The Forget-Me-Knot

Last updated

"The Forget-Me-Knot"
The Avengers episode
Episode no.Season 6
Episode 1
Directed by James Hill
Written by Brian Clemens (teleplay)
Featured music Laurie Johnson
Original air dates
  • 20 March 1968 (1968-03-20) (ABC, US)
  • 25 September 1968 (Thames, UK)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Mission: Highly Improbable"		Next →
"Game"
List of episodes

"The Forget-Me-Knot" is the first episode of the sixth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers , starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and introducing Linda Thorson as Tara King. Its first broadcast was on the US ABC network on 20 March 1968 (half way through the third US season). Its first UK broadcast was on 25 September 1968 by Thames Television, who commissioned this series of the show for the ITV network. [1] The episode was directed by James Hill, and written by Brian Clemens.

Contents

Plot

Agent Sean Mortimer arrives at Steed's flat with what appears to be a severe case of amnesia. Crucially, Mortimer does remember that there is a traitor in the organisation. Steed then goes to the leader of their organisation with George Burton, a fellow spy, "Mother", who is a man in a wheelchair, and reports that the missing Mortimer has been found. But when Steed goes back to his flat he finds Mortimer missing and Mrs Peel only remembering partial things, so Steed reports this to "Mother", who requests that Mrs Peel be brought to him, and so Steed tells her that they are visiting a "Professor Mater" for a party, and that Mater works on anthropology, which Mrs Peel is interested in.

Steed's car is ambushed on the road, and he gets shot with a peculiar device by two men, and Mrs. Peel is taken to "the glass house", where she meets Mortimer again, whose memory has been taken again. Mrs. Peel and Mortimer attempt to figure out their names by what they remember, but fail (at first Mrs. Peel and Mortimer call themselves "Steed" and "Peel" respectively). Meanwhile, Steed wakes up in a hospital, being treated by a doctor who thinks he is just drunk, but, managing to escape, he finds Tara King's address in his shoe (he had met her when visiting "Mother" earlier, and slipped her address into it). He goes to her house, and she tells him his name and address, but while he goes back to his flat and tries to remember things (Mrs Peel's face keeps flashing through his mind) Tara is shot with the peculiar device which lost Steed his memory, and she cannot remember that she knows Steed's innocence of being the traitor, but just that he is a suspect for it.

Steed remembers "Mother"'s address, and goes to it, but is met by Burton. Steed says that he can remember he was ambushed, and that Mrs Peel was sent to "the glass house", which he then remembers was his old training facility. Steed goes to it, accompanied by a seemingly sceptical Burton, who gives him directions to it. But Steed, who remembers that Burton entered the organisation after "the glass house" was closed, and realises that Burton is the traitor. Burton attempts to get away, but Mrs Peel, who remembers, escapes in the nick of time with Mortimer, whose memory has been taken yet again, and shoots Burton so that he does not remember he was trying to get away.

Shortly afterwards, John Steed learns from a newspaper that unexpectedly Emma Peel's long-lost husband, the air ace Peter Peel, has been found alive in the Amazonian jungle, so Mrs Peel is leaving. She gets in a car with a man who looks very much like Steed, and drives off, while Tara comes up to Steed's flat, revealing she is his new partner.

Cast

Production

"The Forget-Me-Knot" was not originally part of the planned sixth season of The Avengers. Having decided to cast Linda Thorson as Steed's new sidekick Tara King, producer John Bryce had started filming episodes with the character already in place and - as with her predecessors - no introduction. However Bryce was fired midway through production of the third episode, and the previous series producers, Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens, were re-hired. Clemens abandoned the episode whose production was underway (entitled "The Great, Great Britain Crime", scenes of which were later salvaged for the episode entitled "Homicide and Old Lace"). Instead, he decided that there needed to be a continuity explanation for the replacement of Mrs Peel by Tara King, and set about hastily developing a storyline which would account for this. Diana Rigg's scenes were shot in four days in December 1967 with production completed the following month. A "handover" scene featuring both characters was filmed on the last day of Rigg's contract with ABC Television on 19 December 1967. [2]

As this episode features both Peel from Series 5 and King from Series 6, some releases and some reference books treat this episode as the 25th episode of Series 5, even though that is not how it was originally broadcast in the UK. [1] The opening credits remain the same as that of Series 5, while the closing credits utilize the sequence from early episodes of Series 6; as a result, audiences would have to wait until the first full Tara King episode's opening credits to learn why Steed's hat has a hole in it, as shown in the closing (at least in the U.S.; the original UK broadcasts used a different opening, so viewers there never found out until later broadcast/home media release). Also, while Diana Rigg is credited in the opening, she does not receive screen credit during the closing as she did previously.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Avengers</i> (TV series) British espionage television series (1961–1969)

The Avengers is a British espionage television series that aired from 7 January 1961 to 21 April 1969. It initially focused on David Keel, aided by John Steed. Ian Hendry left after the first series; Steed then became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. His most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish, and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel, and Tara King. Dresses and suits for the series were made by Pierre Cardin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Peel</span> Character in the television series The Avengers

Emma Peel is a fictional character played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers, and by Uma Thurman in the 1998 film version. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight. She is the crime-fighting partner of John Steed.

"A Touch of Brimstone" is the twenty-first episode of the fourth series of the 1960s British spy television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. It was filmed c. December 1965, and was first broadcast on British television on 15 February 1966. The episode was directed by James Hill and written by Brian Clemens. The plot involves Steed and Peel infiltrating the Hellfire Club whilst investigating harmful pranks on high profile political and business figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Steed</span> Character in The Avengers

Major The Hon. John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed usually known as John Steed, is a fictional character and the central protagonist on the 1960s British spy series The Avengers and its 1970s sequel The New Avengers, played by Patrick Macnee in both; by Donald Monat in the South-African radio series adaptation of The Avengers; by Ralph Fiennes in the 1998 film of the same name and by Julian Wadham in various audio adventures from Big Finish Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tara King</span> Character from the TV series The Avengers

Tara King is a fictional character of British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers, played by Canadian actress Linda Thorson. The sixth partner of agent John Steed, she appeared in series six of the series (1968–1969), playing in 33 episodes. She is Emma Peel's successor. She is also the first of John Steed's partners to be a real spy. Viewers are not given any indication whether or not she is related to Dr. Martin King — played by Jon Rollason — one of Steed's partners from series 2.

<i>The New Avengers</i> (TV series) British TV drama series (1976–1977)

The New Avengers is a secret agent action television series produced during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series The Avengers and was developed by original series producers Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hour That Never Was</span> 9th episode of the 4th season of The Avengers

"The Hour That Never Was" is the ninth episode of the fourth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. It was first broadcast by Scottish Television on Tuesday 23 October 1965. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show, broadcast it in its own regions four days later on Saturday 27 October. The episode was directed by Gerry O'Hara and written by Roger Marshall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Cybernauts</span> 3rd episode of the 4th season of The Avengers

"The Cybernauts" is the third episode of the fourth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. It was first broadcast by Scottish Television on Tuesday 12 October 1965. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show, broadcast it in its own regions four days later on Saturday 16 October. The episode was directed by Sidney Hayers and written by Philip Levene.

A Surfeit of H<sub>2</sub>O 8th episode of the 4th season of The Avengers

"A Surfeit of H2O" is the eighth episode of the fourth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. It was first broadcast by Scottish Television on Tuesday 16 November 1965. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show, broadcast it in its own regions four days later on Saturday 20 November 1965. The episode was directed by Sidney Hayers and written by Colin Finbow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Town of No Return</span> 1st episode of the 4th season of The Avengers

"The Town of No Return" is the first episode of the fourth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg in her Avengers debut, and guest starring Alan MacNaughton, Patrick Newell, Terence Alexander. It was first broadcast on ABC Weekend TV on 28 September 1965. The episode was written by Philip Levene, directed by Sidney Hayers, and produced by Brian Clemens.

What the Butler Saw (<i>The Avengers</i>) 22nd episode of the 4th season of The Avengers

"What the Butler Saw" is the twenty-second episode of the fourth series of the 1960s British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. It was first broadcast by Scottish Television on Tuesday 22 February 1966. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show, broadcast it in its own regions four days later on Saturday 26 February. The episode was directed by Bill Bain and written by Philip Levene.

"The Fear Merchants" is the second episode of the fifth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and guest starring Patrick Cargill, Brian Wilde, Annette Carell, and Garfield Morgan. It was first broadcast in the Southern region of the ITV network on Monday 16 January 1967. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show for ITV, broadcast it in its own regions five days later on Saturday 21 January. The episode was directed by Gordon Flemyng, and written by Philip Levene.

"The Bird Who Knew Too Much" is the fifth episode of the fifth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and guest starring Ron Moody, Ilona Rodgers, Kenneth Cope, and Michael Coles. It was first broadcast in the Southern and Tyne Tees regions of the ITV network on Wednesday 8 February 1967. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show for ITV, broadcast it in its own regions three days later on Saturday 11 February. The episode was directed by Roy Rossotti, and written by Brian Clemens.

"The Winged Avenger" is the sixth episode of the fifth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and guest starring Nigel Green, Colin Jeavons, Jack MacGowran, and Neil Hallett. It was first broadcast in the Southern and Tyne Tees regions of the ITV network on Wednesday 15 February 1967. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show for ITV, broadcast it in its own regions three days later on Saturday 18 February. The episode was written by Richard Harris, and directed by Gordon Flemyng & Peter Duffell.

The Living Dead (<i>The Avengers</i>) 7th episode of the 5th season of The Avengers

"The Living Dead" is the seventh episode of the fifth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and guest starring Julian Glover, Pamela Ann Davy, Howard Marion-Crawford, and Jack Woolgar. It was first broadcast in the Southern and Tyne Tees regions of the ITV network on Wednesday 22 February 1967. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show for ITV, broadcast it in its own regions three days later on Saturday 25 February. The episode was directed by John Krish, and written by Brian Clemens.

"The Correct Way to Kill" is the ninth episode of the fifth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and guest starring Anna Quayle, Michael Gough, Philip Madoc, and Terence Alexander. It was first broadcast in the Southern and Tyne Tees regions of the ITV network on Wednesday 8 March 1967. ABC Weekend Television, who commissioned the show for ITV, broadcast it in its own regions three days later on Saturday 11 March. The episode was directed by Charles Crichton, and written by Brian Clemens.

"Have Guns — Will Haggle" is the twelfth episode of the sixth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Linda Thorson. Its first broadcast was on the US ABC network on 1 May 1968. Its first UK broadcast was on 11 December 1968 by Thames Television, who commissioned this series of the show for the ITV network. The episode was directed by Ray Austin, and written by Donald James.

"The Morning After" is the eighteenth episode of the sixth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Linda Thorson. Its first broadcast was in the ATV region of the ITV network on Friday 10 January 1969. Thames Television, who commissioned this series of the show for ITV, broadcast it in its own region 19 days later on Wednesday 29 January. The episode was directed by John Hough, and written by Brian Clemens.

John Bryce is a Scottish former television producer. He is best known for his work on the 1960s series The Avengers.

References

  1. 1 2 Johnson, Piers. "Series 6 Episode Guide". The Avengers. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  2. ↑ Rogers, Dave (1995) The Ultimate Avengers, Boxtree
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.