Episode 71: Cathy Gale Era
Page 71 of 192

 

  A.K.A.

 El Extorsionador"

  Other Viewpoints

• Visitor Reviews
• The GLG Report
• The Young Avenger

THE WRINGER

TAF TOP TEN

Steed is sentenced as a traitor
Cathy helps to brainwash him

Production completed: 20 December 1963
UK Premiere (London, Season 3): 18 January 1964
US Premiere (A&E cable): ca. 26 March 1991

When five of six agents all working in the same area are lost in short order, Steed is called in to find out how. He tracks down the sixth, who promptly turns Steed in as the killer of the other five. Steed is found guilty and sent for interrogation. But Cathy has more faith in Steed than his superiors, and she discovers that they are guilty of gross negligence in the management of their own interrogation facility.

 IMHO

A sharp script enhances a solid premise with some gripping drama. Add to this Cathy's startling feelings for Steed, which are genuinely touching, and the fact that she rescues him from the clutches of death for a change! Terence Lodge delivers another exceptional performance—this one so creepy as to be unsettling. A few very minor technical issues are easily forgiven considering some otherwise decent effects: Steed's cell door isn't very cooperative at one point, and the air duct through which they escape is awfully wobbly.

 Trivia

Barry Letts, who played Oliver, was an actor who took the BBC Director's course in 1965 and started directing serial format shows. In 1969, when the current producer (who got his job because his successor had to be reassigned to help a failing show) decided to leave, Letts became the producer of Doctor Who, and ran the show for the next five and a half years. These days, he's the head of the Classic Serials department at the BBC. Not bad, eh? (contributed by Mark H. Stevens) Barry also appeared in the Police Surgeon episode, "Man Overboard."

Some scenes were pre-recorded on 19 December 1963 in advance of the main recording.

 Essential Reading

THE WRINGER

Written by
Designed by
Directed by

Martin Woodhouse
Philip Harrison
Don Leaver

Full production credits

CAST

John Steed
Cathy Gale
Hal Anderson
Charles
Oliver
Lovell
The Wringer
Bethune
Murdo

Patrick Macnee 007
Honor Blackman 007
Peter Sallis
Paul Whitsun-Jones #
Barry Letts
Gerald Sim #
Terence Lodge #
Neil Robinson
Donald Cummings #

# DOPPELGANGERS

Douglas Cummings

The Gilded Cage

Terence Lodge

Man With Two Shadows

Gerald Sim

The Radioactive Man
Mission to Montreal
Dial a Deadly Number
The Rotters
The Lion and the Unicorn

Paul Whitsun-Jones

Man With Two Shadows
Room Without a View
Fog

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This website Copyright © 1996-2017 David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Page last modified: 5 May 2017.

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