Series 5 — Episode 9
The Correct Way To Kill

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Episode Rating

A worthy effort which doesn’t quite make it to the top. Great dialogue and performances, but the story isn’t quite daft enough to make a truly great Avengers episode.

A couple of dapper city gents meet a foreign agent and dispatch him coldly, if politely.
Mrs. Peel’s is summoned by a doctored newspaper headline - Steed needs her to help him discover who’s killing enemy agents.
When Ivan, the enemy’s top man tries to kill Steed, thinking he was behind it, they team up to discover the third party. Steed pairs up with Olga and Emma goes with Ivan to investigate who is the real killer of the agents. Both sides are being double-crossed by Nutski, Olga’s employer, who has set up a private army masquerading as a school for gentlemen. Following crates of umbrella and bowlers, Olga and Steed catch up to the gang, but are discovered. Emma to the rescue with her trusty foil, and a fencing bout finds Emma and Olga the victors, Nutski impaled on a sword.
Emma finds Steed wearing a Cossack hat the next morning at breakfast, the souvenir of a date with Olga.

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

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The Fashions

Continuity and trivia

1. 1:40–4:25 — The joins in the prefab cobblestones are a bit obvious.
2. 3:01 — Percy’s Luger has the breech open when he pulls it out, it wouldn’t have fired.
3. 4:25 — Arkadi is played by the same actor - Romo Gorrara - who appears as the unnamed thug helping the First Assistant do away with Mrs. Rhodes in The £50,000 Breakfast. He appeared in everything made in Britain in the late 60s and 70s. Another regular stuntman, Peter Clay, plays Zoric.
4. 5:55 — You hear the gunshot FX after Ivan drops his pistol.
5. 5:56 — Philip Madoc is replaced by a stuntman vey adroitly for the tumble over the armchair.
6. 8:50–8:55 — Product placement for vodka? I don’t recognise the brand.
7. 13:41 — Steed introduces Emma to Ivan with the words “You haven’t met Mrs. Peel”, despite them meeting in the earlier scene (6:00 onwards). This may, of course, be another send up of proper English manners, à la the opening scene of the episode.
8. 16:00 and throughout - Is Merryweather’s office the same set as Tom Savage’s studio in The Bird Who Knew Too Much?
9. 16:40/23:15 — one of the studs of Mrs. Peel’s coat keeps popping open.
10. 
    20:10–20:15 (19:48) - Steed and Olga pay a visit to J. Nathan Winters, and Steed asks to see some replacement handles for his umbrella. Winters doesn’t think it can be bettered and Steed explains, “it’s a little loose” when Winters draw the sword inside it out a bit. Winters then shows him a handle carved into the shape of a dog’s head, which Steed dismisses. Seconds later, Winters is holding several shillelagh handles, without moving a muscle!
11. 26:55 — Steep quips, “Half an oaf is better than low bread” when Ponsonby remarks that if his deportment training is only somewhat successful he will have considered his work worthwhile.
12. 33:27 — Olga is chloroformed by Percy after Merryweather refuses to do it.
13. 34:15 — Percy quips, “No use struggling Miss Velowski, we’ve secured you with old school ties.” and Algy chips in with, “The bonds of the old school tie are well nigh impossible to break.” The ties, by the way, appear to be mostly Hertford College Oxford.
14. 36:25 — Mr. Jones can’t get his sword back inside his umbrella.
15. 37:33 — Steed pauses when removing the ties from Olga and notes, “It’s my old school tie” - the pale greenish-blue and dark grey of Eton.
16. 39:35 — You can see the shadow of the boom microphone on the wall above Steed and Olga as they plan their escape.
17. 39:40 — as Olga approaches the front of the stage you can glimpse the top of the set and the dark studio ceiling in the top left corner.
18. 43:08–45:30 — obvious stunt doubles in much of the charm aschool sequences:
    • 43:08 onwards - Rigg is replaced by Cyd Child for almost the entire sequence.
    • 44:49 — Macnee and Gough - Steed tackles Nutski and disarms Ponsonby.
    • 45:03 — Rigg, Barkworth and Armitage as they fence.
    • 45:15 — Quayle is replaced by a standing as Olga joins Emma is fighting Percy and Algy.
    • 45:25 — Alexander and Macnee in their fencing scene, very nicely intercut with close-ups of Macnee.
19. Running time: 49′21″