Episode 30: Cathy Gale Era |
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Production completed: 23 June 1962 When a British courier is murdered in Jamaica, Steed and Cathy are called in to track down the killers. The trail leads to Lima, Perú via Bogotá, Colombia, where the duo engage in some humorous espionage. Then it's off to Santiago for a tense face-off with the politician behind it all.
Golly, what a difference a co-star makes! This episode is banging on all cylinders! Although the story is straightforward and by-the-numbers, the dialog is snappy, the performances are bright, and the considerable globe-trotting involved gives the settings flavor. It was pleasantly startling to see Cathy in her underwear in one scene (something that could not have aired in the U.S. in 1962, as bras were not allowed), and also somehow unnerving to see Steed cavorting with the young girls in Jamaica and making suggestive remarks to Cathy on the phone while casually puffing a cigarette. Cathy seems very tolerant of Steed's patently sexist behavior, but since this was the first episode produced starring Honor Blackman, it's a good bet that her character had not yet begun to develop. Strangely, the next episode to be produced ("Warlock") was written as Steed and Cathy's first meeting, which then had to be edited because, owing to the jumbled broadcast order, she'd already appeared in eleven episodes.
Carlos Pagés of Argentina reports that, although the Spanish nonsense spoken by several characters at the Dos Pájaros (Two Birds) tavern is hilarious, Cathy's Spanish in the Lima hotel sequence with Steed is very good and clear—surprising, because care with languages is quite uncommon in 60s television. Guest actor Gerald Harper (Travers) starred as Steed's counterpart in the quasi-Avengers-ripoff Adam Adamant Lives. *This unofficial subtitle is by Yours Truly.
Steed's bantering with the inept Travers at the British embassy is utterly hysterical.
Steed phones Cathy while she is half-dressed and asks, "Are you decent?"
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DEATH DISPATCH |
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Teleplay by |
Leonard Fincham |
CAST |
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John Steed |
Patrick Macnee 007 |
# DOPPELGANGERS |
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Michael Forrest |
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Gerald Harper |
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Geoff L'Cise |
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Douglas Muir |
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Hedger Wallace |
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materials copyrighted per their respective copyright holders. |