A Home of One's Own

First, the opening scene doesn't look like a classic PERSUADERS episode, but an AVENGERS series one instead.... And the plot is very simple, more interesting and less complicated than other plots of the series. Plus, I love the settings, the stylish British countryside. Yes, this episode enchanted my childhood, more than any episode of the series. I compared this episode with an AVENGERS story; AVENGERS which was my all time favourites in terms of British TV shows. I loved DEPARTMENT S too. And the influence of Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS may be obvious too. The local baron and his henchmen, local village and pub, little farm in the middle of nowhere.

I loved The Persuaders as a child, watching the Sunday afternoon re-runs in the early 1970s in my ITV region, and this was always my favorite episode.

The plot is quite simple - Danny suddenly decides to buy a run-down cottage in the middle of nowhere in the English countryside, & soon finds he's in a whole heap of trouble - especially with the less-than-friendly locals.

I love the slightly creepy pre-credits sequence, set in the dead of night, which sets the scene really well in an unsettling way for the story to unfold. There's plenty of opportunities for comedy and hijinks along the way too - and a fair bit of suspense as Danny, Brett and the viewer try to discover the real reason why the cottage is so valuable to the local squire, who won't stop at anything to wrestle it off the resolute Danny.

This story is well-paced and entertaining, and has some good location filming too - including Brett staying in one of my favorite country pubs, The White Horse at Hedgerley (which hasn't changed much to this day!).

Hannah Gordon is good too as the mysterious stranger who seems to be taking an interest in events from afar, and eventually steps in to help. It's an excellent and unpredictable episode, and one I've always thought would have made a great Persuaders feature film - should such a thing have ever happened!

There's no pre-ordained mission this time for our two amiable heroes but even in their downtime, they invariably find trouble. When Danny buys himself a derelict house in the English countryside, the very definition of a doer-upper, he corrals Brett into checking it out with him. Danny immediately sets to work single-handedly on the renovation with Brett wisely retiring to a local hotel rather than get his hands dirty.

However the prologue has already indicated that there's danger surrounding the house and sure enough Danny's approached by the local land-owner who after failing to buy him off, teams up with a couple of heavies to try to muscle him out.

Brett meanwhile has met this episode's pretty female (there's always a pretty female!) in the form of Hannah Gordon in the unlikely role of a Scotland Yard detective. She's on the trail of a smuggling gang who she suspects use the old house as a pick-up point for the export of counterfeit US dollars and it soon becomes obvious that both plot strands will converge and see the three protagonists come under threat with the house itself, in the end, proving to be their biggest ally.

Watching this episode I wondered if it might have been inspired by the then recent novel which became Peckinpah's ultra-violent "Straw Dogs" which itself came out later the same year. Don't worry though, there's nothing X-rated here as the Persuaders get the job done with a light quip here and an even lighter punch there.

Another pleasant, watchable episode of this drolly entertaining big-name series even if it's not quite as good as my ten-year-old self remembered it when I first watched it as a boy.