User Reviews

This episode, later remade in the Diana Rigg era, opens with somebody finding a picture of Cathy Gale and proceeding to cut it up. We then cut to Cathy's flat where Steed arrives and tells her that he has just bought a new car. When she says she has been invited to interview the reclusive Sir Cavalier Rasagne at his remote West Country home, Steed offers to drive her down. Once there they are met by Ola, a young woman who claims to be Sir Cavalier's ward; she is a bit flaky to say the least. She states that Sir Cavalier has been called away but should return that evening. After a quick cup of tea Steed departs. Sometime later the phone rings and Ola says she must go to the village to see a friend who is ill. This leaves Cathy alone until a man rings the doorbell claiming to have car problems and asking to use the phone… which turns out to have been cut. Cathy eventually gets rid of him before things get really creepy; it appears that she isn't alone in the house; a voice torments her… but is it the man she just threw out or somebody else entirely?

When I started watching this I didn't know that it had later been remade but anybody who if familiar with the later episodes will soon find the story very familiar as little was changed. This makes reviewing this a little strange as it is of course the original but I'd seen the remake several times before watching this.

The story gets off to a fine start, the way the unidentified person cuts up the picture of Cathy is distinctly creepy; this sets the tone for the rest of the episode. Once Cathy and Steed get to Sir Cavalier's things continue to feel slightly wrong; this is largely because of Janine Gray's portrayal of Ola, a character who appears to be friendly but is also just slightly off and Kenneth Colley who is menacing, without actually issuing any threats, as the man claiming to have car problems. The house itself also manages to add to the atmosphere. With Steed away for most of the episode Cathy takes centre stage and Honor Blackman does a fine job in the role; we believe that she is a strong, no-nonsense character but also that what is going on is genuinely getting under her skin and frightening her. Overall I really enjoyed this and found it to be a superior episode.

A man, whose face we cannot see, tears a photo of Cathy Gale out of a magazine, and proceeds to slowly, carefully, slice it to ribbons. Obviously we're dealing with a sick mind here...

Steed drops by to invite Cathy for a drive, as he's just bought a new car. New for him; it's the first of Steed's soon-to-be-trademarked "antique roadsters", firmly cementing his image as a man of the past, to contrast Cathy as a woman of the future (leather outfits, automatic sliding door in her apartment). In connection with some magazine articles she's written, Cathy's received an invitation to spend the weekend at a country estate of a well-known recluse. Steed drops her off, but not before encountering a very bizarre young woman named "Ola" who claims to be an actress (in training). It seems her host was called away, and soon, Cathy's all alone in a big, dark, spooky mansion "at the end of the world". Except-- the house isn't as empty as it seems.

If this all sounds familiar to US viewers, it's because it was remade 2 years later on film in color with Diana Rigg (& the amazing Peter Jeffrey), as "The Joker". That's long been one of my all-time favorite AVENGERS episodes, and it was a bit of a surprise, albeit a pleasant and interesting one, to learn it was a remake of an earlier story. Several stories in Season 5 (6 of them, I believe) were remakes of 2nd or 3rd-season stories (none of which had ever been seen in the US until the early 1990's), but most do tend to be not as good as the originals, despite being done on film, in color, and with much bigger budgets. "The Joker" is an exception. I do like "Don't Look Behind You", but it does seem to be lacking in a few areas compared to the remake. Both were written by Brian Clemens, who became one of the producers (as well as head writer) with the 4th season.

Among the tiny guest cast are Janine Gray, who soon after went to America to guest on several TV shows, including the pilot episode of GET SMART!, a show very much influenced by THE AVENGERS. Of all the US spy shows which featured 2 main heroes, GET SMART was the only one where the "sidekick" was a woman, who usually proved smarter and more capable than the main, male, hero.

Also in bizarre form as the rambling, annoying stranger who Cathy physically ejects from the house (eventually), is Kenneth Colley, who more than 15 years later turned up in both THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI as one of the only Imperial Commanding Officers who Darth Vader DIDN'T get around to killing.

As with the remake, Steed shows up again at the end (I suppose Patrick Macnee got a short vacation out of this story), but in a quite different fashion. And Cathy is all too quick to jump to conclusions and believe the absolute worst about Steed. I suppose he deserves it, but in this case, she was wrong. Oh well, I've never seen Mrs. Gale get so stressed out as in this story, I suppose her snapping at Steed was excusable.

A stylistic "sequel" to this story was done the following year (once more in B&W), when Mrs. PEEL found herself trapped in another big, dark, spooky mansion "at the end of the world". Only, in that case, it was with a decidedly science-fiction bent, and the story was "The House That Jack Built". (Of course, for US audiences, "Jack" would be the "original", and "The Joker" the sort-of sequel. If you see what I mean.)

Addendum (2-28-2023) I see this was filmed 59th but held back to 64th. Strange as the previous one in production order, "Man With Two Shadows", was 58th but pushed forward to 55th. This is noticably where Steed gets his 1st antique car, going in the opposite direction of James Bond, who between his 2nd & 3rd movies went from a classic Bentley to the latest Aston Martin. Watching the DVDs now in production order, it'll be interesting to take note of whether this "new" car actually appeared on British screens before it was introduced. (My memory suggests the entire filmed insert of Steed & Cathy driving in the car was CUT by A&E in the 90s. I've seen this multiple times, and I don't remember that sequence at all!)

The 2010 Studio Canal Region 2 DVD has clear picture AND sound (yay!), and comes with a brief introduction by both Honor Blackman and Patrick Macnee. I have to agree with the assessment that Peter Hammond may have been the series' finest director, especially impressive given that this studio-bound videotaped production was virtually "recorded live". Production designer Terry Green also worked an absolute MIRACLE on this story's set, a huge mansion interior that stretched across multiple rooms and two floors, all clearly connected as is obvious from the camera-work panning from one room to another. This may be the single most-impressive episode of the first 3 seasons.

Funny bit of insane trivia: in June 1963, Marvel Comics debuted their "JLA"-style team book, "The Avengers", oblivious (?) that they were swiping the name of an already-existing TV series. On July 5 of that year (perhaps only a week or so later), this episode was recorded, featuring a main villain, "Martin Goodman", who shared the name of Marvel's 3rd-rate publisher, whose career consisted mainly of ripping off existing trends and flooding the market with imitations. (What a thing to take notice of!)

It looked early in the ep like it would be the story of Cathy and that twenty-one year old ( ?) staying in the house but the latter goes off early to see a sick friend of hers. This is not too bad because the totally beautiful Honor Blackman is there to carry the rest of the ep ( besides the lady who left was not quite beautiful just pretty enough and we got ten minutes of her to admire her own good looks).

This ep has a lot of coincidences. Did that stalking guy of an old acquaintance of Cathy's rig that sick friend bit for the other lady to get her out of there or was the sick friend actual. Did that hip guy show up on purpose ( did he work for Steed's side?) or was he also a coincidence? What was Steed really doing in all this? Not of all this is explained but with a beautiful lady and a pretty lady having a lot to do in it we don't care!

PS Enough of this overstated comparison jazz!

*Spoiler/plot- "Don't look behind you", 1962, Mrs. Gale is invited to a mysterious old house for a weekend and nothing is as it should be. A man is seeking revenge for his past arrest by her plans on killing her underestimating Steed's impeccable timing and intuition.

*Special Stars- Honor Blackman, Patrick MacNee

*Theme- Stately old homes are sometimes death traps.

*Trivia/location/goofs- An early popular and classic Mrs. Cathy Gale episode. Look for the first appearance of leather clothing worn by Mrs. Gale.

*Emotion- An enjoyable and rather highly stylized British spy TV show that shows us the era of the 60's very well.