The Young Avenger
Page 25 of 110

The Charmers
By Joseph A.P. Lloyd

Direction: Four out of five. Bill Bain, once again, shows his comic talent for such things as this episode, and it takes Charles Crichton to surpass him in "The Correct Way to Kill."

Plot: Four out of five. Far more at home with the fourth season, not the fifth, this episode moves along very well with Kim Lawrence adding a very nice comic touch to the whole affair. Well done, Brian Clemens.

Music: Two out of five. Surprisingly, as we are so near to the end of Cathy Gale's time, the music does not seem to have changed one little bit. Oh dear.

Wittiness: Three out of five. "The bonds of the old school tie are well-nigh impossible to break." As Macnee is an Etonian, I think we can both confirm this. A great script.

Action: Three out of five. I really love the sword fight at the end, which is amazing considering the production difficulties of making such an episode at that time. This is enough to earn the episode this high score.

Introduction/Tag: Three out of five. Vinkel's fight with one of the charmers at the beginning is superbly executed, and really puts us into the spirit of the episode, which is not serious at all. "The Correct Way to Kill" is far funnier, by the way.

Cars/Sets/Locations: Two out of five. Again, I would have expect some location filming so near to the end, but there we are. The sets are not absolutely great, but adequate. A reasonable score.

Overall Impression: I believe that "The Correct Way to Kill" is slightly better than this, but we have Keller, who is just wonderful, Fenella Fielding, who is just totally dopey, and a dentist all in the same episode. It does not get much better than this, especially when Steed and Kim are in the tie shop. Magnificent.

Rating: Eight and a half out of ten.

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