mrs_emma_peel

How To Succeed … At Murder
Emma is dressed to fight whilst Steed tickles for information …

BBC4 Friday/Saturday, 5th/6th December, 2008 1.30-2.20am
Series 4 Episode 25
Guest stars: Sarah Lawson as Mary, Angela Browne as Sara and Christopher Benjamin as JJ Hooter

How To Succeed … At Murder
Steed becomes the perfect boss with a penchant for tickling …
whilst Emma, clad in a tight black leotard, is on the scent and in the gym … facing a gang of ruthless females …



Ten executives from a variety of mid-sized companies have been murdered. In every case, the Chief Executive’s secretary has promoted herself to head the firm … using an accounting system too complex for anyone else to understand.

Steed and Emma investigate, but can find no link between the firms. Steed visits Joshua Rudge, a chartered accountant to some of the executives, but learns nothing.

Mrs Peel explores a perfumed clue – the scent used by one of the latest killers, still lingering in the car where the male executive was murdered. The aroma is identified immediately by its inventor, the wildly eccentric J.J. Hooter, (wonderfully over-played by Christopher Benjamin) but his secretary claims the paperwork was sent to the warehouse that morning. Returning in the afternoon, Mrs Peel finds Hooter dead … and the secretary refusing to help, unwittingly revealing a secret plot ...

Mrs Peel gains employment in one of the firms recently taken over by the secretary, and follows her to a keep-fit class in the suburbs … while Steed employs one of the other girls – discovered in Rudge's chambers - using the ruse of a £4,000,000 business run exclusively by Steed, himself.

Mrs Peel is inducted into the group after having voiced a preference for being her own boss and discovers the apparent leader is a puppet - seemingly controlled by a woman hiding behind the curtains.

Meanwhile, Steed is battling his secretary, Sara, and another of the group, Liz, who had blown up her boss. Defeating them with a torturous tickling, he rushes to the gym … finds Rudge, but knocks over a radio transmitter and alerts the female gang.

Emma is uncovered as a spy by Hooter's secretary, Gladys.
In the keep-fit gymnasium, the leader of the female power group is revealed ... and, dressed in a tightly stretched black leotard, Mrs Peel is confronted by a gang of ruthless women, similarly garbed in black leotards … determined to teach this shapely female spy in black … a lesson …

Mrs Emma Peel

mrs_emma_peel

An Appreciation of Mrs Emma Peel … highlights from the b/w series
Emma Peel … Black and White Lightning
Soundtrack … The Avengers/James Bond

Mrs Emma Peel

mrs_emma_peel

Honey for the Prince
Emma is a veiled honey … dressed to seduce … whilst Steed bowls out the opposition …

BBC4 Friday/Saturday, 12th/13th December, 2008 12.50-1.40am
Series 4 Episode 26 (Final episode of Series 4)
Guest stars: Ron Moody as Hopkirk, Zia Mohyeddin as Prince Ali, George Pastel as Arkadi, Ken Parry as Bumble and Carmen Dean as Eurasian Girl

Honey for the Prince:
A superb finale episode to complete this sublime 1965/66 b/w series 4 of The Avengers …
in which Emma becomes a veiled honey … performs the Dance of the Seven Veils …
is initiated into a harem … and ‘sold’ to a women and cricket obsessed Arabian Prince …
whilst Steed becomes a genie and plays some cricket …

This fabulous final episode of the series is quite, quite fantastic … as Steed and Emma romp through other people's fantasies to thwart a plot to assassinate the cricket-playing Arabian Prince of a wealthy oil producing country. While Steed gets friendly with the Prince, Emma is "sold" into his harem to flush out the assassins, who are using the QQF, a “fantasy fulfilment” service, to devise the assassination plot for them.



Emma’s erotic Dance of the Seven veils (which has only six … Steed claims Emma can’t count … indicating to the Prince that Emma is a veil short of a dance … eliciting some wonderful emotive reactions from Emma … and the subsequent end-game fight in the harem … make this arguably the second-best Emma-watching episode of the entire series (second to Emma as the Queen of Sin in A Touch of Brimstone).



Emma’s harem-girl costume …
Emma initially is dressed in a white triangular veil with gold trim, and six layers of veils over her body.
After the Dance of the Seven Veils, she is revealed to be wearing a tight white bodice adorned with gems …
Emma’s bare midriff is be-jewelled by a belly-button beautification.
She is also wearing transparent harem pants and tight white hipster briefs, the pants have a gold trim and are cinched tightly at the ankle. She is barefoot whilst wearing this outfit.

Best line …
Whilst arranging for Emma to become a prized acquisition for the Prince's harem …
Steed enquires innocently: “What size do you take in Turkish trousers?”

The producers insisted that Diana Rigg wear a jewel in her navel so that the programme would pass the American censors, but it kept falling out on the set! Ironically the episode was not included in the original US line-up.

The plot involves … two Ministry agents … assassins … murder … honey … a murderous attempt upon Mrs Peel in her own apartment … a Turkish diplomat … an Arabian Prince … a Fantastic Fantasy Fulfilment service (operated by Hopkirk - wonderfully played by Ron Moody) … a harem … the introduction of ‘Emma’ … an exotic Dance of the Seven Veils … and a bizarre cricket match …

Arkadi, an Eastern European diplomat, wants the Prince dead so he can acquire oil concessions from his cousin. Steed discovers a secret plot to assassinate an Arabian Prince visiting London. Steed cleverly ingratiates himself at the embassy by playing cricket (bowling some excellent leg spin) but is denied access to the harem … he is virtually certain the assassin is hidden somewhere within the strictly private harem.

Steed cunningly unveils his secret weapon … the exotic “Emma” as his passionate passport into the harem.
That evening, he presents Emma who will erotically perform The Dance of the Seven (or Six) Veils (Steed alleges she can't count) … Emma is sold into the harem as a new concubine for the Prince.

Emma searches the huge honey pots in the harem … the villains uncover her …
and there is fabulously fantastic finale fight …

What a fabulous series!
Hope the Emma/Steed Avengers returns to our screens very soon …
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed researching, adapting, editing, writing and posting the plot-lines and trivia, compiling the photo montages … and posting some high quality YouTube Avengers video compilation clips …
a real labour of love you might say!

Very much hope you have enjoyed / will keep enjoying, this thread too
Merry Christmas.
God bless us, every one.
Emma

Mrs Emma Peel