A Room in the Basement

M9 agent Keith Turnbull (John Breslin) and his wife Susan (Jane Merrow) arrive in Switzerland, but Turnbull is soon kidnapped by Romanian agents, who take him to their embassy. A desperate Susan contacts their old friend Drake, who devises a plan to get Turnbull out.

A Room in the Basement is a fast-paced, action-oriented episode. It's intresting that the Russians and the Chinese aren't the villains this time round, it's the Romanians(!). There's some quite nifty ideas, and there's some good stunt work.

Jane Merrow's performance here is much more restrained then her previous turn in A Date with Doris. There's plenty of recognizable actors in the cast, such as Michael Gwynn, William Lucas, Kate O'Mara and Jack May.

Although IMDb lists "A Room in the Basement" as the sixteenth episode of "The Secret Agent", it comes second on the DVDs from A&E Video. This could be a mistake by IMDb but I strongly suspect it's because A&E made the mistake. This is because I've watched other series by them and they showed complete indifference about presenting the shows in the proper order!

A friend of John Drake has been kidnapped by Romanian agents and is being held in their embassy in Switzerland. However, the government won't allow Drake to do anything since the guy's in an embassy--but Drake naturally doesn't care! And so, on his own, he sets up an operation where he decides to return the favor and start kidnapping Romanians! What's next? See this excellent episode.

I liked the intrigues in this one as well as the nice Swiss scenery (though the show was filmed in the UK). It was a bit like "The Sting" or "Mission: Impossible"--and a welcome addition to the show. Once again, Drake manages to use his brain instead of a gun to battle the forces of not-niceness. And, in the process, it makes for a dandy and clever episode that's well worth your time.