his bare hands, Steed then takes an apple from a crate and bites into it. Was he paying no attention at Manderley?
21. 27:17 — This episode is unusual in that it shows one of our normally invincible heroes wounded. Steed is shot by a shotgun and caught in a gin-trap. However, while Steed briefly limps and has him arm in a sling, he’s right as rain the next day for the Hunt. There’s only so much realism you can have in The Avengers.
22. 28:21 — product placement for Smith’s Crisps.
23. 31:00 — the bat that flaps away in annoyance when Mrs. Peel lights the lamp is clearly not flying, but being waved about on a set of wires from a stick (even if you don’t actually see the wires except for a single frame at 31:01 as it crosses Mrs. Peel’s face, and several from 31:03 onwards).
24. 31:53–33:24 — a surreal dream sequence where Emma is a moustachioed, red eye whiskey guzzling, sawbones removing an impossibly large bullet from the wounded sheriff Steed. She uses a bowie knife and pliers to remove the enormous bullet.
25. 32:51 — the flame starts a millisecond before Emma starts blowing her whiskey breath onto it.
26. 32:36/33:56 — there was a corrupt frame on the DVD at 32:36, it’s not there on the blu-ray at the corresponding time.
27. 34:48 — Isobel Black had dropped the American accent she used earlier.
28. 38:37 — Juggins’ horrific lines about young Willy Gans going on a hunt as solo treble for the choir and coming back an alto are cut, the edit disguised by a sudden close-up of a stuffed fox’s head.
29. 41:47 — Cliff Diggins does Steed’s vault over the five-bar gate.
30. 42:23 — when the horse is scared by Croft’s hand raised with the sickle in it, Norman Bird quickly grabs the halter to prevent her running away.
31. 42:43 onwards — stunt doubles for the fight — it’s Cliff Diggins again for Steed and Ray Austin wearing a false moustache for Norman Bird.
32. 42:45 onwards — nice intercutting of Macnee & Bird in CU with the stunt doubles in MS.
33. 42:57 — you can just see that Macnee’s hat has already been sawn through before it’s shorn off by the sickle.
34. 43:20 — the horse has had enough once Croft ends up in the trough and she skitters away.
35. 44:54 onwards — Beryl Snow & Mrs. Peel have morphed into two large stuntmen for the sequence where Mrs. Peel leaps from her horse to Beryl’s, taking her to the ground — Billy Westley Jr for Diana, I think, but the other man I can’t identify.
36. 45:12 — why is Steed’s grey outside the barn?
37. 46:27 — Jack Watson is replaced by a double, possibly a member of the hunt used as an extra, as he leaps onto the horse as they take off after Mrs. Peel at 46:36. William Franklyn is an excellent rider and does all his own stunts.
38. 46:50 — there’s a wavy hair caught in the top of the camera lens at the top.
39. 47:07 — there’s a thread caught in the top of the camera lens at the top in the mid shot.
40. 48:05 — stuntman Billy Westley Jr leaps over the barbed wire fence for Diana Rigg.
41. 48:55 — Billy Westley Jr replaces Dian Rigg again in the long shots, moving around the tree trying to avoid Juggin’s whip.
42. Steed’s grey horse in this episode was previously ridden by Laurence Olivier in Henry V. I wonder if Larry showed such expertise on horseback.
43. The often-told story about this episode is that prior to filming, Diana Rigg had never ridden a horse, and was reportedly terrified the first day of filming. After a few bruises, and some swift lessons, she was back in the saddle and they completed filming. I used to think this wasn’t true as she seemed perfectly at home on horseback in the tag scene of Two’s a Crowd, filmed two months earlier — but the blu-ray release reveals that she had a stunt double for that scene. At 44:25 it looks like Diana has been replaced by a female stunt double in this episode as well but at 44:42 she seems well in control of her Steed (ha ha).
44. Billy Westley Jr does some of Diana Rigg’s stunts, crammed into her clothes with an ill-fitting wig, as usual. Patrick Macnee seems to do most of his own stunts, replaced a few times by Cliff Diggins. Macnee was an excellent horseman after all, even the scene where he and Croft fight around and over (!) a skittish horse. Macnee also performs the entire scene where he chases after Juggins on horseback, treating him like a polo ball and using a protester’s placard as his mallet.
45. Running time 51′47″