Conspiracy of Silence

"Conspiracy of Silence" is the weakest second season episode, much inferior to "Girl on the Trapeze," with the Mafia targeting to assassinate Steed through a small time circus. Once again, he takes a back seat to Cathy Gale, but neither has much to work with here (the two do have one fiery exchange to enliven the boredom). For the first time since "Mr Teddy Bear," Cathy is led to believe that Steed has been killed, but just won't give him any satisfaction. Sandra Dorne had decorative roles in genre fare like "Invisible Creature" (1960) and "Devil Doll" (1963), while Robert Rietty was used mostly for voice-over work in several James Bond features. Alec Mango later appeared in "Two's a Crowd," and Artro Morris later did "How to Succeed .... at Murder." Ian Wilson has a nice cameo as a tattoo artist, and Steed's dog Sheba makes her fourth of five appearances (the last would be in "The Gilded Cage").

Steed has somehow annoyed The Mafia, and only just survives an attempt on his life, to get close to his aggressors, Cathy goes undercover as a reporter at a Circus.

Without a doubt, this is the weakest episode of the second series, I've watched it twice, and struggled with it on both viewings. I'll applaud the acting, especially that of Blackman, and there are some nice ideas, but it's far too jumbled, and as a production, it looks so cheap.

A really nice, tense scene to begin with, with Steed placed in mortal danger, an open target for his assailant, not something we'd get to see too often, and it's always great to see him with the dog, but as soon as we head to The Circus, it falls apart.

I have always admired writer Roger Marshall, apart from writing some fine Avengers episodes, he did Public Eye, a few episodes of Van Der Valk, and adapted my favourite Ruth Rendell, A Sleeping Life, but this was one of his weakest efforts.

Robert Rietti was a solid actor, with some good performances over the years, this wasn't one of his finer ones however.

Hard work.

4/10.