Series 5 — Episode 9
The Correct Way To Kill

Plot summary

A couple of dapper city gents meet a foreign agent and dispatch him coldly, if politely.
Mrs. Peel 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 behind the killing 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.

show full synopsis

show plot summary

Boris Groski (John G Heller) meets two dapper city gents in a dank alleyway, but one won’t discuss business until his companion, Percy (Peter Barkworth) introduces him - Algernon Wynche (Graham Armitage). Groski laughs, “You British, you’ll be the death of me” and Percy replies, “Yes, exactly”, pulling out a pistol. “Indubitably”, Algy concurs and they shoot him, doff their bowler hats, and walk off.

Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) buy a newspaper from a newsstand, only to find the leader has been replaced with the message “Mrs. Peel - we’re needed.”
John Steed (Patrick Macnee) shows her Groski’s body, and complains that if the other side wants to purge, they should do it in their own country, "it’s just not cricket!" Meanwhile, Algy and Percy kill another agent, dragging him back into the lift he got out of. Steed and Emma view this body, that of Stansilav Arkardi (Romo Gorrara) and Steed reiterates his complaint. They retire for a glass of wine at his flat when Ivan (Philip Madoc) turns up, intent on killing Steed for the murders. He hasn’t killed anyone all week, and they realise there’s a double-cross going on, and Ivan takes Steed to meet his leader - Nutski (Michael Gough), who is delighted to see Steed, despite reprimanding Ivan he for not killing him. Ivan says he’s convinced of Steed’s innocence and has gone over Nutski’s head to get approval to work alongside British Intelligence to find the third party which is killing the agents. They arrange to exchange an each to the other side, and Ivan and Nutski visit a gym where Olga (Anna Quayle) has just easily defeated three karate opponents (Peter Brace, Alf Joint & Terry Plummer) and tell her to accompany Steed - and maybe kill him afterwards.

Algy and Percy, meanwhile, kill another agent, Zoric (Peter Clay), who they trap in a revolving door and stab. Ivan brings Olga to Steed’s flat and discovers that Mrs. Peel is to accompany him, her cheek being nowhere near his jowl. Olga dismisses Steed as thoroughly decadent and Ivan gives him a lead - Groski was only in the country 24 hours, and visited one address, which he hands over. Ivan takes Emma to another address Groski visited ("a little cheating is expected!") - he had also visited an address in Chelsea. A nurse, Hilda (Joanna Jones) appears and ushers Emma in to see the chiropodist, Hubert Merryweather (Timothy Bateson), who becomes nervous when Emma says she suffers from the same problem as Groski, who recommended her to them; outside, Percy abducts Ivan at gunpoint...
Meanwhile, Olga and Steed visit a gentlemen’s outfitters run by J. Nathan Winters (Edwin Apps), who shows Steed some umbrella handles. Steed asks for the same as Groski ordered, and while Winters checks his records, Olga and Steed search the shop. Steed finds Ivan’s body in a crate of umbrellas while Olga finds another crate with the chiropodist’s address on it. Winters has just announced he has no record of Groski when six men in city clothes enter and remove one of the crates, and Steed hurries Olga out in pursuit, telling her it contains Ivan’s body. Emma visits Nutski, saying Ivan has vanished, and he orders her to stay there and do nothing while he investigates. She promptly breaks into his safe.

Steed and Olga follow the crate to SNOB, a finishing school for young men where Ponsonby (Terence Alexander) is teaching a class how to hail a cab. Ponsonby is taken with Steed’s manners and grace and asks him how he can help, but clams up when he mentions Groski. Steed accidentally opens the crate, but finds it contains nothing but umbrellas and they leave. Emma escapes Nutski having discovered he never meant to keep the truce, just as Olga remembers the other crate.
Merryweather is preparing radio transmitters in the umbrella handles when Percy and Algy arrive, bringing Ivan’s body back. they get angry when he refuses to having anything to do with it, but Steed and Olga arrive and Olga is shown in for examination. Merryweather blanches at chloroforming her and Percy does it instead, just as Emma arrives, meeting Steed in the hallway. They burst into the surgery to find no-one but Merryweather, run through by an umbrella.

Percy and Algy tie Olga up with old school ties (the bonds of which are nigh unbreakable) at Winter’s shop, where Hilda has just killed Winters and orders them to move her to SNOB. Emma tells Steed about the “address in Chelsea” which he realises must be SNOB - he tells her to inform Nutski and meet him there in half an hour. He then races to Winters’ shop and takes the place of one of the crate bearers, infiltrating the inner sanctum of SNOB. He unties Olga and they prepare to make their escape - until they see a fencing class with unguarded blades taking place in the studio. Ponsonby conducts an enemy identification class to get them in the right frame of mind and one of the pupils exclaims “But I say, he’s here, he went into the office” when Steed’s photo is revealed. While they apprehending Steed and Olga, Emma slips in and takes Hilda’s place, donning her fencing gear as a disguise.
Nutski finally arrives, and is revealed to be in charge, planning to start as a third party spy network selling to the highest bidder and leading to a global nation of Nutskiville. He tells Ponsonby to dismiss the class for today, then suddenly realises Mrs. Peel isn’t accounted for. Steed seizes his change to attack and knocks Ponsonby and Nutski flying. In the studio, Emma knocks down Ponsonby, Algy and Mr. Jones to prevent them attacking Steed and a furious, swashbuckling fight breaks out across the two rooms. Olga joins Emma in dispatching Percy and Algy, and Emma saves Steed from being shot in the back by Nutski with a javelin throw of her foil.

Next morning, Steed sports a Russian fur hat, a souvenir of an “instructive” evening in Olga’s company - he reels off a lot of facts about collectivisation and the glorious motherland, but reflects that the evening lacked something - “a certain bourgeois, capitalistic, decadent touch”, says Emma.

Production

Production dates:		1–2/1967	Drinks
Transmission dates:		Foreign title	claret vodka coffee (with milk)
UK	11/03/1967
Sydney	30/05/1967
Melbourne	29/05/1967
USA	24/03/1967
Germany	10/10/1967	(Kennen Sie Snob?)
France	30/07/1968	(Meurtres distingués)
Italy	14/12/1973	(un modo corretto di uccidere)
Spain	---	(La correcta forma de matar)
The Netherlands	?	(Hoe wordt ik enn ‘snob’td>