The old 'Jacobite insurrection' plot, updated and with the general of a Highland regiment (Duncan 'Napoleon in Dance of the Dead' Macrae) at the head of it. He has a very clever plan to make it seem like an innocent military exercise - with an even cleverer twist.
John Thaw is his right-hand man Captain Trench, who not only tries to strangle Cathy but also puts Steed in front of a firing squad. Roy Kinnear providing blackly comic relief as Corporal Jessop.
Also to be seen: Douglas Robinson making his 4th appearance.
Macrae, Thaw and Kinnear are all excellent. Macrae outshines all the renegade generals of the Pertwee years, he even convinces when he tells Cathy that she is to take the throne as Queen Anne II. Thaw is by turns quietly sardonic and quietly sinister. And Kinnear's scenes with Steed are a delight - sarcastic eye-rolling at the court-martial, ironic sympathy during the last meal. Even in their first scene, the way he wordlessly conveys that he's waiting for a tip is brilliant.
One of my favourites so far, up there with The Big Thinker, Dressed to Kill and School for Traitors, and with some of the best acting since Death of a Great Dane.
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