When Malcolm Hulke's at the typewriter, business is never just business, and in this ep we're shown British commercial interests getting tangled up with anti-colonial elements in the country of Karim.
Peter 'Granada's Colonel Ross' Barkworth as Geoffrey Willis, the hard-working boss of Willis Sopwith Pharmaceuticals plagued by Far Eastern rip-off copies of his products. Steed once more assumes his civil servant cover to investigate, having been alerted by the death in a Turkish bath of one Tu Hsiu Yung. Macnee has some comic lines to deliver based on this amusing name, but handles them with a pleasing mixture of deprecation and embarrassment.
Cathy is also on the case as a business efficiency expert. A good scene between her and Willis, where she cunningly both gets his attention and wins his goodwill by using a sales technique from a manual written by his grandad.
Harold 'Gilbert M' Innocent as Leeson, an alcoholic avant-garde painter who's the British end of the fake goods operation. He has a wonderful line about Karim being 'the size of a postage stamp - and not worth much more.'
His artistic technique involves getting young women to bathe in paint, then rub themselves against the canvas. This sets up one of Cathy's best lines so far; Willis' secretary, Miss Dowell (Joy Wood) arrives at Leeson's studio and holds a gun on her. 'Have you come to roll in the oils too, Miss Dowell?' she asks in deliciously sarcastic tones.
John Crocker returns from Propellant 23 - I thought he was Brian Murphy.
Brenda Cowling, who I think is seen for about 10 seconds in the plaque-unveiling scene in Carry On Girls, appears as the chatty masseuse at the Turkish bath.
This is a great episode: there's an intriguing plot, and some wonderful playing by all the principals. I have only two criticisms. The treacherous employee trope has featured in almost all the 'business' episodes so far, it's becoming very predictable. And Willis, discovering Steed ferreting around in his offices, holds him at gunpoint, is shot, and then disappears from the story. I couldn't work out if he was part of the fake goods scam or not - he does have a suspicious-sounding exchange with Miss Dowell about printing in one scene, but it wasn't conclusive.
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