Donald and Derek Ford's 'Black Echo' is one of a pair of surviving Season 2 episodes ( the other being 'A Sinister Sort Of Service' ). If it is indicative of the general quality of the season the fact it no longer exists can only be viewed as a tragedy. It opens with a man ( Kenneth Ives ) delivering an oil tanker to a country house. He wanders into the cellar, and sees something which turns his hair white. Adam is summoned to the Bank of England by Beardsley ( Donald Parfitt ) and Sir George ( Peter Bathurst ) who have an interesting problem - an elderly Russian lady purporting to be the 'Grand Duchess Vorokov' wishes to empty her bank account. The amount totals many thousands of pounds. As Adam met the Duchess back in 1901 ( they have a photograph of the occasion ), only he can verify the old lady's identity. At first he refuses the job, but then spots a brooch she is wearing. It belonged to Louise, the girl he once loved and who betrayed him. How did the Duchess come by it? He travels to Mede Hall where she lives with her grand daughter Ireyna ( Judy Parfitt )...
It was Gerald Harper's idea to cast Dame Gladys Cooper in the role of the Duchess, and a splendid, dignified performance she gives too. Of course this episode is important as it sees the return of The Face, the arch-fiend who wears a leather mask at all times and speaks only in a chilling whisper. He was originally to have appeared in the pilot, but Sydney Newman decided to delay his return until the following year. The Face menaced our hero in a number of other Season 2 stories.
Nice direction from Moira Armstrong, one of the few women directors around then. The scene where Miss Jones ventures into the cellar despite Adam's wishes and finds The Face in a refrigerated coffin is genuinely creepy. A major fault in the first run were the often scrappy fight scenes. For Season 2, the stunt team 'Havoc' was brought in, and the results were more impressive. Adam's fight with two whip-wielding cossacks is stunning. 'Havoc' later worked on Jon Pertwee's 'Dr.Who'. Some of the incidental music ( library music possibly ) was used in 'The Prisoner'. The quality of the episode's soundtrack is none too good, unfortunately. I had to watch with the English subtitles on. It was worth the effort though.
Also on B.B.C.-1 this evening - January 5th 1967 - was part one of 'The Highlanders', Patrick Troughton's second 'Dr.Who' adventure, and the one where 'Jamie McCrimmon' ( Fraser Hines ) made his debut, an episode of 'The Monkees' entitled 'Monkey See, Monkey Die', the adventure film 'If I Were King' starring Ronald Colman and Frances Dee, and if you felt like some music and comedy Val Doonican's guests on his show were Roy Hudd and Julie Felix.
It was Gerald Harper's idea to cast Dame Gladys Cooper in the role of the Duchess, and a splendid, dignified performance she gives too. Of course this episode is important as it sees the return of The Face, the arch-fiend who wears a leather mask at all times and speaks only in a chilling whisper. He was originally to have appeared in the pilot, but Sydney Newman decided to delay his return until the following year. The Face menaced our hero in a number of other Season 2 stories.
Nice direction from Moira Armstrong, one of the few women directors around then. The scene where Miss Jones ventures into the cellar despite Adam's wishes and finds The Face in a refrigerated coffin is genuinely creepy. A major fault in the first run were the often scrappy fight scenes. For Season 2, the stunt team 'Havoc' was brought in, and the results were more impressive. Adam's fight with two whip-wielding cossacks is stunning. 'Havoc' later worked on Jon Pertwee's 'Dr.Who'. Some of the incidental music ( library music possibly ) was used in 'The Prisoner'. The quality of the episode's soundtrack is none too good, unfortunately. I had to watch with the English subtitles on. It was worth the effort though.
Also on B.B.C.-1 this evening - January 5th 1967 - was part one of 'The Highlanders', Patrick Troughton's second 'Dr.Who' adventure, and the one where 'Jamie McCrimmon' ( Fraser Hines ) made his debut, an episode of 'The Monkees' entitled 'Monkey See, Monkey Die', the adventure film 'If I Were King' starring Ronald Colman and Frances Dee, and if you felt like some music and comedy Val Doonican's guests on his show were Roy Hudd and Julie Felix.
