The Fear Merchants
"The Fear Merchants" | |
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The Avengers episode | |
Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 2 |
Directed by | Gordon Flemyng |
Written by | Philip Levene (teleplay) |
Produced by | Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens, Julian Wintle |
Featured music | Laurie Johnson |
Original air dates |
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Guest appearances | |
"The Fear Merchants" is the second episode of the fifth series of the 1960s cult British
Plot
Meadows, a businessman from
Upon further investigation, Steed and Peel find that Jeremy Raven, the owner of another ceramics company, had written to the executives at the other companies proposing a
The Business Efficiency Bureau is an organisation headed by Pemberton, focused on ruthlessly helping its clients attain their business goals by working against their competitors. The Chief Scientist, Dr Voss, has developed a questionnaire for targets to answer under the innocent guise of 'market research', thus allowing the Bureau to understand their deepest fears and apply them in practice. The scaring incidents are carried out by Pemberton's enforcer, Gilbert, who had been the one to drive Crawley in the car and attack Mrs Peel in White's office after his death. Raven is horrified to discover what the Bureau has been doing and protests that he never meant for them to act so ruthlessly for him. Pemberton dismisses him, leading Raven to try to contact Steed.
The Bureau intercepts Raven's call and dispatches Gilbert to deal with him. Gilbert uses a giant
Gilbert attempts to kill Steed in a quarry but is unsuccessful. The two men fight, and Gilbert is crushed by his own excavator. With Gilbert missing, Pemberton and Voss decide to play along with Steed's cover story and kidnap Mrs Peel, whom Steed had identified as the rival to his cover identity. At the Bureau's headquarters, Pemberton demands Steed's whereabouts from Mrs Peel and threatens to use weaknesses from her questionnaire answers against her. However, the testing determines that Peel has a high fear index, meaning she is not easily scared like the others, and so Pemberton instead resorts to threatening torture. Steed, finding that Peel is gone, heads to the Bureau also.
A confrontation ensues, leading to Steed identifying Pemberton as having a crippling fear of the dark. Steed breaks the lights, and Voss and Pemberton are incapacitated in the subsequent fight. Returning to Mrs Peel's home, Steed and Peel celebrate their victory.
Cast
- Patrick Macnee as John Steed
- Diana Rigg as Emma Peel
- Patrick Cargill as Pemberton
- Brian Wilde as Raven
- Annette Carell as Dr. Voss
- Garfield Morgan as Gilbert
- Andrew Keir as Crawley
- Jeremy Burnham as Gordon White
- Edward Burnham as Meadows
- Bernard Horsfall as Fox
- Ruth Trouncer as Dr. Hill
- Declan Mulholland as Saunders
- Phillip Ross as Hospital Attendant
Production
Declan Mulholland receives screen credit as Saunders, despite his role being brief and non-speaking. Nevertheless, many actors in the series stay uncredited even with larger roles to play.[3]
Reception
According to Television's Greatest Hits, this episode was the top-rated episode for 1967, and ranked second of all The Avengers episodes according to viewer ratings at the time it aired.[4]
References
- ^ "The Fear Merchants". BBC. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
- ^ Johnson, Piers. "Series 5 Episode Guide". The Avengers. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
- ^ "The Fear Merchants". The Avengers Forever!. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- ^ "The Fear Merchants". The Avengers Forever!. Retrieved 28 April 2012.