• title card: red all caps text reading ‘SUPER SECRET CYPHER SNATCH’ superimposed on a typewritten page headed CYPHERS - ABSOLUTELY TOP SECURITY NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM CYPHER H.Q.
  • Vickers, dressed in his Classy Glass Cleaning uniform of all white including his bowler hat, points a silenced pistol through the window towards the camera
  • The Classy Glass Cleaning trainees practice polishing windows anti-clockwise
  • Steed drives his Rolls hunched over the wheel, trying to avoid the ladder being smashed down at him by Maskin, riding atop the cleaning van behind him
  • The Classy Glass cleaners wear gasmasks as they infiltrate the gassed Cypher HQ, the staff frozen in their tracks
  • A window cleaner has an ‘out’ tray smashed over his head and crosses his eyes in comic fashion
  • Steed dangles a pocket watch from his hand, attempting to hypnotise Tara

Series 6 — Episode 2
Super Secret Cypher Snatch

Teleplay by Tony Williamson
Directed by John Hough

Production No E.67.9.10
Production completed: July 9 1968. First UK transmission: October 9 1968. First transmission (USA): September 30 1968.

Regional broadcasts

BroadcasterDateTime
Thames Television9/10/19688:00pm
ATV Midlands10/10/19687:00pm
Granada Television26/01/19698:25pm
Anglia Television10/10/19687:00pm
Border Television20/10/19688:10pm
Channel Television10/10/19687:00pm
Grampian Television9/10/19688:00pm
Southern Television18/12/19688:00pm
Scottish Television16/01/19698:00pm
Tyne Tees Television9/10/19688:00pm
Ulster Television10/10/19687:00pm
Westward Television10/10/19687:00pm
Harlech Television10/10/19687:00pm
Yorkshire Television9/10/19688:00pm

TV Times listing

TV Times listing for October 9 1968, 8pm (London edition)
Sydney Morning Herald listing for February 28 1969, 8pm
The Age listing for February 18 1969, 8.25pm

8.0 The Avengers

Already it is becoming clear that Steed is getting over his loss of Emma Peel and taking a shine to his new partner Linda Thorson. In the past, he has tended to keep his relationships with Cathy Gale, and then Emma, fairly impersonal, but it’s obviously going to be difficult with Tara. In Super Secret Cypher Snatch, an agent named Roger Jarret runs for his life from a cypher headquarters, pursued by an incongruous character, armed and wearing white overalls, a gas mask and a bowler. Jarret is played by 35-year-old actor Clifford Earl, who has previously appeared in The Avengers — and many other thriller series such as The Saint, Man in a Suitcase, The Rat Catchers and The Prisoner.

John Steed Patrick Macnee
Tara King Linda Thorson
Peters John Carlisle
Maskin Simon Oates
1st Guard Alec Ross
Jarret Clifford Earl
Vickers Donald Gee
Ferret Ivor Dean
Betty Anne Rutter
Myra Angela Scoular
2nd Guard Lionel Wheeler
Davis Anthony Blackshaw
Lather Nicholas Smith
Webster Allan Cuthbertson

Designer Robert Jones; Director John Hough

International broadcasts

BroadcasterDateTime
ABN2 Sydney, Australia28/02/19698:00pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia18/02/19698:25pm
ABC New York, USA30/09/19687:30pm
ORTF2 France25/10/19699:55pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland15/07/19698:45pm
French titleLe document disparu
ZDF Germany8/09/19709:00pm
German titleDas Glaspflege-Institut
KRO Netherlands20/01/197010:00pm
Dutch titleDe Glazenwassers
TTI Italy23/12/1980 C51
Italian titleScacco matto all'Ufficio Cifra
Spain23/03/197011:00pm
Spanish titleEl robo de las claves secretas
USA: New York Times listing for September 30 1968, 7.30pm
USA: Chicago Tribune listing for September 30 1968, 6.30pm
USA: Chicago Tribune repeat listing for December 23 1968, 6.30pm
Switzerland: Journal de Genève listing for July 15 1969, 8.45pm
Switzerland: Journal de Jura listing for July 15 1969, 8.45pm
France: Le Confédéré listing for October 25 1969, 9.55pm
Netherlands: Zierkzeesche Nieuwsbode highlights for January 20 1970
Spain: ABC Madrid listing for March 23 1970, 11pm
Germany: Hamburg Abendblatt listing for September 8 1970, 9pm
Netherlands: Leidsh Dagblad listing for January 20 1970, 10pm
Switzerland: Journal de Jura photo from this episode on July 15 1969

Continuity & Trivia

  1. 3:27 — The photograph of cypher documents under the titles has real information relating to the confusion around code words.
  2. 3:30–3:33 — Super Secret Cypher Snatch is one of those rare episodes with more than one title screen:
    alternate title card: red all caps text reading ‘SEPET SUCPRE CNCEHC SYPARE’ superimposed on a typewritten page headed CYPHERS - ABSOLUTELY TOP SECURITY NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM CYPHER H.Q.
    (And there are grounds for saying it’s full title is Sepet Sucpre Cncehc Sypare : Super Secret Cypher Snatch).
  3. 4:09 — The boom microphone drops into shot as Mother is telling Steed and Tara about the dead agent.
  4. 4:35 — Mother gripes about the job being given to MI12 for them to be properly ‘blooded’.
  5. 6:00 — Betty has a red security pass, putting her on the same level as Steed, Tara and Lord Barnes.
  6. 7:42 — Roger Jarret’s address: 9 Phildeu Road London W8
  7. 7:49 — Ferret is wearing an Old Etonian tie throughout the episode.
  8. 7:49 — Peters’ glasses don’t fit him, and are crooked in every scene - was it deliberate?
  9. 7:50 — Coded message “With all my love, Yvette” is decoded by Ferret : With all - urgent, Love - crash priority, Yvette - our man in Paris
  10. 11:36–12:22 -When they inventory Jarret’s belongings, they find a comb (high frequency resonators), tie-clip (microphone), wallet (survival kit, K issue), cigarette case (.22 pistol with twin magazines and a self-loader), a pen (Tara suggests it might be a hand-operated short-range grenade but is told it’s a dispatch case).
    HOWEVER, Tara’s notes, which we see as she unrolls the calendar page found inside the pen, read:
    Personal possessions
    1 comb, 1 wallet, 1 pr cuff links, 1 cigarette case
  11. 17:11 — When Peters zooms in with the projector, we see a completely different shot of Myra instead of an enlargement of the previous photo.
  12. 19:04 — Tara’s hair is completely different when she reaches the bottom of the ladder and looks back up.
  13. 20:05 — The scene of the men being dismissed is almost identical to the shot at 38:11, the actors are even on the same marks.
  14. 24:00 — Why does Steed have an oversized fountain pen?
  15. 24:26 — Lather calls the apprentice “Wilson”, but at 22:42 he called him “James”.
  16. 24:28 — A thread appears, dangling in the top right corner, in the shot of Lather.
  17. 27:40 — Steed has an antique phone in his car.
  18. 27:48 — Cypher HQ is in Lessington - all the lines are engaged and the security 010 number is out of service.
  19. 31:55 — There’s an odd flash of light against the wall in the top right corner.
  20. 33:40 — Ivor Dean is breathing as they examine his body.
  21. 38:16 — The man who just blocked the telephone lines and radioed in to give the all clear is one of the men at the trucks.
  22. 41:10 — Donald Gee looks straight down the camera lens as he finishes fitting the earpieces to Myra.
  23. 41:15 — The files taken out of the cabinet are for Henrik Rostov and Gerald Bancroft.
  24. 41:24 — Considerable product placement for several makes of camera, and the reel to reel tape machines.
  25. 43:50 — Patrick Macnee does some of the minor stunts for the fight.
  26. 45:31 — Tara didn’t hear the autosuggestion, so how did she wake (and why didn’t Webster?) when Steed set the alarm on his watch?
  27. 46:40 — The mid-shot with Lather and Steed in profile sees the return of the dangling thread at top right.
  28. Running time: 49′27″

The Transport

MarqueColourNumber
bicycleblack-
helicopter FP?buffG-AVZC
Matchless motorbikeblue & white, with tartan saddlebagsMOJ 771
Bentley Mulsanne S3golden metallic beige257 HYT
Morris 3cwt utility vehicledark greenGMM 931B
MGBwhite, black upholstery971 WHN
Rolls-Royce 40/50 h.p. ‘Silver Ghost’ 1923 H.J.Mulliner tourer (chassis number 46LK)pale lemonKK 4976
AC 428 Frua Drophead Convertible Coupé 1965 Prototype (CF1)maroonLPH 800D
Austin Healey SpriteblueGOF 753D
Austin 3cwt vandark greenFGP 280C
Austin 3cwt vandark greenLMG 876C
Austin 3cwt vandark green688 MCT
Morris Minor utility vehicledark greenNME 524C

Who’s Killing Whom?

VictimKillerMethod
Agent Wilson pistol shots
Jarret Maskin & Vickers pistols
Peters Vickers silenced pistol
Ferret Maskin suffocated with chamois
Click a name to see the face

The Fashions

Tara Steed

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