Series 5 — Episode 14
Something Nasty In The Nursery

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

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

Episode Rating

A fun episode, all hallucinogenic drugs, espionage and mayhem; and damned close to being in my top ten. It falls short due to the spotty direction and annoying trimming for transmission. We needed a more careful editor on this one.

Mrs. Peel is roused by a toy merry-go-round - another of Steed’s quirky summonses.
Military bigwigs are returning to the nursery and divulging sensitive secrets in their childlike state. The Avengers are led to the Guild of Noble Nannies, formerly run by the official’s old Nanny, now under the guidance of Goat who, disguised as Nanny Roberts, has been visiting her old charges and using a drugged bouncing ball to make them spill the beans. Steed’s on the spot at the last attack, but the villains don’t notice his gloves and think him back in the nursery also. In the ensuing fight, Goat loses his hair and Wilmot shoots the fraud.
The Avengers retire to gaze into a crystal ball, revealing that viewers should tune in the same time next week. Steed’s visions are too much for Mrs. Peel, who demurely covers the ball.

The Cars

Who’s Killing Whom?

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The Fashions

Continuity and trivia

1. 2:10 — The red leather armchair from the opening titles is in the room of Wilmot’s house that Dodson breaks into.
2. 4:20 — There’s hair and dust on the caption scanner, especially in the top left quadrant of the screen.
3. The toy carousel with the "Mrs. Peel, We're Needed" message is reminiscent of the BBC Children's Television ident from the mid to late 1950s.
   
4. 5:14 — Crime show cliché - Steed describes Dodson as being “one of our best agents”.
5. 5:30 — Sir George Collins is revealed to be the son of the Attorney-General, Viscout Frederick Webster, DSO and bar, and Lord William Beaumont is second cousin to an unnamed prince.
6. 8:00 — Upon arriving at Lord Beaumont’s, Steed is in the car wearing his brown sports jacket and cravat, but once inside is wearing the grey suit with yellow shirt and blue tie again. He changes back into the brown suit again (21:30) when he visits the Guild of Noble Nannies.

   grey suit	brown suit	grey suit
   (6:26/6:20)	(8:00/7:54)	(8:30/8:24)
   ©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

7. 9:40 — Cyd Child is standing-in for Diana Rigg in the garden shots (when shot from behind).
8. 6:30–10:00 — Beaumont is wearing an Eton tie, Sir George is wearing what looks to be a Jesus College tie.
9. 11:06–11:30 — When Webster comes out the door, Mrs. Peel appears to head for her car but after Webster drives off you see the stand-in run across the lawn towards the car.
10. 11:40 — When Mrs. Peel drives away, it’s clearly sped-up footage.
11. 19:33 — The carousel toy from the opening tag scene is in Martin’s Toy Shop.
12. 25:25 — How did Mrs. Peel end up at the Guild of Noble Nannies? Did Webster tell her about it?
13. 32:20 — Moët et Chandon product placement.
14. 
    33:00 — Steed puts the bomb in the tuba and blows the blast out the window... or does he? The picture to the left clearly shows the bomb falling out of the tuba seconds before it goes off. The glories of the one-take world of Sixties television. (Also, at 33:32 the tuba has been stretched out straight by the blast, but that didn’t happen at all in the previous shot).
15. 
    34:25 — How come Martin doesn’t realise Goat is not a woman? He’s not wearing a veil.
16. 36:10 — Why does Miss Lister think Steed “knows about Wilmot”?
17. 36:38–37:37 — It looks like Paul Weston standing-in for Patrick Macnee for the action and long shots.
18. 39:20 — That’s not Diana Rigg in the over-the-shoulder shots but it doesn’t look like Cyd Child either.
19. 42:06–42:23 & 45:16 — Steed avoids being drugged by wearing gloves, but at the beginning of the scene you can see that he’s not wearing any gloves. At least, you can if you’re watching it on a modern television - older televisions and monitors chopped the picture off with the screen curvature so audiences of previous years - and possibly even the production staff - might never have seen the continuity error.
    In a way, there’s no error - we don’t see Steed’s hands at any time after the ball bounces through the window until we see the loves at 45:16, and he’s already explained his suspicions of the balls to Wilmot. He may have bent down, then put his gloves on and not touched the ball at all, but he should have removed the gloves when behind the books.

    ©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

    ©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

20. 43:48 (45:16) - Goat marks the map with rough squares around the model missiles (Airfix Bristol Bloodhound kits, by the way) (), but just before Steed tears up the map, they’re marked with circles. (44:41/46:08) Also, the residents of Norwich will be happy that the missile has moved from the centre of town, down towards Eccles.

    ©1961–9 CANAL+IMAGE UK Ltd All Rights Reserved

21. 45:55–46:02 — Goat is lying in from of armchair, on the carpet, after being thrown over it by Steed in their fight but when he gets up and grabs the Miss Lister’s gun, he’s down the other end of the room.
22. 46:43 — How did Mrs. Peel know Wilmot’s nursery name ‘Cuddles’, when she wasn’t present when Steed learned it?
23. 48:00 — Breaking the fourth wall - Emma sees a prediction in her crystal ball that ends with the words “Watch next week”.
24. Running time: 49′18″
25. Steed’s Bentley was damaging during filming when a generator being swung on a pulley chain clipped the bonnet.

Cast notes

1. What happened to Penelope Keith?
   Given what Ms Keith looked like in The Murder Market (left), I think all her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
   She appears in a black & white promotional still, Steed looks like he’s about to talk to her... (right)