Steed is kept in detention. Emma sees the light.

7 x 15-minute episodes
based on the television episode
All Done With Mirrors (1968),
written by Leigh Vance

Principal Cast:
Donald Monat as John Steed
Diane Appleby as Emma Peel
Colin Fish as Mother
Hugh Rouse as The Narrator

Production:
Adapted and directed by Dennis Folbigge
Produced by David Gooden

Transmission on Springbok Radio (7.15-7.30pm):
Episode 1 — Wednesday 16th August 1972
Episode 2 — Thursday 17th August 1972
Episode 3 — Friday 18th August 1972
Episode 4 — Monday 21st August 1972
Episode 5 — Tuesday 22nd August 1972
Episode 6 — Wednesday 23rd August 1972
Episode 7 — Thursday 24th August 1972
This is a best guess based on available data

Mind the Gap!
Dropping spectacles by the cliff edge
is not advised.

A man walking near the Carmadoc Research Establishment hears a strange voice compelling him towards the cliff edge. He falls to his death. Meanwhile, Mother explains to Steed that as a precaution he must put him under arrest. Steed, by having worked covertly at Carmadoc to find out how secrets are leaking, is suspected by the staff there. Mother assigns Mrs Peel to the case with the assistance of Watney. At Carmadoc, Major Sparshott, Head of Security, explains that the man who fell to his death was called Guthrie and gives them his address. Mrs Peel heads there. A man called Markin has been following all this and informs his boss.

Steed and Mother are discussing how Steed had worked out security arrangements at Carmadoc and how Mother had screened everyone. Mrs Peel finds Guthrie's cottage where it appears he had been interested in amateur astronomy. Some mirrors are lying broken. A lady introduces herself as Daisy and says that she looks after Mr Guthrie. Markin is somehow listening in to their conversation, but with difficulty. Telling his boss to "try another angle," he then hears more clearly. Daisy explains that Mr Guthrie wanted everything shiny smashed and it had something to do with a Mr Williams who lives down the road. Markin, hearing this, sends an accomplice, Gozzo, to kill Williams. In the meantime, Watney suspects a Dr Seligman who he finds using binoculars. Mrs Peel finds Williams strangled and while taking an envelope from him, Gozzo returns.

After a long struggle with Mrs Peel, Gozzo accidentally dies. At Carmadoc, Watney no longer suspects Seligman, a meteorologist. Tiddiman and Carswell also work in the lab. Mrs Peel enters and reports the two further casualties. She shows Seligman some scribbles on the envelope and he tells her it's just an equation. He then whispers to Watney that he knows how the secrets are being leaked and arranges to meet him in the woods. There, Seligman hears his name being called leading him towards a mirror. Watney also hears this and then a gunshot. He finds the dying Seligman, who says that it is all done with mirrors. Having suspected something, Sparshott appears holding a gun, which Watney grabs and finds hasn't been fired. Watney notices a lighthouse and reports to Mrs Peel, who discovers a drawing of a lighthouse on the back of the envelope.

Mrs Peel parks near the lighthouse and a man named Ketteridge tells her it's a private residence. Timothy Barlow then comes to the door and introduces himself as the Colonel's secretary. Mrs Peel follows him up spiral stairs to speak with Colonel Withers, who is looking through a telescope. Waiting for Watney to report, Mother explains to Steed that he had to let Mrs Peel lead an investigation sometime. Mrs Peel asks the Colonel if he knew Guthrie or perhaps saw him through his telescope. He insists he's only interested in the sea. Turning the telescope to the cliffs, Mrs Peel tells them they have another a visitor. Barlow goes down and Mrs Peel is similarly unsuccessful when talking to the Colonel about Williams.

The visitor is Pandora Marshall, who finds it odd that Barlow has to be reminded about a letter he wrote to her about her visit. Mrs Peel is encouraged to leave. The Colonel leaves the telescope unattended. Pandora, taken to a guest room, sneaks out and climbs the stairs. She quickly deduces, as she already knows a bit about it, how the telescope sends and transmits sound. Focusing on Mrs Peel's car mirror she tries to explain what's happening and warn her that Barlow is an impostor. He enters and Mrs Peel only hears Pandora calling to her. She tells Watney this on her car phone and he heads for the lighthouse. Barlow sends Ketteridge after Mrs Peel. He then makes Pandora lure Mrs Peel to the cliff edge by calling for help with the telescope. Ketteridge forces Mrs Peel over the edge.

Pandora is put in the cellar where the real Colonel and Barlow are being held. Watney and Sparshott arrive and seeing her shoes, fear that Mrs Peel has gone over the cliff. Mother tells Watney to keep searching and give a detailed report. Gaining consciousness in the sea, Mrs Peel swims ashore. At the lighthouse, she disables Ketteridge and discovers the cellar where, overpowering Markin, she finds the captives. They tell her that the other impostors are foreign agents, stealing secrets from Carmadoc by using the telescope. Unable to release them, Mrs Peel is told how she might get help by using the telescope. First she knocks out the bogus Colonel.

Mother tells Watney to come home. Steed has read Watney's report that it is all done by mirrors and so decides to visit the lighthouse. With the telescope, Mrs Peel tells Watney, on a road nearby, that she's in the lighthouse as two of Barlow's men rush in. Steed arrives, releases the captives and learns what's going on. Mrs Peel overpowers the men, but Barlow enters with a gun. Watney rushes in and they send the top man tumbling down the stairs.

The first announcement can't be taken too literally. If this is, as we are told, "a case that could be all done by mirrors," then what might be done? Steed could whack someone with a mirror, Mrs Peel could use her rear-view mirror, and Mother could look behind for bottles of spirit with one. Enough of my humour! What with Mother's outdoor pool and the secrets he's concerned about being leaked from a coastal facility, we hear well-chosen water sound effects and music. At other times, however, the music in this one is a bit sparsely employed. Mrs Peel's temporary new partner, Watney, sounds a bit plain and he dithers a bit strangely about naming Guthrie. Steed and Mother are fine though, and begin to speculate that if the leaks at the facility aren't due to internal or external sources, then maybe they should be looking at something in-between. The picking up of Mrs Peel and Daisy's voices by some piece of equipment is done well and easily understood; impressive, given that in all probability it's a first 'take' for the performers. There are many characters so the decision to give Dr Seligman a foreign accent this time helps to clarify things, particularly in the audio medium. I have to smile when told that "they hadn't got off to a very good start," and then we hear a list of the dead. Lines can sometimes have a different effect on the listener than that intended (to inform). Steed and Mother talk about Watney, but what's this, Steed is in the pool at this time and pretty relaxed! I feel it works better on TV with Steed less relaxed, because in the coming scene when he releases himself from confinement, it shows that he was concerned all of the time.

From the 19:15 time announcement preceding Episode Five that was preserved in the recording, we learn that the 24 hour clock was used in South Africa in the early 1970s. It is less used in the media now. We're told that Mrs Peel would be impressed at the speed at which the visiting Pandora ran up the lighthouse stairs; she'd have to be quite fit for the middle aged lady she sounds in the radio version (perhaps as fit as the character that Honor Blackman portrayed in Doctor Who!). There's a few seconds silence when Pandora reaches the lamp room and is cautiously looking around. It's another simple but effective element that is used. Pauses add something to the drama too but there's a limit to how long they can be, I suppose.

The ratings, if there were any recorded, must have gone up after Mrs Peel's plunge from the cliff. Not quite a cliff-hanger. I really like the description of her time in the sea. Music and sound effects mixed with the narrator's voice create a sort of audio time-lapse photography effect. Listen to it in the first music clip on The Radio Series — The Music. What a nicely said sentiment by Steed to finish: "I think we should go together next time, Mrs. Peel, don't you?"; I'm looking forward to that!

Ron Geddes

Name Changes:

• Miss Emily is changed to Miss Daisy.

Character Changes:

• This is one of a number of episodes adapted for the Sonovision Avengers which replaces the television character of Tara King with that of Emma Peel.

• The characters Roger and Arkin do not feature in the radio version.

• Carswell and Tiddiman are mentioned but do not have speaking parts.

Storyline Changes:

• The opening scene with Roger and Arkin is omitted.

• Pandora already knows how the telescope should work.

• Instead of Tara leading Steed to the lighthouse, he goes there as a result of Watney's report that it's 'all done by mirrors'.

• Barlow and not one of his accomplices is sent falling down the lighthouse stairs.

• Instead of the final picnic scene, Steed and Mrs Peel leave in a helicopter.

Bloopers:

• In Episode Three, Sparshott says, "There is Tiddiman, Sparshott, Carswell over there and me?" — the second name should be Seligman.

Trivia:

• Watney's parents were very fond of the name Watney, which explains his extraordinary (and for him unfortunate) full name.

• Mrs Peel's shoes rather than her neck-tie are found by the cliffs.

• The captives are held down in the lighthouse cellar instead of in a room off the stairs.

• Steed is worried about the moderately high cliff that Mother says Mrs Peel has fallen over because he has seen his moderate measures of Scotch.

• This time, the real Colonel doesn't explain why Guthrie and Williams got killed.

• This serial is known to have been the next one broadcast after A Grave Charge.

Ron Geddes