A highly promising opening with a rubber-clad young woman breaking into what's obviously a high-security installation, the eponymous Nutshell. Rubbergirl is Edina 'Dolores in Carry on Cowboy/Nicole Cauvin' Ronay making a return appearance.
The triumph of this episode is in creating an incredibly sinister impression of Nutshell, which is after all run by the ostensible good guys. Steed takes it in his stride but Cathy doesn't like it one bit. I sometimes wonder if there was any propaganda the deterrentists could have used to make nuclear shelters seem like cosy refuges. (There's a nod to contemporary deterrence controversies in a discussion Steed and Cathy are having when we first join them).
We soon find out that Steed is well acquainted with the latex burglar, who it appears has stolen a list of double agents which is of enormous strategic importance. There's an intriguing scene between him and her at her premises which has in its foreground one of her escapology students attempting to escape from a bodybag. The 'dominatrix dungeon' subtext is rapidly becoming text at this point.
After this the suggestions that Steed himself organised the break-in come thick and fast. We could almost believe them - if, firstly, he wasn't so incredibly obvious about it, talking into a secret transmitter right in front of Cathy, and, secondly, if we hadn't been led up the garden path in a very similar way in the previous episode. Unless we think it's an elaborate double bluff we aren't going to fall for it.
However, the authorities at Nutshell are much easier to convince, and they subject Steed to various tortures to try and make him confess. (They have the equipment all ready, there's no attempt here to show 'us' as any nobler than 'them'). Eventually, as Steed planned all along, the real traitor outs himself by trying to rescue Steed, and we're on our way to the comedy ending.
John 'Prof Krimpton/Narcissus' Cater as a very senior official, not named Disko as I thought, but with the post of DISCO (Director of Intelligence, Security and Combined Operations).
If I was giving these episodes ratings, which of course I'm not, this would be a high second-ranker. The oppressive atmosphere of Nutshell, even before they get going with the interrogations, is a triumph. If there'd been slightly more doubt about Steed's real motives it'd be a first-class ep, no doubt about it.
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