• title card: white all caps text reading ‘WISH YOU WERE HERE’ superimposed on Uncle Charles peering through the rails of the bar room, evoking a jail cell
  • Tara hold her green and white striped suit up and peers through the large round hole where the back has been burnt through
  • Mother sits grumpily in the outsized scales as Steed reviews the notes, Rhonda stands passivle among the black and white photos around them
  • Basil arrives at the hotel with an enormous supply of sporting equipment and luggage
  • Basil and Tara plan the next step of their escape
  • Maxwell is revealed as the villain behind the hotel when he pulls a gun on our heroine
  • Tara is holding a picnic hamper when she discovers Steed is being held prisoner in his flat

Series 6 — Episode 19
Wish You Were Here

Teleplay by Tony Williamson
Directed by Don Chaffey

Production No E.67.9.16
Production completed: September 12 1968. First UK transmission: February 7 1969. First transmission (USA): November 18 1968

Regional broadcasts

BroadcasterDateTime
Thames Television12/02/19698:00pm
ATV Midlands7/02/19697:30pm
Granada Television25/05/19698:25pm
Anglia Television9/07/19698:00pm
Border Television19/02/19698:00pm
Channel Television7/02/19697:30pm
Grampian Television7/02/19697:30pm
Southern Television2/07/19698:00pm
Scottish Television
Tyne Tees Television12/02/19698:00pm
Ulster Television7/02/19697:30pm
Westward Television7/02/19697:30pm
Harlech Television7/02/19697:30pm
Yorkshire Television15/02/19698:30pm

TV Times listing

TV Times listing for February 15 1969, 8.30pm (Yorkshire edition)
Sydney Morning Herald listing for February 14 1969, 8pm
The Age listing for March 4 1969, 8.30pm

8.30 The Avengers
Patrick Macnee
Linda Thorson
in
Wish You Were Here
By Tony Williamson

A holiday hotel is the unusual prison without bars for Tara King’s uncle — and Tara King too, when she goes to find out what’s keeping him there.

John Steed Patrick Macnee
Tara King Linda Thorson
Charles Merrydale Liam Redmond
Maxwell Robert Urquhart
Basil Brook Williams
Parker Dudley Foster
Mother Patrick Newell
Kendrick Gary Watson
Mellor Richard Caldicot
Vickers Derek Newark
Brevitt David Garth
Miss Craven Louise Pajo
Mr. Maple John Cazabon
Girl Sandra Fehr

Director Don Chaffey; Producers Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens; Executive Producer Gordon L. T. Scott

The TV Times has accidentally printed Brook Williams instead of Brook William.

International broadcasts

BroadcasterDateTime
ABN2 Sydney, Australia14/02/19698:00pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia4/03/19698:30pm
ABC New York, USA18/11/19687:30pm
ORTF2 France1/11/19699:55pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland5/08/19698:20pm
French titleÉtrange hôtel
ZDF Germany
German titleWillkommen im Shakespear's Inn
KRO Netherlands14/04/19709:10pm
Dutch titleHotel met alle comfort
TTI Italy6/12/1980 C51
Italian titleElizabethan Hotel
Spain12/1/197010:35pm
Spanish titleQuisiera que estuvieras aqui

Wish You Were Here was originally scheduled as a stand-by on 1/12/69 around 11:00pm in Spain but must not have been used as it is in the schedule again at 10.35pm on January 12 1970.
ABC Madrid reported:

La serie “Los vengadores”, con el episodio “Quisiera que estuvieras aqui”, se emitira despues de “Los hombres saben.. los pueblos marchan” caso de que el boxeo se resolviese antes de lo previsto.
The series “The Avengers”, with the episode “Wish you were here”, will be broadcast after “Men know... the towns march” in case the boxing is resolved earlier than expected.
USA: Chicago Tribune listing for November 18 1968, 6.30pm
USA: New York Times listing for November 18 1968, 7.30pm
Switzerland: Journal de Genève listing for August 5 1969, 8.20pm
France: L’Impartial listing for November 1 1969, 9.55pm
Spain: ABC Madrid announces this episode as a stand-by on December 1 1969 that was not used
Spain: ABC Madrid listing for January 12 1970, 10.35pm
Netherlands: de Vrije Zeeuw listing for April 14 1970, 9.10pm
Netherlands: Limburgsch Dagblad listing for April 14 1970, showing this episode’s title
Switzerland: Journal de Jura episode summary and photo
Switzerland: L’Impartial the same episode summary and photo

Continuity & Trivia

  1. 1:10 — The episode starts with a suggestion that the men are in a prison, with the shadow of the bars of the window on the wall.
  2. 2:43 — The caption scanner must have been dirty as there’s grit and hair on the screen when the titles come up.
  3. 3:46 (4:40) - Maples has the silhouette version of the painting seen in From Venus with Love on his office wall.
  4. 5:43 — It looks like there’s a hair top centre in the establishing shot of hotel, unless the hotel had a very large antenna on the roof (EDIT: In fact it is a large antenna, thanks to the blu ray picture detail).
  5. 13:53 — they even have striped shirts for the staff to wear
  6. 13:57 — Mother sits in his control room on one end of an outsized scale, in an outright parody of the swivelling control operator’s boom in The Prisoner, the huge photographs around the room are reminiscent of scenes at Number 2’s house as well.
  7. 19:26 — Product placement for “The Times” ?
  8. 19:39–19:52 — there are a couple of hairs along the bottom edge of the screen as we pan across from the lift, they disappear after the close-up of the door on the change of shot, so they were probably on the camera lens.
  9. 21:46 — The top two cards of the card house are more widely spaced on the change of shot than Tara had made them. At 22:00 they’re back to the original position on the change back to the other shot. The reverse shot was obviously filmed later.
  10. 28:15 — Basil’s car is laden with all manner of sporting equipment, reminsiscent of Steed’s cab in The Girl From Auntie.
  11. Music from Escape In Time in this scene.
  12. 34:38 — Another reference to “The Prisoner”? Rover as a beach ball?
  13. 35:18 — Is that the same wallpaper as in Bristow’s study in The Avengers : Series 6 : Game?
  14. 41:00 — The contract between Kendrick and Parker reveals their first names and addresses (more or less). It reads:

    This Agreement is made this thrity-first day of August one thousand nine hundred and sixty eight between Stephen Kendrick of 3 Augustus Place in the county of London and Michael Parker of the Elizabethan Hotel, Berkshire. The terms of the aforesaid contract shall be as follows.

    On the confirmation of the death of Charles Merrydale, I Stephen Kendrick shall pay Michael Parker the sum of Five Thousand Pounds.

  15. 41:47 — Basil says, “Artichoke, Mr. Bagthorpe?” Is this a reference to a play?
  16. 42:25 — The footage of the guests leaving has been shuffled around in post-production to suggest there were more people in the scenes. You can see most of them repeatedly and it’s most obvious with the old lady in the tuban - she’s inside at one point, but a moment earlier she had been outside, threading her way between the cars.
  17. 48:30 — Is that a water stain on Steed’s ceiling above the fireplace?
  18. Running time: 50′15″
  19. This rollicking pastiche of Patrick Macgoohan’s masterwork The Prisoner is even directed by regular The Prisoner and Danger Man director, Don Chaffey.
    A call sheet reveals this episode was even originally titled “The Prisoner” as was slated to be episode 19. It was subsequently moved up the order to officially be episode 16 but ended up back in 19th spot in the broadcast schedule anyway.

The Transport

MarqueColourNumber
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow IgreyMWF 435F
Lotus Europa S2 Pre-production [Type 54] 1968redPPW 999F
bicycleblack-
bicyclered-
Austin Wandsworth/LDO ambulancewhite?
Renault 12taupe?
Rolls-Royce 40/50 h.p. ‘Silver Ghost’ 1923 H.J.Mulliner tourer (chassis number 46LK)pale lemonKK 4976
Austin Seven Short Wheelbase Steel Saloon 1930red and blackJH 355
Jaguar Mk II 3.8 litre 1963brown501 FGF
Jaguar S Type 1964navySLC 227F
Vanden Plas Princess 4 litre R 1964blueALL 821B
Rover P6bluePLF 906E
Rover P5 3 litre Saloon Mk I 1959cream2526 ME
Jaguar E Type roadsterwhiteJLN 4D
bicycleblue-

Who’s Killing Whom?

VictimKillerMethod
James Brevitt Vickers ? ?
Maple Kendrick hit and run
Click a name to see the face

The Fashions

Tara Steed

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