Found wandering in a snowy field Helen Pritchard claims to have seen a man who was supposed to have been a corpse but was very much alive. This leads Steed to investigate the Happy Meadows funeral parlour and the cheery Mr. Bagpipes Happychap. Unfortunately the undertakers seem unable to keep their 'stiffs' from walking and Steed has to arrange his own funeral in order to find out more, though ultimately he and Miss King do get a send-off that is out of this world! A young woman ( Sally Nesbitt ) wanders dazedly across a snow-covered field, wearing nothing but a nightie. She remembers little of who she is or how she got there. Steed and Tara investigate. The girl - Helen Pritchard - was thrown off a train by Jonathan Jupp ( John Sharp ) whom she saw rising out of a coffin. Jupp is interred at Happy Meadows cemetery, an exclusive burial ground for the rich, run by the wonderfully-named 'Bagpipes Happychap' ( Roy Kinnear ). Jupp's coffin is dug up, and he is still in it. He was one of a number of businessmen who recently 'died' whilst under investigation by the Fraud Squad. Steed has all the other coffins exhumed - they are empty! <br/><br/>This final episode is a reworking of 'The Terribly Happy Embalmers', which Clemens wrote for the B.B.C.'s 'Avengers' rival 'Adam Adamant Lives!'. It also has a touch of Evelyn Waugh's 'The Loved One' ( a satirical novel about the commercialisation of death ). Not a great episode admittedly, but still fun. Alongside Kinnear we have Fulton ( 'Porridge' ) Mackay as the 'Master' of Mystic Tours, which for a large fee will fake your death and allow you to live out the rest of your days in an underground chamber full of beautiful girls! George Innes and Ron Pember play a couple of hired hoods named ( respectively ) 'Shaw' and 'Charley'.<br/><br/>Though the show was still popular in Britain, in the States it was beaten in the ratings by 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'. As if to acknowledge that this was indeed the end, the 'tag scene' has Steed and Tara blasting off in a do-it-yourself rocket! On the ground, Mother addresses the audience: "They'll be back…you can depend on it! They're unchaperoned up there!".<br/><br/>Repeats kept the show in the public eye for some time to come, and the 'T.V. Comic' version lasted until 1972! In 1975, Macnee and Thorson did indeed come back, reunited for a French champagne commercial, which directly led to 'The New Avengers'. It was sad that Linda never got another season as she was beginning to settle into the role. Clemens has a very high opinion of the Thorson series, claiming it had more good scripts than any other. When Macnee watched them in the mid-'90's ( when researching his book 'The Avengers & Me' ), he said they came as a revelation, being better than he'd remembered. Despite a few clunkers, the series is worthy of a major reevaluation.<br/><br/>If you are reading this, Linda - thanks! "Bizarre" is one episode that just seems flat to me, as in the writing, cast and the production department sensed that the show was ending and it shows on the screen with a somewhat interesting story that arrives at an obvious conclusion. Actors that look a little depressed knowing it's all coming to an end and sets that look like sets instead of even attempting a realistic look.<br/><br/>Still, it does have a few moments of spark, if only the final scene where Tara gets her wish to blast off alone with Steed. One curious development is how Rhonda, Mother's loyal, towering and silent assistant, disappears halfway through the episode for no obvious reason except that she must have gotten her pink slip early.<br/><br/>"Bizarre" is not the way "The Avengers" should have ended, but I get the sense that everyone knew this remarkable show was ending and sadly it shows a little too much.
Leshohaiwe replied
295 weeks ago