Series 5 — Episode 10
Never, Never Say Die

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

* Italian listings showed this as 10pm, as Italy observed Summer Time and Switzerland did not.

Episode Rating

An engaging and thrilling episode, even if it becomes all too apparent what’s going on long before the denouément. Lee is superb as the humourously-named Dr. Frank N. Stone (Lee having played Frankenstein for Hammer Films prior to this rôle).

Steed interrupts a rerun of “The Cybernauts”, because he needs Mrs. Peel’s help with a corpse that will not die.
The body keeps on walking off and destroying radios. Professor Frank N. Stone of the Neoteric Research Unit is a dead ringer for the body, and Steed’s suspicions are aroused. Mrs. Peel and the local doctor are abducted and trapped within Stone’s laboratory - but Steed detects the fake doctor and rushes to the rescue. The replicant of the Professor is discovered to be the genuine article by his three-day growth, and the Avengers attempt to fight their way out. Dr. James uses Steed’s transistor radio to disable the replicants, and the Avengers discover doubles of themselves, Steed’s being marked REJECT.
The Avengers return to their television - and discover you would never be able to tell a plastic politician from a real one.

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Continuity and trivia

1. 2:22 — Nice stunt work by the stand-in (or is it Christopher Lee?), rolling off the bonnet of the car.
2. 3:52 — In the intro scene where Steed appears on Mrs. Peel’s television set, she’s watching The Cybernauts from the previous season - very postmodern!
3. 4:45 — Mrs. Peel uses the unlikely expression “All the symptoms of death.”
4. 5:56–6:05 — Christopher Lee walks out onto a different stretch of road than the rest of the action takes place on (5:53), and the stuntman doesn’t land next to a puddle either - he hits his head on the rear wheel of the car, which must have hurt!

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5. 7:38 — Is Steed long-sighted? The way he holds the MOT-NRU note suggests so.
6. 10:17 — The old man is steering his RC model boat around Tyke’s Water Lake.
7. 10:20–11:55 — the close-ups of the hands on the controller don’t look like Arnold Ridley’s hands, and the sleeves are orange-brown rathen than beige.
8. 13:12/14:39/15:28/17:18- - Professor Stone’s replicant is shot several times in the chest by the Sergeant, but when we next see him marching through the woods the holes have gone.
9. 15:10 — Penrose is wearing an Old Etonian tie.
10. 
    16:11 — If Professor Stone’s cottage has “not been lived in for weeks” (31:15), how come there’s a fresh loaf of bread, a pat of butter, half-eaten sandwich and a tankard on the table? It’s not as though the replicant would need them.
11. 17:30 — Patrick Macnee has a stunt double for the fight scenes - it’s Rocky Taylor, and while Christopher Lee does most of his, Bill Cummings stands in for the scene (18:10) in which he’s captured by the NRU men.
12. 
    ©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved
    18:55 and throughout - The somewhat obvious painted backdrop seen through the door of the cottage reappears in Epic in the scenes with the church - and it’s wrong for this episode, as the woods outside are much denser than the backdrop looks. Not only that, but it’s Autumn ouside in the woods, with barely a leaf left on the branches, and the backdrop shows full Summer.
13. Professor Stone has a copy of Venus: Our Sister Planet in the bookshelf that Steed falls against.
14. 19:17 — Steed goes back for his bowler hat but leaves his shotgun behind (it doesn’t reappear, so this isn’t technically a continuity error - he’s just forgetful).
15. 19:25 — The film is sped up for when Steed jogs through the woods to make him look like he’s running.
16. 23:18 — Stone is wearing a Keeble College, Oxford, tie.
17. 24:14 and throughout - There’s a hair caught on the camera lens, on the right hand side of the screen, for Diana’s close-ups when she’s near the door inside the cottage.
18. 29:04 — Similar to Something Nasty in the Nursery, Steed’s outfit is swapped alarmingly when he’s entering and leaving buildings. When he leaves the Neoteric Research Unit the first time, he’s seen passing the Transistor Radio warning in the suit he wears on his second visit.
19. 31:30–32:50 — there’s a thick thread stuck to the camera lens at bottom centre in the shots of Stone and Penrose.
20. 35:40 — Homage to Hammer & Amicus Film as Lee recreates his waking vampire in the close-up.
21. 36:52 — the small wad of folded notes Mrs. Peel draws from behind the drawer doesn’t look anything like the pile of A3 she’s holding a second later.
22. 38:48 — How does Penrose know who Mrs. Peel is when he asks for her to hand over the plans?
23. 40:53 — How come the duplicate Dr. James can’t smash through the door?
24. 43:00 — the close-up of the computer lights is taken from The Hidden Tiger.
25. 47:35 — Our first sight of Emma’s redecorated flat, but it’s very brief.
26. 47:45 — Moët et Chandon product placement.
27. Running time: 49′17″