Series 6 — Episode 18
The Curious Case of the Countless Clues

Regional broadcasts

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Get-A-Way! and The Curious Case of the Countless Clues are reported in different newspapers for the 6^th and 20^th May 1969 — although Gazette de Lausanne reports the mysterious Un succès mérité for the 6^th. It looked at first to be a regional variation but La Liberté may have solved the problem and shows that Trop d’indices was pre-empted. They had corrected the listing to announce Les évadés du monastère in place of Trop d’indices but left a photo of Linda on the page labelled as being from Trop d’indices — and two weeks later has a photo from Get-A-Way! with a summary for The Curious Case of the Countless Clues… Given that the vast majority of Swiss newspaper have Get-A-Way! followed by The Curious Case of the Countless Clues, I have gone with that consensus.

Continuity & Trivia

1. 1:38 — The murderer is estimated to be of medium height and 140lbs due to his size 8 shoes - I assume Earle is describing Burgess.
2. 7:16 — The boom microphone dips into shot at top left when Steed goes to look at the space on the wall where a portrait has been removed.
3. 9:50 and throughout - Tara steals a few shots from Hitchcock’s Rear Window, peering out the window while in her wheelchair.
4. 10:15 — How did Gardiner learn Steed’s name? He seemed to stay in the car, watching Tara’s flat.
5. 18:35 etc. - There’s a hair stuck to the camera lens at bottom left in the close-ups of Steed. It’s definitely on the camera as it’s only on the CUs of Steed, it disappears when the vision is on Flanders.
6. 35:50 — The towing plate on the front of the truck is 768 MX, which we see again at 37:12 on the back of the towed car, but at 37:42 (front), 42:36 (back) and 44:40 (front) the towing plates read 598 H - as seen earlier in the episode when Stanley stopped to assist Flanders.
7. 36:17 — The fight between Steed and Stanley is sped up, which robs the scene of any gravity.
8. 45:36 — Lucky for Tara that Earle & Gardiner had taken Steed’s bowler hat, she’s able to knock Earle out with the steel rim when she throws it at him.
9. 47:15 — How did Steed’s bowler end up under the fireman’s pole anyway? Last we saw it, it was the other side of the room.
10. The villains are Earle, Stanley and Gardiner; a very obvious reference to crime/law fiction writer Erle Stanley Gardner, who is best remembered for his Perry Mason books. Of course, the episode’s title is in the vein of Perry Mason book (and television episode) titles.
11. Tracey Reed once auditioned to be the female lead in The Avengers.
12. Peter Jones’ voice is now more famous than his face - he played “The Book” in Douglas Adams’ seminal radio serial, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
13. I assume Linda Thorson was on holidays during much of this production run. This is the third episode in a row in which she spends most of the time in a diminished rôle - this time laid up with a skiing accident. Before that she was on holidays then knocked out by sleeping gas. In this episode she gets a fair bit of action in the final act so she must have returned from her break for most of this episode’s filming schedule.
14. Running time: 49′19″.

The Transport

Who’s Killing Whom?

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The Fashions