"Box of Tricks"

The Avengers episode

Episode no.

Season 2
Episode 17

Directed by

Kim Mills

Written by

Peter Ling
Edward Rhodes

Produced by

John Bryce

Featured music

John Dankworth (theme)

Production code

3517^[1]

Original air date

18 January 1963

Guest appearances

Jane Barratt
Maurice Hedley
Edgar Wreford
Ian Curry
April Olrich

Episode chronology

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"Immortal Clay"

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"Warlock"

List of episodes

"Box of Tricks" is the seventeenth episode of the second series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Julie Stevens. It was first broadcast in the Teledu Cymru region of the ITV network on Friday 18 January 1963. ABC Weekend TV, who produced the show for ITV, broadcast it the next day in its own regions.^[1] The episode was directed by Kim Mills and written by Peter Ling and Edward Rhodes.^[2]

Plot

The death of a nightclub magician's assistant leads through a crippled general and his quack, to employment opportunities and secret documents. Steed enlists the help of Venus to root out the criminals by becoming the new assistant.^[3]

Music

Julie Stevens sings It's A Pity To Say Goodnight by Ella Fitzgerald and It's De-Lovely by Cole Porter, during which - in a rarity for the entire series - she briefly breaks the fourth wall.

Cast

Patrick Macnee as John Steed
Julie Stevens as Venus Smith
Jane Barratt as Kathleen Sutherland
Maurice Hedley as General Sutherland
Edgar Wreford as Dr. Gallam
Ian Curry as Gerry Weston
April Olrich as Denise
Dallas Cavell as Manager
Jacqueline Jones as Henriette
Robert Hartley as Nena the Barman
Royston Tickner as Maitre D'
Gail Starforth as Maid
Lynn Taylor as Valerie

References

External links

The Avengers

The Avengers

Characters

Episodes

Series 1	"Hot Snow" "Crescent Moon" "Girl on the Trapeze" "Dance with Death" "The Frighteners" "Tunnel of Fear"
Series 2	"Mr. Teddy Bear" "Propellant 23" "The Decapod" "Bullseye" "Mission to Montreal" "The Removal Men" "The Mauritius Penny" "Death of a Great Dane" "The Sell Out" "Death on the Rocks" "Traitor in Zebra" "The Big Thinker" "Death Dispatch" "Dead on Course" "Intercrime" "Immortal Clay" "Box of Tricks" "Warlock" "The Golden Eggs" "School for Traitors" "The White Dwarf" "Man in the Mirror" "Conspiracy of Silence" "A Chorus of Frogs" "Six Hands Across a Table" "Killer Whale"
Series 3	"Brief for Murder" "The Undertakers" "Man with Two Shadows" "The Nutshell" "Death of a Batman" "November Five" "The Gilded Cage" "Second Sight" "The Medicine Men" "The Grandeur That Was Rome" "The Golden Fleece" "Don't Look Behind You" "Death a la Carte" "Dressed to Kill" "The White Elephant" "The Little Wonders" "The Wringer" "Mandrake" "The Secrets Broker" "Trojan Horse" "Build a Better Mousetrap" "The Outside-In Man" "The Charmers" "Concerto" "Esprit de Corps" "Lobster Quadrille"
Series 4	"The Town of No Return" "The Gravediggers" "The Cybernauts" "A Surfeit of H₂O" "The Hour That Never Was" "A Touch of Brimstone" "What the Butler Saw"
Series 5	"From Venus with Love" "The Fear Merchants" "Escape in Time" "The See-Through Man" "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" "The Winged Avenger" "The Living Dead" "The Hidden Tiger" "The Correct Way to Kill" "The Superlative Seven" "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" "Death's Door"
Series 6	"The Forget-Me-Knot" "Have Guns — Will Haggle" "The Morning After"