The Avengers
3.14: The
Secrets Broker
Wine seems
to go down quite well in The Avengers
(2.11 Death of a Great Dane, in which
Cathy gets a bit blotto), and if The
Secrets Broker isn’t quite of that vintage, it does involve a winning ruse
(spiritualist séances as a cover for the passing of secrets) and several first
rate performances, from Patricia English, Avice Landone and the inimitable,
irrepressible Jack May.
Steed: I’m,
uh, going to a wine tasting party.
Cathy: Do you
really think you’ve got the palate?
May is Waller,
the ringleader, but the group’s steeliest and most imperious member is
Landone’s Mrs Wilson, effortlessly single-minded and callous whereas May,
posing as the manager of a wine shop, is given to sucking a cigar and engaging
in broad banter with Steed. “Wine and spirits” was probably the dubious connection
that inspired writer Ludovic Peters (his only contribution to the show), and it
works reasonably well, if entirely randomly, a sign of the eccentric
arrangements that will become the norm.
Mrs Wilson: You
think us fakes, yet we know so much about you.
The actual
business being investigated is rather by-the-by, and not terribly intriguing, with
a fairly involved plot in which two brothers, Frederick (John Stone) and Allan
Paignton (Ronald Allen) are pressured into murder and theft (via instructions
given at the séance; analysing quite why the séance is necessary will probably
get you nowhere, even if adds to the heightened milieu). The wine shop produces a wine list that
includes part of plans for a breach mechanism for an anti-tank gun; again, the
intricacies of this are elusive (Steed surmises the full plans aren’t held so
the instigators can’t double cross each other).
Cathy: (presented with a bottle of apricot brandy) What makes you think I have depraved tastes?
Steed: I can’t
imagine, my dear.
Cathy goes
undercover, as usual, at the research station where a colleague of Steed worked
(Frederick’s victim). Marion (English) is working there, engaged in an affair
with Allan, while her husband (John Ringham) remains oblivious; the villains’
aim is to steel plans, blackmailing Marion to cut the alarm system.
Waller: He
seems like a gentleman of some means. I think, he might brighten up the
proceedings a bit.
Steed’s
interaction with Waller is a delight, as the former casually orders bottles of
plonk and they discuss Rieslings and hocks. Steed arrives in the cellar for the
showdown and, asked what the devil he’s doing there, advises he came for the
wine list (“Oh, very droll” responds
Waller). While fighting Steed warns “Mind
the burgundy, Mr Waller” and is told “It’s
a bad year, Mr Steed”. May comes across like a Peter Cook who can act,
while given to the kind of hearty dialogue chewing that would make Iain
Cuthbertson proud.
The rest of
the cast is also memorable, with English (previously in Mission to Montreal), offering a believably beset turn as a woman
caught in an unenviable predicament and a loveless marriage. The scenario of
spying through stagecraft rather recalls The
39 Steps (the Hitchcock version).
Waller: Mrs
Wilson and her daughter, Julia. Help yourself to anything you fancy, Mr Steed.
Steed: (eyeing up Julia) That’s very generous of you.
Steed is on
particularly suggestive form, be it making innuendos about Cathy’s character or
getting all Sid James over Mrs Wilson’s daughter. It must be all that vino (“Partaking of a few wines, in the company of
Frederick Paignton” he informs Cathy: “What,
again?” she responds wearily), particularly given the coda in which he and
Cathy imbibe some of Waller’s cellar that got away.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.
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