Episode 64: Cathy Gale Era
Page 64 of 192
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A.K.A.
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Other Viewpoints
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El 5 De Noviembre"
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Production completed: 27 September 1963
UK Premiere (London, Season 3): 2 November 1964
US Premiere (A&E cable): ca. 12 March 1991
A politician is murdered 1.5
seconds after being elected, but an investigation comes to naught. With the issue of a
missing five-megaton warhead looming, Steed endorses Cathy to run for the post of the
murdered politician—only to find that, instead of being dead, he's preparing to detonate
the warhead in the middle of London on November 5!
IMHO |
Not being British (but sincerely wishing I were), I find the British political system quite bewildering, the result being that this episode was just so much gibberish to me. Not to mention that it was virtually non-stop dialog from end to end—well, we know what politicians do best. I'm sure folks on the other side of the pond found it riveting, so there you are.
Trivia |
Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot may be obvious to British fans, but some Americans may be unfamiliar with November 5, the Gunpowder Plot, or Guy Fawkes.
Please to remember
The fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
—from The Annotated Mother Goose, ed. Wm. S. and Ceil Baring-Gould
In 1604, "certain Catholic gentlemen, oppressed by the anti-Catholic laws of England, plotted to blow up the Parliament House and thus rid the country of the Protestant Lords. This secret plan, known as the Gunpowder plot, was to be carried out by Guy Fawkes, an ardent Catholic. Fawkes and the fellow conspirators rented a house adjoining the House of Parliament, and dug their way through to a cellar beneath the House of Lords, where they planted gunpowder and set fuses. The fatal day was fixed for November 6, 1605. Someone, however, wrote a letter to a friend telling him to keep away from Parliament on that day. Search was made, and on the night of November 4th, Fawkes and his gunpowder were discovered." (The Annotated Mother Goose)
Fawkes was executed in front of Parliament House on 31 January 1606. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, King James I and his chief ministers were expected to be meeting within the Parliament House on the date Parliament was to be blown up by the plotters. Fawkes was tortured on the rack after he was captured, and only after that did he reveal the names of his co-conspirators. "England's celebration of Guy Fawkes Day (November 5) includes fireworks, masked children begging 'a penny for the guy', and the burning of 'guys', little effigies of the conspirator." (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
The above courtesy of 'M'
Some scenes were pre-recorded on 26 September 1963 in advance of the main recording.
Best Line |
Steed is studying a typewriter to see if it had been used to generate a damning piece of evidence and observes, "Blunt F, squint I, H above the line... a very good description of my Auntie Queenie."
Essential Reading |
- Mrs. Peel... We're Needed by Piers Johnson