The Avengers Forever: The GLG Reports

	The GLG Reports Page 6 of 67

Brief for Murder
By Grant L. Goggans

"The law does not function in superstition, Mr. Steed. There's no luck involved, only facts." Who would have thought that Brian Clemens' best script for The Avengers doesn't involve Emma Peel? "Brief for Murder" is as good as television gets, particularly in the black-and-white era. It's thrilling, it's well directed, it's got a stupendous plot and it doesn't give a single hint to the audience about the various schemes laid out by the Lakin Brothers and later by Ms. Paget. The direction, which incorporates one of the few great moments of location filming in the videotape days of the series, is stylish, the sets well designed (while the courtroom in the Old Bailey doesn't seem as large as some other TV series have depicted them, it still looks believable) and there's not a sub-par actor in the cast, with special mention to Helen Lindsay. The tone is also incredibly sexy and weird, with many long legs on display at a combination yoga/ballet school, and Honor Blackman also wears her wonderful top hat, which must be one of the sexiest accessories to any TV star's wardrobe. In all, you couldn't ask for a better start to a TV season.