The Secret Service – 3. The Feathered Spies

An experimental aircraft means we have a relatively happy special effects department this week. The XK4 looks like every futuristic aircraft from Joe 90 has been smushed together. We can see that the World Air Force triangle motif seen in Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 has been carried over to The Secret Service with both the sign for the Crayfield Experimental Flight Establishment and the aircraft itself… except the symbol is flipped around on the XK4 so we have to deduct marks for that. The fact that the World Air Force even exists in The Secret Service is something of an oddity seeing as the series is supposed to be set around 1969 (present day for the production) when such a futuristic concept as a global military didn’t exist. Interestingly, Tony Barwick’s original script specifies that this is a “Royal Air Force” base so perhaps the effects department were once again not paying particularly close attention to the finer details and slapped the World Air Force badge where it wasn’t wanted…

Also, who the heck is going around calling it an Experimental Flight Establishment? It’s an airfield. Pure and simple.

Up in the conveniently signposted Observation Room on the fifth floor, an agent is fretting about security with a ridiculously over the top air force officer. Seriously, this guy doesn’t understand how to use his indoor voice. The Agent, who goes unnamed in the episode, longs for the days of “foreign little agents in black hats” but apparently espionage and security breaches have come along way since those glory days. I imagine the black hats are now available in a range of colours and the foreign agents come in all different shapes and sizes.

The finished episode drops a few establishing shots from the beginning of the original script which would have shown Masden with his piegons. Instead, we’re introduced to Masden’s home at this ever-so-slightly later point. The script specifies that the house should be “White Plains” and that the car parked outside should be “Rolls PGU 1E” which, funnily enough, was the Rolls Royce owned by Gerry Anderson himself, and which later popped up in The Protectors. However, Gerry’s car was dark blue, rather than silver as we can see here. Meanwhile, the house which appears on-screen is on Manor Lane in Gerrards Cross, and yes, it did indeed belong to the Andersons.

Inside the well to-do home, John Masden (aka Captain Ochre) is developing some photographs. Bizarrely, he appears to have pinched the massive red clock from the desalination plants seen in last week’s episode, A Question of Miracles.

Oof, that cheeky so-and-so has pictures of the XK4! As Tony Barwick brilliantly points out in his script, “The music helps tell us there has been a security breach.” On that bombshell, the opening titles kick in. Quite an intriguing pre-titles sequence I have to say!

Later, Masden is clearly irritated as he takes an unwanted telephone call. What a lovely little rotary phone prop that is. This brief conversation has been moved forward in the script and was originally intended to appear before Masden and De Groot’s second meeting. Presumably it was felt that we needed to learn the frosty nature of Masden’s association with De Groot at the beginning of the episode, rather than partway through. It also serves to build up tension since we haven’t actually met De Groot yet.

Masden thunders down the road late at night… although the unconvincing day-for-night location shooting makes it look like a slightly overcast daytime shot. We’re at Burnham Beeches again, a popular filming location for this series and basically any television series made at the time which required driving shots. The script is once again keen to highlight that Masden is supposed to be driving Gerry Anderson’s own PGU 1E Rolls Royce. Barwick was likely imagining that it would be far cheaper for the production to use one of their own fancy cars rather than hiring one for the shoot. In practice, Gerry was probably too busy driving his Rolls to Pinewood Studios at the time making Doppelganger to let the location unit for The Secret Service borrow it. Instead, Masden is driving a Mercedes and the episode’s dialogue was updated accordingly.

The Mercedes owner? None other than Reg Hill, Executive Producer of The Secret Service. Thank you to Age P Bird for providing this photograph to confirm!

Ultimately, driving around in country lanes became the primary function of Ken Turner’s location unit on The Secret Service, and The Feathered Spies is the first indication that the production was gaining confidence with how best to utilise live-action in tandem with puppets and models. As we cut back and forth between the Masden puppet and his real-life car, it all starts to integrate together fairly well. It’s still a little bit odd, there’s no getting away from that, but there’s a certain filmmaking vocabulary which is being developed here that the viewer can subconsciously accept so long as it’s standardised. If a particular car is always shown in live-action while a particular character is always shown as a puppet, it’s much easier for us to engage with, provided that the car isn’t suddenly a model for a couple of shots, or that a puppet is suddenly a real person intermittently. Of course, there are still plenty of instances coming up in the series where things do get messy, but overall I think we’re starting to see the style settle down a bit.

Masden arrives at his destination as the episode’s title is revealed and completely gives away the twist in the plot. A Jaguar Mark 2 is already parked outside the house. Curiously, the script is once again very specific that Masden’s “Rolls pulls up outside, close to camera, so that the number plate is clearly seen.” Either Tony Barwick was incredibly keen to get Gerry’s Rolls Royce clearly identifiable on the television, or, more likely, he wanted to get across quite clearly what Masden’s number plate said so that Unwin and Matthew could recognise it later. The house is described in the script as “small and isolated.” I agree it’s isolated but I don’t know about small. I guess houses in the Buckinghamshire countryside don’t really come in a small size.

Apparently De Groot and his colleague, Carl, don’t know how to invest in a decent, matching pair of curtains.

Just in case it wasn’t blindingly obvious we were in the south of England, De Groot has a big map on his wall to spell it out for us. Locations marked include an empty field just outside Brighton, Goodwood Aerdrome in Chichester, and a tiny village called Cowden in Kent. The connection between these three locations? Bog all.

Masden makes his distaste for the small hours of the morning known, which gives the smooth-talking De Groot the opportunity to show us his slimey, cheerful demeanour while manipulating his power over Masden. The photographs of the XK4 we saw earlier are presented and the characters exchange some false farewells. I love this scene. David Healy is doing everything he can in his performance as De Groot to make our collective skins crawl whilst maintaining this air of authority over the situation. Meanwhile, Jeremy Wilkin as John Masden is blunt and refuses to rise to De Groot’s hidden attempts to break him. It’s a moment which, honestly, would have been conveyed better with live-action. Facial expressions and precise glances from the actors could just elevate the dramatic tension that little bit further. Don’t get me wrong, I think for puppets, the performances are still excellent. But this sort of thing is an indication that the likes of Tony Barwick were now writing with more nuanced, human performances in mind.

Carl, the sort of rough and tumble chap who wears a leather trench coat and rollneck jumper indoors, wishes Masden would cheer up a bit.

De Groot is kind enough to let us know that Masden is being blackmailed, just in case any of us watching at home were under the delusion that the guy was a real wrong’un. De Groot is very happy with his new photographs of the XK4 and is keen to celebrate the fact that they were taken a couple of hundred feet above a maximum security airbase. Of course, we don’t know exactly what De Groot’s intentions are at this stage but we can assume he’s probably not the sort of person who collects pictures of planes just for kicks.

Over at BISHOP HQ… no wait, it can’t be British Intelligence Service Headquarters Operation Priest Headquarters, that would be silly. Anyway, in the Bishop’s office, the Agent we met earlier has arrived with a copy of De Groot’s map with the same picturesque locations around southern England marked. We still aren’t told what the point of this map is. The script specifies that it’s supposed to show us Crayfield, home of the XK4. Apparently the props department didn’t get that memo and just decided to pick three random locations to mark instead.

De Groot is selling the XK4 photographs on the International espionage market… which is a bit like eBay but to make a purchase you have to be the sort of rough and tumble chap who wears a leather trench coat and rollneck jumper indoors.

An error in the script causes the Bishop to refer to the airfield as “Crayford” despite the sign at the beginning clearly calling it “Crayfield.” If only someone had clearly identified it on a map we wouldn’t be having this trouble.

We learn that unnamed Agent has a mate in Beirut who was offered the glimmering opportunity to own one of De Groot’s beloved aerial photographs of the XK4. Clearly, whoever the heck this unnamed Agent is, he has fingers in many pies. He claims that the Air Force is worried, which suggests he either works for them directly, or at a push he might be another agent for BISHOP or some other arm of the British Intelligence Service.

The Bishop, with a heavy sense of fondness and nostalgia in his voice, reveals some prior knowledge of De Groot. It’s a tiny window into the Bishop’s life before he was confined to an office in Whitehall. Has he met De Groot in the field whilst serving as an active agent ? Or is there a darker twist perhaps that might suggest the Bishop used to be a part of the criminal espionage scene and has since reformed to use his firsthand knowledge for good? It’s tantalising and unfortunately, never confirmed on-screen one way or the other.

Time to head over to the vicarage and really get the plot going. Sadly, another scene showing a touch of daily life in Father Unwin’s home was cut from the final episode which would have preceded the scene in the Bishop’s office. It would have depicted Unwin driving past Masden’s car and arriving at the vicarage to one of his favourite meals, beans on toast, prepared by Mrs Appleby. The dutiful housekeeper informs Father Unwin that the Bishop rang earlier, which baffles Matthew since Mrs Appleby is very definitely not supposed to know anything about their boss at British Intelligence. Fortunately, Father Unwin clears up the misunderstanding by pointing out that the Bishop that Mrs Appleby is probably referring to is actually in charge of the diocese and phoning up to discuss the church’s restroration fund.

It would have failed to add much to the plot, but such a scene just might have been a nice, quaint bit of business to establish the characters and the undercover setup for the series once again. Very little of Father Unwin’s occupation as a priest is given focus in the series and it would have been great to see more of a conflict spark up between his parish responsibilities and his secret agent work.

Via his hearing aid, Father Unwin is having a secretive conversation with the Bishop. Not about any restoration funds but about the XK4. Tony Barwick very specifically requests that the grandfather clock read 5:30 pm, which it does. Glad someone’s been reading this script other than me.

Lurking at the top of the stairs is Mrs Appleby. A nice illusion is achieved by showing a section of ceiling next to the staircase, just to get away from the fact that most Supermarionation sets don’t have ceillings for obvious reasons, and therefore ocassionally appear to have rooms as tall as skyscrapers.

As Father Unwin gabbles away to Mrs Appleby about the grandfather clock, it becomes obvious to the well-trained eye that this particular Unwin puppet is being operated without wires overhead but from underneath. The head moves much faster and more precisely than the later Supermarionation puppets would have ever been able to achieve when operated via the long wires dangling down from the bridge over the set.

When Unwin announces that he and Matthew are going out, Mrs Appleby remarks that he’s only just come back. One would presume this is a piece of leftover dialogue which is supposed to refer back to the previous deleted scene showing Father Unwin arriving home for his beans on toast. However, in the version of the script I have (as published as a PDF on the Network DVD boxset), this remark from Mrs Appleby is actually absent. So, at some point whilst the scene featuring Unwin arriving home was removed, the line from Mrs Appleby commenting on him having just come home was added in. Keeping up? Maybe it was felt that the eccentricity of Unwin coming home and leaving again was implicit when the original scene was included, but now it’s been removed, the line needed to be added to suggest some eccentricity. Or perhaps another draft of the script included both the original scene and the new line of dialogue. Whatever the answer, it’s fascinating how such tiny little changes made throughout production have intriguing repercussions.

It’s time for Matthew to play the audience surrogate this week and ask why De Groot hasn’t already been arrested if British Intelligence are fully aware of the fact he’s behind the XK4 plot. Apparently it’s Unwin’s job not to catch De Groot, but to work out how the photographs are being taken. I like that approach to the plot of the episode. It means there’s a legitimate reason for the highly specialised BISHOP team to be involved in the case. In both A Case For The Bishop and A Question of Miracles, I’ve been slightly puzzled by why a miniaturised Matthew and an undercover priest were necessary when a regular British Intelligence agent probably could have arrested the Ambassador or chucked a torpedo at a submarine. This week, there’s a slightly more inexplicable and unorthodox mystery to solve, which therefore suggests unorthodox methods are needed to crack the case. Had this episode just been about chasing and catching De Groot, it would have been much less interesting, but Tony Barwick has found a good angle to incorporate the series’ whimsical and quaint aspects into the main thrust of the plot itself.

So, Gabriel is parked up in another one of Father Unwin’s favourite secluded spots in the woods while our heroes keep an eye on De Groot’s secret hideout. Well, it’s not exactly secret if Unwin was able to drive straight there but you know what I mean. Matthew has the uncomfortable job of sitting in a good old-fashioned tree and watching through some good old-fashioned binoculars. No jetpacks or high tech telescopic thingy-ma-jigs for us today. Unwin suggests “it could be a long vigil”… get it? Because he’s a priest.

Footage from earlier is recycled to show Masden arriving, although the shot is brighter this time to perhaps indicate that we’re looking at an evening shot, rather than the middle of the night. Again, the script is still very specific about this being Gerry’s Rolls with the PGU 1E number plate. It’s fascinating that this was considered such an integral part of the story, and yet in the finished episode we don’t get a single close-up of the car’s number plate.

A lovely moment is shared between Father Unwin and Matthew as they respond to an owl hooting with a quote from the final song of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. Matthew, however, seems to suggest he’s only quoting Shakespeare because the tree is giving him cramp. Well-spoken as he may be, it’s clear that Matthew is more of a restless man of action than a patron of the arts.

Matthew finally catches a glimpse of Masden’s car arriving, and someone who looks nothing like Masden stepping into the house. An example of the live-action performers not particularly resembling their puppet counterparts. There are more obvious examples of this issue later on in the series, but even in this minor case there’s a sense of disconnect between the two film units.

Despite the location footage appearing slightly brighter than it was earlier, we learn through Unwin’s dialogue that it is once again 2 am. That means Matthew has been stuck up in that tree for somewhere in the region of 8 hours, assuming they left the Vicarage soon after 5:30 pm. No wonder he’s getting cramp.

As Unwin looks up into the tree, it becomes apparent that the under-control puppet is being used once again to provide more direct head movements. I imagine it was probably quite challenging to make the wired puppets operated from above look up or down in the same manner.

Again, I have to point out that De Groot clearly struggles with interior design. There’s “rustic” and then there’s sitting on a box while your mismatching raggedy curtains flap about in the breeze. We learn that De Groot’s next assignment is to destroy the XK4 and he therefore needs more pictures of the plane from Masden. It’s odd for him to reveal that the ultimate plan is to destroy the aircraft, but then not to reveal that the next round of aerial photographs will actually turn out to be a bombing run as we find out later. Perhaps De Groot is trying to intimidate Masden without scaring him off completely. Either way, because of whatever dirt De Groot has on Masden, the poor bloke has to accept the task and is given three days to prepare.

As Masden leaves, Matthew and Father Unwin get ready to pursue him in Gabriel. If you’re interested, De Groot lives somewhere near the junction of Thompkins Lane and Hawthorn Lane in, you guessed it, Burnham Beeches.

Father Unwin continues to have a difficult relationship with the overall concept of speed. This time, Gabriel is actually far too slow to keep up with the modern Mercedes and they lose Masden. Fortunately, Matthew had the foresight (and lack of faith in Unwin’s driving) to write down the car’s registration. Not PGU 1E as the script repeatedly highlights, but JPK 459C – the registration of Reg Hill’s Merc.

There’s a lovely note in the script which says “Matthew is [sic] resigned long ago to the fact that Gabriel is Father Unwin’s pride and joy. He will hear no wrong about the car.” These insights serve the voice artists and therefore add colour to the whole show. It doesn’t need to be stated outright in the dialogue that Matthew is impatient with Gabriel, it’s all there in Gary Files’ performance.

The old-fashioned Model T is nicely juxtaposed with the ultra-modern XK4… or at least it would be if the effects camera operator felt like getting anywhere near it. I was complaining about these shots from the special effects department last week and it seems to be the case again that shots are composed to make the models appear as small as possible, denying us any opportunity to be impressed by the details of the aircraft.

Meanwhile, Timmy the Tetchy Agent is getting a bit impatient with the Bishop and his laid back demeaour. Some people just have no chill.

Father Unwin’s getting ready to do his party trick again.

Rather conveniently, Matthew is wearing exactly the same outfit he had on for A Question of Miracles which means the exact same footage of him being miniaturised can be re-used. When comparing shots before and after the shrinking, it really is impressive how well Keith Wilson and the art department have managed to match the puppet-scale set of the library with the bookshelves built at full size to make Matthew appear smaller.

Another thrilling and new version of Gabriel’s launch sequence! This time, the car is turning right out of the Vicarage but with the roof up. So that makes at least four different times that Stanley Unwin must have been filmed driving in and out of that driveway – 1. Turn left, roof down – 2. Turn right, roof down – 3. Turn left, roof up – and now 4. Turn right, roof up! And that doesn’t even account for the shots of Gabriel returning home either. What an exciting day of filming that must have been…

So, with Matthew safely packed away in the case armed with nothing but an address for a Mercedes owner, we head into the commercial break. I have to say that I’m really engaged with this episode. There’s a nice balance of intrigue and nuanced character work, and I’m curious to find out more. So far we’ve mostly been setting up for the action later on, but the good-humoured dialogue has carried us through regardless.

After the break, I probably don’t need to tell you where we’re driving around right now.

Matthew and Unwin discuss what little they know of John Masden, the Mercedes’ owner. In case it wasn’t obvious already, we learn that Masden is stinking rich, but a “respectable figure in the city” with no criminal record. Apparently that makes him an unlikely candidate for espionage work. I’d say the opposite, but what do I know about grubby London bankers and their willingness to sell out?

Gabriel is parked up outside Masden’s charming home. All the windows are open so either it’s a warm day or he’s got a stink he’s trying to waft out.

An awful moment of yuckiness as we cut from live-action Unwin, to puppet Unwin, and then down to the live-action Unwin’s feet. Despite the great attention put into adding the right kind of leaves to the drain pipe in exactly the right position, the puppet set completely fails to match the colour of the brickwork on the Andersons’ real house. Also the completely rigid puppet just doesn’t have the same body language as the real Stanley Unwin standing casually in front of the door. It simply does not work and I cannot register why the decision was made to film and edit the sequence in this way. The live-action footage was working fairly well up until this point because it was reserved exclusively for cars, but within the same moment we cannot be expected to buy that a puppet and a person are the same thing no matter how detailed the bloomin’ guttering is.

The needless amount of work that went into making that front door which perfectly resembled the real thing must have been soul-destroying when the rushes were played back at Century 21 and it was blindingly obvious that the two shots didn’t go together. In the live-action shot, Masden is kept in the shadows to avoid the fact they don’t have an exact human double of the puppet to use. It must be said though that it is a very good replica of the front door…

Unwin manages to negotiate his way into the house with threats of potential police involvement. Masden really is a weak-willed man, isn’t he?

In the least casual way possible, Unwin drops Matthew’s case right in the middle of the floor for any idiot to trip over.

While Unwin attempts to condemn Masden for speeding as if he himself doesn’t have a number of dangerous driving infringements of his own, Matthew pops out of the case to explore. It’s the first of many times across the series that we get to see little Matthew interact with real furniture and live-action environments and I have to say I think it works well. What we don’t see, mercifully, is the puppet of Matthew stood next to a live-action actor. That blend would absolutely not be credible (I’m looking at you, yacht scene from The Investigator!).

Presumably the camera operator crawled along the floor to get Matthew’s POV shot of Masden’s back garden. Why exactly Matthew feels the need to inspect the garden I don’t know. That would be the last place I would check for evidence of espionage that’s for sure. I believe we’re still at the Anderson residence for these shots.

Footage of Matthew filmed in the studio mixes reasonably well with footage of pigeons in the garden while Unwin continues to lecture Masden on his driving. The script gets very specific about Matthew’s position stating, “He is about half way down the garden near the nut trees.” Clearly, Tony Barwick was intimately familiar with the details of the Andersons’ back garden.

Then, we’re treated to an absolutely gorgeous shot of the Matthew puppet outside, actually in the Andersons’ garden. Supermarionation puppets are rarely filmed out of the studio. Some considerable work has gone into doing it right, which is more than can be said for the efforts to show off the puppets in Malta for The Investigator. Although the lighting isn’t a great match for what one might expect from the studio, Matthew on location is still being lit sufficiently to look good on camera. Then there’s the important distinction that this puppet is being operated from underneath and is therefore able to move in a more immediate and realistic way which suits the surroundings.

And boy, what luxurious surroundings. Filmed In Supermarionation details the Andersons’ legendary pool parties quite superbly and to actually see the place for real is quite a treat. One question though, is that a real tortoise hanging out over there?

Matthew takes a particular interest in the aviary on the other side of the pool. I would argue that perhaps when Matthew is slightly closer to the camera as he is here, the location footage isn’t quite so convincing and he looks more like a plastic doll. That’s not much of a criticism though considering, and I can’t stress this enough, he is a puppet.

It then becomes clear that little Matthew has disturbed another resident of Masden’s abode – his handsome Great Dane, Kruger. And you guessed it, Kruger was played by the Andersons’ own dog. The Great Dane can even be spotted during Sylvia Anderson’s 1971 interview for the BBC documentary, Something For The Children.

Sylvia Anderson and a very young Gerry Anderson Jr. roaming the garden with the family’s canine star in said 1971 documentary.

Unfortunately for Matthew, Kruger is in a hunting sort of mood and decides to give chase. The shots of Matthew running are performed back in the studio while the dog remains on location and a camera operator rushes towards one of the Andersons’ nut trees for a POV shot.

Meanwhile, Father Unwin struggles to hold Masden’s attention once he hears all the commotion in the garden. Unwin frames his argument against speeding in every way he can but Masden couldn’t care less. I think we all know what’s coming.

Matthew having a pretty dreadful time as he once again gets stuck up a tree with a giant dog barking at him.

As you can see from this amazing behind the scenes photo, these shots were achieved with the standard marionette version of Matthew, inside the studio, with a mock-up tree and the dog standing on the stage. Truly remarkable.

When a dog can swallow you entirely in under three bites, you know it’s time to ask your employer for better health insurance.

Clutching at straws, sure enough, Unwin resorts to talking gobbledygook to try and hold Masden’s attention for a few more seconds. It’s about as good of an excuse as any to get it into the script I suppose. The Unwinese matches the frantic energy of the dog and Masden’s desperation to get out of the conversation so I guess we’ll give it a pass for this week.

Back in the Andersons’ back garden, the dog is quite clearly looking at an empty tree, while all the shots of Matthew are being done back at the studio. Over the radio, Unwin announces that instead of saving Matthew from the jaws of an enormous canine monster, he’s going to leave the young gardener to fend for himself and have a nosey around the rest of the house. Charming.

Masden, realising that his dog is barking at an empty tree, tells Kruger to heel. With any luck, that’ll be the end of the matter.

While Kruger finally calms down, Unwin locates Masden’s photographic equipment including some miniature cameras which have to be a part of the scheme somehow.

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location which is probably just another part of the Andersons’ back garden, someone has parked their toy plane under a washing line.

It’s De Groot and Carl playing with their toys. How adorable.

Oh… or not.

It turns out De Groot and Carl set up that elaborate demonstration for their own benefit just to test the explosives they plan to use for the XK4 attack. This scene was originally scripted to occur after the following scene with Unwin and Matthew driving home, but they were presumably swapped over in post-production to help the story flow better. Carl reveals that the miniature cameras that have just been found by Unwin will be carrying the explosives over the airfield. But we still don’t know who or what will be doing the actual bombing. Have you figured it out yet? Cos I have.

Meanwhile, back out in the countryside, Matthew and Father Unwin sum up that basically, all they’ve managed to learn is that Masden has some tiny cameras and a fondness for birds. I couldn’t think how the two might be connected.

The XK4 is trundling back inside the hangar after an exhausting day of ground trials. Tomorrow is the day of the big test flight and, as you’d expect, Timmy the Tetchy Agent is still nervous about security and on the blower to the Bishop for some reassurance. I’ll be honest Timmy, it’s not looking good.

6 am.

Yes, these two men have been awake ALL NIGHT and still haven’t figured the bloomin’ thing out. Seriously, it’s been hours and hours since they left Masden’s with just two clues: birds and cameras. SURELY they’d have put two and two together by now.

Unwin looks like he’s been knocking back the communion wine.

Some of the oldest Supermarionation tricks in the book still prove their worth in The Secret Service, as demonstrated here by Father Unwin moving to put on his glasses after hearing the owl, then we cut to Matthew, and then back to Unwin again with his glasses firmly on his face.

Incidentally, Father Unwin’s wristwatch has no face. He probably carries the grandfather clock around to tell the time.

Finally, like a sack of concrete tumbling out of a tree, the penny has dropped for Matthew. Somehow, the intense concentration has turned his ear green – in reality it probably has something to do with the hearing aid being removed from the puppet’s ear without enough care.

So, here’s the scoop from our slow but well-meaning BISHOP agents. Masden is using pigeons fitted with cameras to fly over the airfield on their homing flight, and then operating the remote-controlled shutters to achieve photographs above the XK4 that no pilot would normally be able to get close enough to take.

Now, you may be flipping your coffee table over and yelling at your television in disgust and disbelief right now at the thought of pigeons becoming aerial photographers. Well, first of all you need to calm down and get some fresh air. Then, prepare to be amazed.

Julius Neubronner developed miniature, lightweight cameras to attach to pigeons with aluminium breast plates and submitted a patent for his pigeon photography invention in 1907. Although the resulting photographs were rather impressive, Neubronner’s timing was a tad unfortunate. Aerial photography using balloons and kites was already established, and the First World War accelerated the development of the aircraft, meaning pigeons were a tad redundant in the aerial photography game. Pigeons played a vital role in the war delivering messages but correctly timing the automatic shutters and plotting the flight paths made the pigeon photographers unreliable and eventually spy birds were substituted for spy planes. It’s a fantastic invention, but pigeon photography was essentially surplus to requirement by the time it had been proven.

Even more unfortunately for Tony Barwick, fans of The Avengers will know of the 1967 episode, The Bird Who Knew Too Much, which predates The Feathered Spies, and ultimately uses the same plot – spies using pigeons to photograph a secret British base. And coincidentally, that particular story was dreamt up by Anderson alumnus, Alan Pattillo and adapted by Brian Clemens.

I’m not much of an expert on The Avengers but it’s fair to say the quirky style of The Secret Service clearly aspired to match the boldness of Steed and Mrs. Peel’s adventures. So, whether you consider it ingenious, or a bit of a rip-off, I still say that the pigeon twist is entirely appropriate for The Secret Service and it’s weaved in nicely with other elements of the series.

Carl is driving his lovely blue Vauxhaul Viva with some feathered passengers on the backseat. It’s only when we freeze the pictures that we see the live-action driver has glasses on while Carl doesn’t, and that in close-up, Carl’s car appears to be red on the puppet set, rather than blue. Believe it or not though, those are real pigeons in the basket… well at least one of them is because it blinked. The others might be stuffed.

De Groot has driven his Jag out to Burnham Beeches (I assume it’s Burnham Beeches because where else would it be?!) and is standing on a hill which looks very, very much like a fake hill built in the studio. He’s getting ready to drop his airborne bombs from the birds once Carl releases them in the optimal location.

Just so Father Unwin and Matthew don’t stop De Groot’s scheme too quickly, they first pay another visit to John Masden and learn that he’s been blackmailed. It’s never revealed exactly what Masden’s done, but seeing as he’s now aiding in an act of terrorism it must have been something pretty juicy. Masden reveals that the pigeons have been taken out again this morning but Matthew’s on a roll today and deduces that they must be doing something more than taking photographs.

Incidentally, it looks like the Andersons had two television aerials on their house. Fancy.

De Groot has a remarkably good view of the XK4 considering he’s on a hill next to a maximum security base. A regular camera with a really good telescopic lens could have easily done the same job as the bloomin’ pigeons with a view like that.

Carl has pulled off the road and suddenly everything is looking a lot more autumnal outside. I suspect these shots of the Vauxhaul Viva were filmed some time after everything else for this episode.

The gang are slowly but surely piecing everything together as Masden opens up about the special “fast film” that De Groot has supplied for the flyby. The sequence of events has been shuffled around a little in the final episode compared with the original script. This scene was originally intended to appear just after the birds had been released. Curiously, a moment was also cut from this scene which would have shown Matthew demonstrating the explosive nature of the cameras by throwing one out of the window and therefore blowing it up. Presumably it was felt that this reveal would have reduced the tension. Either that or it was simply cut for timing reasons.

As Father Unwin and Matthew speed away, the “bombers” are released by Carl. For a clueless sidekick, Carl is actually very efficient. Just a shame he dresses like a leather-clad plank.

It could be stock footage or it could have been filmed by Century 21 themselves, but either way, some poor camera operator had to chase some pigeons around and attempt to keep them in shot. Fortunately, the rather chaotic nature of the footage adds a certain excitement to the episode.

Without going to great lengths to provide helpful things like context or details, Father Unwin plainly informs the Bishop that the XK4 is about to be attacked by pigeons without a hint of irony. A bemused Bishop just goes along with it because, honestly, this is the kind of thing he’s come to expect from Unwin.

Still hesitant to position the camera anywhere near the model, this distance shot of the XK4 ends up looking alarmingly amateurish by Century 21’s high standards. The XK4 looks like a tiny toy because of the soft focus in the foreground and background. There’s nothing to suggest this big, imposing aircraft is anything other than an inch or two tall. It must be said that the special effects have been quite underwhelming so far in The Secret Service compared to previous Supermarionation shows. That could be due to a lack of inspiration because of the series’ format and inclusion of live-action elements, or a lack of time and money brought about by the series’ reduced or more thinly spread budget, or a lack of supervision due to Derek Meddings’ involvement with Doppelgänger at the time. I highly doubt it had anything to do with the talent of the people involved, most of whom were probably working as hard as they possibly could and had already proven they could do great things in the field of special effects on other projects. The Secret Service just really didn’t give them the opportunity to do their best work.

Unwin and Matthew find De Groot’s car, and the live-action Matthew is good enough to stick his arm out the side of Gabriel to show Unwin where to park.

Come on lads, time’s ticking along!

As the XK4 trundles out across the runway, the pigeons are getting closer and Timmy the Tetchy Agent gets the call he’s been waiting for. He gives the order for the aircraft to be withdrawn before the airfield gets blown up by the flock.

This witty twerp steals the best line of the episode by looking straight down the camera and remarking, “And he’s supposed to be from intelligence!” which is a much, much, much more amusing response than the originally scripted line, “He’s supposed to be top brass.” Thank goodness the line was changed because I bet that moment brought the house down in the five or six UK households that happened to still be watching The Secret Service at the time.

I won’t lie to you, the climactic showdown with De Groot is a little disappointing.

That’s it. That’s the showdown. Matthew chucks himself at De Groot and De Groot runs away leaving the control box behind. Not exactly nailbiting stuff.

To make it all even less exciting, the next sequence is Unwin promising the police will catch De Groot off-screen, the XK4 retiring to the complete safety of its hangar, and Matthew rooting around in a bush. I promise it does pick up from here.

With Unwin in command, and Matthew ready with the button, it’s time for a nice, careful, controlled bombing run with some highly explosive pigeons.

The effects team deliver on the script’s request for “a great number of explosions.” The bangs look great, but yet again it’s a shame they’re filmed at such a dull angle from the edge of the set.

A deleted scene from this sequence would have given us a dumbstruck farmer watching the pigeons dropping their bombs and declaring, “Must have been something they ate.” Why the heck that was cut I don’t know, but it’s interesting that a similar side-spitting farmer remark was cut from the A Case For The Bishop‘s original script too.

So, with De Groot caught by the fuzz off-screen and Carl probably fleeing to the south of France to start a new fashion line exclusively devoted to leather trench coats, it’s now time to wrap up the episode. Somehow, Father Unwin has obtained the document exposing Masden’s great secret, but because we’re trying to teach good Christian values about forgiveness we don’t get to hear exactly what he’s been getting up to. Ah well, I guess we’ll never know just how many visits to the red light district Masden must have made.

The Feathered Spies just works for me. It’s always been a favourite episode of mine because I think it demonstrates all of the show’s bizarre elements finally working together in harmony. You’ve got Father Unwin maintaining his cover as a priest whilst infiltrating an enemy spy operation, which therefore puts him in the driving seat for the plot. The gimmick of Matthew being miniaturised is put to great use for comedy and for drama. Meanwhile, you have some semi-futuristic tech in the form of the XK4, and science fiction meeting whimsy with the bomb-dropping pigeons. It’s just the right balance of all the things an episode of The Secret Service tries to offer. Add to that a comfortable mix of live-action location footage with the puppets and model effects and you’ve got half an hour of television which doesn’t feel too jarring. There are only a few dodgy moments where one shot doesn’t sit nicely with the others but on the whole I think The Secret Service‘s unique style is starting to take a more confident shape. It’s encouraging to see the Century 21 team learning to embrace the unusual blend of techniques, rather than being too afraid to experiment and try something new…