The teaser scene suggests that this episode is going to be about a bookmaker with no-nonsense credit control methods. Then Steed's seen at the stables, representing the Foreign Office's concerns about the security of a sultan's horse - so it looks like doping is going into the mix. But the story then veers wildly off into the methods of a network of assassins, leaving all the racing stuff on the periphery.
Tony Heuston (T.P. 'Captain Cook' McKenna, not William 'Reegan' Dysart as I thought) is the bookmaker at the centre of the plot, Derek 'Greg Sutton' Newark as his head killer Johnson. I enjoyed Newark's toughly-delivered evening class about the use of poisons; he's not quite so good when he has to yell angrily about being treated like a serf.
It felt like there wasn't much Steed, or much Cathy in this - their main scenes (Steed chatting up women, Cathy dazzling Heuston with her ability to work out bets) are good, but feel like set pieces.
Geoffrey 'radio comedy' Whitehead as the aristocratic Fordsham, whose entrapment into the murder network by Heuston and Johnson is used to show us how the operation works. Basil 'the replacement Supervisor in Checkmate' Dignam as Heuston's ally at the stables.
Another episode with an uneasy combination of plot elements really.
No comments:
Post a Comment