User Reviews

When Mrs Peel's childhood friend, Major Paul Croft returns to the country she accompanies him to his new house near the picturesque village of Little Storping. His old colleague Pvt Forbes has gone ahead and introduced himself to the locals at the village pub; when he goes to the house to start the unpacking two locals follow; he thinks they are going to help but they start smashing the major's property. When Mrs Peel and Paul arrive they see the smashed items but there is no sign of Forbes. Paul is furious; assuming he has got drunk he heads into town and goes to the pub. Meanwhile Mrs Peel finds Forbes… dead! Before she can do anything she is knocked out by an unseen assailant. She awakes in town with the locals telling her that she hit her head in a car crash. She knows they are lying but accompanies the doctor thinking he can be trusted; she soon learns he can't be and must flee from the villages… who have a helicopter!

As the 'Emma Peel period' of 'The Avengers' approaches its end it is nice to see her take the lead in a really good episode. The idea of a sleepy village where the locals are assassins is original and a lot of fun… this was set up perfectly in the opening scene when two men playing dominoes don't bat an eyelid when somebody is gunned down just yards from them. The story mixes the series trademark humour with darker moments; in one seen we see a killer putting a silencer on his pistol as one can't make a noise in the library and then Mrs Peel learns of her friend's death and must flee from some genuinely threatening villagers. There are some flaws of course… when she calls Steed it takes him a shockingly long time to cotton on that something is wrong despite her asking how they children are! Still it is an amusing scene so can be forgiven. The Hertfordshire village of Aldbury, renamed Little Storping in the show, is a great setting; it is hard to imaging such a charming village being a hotbed of murder which is what make it so perfect. Diana Rigg puts in a great performance as Mrs Peel; showing more emotion than usual as it is a friend of her characters who is killed. The guest actors who play the villagers are good too; some of the most menacing villains the series has had. Overall a top quality episode; Avengers at its best.

A childhood friend of Mrs Peel's, Major Paul Croft (Eric Flynn) has gone missing. The trail leads her to the picturesque English village of Little Storping In The Swuff ("I've never heard of it") where Croft had bought a house. Mrs Peel soon discovers that all is not well behind the surface of sleepy village life, its well trimmed hedges and charming country cottages. For a fat fee anybody can be bumped off in Little Storping as the entire population specialise in arranging the perfect murders, the victim is lured into town, the crime is committed and the villagers cover up all traces and swear that the killer and victim were never in the vicinity at the time. Mrs Peel learns that Major Croft and his manservant, Private Forbes (Norman Chappell), were murdered by the villagers to prevent them from revealing Little Storping's deadly secret. Emma herself is overpowered and tortured on the dunking stool and imprisoned in a Chastity belt before Steed can arrive and turn the tables on the village of killers.

Overall, Murdersville is a highly enjoyable episode with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek. We have all heard of small isolated communities that don't welcome strangers but practically none that go to the lengths of bumping them off! There is a delightfully absurd climax in the village library where Steed and Mrs Peel subdue the villagers who are armed with twelve-bore shotguns with - guess what? - custard pies! The publicity tag line for this episode was "Emma Marries Steed Steed Becomes A Father", this is because Emma is forced to telephone Steed whom she tells the villagers is her husband and who could trace her to Little Storping. They get her to tell him that she is in Sailsbury thus clearing them from suspicion when they get rid of her. Before she hangs up she says "Kiss little Albert for me and Gordon, Julian and baby Brian" in order to heighten the illusion that he is her husband. Naturally Steed thinks that Mrs Peel has been "soaking up too much grape juice" before he eventually realises that it is a call for help. Another amusing moment is when Steed breaks into the museum to free Mrs Peel from the Chastity belt following his encounter in the pub, "The landlord is very inhospitable, he came at me with a twelve-bore and I did not even criticise the beer."

The basic plot itself works as a thriller in its own right with the rural setting heightening the tension in that all the small town's sinister double meanings pop through now and again and I could see it working in extended form as a perfect installment of Midsomer Murders.

But while there is much to enjoy here the film still has its flaws. For instance, with the exception of Colin Blakely, there are no actors among the supporting cast who stand out, everybody gives perfectly adequate performances but most of them are rather indifferent and seem to just go through the motions. In addition, the sub-plot of Major Paul Croft being an old childhood friend of Mrs Peel's is an interesting one but as he is killed off very early on into the episode, it is not sufficiently developed and we get to see very little of the emotional side of her character.

All in all, Murdersville will offer Avengers fans much to enjoy with some amusing chemistry between Steed and Mrs Peel and the plot is a good one. But the supporting cast could have been better and the sub-plot involving Mrs Peel and Major Croft needed a lot more development.

"Murdersville," nearing the end of the Emma Peel era, continues the trend of high quality with an incredible tale of greed and evil. Emma accompanies her old childhood friend, Major Paul Croft (Eric Flynn), on a journey to find his new home in an isolated community called Little-Storping-on-the-Swuff (a location already familiar from "Dead Man's Treasure"). Unfortunately, the inhabitants make new arrivals feel most unwelcome, killing off both Croft and his friend, Private Forbes (Norman Chappell, "Dance with Death," "Dead of Winter," "The Gilded Cage," "Dial a Deadly Number," "Fog"), who is stunned to see two townsmen casually destroying all their belongings. At first, Mrs. Peel is made to believe that her missing friends were never in the tiny village, but soon they have to bring out the helicopter to capture the elusive Avenger, who finally confesses that the only other person who knows where she is is her husband John (Steed!) Certainly one of the most startling, and elaborate, of the entire series, featuring the one and only occasion when Emma strikes back in anger (almost killing her foe with a telephone), having discovered the corpse of her dear friend, silently mouthing his name. Familiar faces abound, such as John Ronane ("Take Me to Your Leader"), John Sharp ("Traitor in Zebra" and "Bizarre"), Robert Cawdron ("A Taste of Brimstone"), Irene Bradshaw ("One for the Mortuary" and "The Golden Eggs"), Geoffrey Colville ("Concerto"), Andrew Laurence ("You'll Catch Your Death"), and unbilled Hilary Dwyer, leading lady of 1968's "Witchfinder General," 1969's "The Oblong Box," and 1970's "Cry of the Banshee."

Easy plot to recall. Mrs. Peel and her lifelong friend ( now lover?) the Major Croft go off to see his new house he bought and they get kidnapped by very crooked formerly honest small town folk. Comments and questions. Interesting how Mrs. Peel ends in an incredible adventure incidental to her job as amateur spy. What's more since the Major was big in the UK Army would a bunch of army personnel be in the area soon looking for him? Would Steed have been smarter ( and was he capable?) to have recruited some fellow spy help to rescue Mrs. Peel rather than coming all alone.

Guest Sheila Fearn is blonde and highly attractive as Jennifer the crooked town's twentyish barmaid. She is a top notch guest in this. Excellent casting decision.

"The Avengers" had a few rules it (mostly) followed. For instance, Steed never carried a gun, though he used one in several episodes. The city streets were always empty. And, most of all, in nearly every episode during its wonderful Mrs. Peel years, most deaths were casual and rarely brought more than an arched eyebrow and an even more arch comment from our heroes.

"Murdersville" takes a different tack. In the teaser opening it seems like it's taken this lack of interest in murder to extreme. But soon one of the victims in the Murdersville town is actually a lifelong friend of Mrs. Peel. When he's killed, it's a serious matter. And Mrs. Peel makes it her duty to find out what happened and why, uncovering secrets about this town that befit an episode of "The Avengers."

Unfortunately, the serious tone doesn't sit well with some fans, and it makes the rowdies chasing Mrs. Peel in a helicopter more depraved than the usual run of their villains.

A good episode, but watch with the caveat that this episode takes a serious tone, though it has enough humor to satisfy most.

Except for a decent ending with some good lines by Steed, this is one of the worst Emma Peel episodes. The villains are unpleasant without being at all interesting (especially the two rustics), and the action makes no sense from start to finish. If you are running a criminal operation like Little Storping, you would keep a low profile, rather than calling attention to yourself by pointlessly smashing people's possessions. And what kept them from killing the four dissenters, rather than locking them in a makeshift dungeon? Worst of all, why didn't Mrs. Peel hightail it back to London to get help from Steed as soon as she found Croft dead (or even sooner, after she came to after the fake crash, since she had already seen Forbes dead)? Clearly her car was still working, since she followed the doctor to his surgery.