Rodney's Reviews
Page 25 of 42

Honey for the Prince
By Rodney Marshall

Wonderfully silly without descending into stupidity, this Clemens script gets the balance just right. The deadly mastermind, Arkadi, is one of the best of the series, his hit man has a "quite, quite fantastic" swordfight with Mrs. Peel and the other guest characters are delightfully eccentric: Mr. Bumble with his honey sweater, a soon-to-be deceased Hopkirk (played with consummate ease by Ron Moody) and a grovelling vizier.

There are a number of memorable scenes: Steed and Mrs. Peel in post-party mood as they cross the bridge at Tykes Water Lake (Emma even smacks him ever so lightly on the bottom); the cricket match with Prince Ali; Mrs. Peel's dance of the seven veils (or six). Even the tag scene keeps the Arabian Nights fantasy going until the very end. Laurie Johnson's music fits in perfectly.

Great fun and it is genuinely hard to find faults; the Colonel's angry "cartoon voice" on the other end of the phone is, for me, the only moment that grates. Quite a few of the later monochrome Rigg episodes are disappointing so it is even more of a pleasure to see the series end on a real high, even if the magic carpet does not get off the ground in the lovely tag scene.

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