A Touch of Brimstone

"A Touch of Brimstone"
The Avengers episode

Screen title
Episode no. Season 4
Episode 21
Written by Brian Clemens
Produced by Brian Clemens and Julian Wintle
Featured music Laurie Johnson
Production code 4-21
Original air date 9 February 1966 (1966-02-09)
Guest actors

A Touch of Brimstone is the twenty-first episode of the fourth series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. It originally aired on ABC on 18 February 1966. The episode was directed by James Hill (known for A Study in Terror and Born Free) and written by Brian Clemens.

The episode is widely known for Diana Rigg's risqué "Queen of Sin" costume (which she designed herself), and was the most watched episode of The Avengers on its original showing. There is a publicity still of the "Queen of Sin" holding James Hill, the episode's director, on a leash.

Plot

The story is episodic, beginning with a series of pranks on fictional important international figures, an exploding cigar and a collapsing floor under a potentate's box seat in an auditorium. Mrs Peel investigates the Honorable John Cleverly Cartney, a suave, womanizing gentleman who appears to be present before, during or after these events. Lord Darcy arrives and informs Cartney that he has arranged another prank. Meanwhile Mrs Peel sneaks into Lord Darcy's place and finds a pair of fake scissors, made of rubber. But real scissors are used by an unnamed, faceless official opening the "International Friendship Club" on an electrified ribbon, killing him, and Steed and Mrs Peel can't arrive in time. The prankster did not expect to be involved in murder, and is distraught. He knows Steed and introduces him to the Hellfire Club, responsible for the pranks. Mrs Peel goes to visit Cartney and discovers he is leading the Hellfire Club, an organization based upon dressing up in old costumes and engaging in orgiastic rituals and which thrives in "ultimate sins" with the purpose to replicate the club as closely as possible.

Darcy arrives and angrily demands a special meeting with the Assembly of Superiors on the "Circle of Justice" asking why they plotted a "filthy rotten murder" and implicated him. The centre of the circle opens as a trapdoor and Darcy is killed. Steed joins the Hellfire Club and is given two tests including drinking an industrial amount of alcohol and removing a pea from the line of an axe wielding member. Steed overhears the gang in leaving and learns that they plan to stage an outrageous coup which will have the "whole country up in arms". Steed and Mrs Peel attend an orgy and investigate, spotting a cache of explosives. Steed questions a drunk girl and is told the gang are aiming to blow up Culverston House where a major international meeting is to take place. Mrs Peel enters in a "Queen of Sin" outfit holding a snake and Cartney says to the group "she's yours to do with what you will". After watching a fight, Darcy's housekeeper recognizes Steed and exposes him to the organization as a spy. He wins the ensuing sword duel against an expert. Mrs Peel goes underground and defeats one of the gang before being attacked with a whip by Cartney, who drops to his death through the circle trapdoor when his whip catches on the switch.

Cast

Production

Production for the episode was completed from mid-late December 1965.[1] The episode was directed by Sidney Hayers, although Tom Stoter states James Hill directed it.[2]

Reception and influence

The episode is best known for the scene in which Peel dons a revealing, kinky[3] "Queen of Sin" costume (which Diana Rigg designed herself), complete with a dog collar with three-inch spikes, whalebone corset, and high leather boots, with a large snake.[4][5] It is the Hellfire club members who dress her this way; she appears for less than ten minutes of show time in this manner, always demure, though ending with Cartney attacking her with a whip. As a result of this and other elements, the episode was not broadcast when The Avengers aired on American network television; it did air on British television, but with the whipping scene edited down to one crack of the whip, due to objections made by Associated-Rediffusion Television. James Chapman said of the episode, "With its visual references to sado-masochistic pornography, 'A Touch of Brimstone' unsurprisingly ran into censorship difficulties with the ITV network; it was not screened in America at all."[6] The episode has been cited as one of Diana Rigg's finest.[7] The members of the Hellfire Club have been described as engaging in "uninhibited debauchery".[8]

This episode was Chris Claremont's inspiration for the Hellfire Club in Marvel Comics' "X-Men", and in particular the story arc in Uncanny X-Men #132-134. Hellfire Club member Jason Wyngarde's name and likeness is based on Peter Wyngarde (who was later known for the role of Jason King).[9]

References

  1. ↑ "A Touch of Brimstone". The Avengers Forever!. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  2. ↑ Soter, Tom (2002). Investigating couples: a critical analysis of The Thin Man, The Avengers, and The X-Files. McFarland. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-7864-1123-8. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  3. ↑ Carruthers, Jo; Tate, Andrew (2010). Spiritual Identities: Literature and the Post-Secular Imagination. Peter Lang. p. 204. ISBN 978-3-03911-925-7. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  4. ↑ Knight, Gladys L. (8 June 2010). Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television. ABC-CLIO. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-313-37612-2. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  5. ↑ White, Ellen Emerson (15 November 2007). Long May She Reign. Macmillan. p. 636. ISBN 978-0-312-36767-1. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  6. ↑ Chapman, James (6 September 2002). Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s. I.B.Tauris. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-86064-753-6. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  7. ↑ Lisanti, Tom; Paul, Louis (2002). Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973. McFarland. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-7864-1194-8. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  8. ↑ Pratt, Douglas (30 November 2004). Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!. UNET 2 Corporation. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-932916-00-3. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  9. ↑ "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #44! | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources". Goodcomics.comicbookresources.com. 2006-03-30. Retrieved 2013-07-23.

External links

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