Series 4 — Episode 17
The Girl From Auntie

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. Contemporary broadcasts in France, Switzerland, and Germany also did not include it.

Episode Rating

Mrs. Peel takes an enforced holiday and Steed has an hilarious romp around London, trying to catch up with a murderous old lady. Despite Rigg’s absence - although when she’s on screen she sizzles - this is a great episode.

The Fashions

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

Click a name to see the face

Continuity and trivia

1. 
   
   1:03/00:10 — Recognise that gate? The same location is used at the beginning of The Girl From Auntie as the Town Hall, Pendley (the venue for this year’s MFU Charity Fancy Dress Ball) and in The Thirteenth Hole as Craigleigh Golf Club. It’s actually Dyrham Park Golf Club Gateway, Trotter’s Bottom.
2. New
   
   Old
   
   3:10/3:00 — The mid-shot of the taxi leaving the airport is of a 1964 Austin taxi with the licence plate {BGJ 193B}.

   However, the earlier closeup of Steed inside as the porter packs all his luggage into it (2:48/2:38) and later when it arrives at Mrs. Peel’s flat (3:35/3:25) onwards, it’s an earlier model Austin taxi with the licence plate {VGF 345} (the same one that was used in Epic).

3. 3:30 — Mrs. Peel lived at Highpoint 2, Highgate. (You get a better view at 6:14).
4. 3:45 — The backdrop behind Steed as he calls from the cab doesn’t match the location streetscape at all.
5. 6:45 and throughout - Is Laurie Johnson immitating Edwin Astley? There’s a thread of harpsichord music through the themes in this episode, making me think I’m watching “Danger Man” all the time (except it’s funny).
6. 6:56 — Pansard or Lamb??? - The sign on the door reads Brian Pansard, Theatrical Agent, but Georgie said she was briefed by a Mr. Lamb, who promptly tumbles out of the cupboard with a knitting needle in his back.
7. 7:46/7:50 — The advertising firm of" “Bates and Marshall” is an Avengers in-joke, referring to John Bates (Ms Rigg’s wardrobe) and Roger Marshall (screenplay).
8. 8:57 — Barrett, Barrett & Wimpole, solicitors had their offices at 75 Clarendon Road, Watford (just up the road from the location of Art Incorporated, see below). It’s now Hamlin Knight House, the offices of a recruitment company.
9. 10:04/10:12 — it sounds like a redub when Georgie says “Fred” at the end of “John, Paul George and...” - but Fred is in the original script (PDF 13.4MB) so it can’t be, can it?
10. 10:08/10:17 — The outer door of the Jacques Brothers shop reads “Jacques Brothers - Theatrical costumiers - John Jacques, Paul Jacques, George Jacques, Fred Jacques” but the inner door reads “Starr Bros. Theatrical Costumiers”.
11. 12:00 — There’s a dark torn-edged smudge at top of screen, it looks like a loose bit of plastic.
12. 13:08/13:19 — When Aunt Hetty is having tea with Georgie and Steed, Steed asks her if the Jacques Brothers were alone when she visited them. Aunt Hetty replies, “That could hardly be, there were four of them.” - but Sylvia Coleridge never moves her lips! It’s clearly dubbed in later, and the voice might have been someone imitating her to boot!
13. 13:40 — We can just glimpse Steed through the window - but it’s not Macnee! It’s a portly looking gentleman in a bowler hat.
14. Throughout the episode, the taxi driver amuses himself (at Steed’s direction), with the sporting gear Steed has brought back from holidays:
    • 6:14 — diving mask
    • 16:26 — boxing gloves
    • 17:20 — fishing hat
15. 17:10 and throughout - Melton House, 65–67 Clarendon Road, Watford, is the location used for the offices of Art Incorporated and Arkwright’s Knitting Circle.
16. 18:33–19:03/19:00–19:30 — Marshall’s scenes 43–5 have been rewritten - Steed never overhears the receptionist planning his demise (sc. 43/4) as he’s hit over the head (sc.45) halfway through scene 43. By the way, who did the casting? Yolande Turner doesn’t look “fortyish” to me at all.
17. 
    19:27–19:37/19:53 — Georgie Price-Jones whiles away a quiet moment or two with books from Mrs. Peel’s bookshelf - first up is" “Basic Nuclear Physics”, but most notably is “No Holds Barred”, a self-defence book written by Ray Austin, Stunt arranger and frequent on-screen presence for The Avengers.
18. 20:25 — Mary Merrall is substituted by a stuntman in a mask
19. 22:08 — Georgie smashes a vase over Steed’s head and then explains she though he was an old lady with a veil and knitting needles, to which he replies, “They do say I take after granny”.
20. 22:40 — Steed sends Georgie in to see if she can spot her assailant at the Knitting Circle and tells her, “I take a size 9 3/4 in socks and nothing too garish”.
21. 
    23:32–38/24:12 — This bird sculpture, which turns up in Series 5 in Mrs. Peel’s apartment and Tom Savage’s photo studio, turns up here at the offices of Art Incorporated, on the table in front of Steed.
22. 23:50 — The receptionist asks Steed’s name and he sorts through a pile of business cards until he arrives at one for “Wayne Penny Feather ffitch”.
23. 27:45 — Steed has borrowed Goya’s Doña Isabelle from The National Gallery, a painting that was famously stolen in the early Sixties - and a joke that was also used in Dr. No.
24. 28:00 — All of Mary Merrall’s lines sound like a man imitating an old lady’s voice - have they been overdubbed? She certainly sounds different in Homicide and Old Lace.
25. 31:57 — the sign reading Lot 65, which had been in the bottom left corner of the Mona Lisa (31:00–31:30) is now in the bottom right corner.
26. 35:17 — Steed leaves without his gentleman thief’s kit.
27. 35:36 and throughout - it’s the same basement set as in Castle De’Ath.
28. 35:50 — Diana Rigg returns from holiday to sit in a cage for a bit. We haven’t seen her since about the 2:00 mark and she doesn’t do much until 45:00.
29. 38:12 — Ivanoff is reading Pravda when Steed arrives.
30. 38:38/40:00 — Who are those stunt men? It might be Val Musetti playing Steed and Fred Haggerty playing David Bauer.
31. 44:46 — Auntie describes Mrs. Peel as “this outstanding example of British pulchritude”, which raises her eyebrows.
32. 45:32 — Steed seems to be standing somewhere completely different on the change of shot.
33. 46:10–46:20 — The stuntman is wearing the old lady mask in the long shots, and of course the unmasking scene, but it’s Mary Merrall in the close-ups.
34. 46:51 — Steed asks Arkwright what the old ladies are knitting and he replies, deadpan, “A bungalow”.
35. 
    48:26/50:00 — The Avengers leave in an unusual fashion in this episode - Georgie Price-Jones drives off in Steed’s Bentley, while Mrs. Peel and Steed are crammed into a tiny Messerschmitt KR201 cabriolet micro car.
36. 48:46/50:26 — Double entendre? Steed describes Georgie as a “charming lady” and Emma replies, “I wonder if she’s going our way” - then Georgie blows them a kiss.
37. Running time: 49′48″