Steed and Tara attend a theatrical magic show that seems oddly familiar to Steed…

For the first part of John Dorney’s script, based on the TV Comic strip that ran between November and December 1969, Steed has a nagging feeling that he’s missing something, and that he’s encountered the villain before. Dorney’s script and Julian Wadham’s performance as Steed put this over so well that I’ve just spent half an hour trying to track down which episode it was, without luck! There’s even a New Avengers-esque flashback to the “episode” in question.

This rematch between Steed and the villain is an extra layer added to the original story, whose beats Dorney follows closely – allowing us to spend yet more time with Christopher Benjamin’s Mother. It’s a shame that this is the last of the stories we’re going to hear from this team for a couple of years (Set 5, featuring Tara and presumably Mother isn’t scheduled till March 2021!), as they’ve got a strong rhythm going between them quickly. Emily Woodward’s Tara is recognisably the character played by Linda Thorson, but given a few little tweaks to make her even more independent than she was on screen – you understand why Steed is dubious that she might have failed at a task.

Nicolas Asbury and Maggie Service have multiple roles and make the cast seem much larger than it actually is, and there’s some fun sound work from Steve Foxon (notably for the ‘disguise’ Steed and Tara adopt) alongside Jamie Robertson’s apt scoring. Ken Bentley brings it all together and ensures that even at its wildest moments, it never quite feels incredible.

Verdict: An enjoyable conclusion to Miss King’s first box set. 9/10

Paul Simpson