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Outside the consulting rooms of
H.R. Camrose F.R.C.S. an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist in
Harley Street, London a Rolls Royce pulls up. Inside is the
rather innocuous figure of a postman, who gets out and delivers a
cream coloured envelope through Camrose's letterbox, then leaves
in the Rolls Royce. Camrose's receptionist Janice adds the
envelope to the waiting pile of post for the specialist, who is
busy is examining the throat of an opera tenor named Jules Farage.
When Farage leaves, Camrose (Ralph to his friends) goes through
his post, finds and opens the cream envelope only to discover
that is it empty. However, as he peers into it he is suddenly
gripped by a violent sneezing fit and collapses. Hearing the
attack, Janice rushes in to find him dead! Steed and Mrs Peel
are summoned to Mother's top security rooms, where Steed is given
a newspaper cutting. It has a report of the deaths of three top
American E.N.T. specialists, and the headline report is about the
death of Camrose in London. They must find out why this sudden
spate of deaths is happening.
Steed visits Camrose's
consulting rooms where he finds the empty envelope. Janice says it
must have been a special delivery as it didn't arrive with the
rest of the usual morning post, so Steed keeps it for later
examination. Meanwhile, Emma goes to visit an old friend of
Steed's another E.N.T. specialist called Padley, who is in
practice with two other consultants, Seaton and Herrick. Whilst
waiting in reception she doesn't notice the Rolls Royce come and
go outside. A cream envelope is delivered, addressed to Padley,
and he decides to open it before his appointment with Mrs Peel.
Emma and Padley's receptionist, Georgina, hear the sounds of
violent sneezing and rush into Padley's office to discover him
dead, still gripping the envelope.
Steed and Mrs Peel meet for
lunch to discuss events so far. They compare the envelopes found
with the dead men, and realise that they are identical in
manufacture, have unfranked stamps attached, but the addresses
have been typed on different typewriters. Steed guesses that the
envelopes are made by a high-class company called Maidwell and
Pugh, and pops round to the warehouse to talk to one of the
directors, Mr Maidwell. Maidwell confirms that his company makes
the envelopes the Cream Wove Bond range that he finds to be
rather below Maidwell and Pugh's other products. However, the
range sells extremely well in fact one customer recently bought
10,000 envelopes, but did not buy paper to match! Checking his
invoices, Maidwell informs Steed that the customer in question was
the Anastasia Nursing Academy. Whilst Steed is at the warehouse,
Emma returns to the offices of Padley, Seaton and Herrick. She
goes in to see Seaton immediately, and asks what he has made of
Padley's death. Seaton is puzzled Padley was apparently killed
by acute asphyxiation, but as far as Seaton knows, Padley had not
been ill recently. Just as they are discussing this Seaton gets a
telephone call to pick up some x-rays. He leaves the office, gets
the items, but as he returns he notices a cream envelope inside
the front door addressed to him. Curious, he picks up the envelope
and opens it then collapses in a fatal sneezing fit. Emma,
thinking quickly, opens the front door in time to see the Rolls
Royce driving off. She jumps in her car and follows it into the
country, but loses the other car at a five-way crossroads. Out of
luck she turns round and heads back to London, not knowing that in
the concealed Rolls Royce the two occupants Preece (the postman)
and Dexter (the driver) have noted her car make and number
plate.
Steed visits the Anastasia
Nursing Academy and presents himself to Matron Alice. Posing as a
member of the Steed Foundation (a fictitious philanthropic
organisation) he asks her about the Academy, with a view to making
an endowment. Matron Alice explains that the academy is a top
class centre for training nurses of the highest calibre, but no,
they don't generate any more paper work than any other similar
organisation (no need for 10,000 envelopes there then). Back at
Steed's flat, Mrs Peel has just arrived unaware that she has
been followed by the Rolls Royce. She goes inside to await the
arrival of Dr Fawcett from the Institute of Allergic Diseases,
who she has arranged to meet there. The doorbell rings and she
answers it, to be confronted by Dexter, posing at a market
researcher for a new scent called 'Oblivion'. Emma is cautious and
tries to fight off Dexter, but Preece appears and the two men
overpower her and knock her out with the 'scent', which is really
chloroform. Some time later, Steed returns to his flat and finds
the door ajar. He goes in to find Dr Fawcett, who is in a foul
mood, having waited over four hours for Mrs Peel to turn up. Steed
spots the abandoned scent spray on the carpet and realises that
Mrs Peel has been captured. That evening, after consulting Mother,
Steed revisits the Anastasia Nursing Academy, quietly breaking in.
He finds Matron's office and goes in, then hears the sound of
typing. Opening another door, he finds a room full of girls typing
hundreds of envelopes.
Steed returns, unnoticed, to
Matron's office and proceeds to search it, wearing special gloves.
He finds several telephone directories and correspondence,
including a letter to Matron from a retired Colonel Maurice
Timothy of Walsingham House. In the letter Colonel Timothy
encourages Matron to keep up the good work victory is just
ahead! Meanwhile, in a cell in an unknown location Emma is just
coming round from her ordeal. A door opens and Preece enters, and
Mrs Peel tries to use this opportunity to escape, but Dexter is
outside and coshes her, wrapping her in a straight-jacket. Steed
has returned to Mother and mentions the letter from Colonel
Timothy could he be involved? Mother is certain that Timothy is
not linked to the attacks he is a reknowned philanthropist, but
Steed is not so sure. So he visits Timothy at his home, and is
stopped by the butler on entering Walsingham House. The butler
explains that Colonel Timothy has contracted a type of permanent
cold from his last posting in Malaya and is particularly
susceptable to infection. Therefore all visitors are required to
have an antibiotic injection before meeting the Colonel. The
butler administers the antibiotic, and Steed is finally able to
meet Colonel Timothy. Once again Steed pretends to be from the
Steed Foundation, and asks for advice as to what nursing
organisation he should endow claiming that he has just set up
some hospitals in Mozambique. The Colonel recommends the A.N.A.,
although he professes to disliking the place himself. In fact he
has gone to the lengths of setting up his own clinic in his home,
in order to find a cure for his condition and offers Steed a
guided tour. On the tour, Steed meets Dr Glover, who heads the
research, but also notices a nurse sporting an A.N.A. badge on the
premises.
Emma, in her cell, once again
comes to, but being bound and gagged, falls out of bed. She lands
on a sack which bursts, letting out a stream of cream envelopes.
Meanwhile, on the guided tour, Glover shows Steed the Deep Freeze
room where volunteers stay for some hours in order to catch cold.
They are then used in the experiments to isolate the cold virus,
and thus find a cure. Steed is also shown the Allergy Laboratory,
where the experiments take place. Whilst this is happening, Preece
and Dexter are on their way back to London this time their
intended victim is Herrick. Steed finishes the tour and speaks to
Colonel Timothy again. He comments that Timothy is running out of
allies what with the deaths of the E.N.T. specialists. Timothy
claims he contacted them some time ago but never heard back from
any of them, hence his own research programme. As Steed leaves he
sees a note about Herrick in a clinic diary, and realises that
Herrick is the next victim. Steed finds a call box on the London
road and tries to call Herrick, but the consultant is not
answering his telephone he has just finished work for the day
and ignores the ringing. This time Dexter and Preece have left the
cream envelope in Herrick's car, and are parked nearby to watch.
Herrick gets in his car (an automatic) and starts it, then notices
the envelope. He opens it and quickly succumbs to a sneezing fit.
The car shoots forward and hits a tree flinging Herrick's body
out. Steed arrives too late to prevent all this, and can only take
the envelope as evidence. Back in the Allergy lab of Walsingham
House, Matron Alice is filling several envelopes very carefully
with the virus one of them is addressed to John Steed! Steed
reports back to Mother still no sign of Emma, and the clues
still appear to lead to Colonel Timothy.
Back in Emma's cell, Matron
arrives to question her but is bitten by Mrs Peel for her
troubles. So Matron takes her to the Deep Freeze room and leaves
her there to consider her plight. Steed goes back to his flat,
having invited Dr Fawcett to return. He spots the envelope lying
on the floor inside but wisely does not open it. Fawcett arrives
and is greeted by a gas-masked face! Steed has put one on and
gives Fawcett another mask. The envelope is then opened and shaken
on to one of the pot plants, which wilts quickly. Back at the Deep
Freeze room Emma is trying vainly to keep herself warm. In Steed's
flat the two men wait a while, then remove their masks. Fawcett is
able to examine the remaining contents of the envelope under a
microscope, and guesses that the substance is concentrated cold
virus powder. He also knows the link between the dead E.N.T.
specialists they were all working on a project to find antidotes
to virus allergies. He himself is only concerned with viral
analysis probably the reason why he hasn't received an envelope.
In the Deep Freeze room a decidedly chilly Emma spots a cabinet
containing potassium chlorate tablets and a bottle of ether. She
has also seen a grating leading to an air shaft, and uses the
tablets and ether in an explosive mix to dislodge the grating.
Climbing into the shaft she is able to crawl some way, before
succumbing to a sneeze which causes her to fall down a duct and
land in the Matron's office, at the feet of the Matron and Preece!
They whisk her off swiftly to the Allergy Laboratory. Steed,
meanwhile, has returned to Walsingham House to question the
Colonel, but realises that Timothy is innocent when a cream
envelope is found in the retired soldier's post.
Steed and Colonel Timothy join
forces and go looking for Emma, guessing that she is somewhere in
the Colonel's clinic. Mrs Peel is now suspended on a rope from the
Allergy Laboratory ceiling, keeping her feet just off the ground.
One arm is strapped to her side, and Dr Glover (the 'Chief' as
Matron calls him) is about to test her for allergies. In the
corridor outside, Steed and Timothy come upon a sentry Dexter.
Colonel Timothy unfortunately sneezes, but the pair still manage
to knock Dexter unconscious with a combination of soldier's tin
hat and steel-lined bowler. Preece appears and they deal with him
in the same manner. Inside the laboratory, Glover has established
that Mrs Peel is allergic to ragweed. He wants to use her to try
out one of his serums, which will kill her, and gloating, explains
that he has discovered an allergy to which no one is as yet
resistant to. He intends to market it in powder and liquid form as
a weapon to anyone who will pay the highest price, but is
concerned that other E.N.T. specialists will discover an antidote,
hence his campaign to kill them off. Steed and the Colonel storm
in at this moment, but Glover threatens them with the liquid and
escapes. The Colonel knocks out Matron and Mrs Peel is released,
whilst Steed goes after Glover. The scientist is making use of the
external iron fire-escape ladder to flee the building so Steed
emerges a floor about him, with a cream envelope. He shouts to
Glover, who looks upward just ast Steed empties the contents on
him. Glover sneezes violently, and falls off the fire escape to
his death. Later, in Steed's flat, Emma is suffering from a bad
cold her feet in a warm footbath. Steed thinks he's escaped
infection, after all it would compromise his reputation if they
both suffered a cold at the same time people would talk! But
then he sneezes and realises he hasn't been lucky, asking Mrs Peel
to let him share some space in her footbath! |
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As we open, we hear that the
Harley Street doctor, Camrose, has a voice that is quite similar
to that of Donald Monat's John Steed. This might have posed a
problem, but his character wasn't around for very long! Steed and
Mrs Peel enjoyably take an early trip in something sporty to visit
their boss, Mother. When they later go on their separate
investigations, Mrs Peel visits the colleague of Seaton, a second
man who has died in mysterious circumstances. I felt that the
things that the man said about Seaton, who had also been a friend,
shouldn't have been said quite so irritatedly; surely he would be
a little upset? He turns out to be the next victim, so there's
unfortunately no further opportunity to study the actor's
interpretation of the part. Mrs Peel's spotting of the strange
special delivery postman is done well here as the prelude to an
episode end cliff-hanger. Meanwhile, the matron that Steed talks
to on his investigation is more mature than the one chosen in the
TV realisation. It seems better casting initially, but she is
impatient and aloof with him. None of the new characters have been
very entertaining this far so that perhaps explains the choice of
the more attractive character for TV. There's great opportunity
with the serial's title for some humour in the regular
announcement about Steed and Mrs Peel at the start. There's a good
one about Steed who "finds some clues that are
not to be sneezed
at". The story adapter surely enjoyed that bit of the work.
Steed gets one up on Mother
regarding the name Timothy. It's nearly bed time so he's maybe
sluggish from a nightcap. Steed goes on his way to visit a colonel
and at one point lifts up the lid of a crate with his umbrella;
good to hear it mentioned! The colonel, whose butler is (as often
is the case in such partnership stories) cleverer than his
'gentleman', is quickly recognised as harmless. In turn, we
realise that his sneezing, just for a change, isn't lethal and
he's probably incapable of being behind it all. This gives a kind
of rest from the main plot and the scene is enjoyably performed at
a leisurely pace by the actor. This is interrupted by the narrator
with a well-timed spooky reminder that "out in the night
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exciting things are still going on. Mother, meanwhile, is using
nothing but sarcastic remarks to Steed in his eccentric management
style. He sounds fuelled by something again; what a job! This
story takes place pretty much indoors and with many night scenes
such as when Steed then goes to do some thinking in his apartment.
The serial's atmosphere is similar to that in a Sherlock Holmes
case.
I bet you will also be pleased
to hear that Mrs Peel's body is lissom ahem or she wouldn't
have got through those bars. When Steed becomes involved again
there's a nice opportunity to mention his bowler hat. Together
with the earlier mention of his umbrella, both his distinguishing
accessories have now appeared; a plus point. Glover's demise makes
an explanation of the tidying-up of the case unnecessary. One of
Mother's agents in
Escape in Time lived to regret the dangers of the job.
Predictably in hindsight, Mother's top agents here only catch a
cold.
Ron Geddes |
