For this month’s retrospective, I turn to The Avengers 1965 episode ”Dial a Deadly Number.” Originally aired in the UK on December 3, 1965, this episode is, by far, one of the cleverest and most sharply written episodes in its entire history.

The story begins with the murder of a company chairmen. The murder weapon? A new-fangled “bleeper” device–an early pager that “bleeped” whenever the user was needed at the office. We see a skulky man with a pencil mustache bump into the businessman, exchange his bleeper with a different one, and then call a number on the telephone. The numbers communicate to the doctored bleeper device, and releases a long, capillary needle straight into the heart. This deceased businessman is the latest in a string of unrelated murders of company chairmen, upon whose deaths their company stocks plummet. And yet none of these companies are being taken over.

While Emma Peel investigates the bleeper devices, John Steed makes a series of personal calls — to bankers, brokers and investors. Their professional paths all interconnect, and they form a sort of Machiavellian old boys’ club. A lot of financial jargon is bandied about, including a put option, and Steed discovers that this tactic is a way one could make loads of money off of someone else’s financial failure. (The money dialogue goes over my head, and I share Steed’s sentiment: “Complex and definitely not for the amateur.”) The how and why have been sorted. Now it’s a matter of figuring out who is behind the murders.

There are wine tasting duels, attempted murder by motorcycle, sherry and biscuits, bicycle pump guns and enough pub scenes to make my microbrew-loving heart melt.

read more »