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llywelaBecause I was doing this for Prosfanfic anyway, I might as well put it here, too.
Episode 7 of disc 2, and a ship comes sailing into port, the camera closing in on one gentleman aboard in particular.
Cut to the pomp and ceremony of a Rolls Royce disembarking three suited men into…a shabby, disused warehouse. All around, CI5 agents (instantly recognisable due to their R/Ts, discreetly watch and wait. The terrible trio stroll in a v-like formation, not unlike that of migratory geese, through the warehouse, where they are met by…Mr Cowley and the Lads. Who instantly take up similar formation. A meeting based on mutual trust, they agree – a meeting between CI5 and the KGB.
Roll credits. Because in 1978 it was all Cold War and the KGB were a big deal, all very covert and hush hush. Close to three decades later, and it doesn't have quite the same impact. But the implication is clear enough.
In port, the ship has docked and the hat-wearing gentleman disembarks, while elsewhere the CI5-KGB meeting progresses. Cowley and his counterpart (Yeshinkov, and no, I've no idea if I spelled that right) discuss vague matters of international security, spy stories, and the like. Behind them, Doyle and Bodie mutter to one another rather more randomly (and amusingly!)
Bodie: "This dust gets right up me hooter. Plays hell with me sinuses."
Cowley complains that he's not getting any good information. He wants information, for example: Moscow, and Thomas Darby. Over images of the hat-wearing gentleman boarding a train, Yeshinkov insists there's nothing he can say that Cowley doesn't already know – that Darby has been a Soviet citizen for 20 years, is retired and in Moscow. Cowley, however, believes otherwise. Darby hasn't been seen in days; sources believe he has left Moscow. So where is he?
It's kinda like wandering into a spy flick by mistake, no?
Yeshinkov knows only that Darby is ill – dying.
Meeting over, the Lads shake hands with their counterparts.
Bodie: "Liverpool for the cup."
Doyle: "Keep taking the pills."
Leaving, Bodie seems happy to take the meeting at face value as a washout, but Cowley, on the other hand, knows otherwise. It's what they don't say that matters. He runs them through the history of notorious double agent Darby as they get into the car and we catch a brief glimpse of fellow agent Lewis. From the guarded conversation with Yeshinkov, Cowley has gleamed that the now dying Darby is on the run and carrying a stolen British passport under the name of Williams. He's coming home.
Switch back to man-in-hat on the train, and this, clearly, is double agent Darby, come home to die.
And CI5 are already on his tail, as immigration confirm that Williams arrived at Dover that day. Bodie, today playing the role of the viewers-proxy (asking questions on behalf of viewers in order for the exposition to be given), wonders why the fuss for some tired old spy. Because this tired old spy could topple the government, start a 'fair old' massacre and bring a lot of maggots crawling out of the woodwork. No, Cowley wants him. Plus, there's the matter of the fourth man – three double agents involved in the same scandal are all accounted for. But the fourth man was never identified, the banker, the one who stayed behind, no doubt rich and influential and still here, somewhere, still hidden after all these years. No, there'll be a lot of people coming after Darby's blood, but Cowley wants to get to him first, to find out why he's come back, and who the fourth man is…
Cowley runs through slides of Darby's known associates with Doyle. Sir Howell Mortimer, stockbroker, retired. Eileen Pierce, widow of an activist killed in the Spanish Civil War and believed to be a distant cousin of Darby. Rt. Hon. Paul Cantwell, ex-minister, retired. Arthur Pulford, solicitor.
Bodie screeches to a halt outside a random hotel and races inside to a murder scene, where Lewis greets him. He's found a photo of Darby at the scene.
A Brigadier James Statten is last on Cowley's list, Controller of SIS, and formerly Darby's superior. Officially retired, but believed to be still active as a consultant…and in the room right there with them, listening to the spiel. It was he who prepared the list of 'fourth man' suspects, including himself as so many suspected him at the time. His section was destroyed when Darby defected, and the very elderly, wheelchair bound Statten makes no secret of his hatred for the man.
Statten: "Sentimentality is a mortal enemy for spies."
Because, he explains, Eileen Pierce died ten days earlier. And she was neither the banker nor his cousin, but his lover. Cowley doesn't think that's enough, but there's more.
Statten: "Together they compounded an unforseen mistake."
They had a child. An 'occupational hazzard' for mistresses in the days before the pill. This daughter, Helen Pierce, is Darby's reason for returning.
Statten: "Sentimentality is a cardinal sin. Especially for traitors."
And, once his visitors have gone, he gets on the phone to let a few of 'the others' know that Darby is back. And former agents whose lives were destroyed by Darby's defection, are set on the warpath.
Back at the hotel, and Bodie debriefs Cowley on the murder. The dead man was some kind of agent, tailing assassin O'Leary from the airport, but not properly briefed, and this was the result. An Italian assassin has also arrived in the country – the agent was killed in a scuffle between the two.
Cowley sends Bodie and Doyle to stakeout Helen Pierce's house, and they fuss and moan about it, predictably enough. But Cowley demonstrates his ability to multi-task by having overheard their whispered conversation from while he was talking to Yeshinkov.
Cowley: "Twenty year old dust, but it's still lethal. It can choke you to death."
I love Cowley in this mood, well and truly on the warpath and bristling with righteous indignation.
Doyle, just arrived, is regretful to learn that the dead man was Forrester. He knew him. "Then you knew a bloody fool," is Cowley's parting shot.
Darby is dropped off by taxi to a graveyard, presumably to pay his respects to Eileen Pierce. A young girl is also there, carrying a bunch of flowers, and there can be little doubt that this is the daughter, Helen. She tends the grave as Darby approaches.
Two former agents, Sorenson and Elsa, meet to discuss Darby's return. Both are bitter and vengeful, having suffered badly as a result of his betrayal.
Back at the graveyard, Darby greets Helen, who recognises him ("The prodigal father"), presumably from photographs, and breaks down slightly, being vulnerable just at the moment. But he urges her to act normally, whatever that means.
Helen: "You appear from nowhere after twenty years and say 'act normally'."
But while Darby reassures Helen that he's all right, he can still make himself invisible, that the danger isn't that great, he is being watched – by Sorenson.
On stakeout, Doyle is musing aloud, wondering how good they really were – the Cold Brigade, Statten's mob. Doyle is thoughtful, pondering it all over; Bodie, though, is more matter-of-fact about it all. Nice scene to show the difference in outlook of the two Lads.
Bodie: "'Never send a boy on a man's errand, they'll pinch his bike', George Cowley, Words of Wisdom, Chapter One."
LOL: that Cowley Quote gets used again in later episodes (specifically, Slush Fund). Nice.
And then Doyle has a nasty thought – Helen Pierce isn't home, but what if there's someone waiting for her inside? Someone should check it out…
Doyle loses the toss, arranges his danger code for the R/T with Bodie, and heads off.
In the graveyard, Darby and Helen are still talking. He expected her to despise him, but although she doesn't understand what he did, or why, she says she could never hate him for it. And for him, that's all that matters. And then he asks about Eileen's solicitor…because he's still a pro, after all. Sentimentality only goes so far. Helen doesn't see anything amiss with the question, though, since she wasn't included in Cowley's debriefing on potential suspects for the fourth man, and is more concerned about her father's health, as he clearly is not well. They continue to walk. Behind them, Sorenson pulls a gun – and a funeral car cuts across his path, blocking them from his sight. By the time it has passed, they are gone, and he hams up his dismay.
While Bodie stews in the car, Doyle carefully breaks into Helen's place. Therein, he neatly takes out the Italian, Callinari, but is in turn taken out by O'Leary. Because there's two of them and only one of him. Unfair advantage, although to be fair, CI5 training should have prepared him for that. Callinari, furious, grabs his gun, points it at Doyle's face…
And O'Leary promptly stops him shooting, much to the relief of viewers. Especially the DDs, who really don't want to see their Lad left faceless.
Cowley plays Statten the tape of his talk with Yeshinkov. Cowley is still convinced there is more to Darby's return than Eileen's death and a sudden desire to see his daughter. Statten brings the conversation around to Darby's book, Red Spy at Night, his tell-all which didn't tell quite as much as it could have, and sold well enough to make him a small fortune, but didn't. Statten believes the manuscript for the book it should have been – real names, real places, real scandal – is still out there: worth a fortune, enough to support his daughter for the rest of her life. Cowley is delighted, focusing on working out where this manuscript might be, while Statten scowls, bitter and vengeful.
At Helen's place, Callinari is twitchy and O'Leary confident, playing with Doyle's R/T. Doyle lies bound and gagged on the floor. Outside, Bodie continues to wait, and worry, and spots Helen on her way home. He sends a covert warning to Doyle, which is picked up by O'Leary. Out back, Lewis guards the back door, much to the frustration of Darby, who had been aiming to enter that way.
Helen enters, and is nabbed by the very loathsome O'Leary. Sobbing, she admits that her father is waiting at the back for her to let him in, but knows nothing of the manuscript they are after. In the lounge, meanwhile, Callinari lurks by the window, peering out, and Doyle readies himself, tenses – and kicks! Callinari goes flying through the window, as neat a warning as you could wish to telegraph across the road to the waiting partner. Bodie is out of the car and sprinting across the road in a flash, while Lewis also goes racing in from the back lane.
Doyle grunts fiercely until Bodie frees him. But O'Leary has a hostage, and is thus able to make good his escape. It is all very tense.
Love the reaction shot of the neighbour with child beating a hasty retreat on seeing the guns.
And then a car comes screeching along, mounting the pavement and forcing the Lads to fall back. O'Leary drags Helen into it, and they are away. Leaping back into Bodie's car, the Lads take up a hot pursuit.
Out back, Darby manages to evade Lewis, only to run straight into his former colleague, Sorenson, and finds himself at gunpoint.
Sorenson: "I think of you, every time there's a bloody chill."
Elsa is with him, driving the car they get into. He is whisked away, but not before Lewis has come chasing in time to make note of the registration.
Bodie and Doyle's car chase continues right up until the KGB's Roller pulls out in front of them and they lose their prey. The Russian agents are grinningly unrepentant. "Keep taking the pills." "Liverpool for the cup."
Gotta say, the Lads were asking for that one, offering such dumb greetings and expecting agents stationed in their country not to understand. Be useless spies if they couldn't speak the language of the land they were posted to, no?
Back at Helen's place, Callinari is takena way by ambulance (presumably with an armed escort, just in case), while Cowley rants and raves about his viable operation descending into utter shambles. The ever-so nicely spoken Lewis deflects some of this rage, however, reporting that the car Darby was taken away in was licensed to Martin Sorenson – Cowley recognises the name. Retired civil servant? Retired spy…Sorenson was one of the agents Darby fingered when he defected, and spent 5 years as a prisoner of the KGB before being exchanged back 15 years ago. Spent 18 months in hospital after his release.
Cowley: "You can imagine how he feels about Thomas Darby."
In the car, Sorenson talks to Darby about what he did, and the impact on the lives of agents such as himself, and Elsa – and they were all agents, but Darby was a double agent, and escaped unscathed. Those he fingered were less fortunate.
Sorenson: "We're an exclusive little group, those of us who survived. We always think of you as our…founder."
So, giving up on Darby for the time being, Cowley decides to focus on Helen – starting at the office of Arthur Pulford, solicitor to both Darby and Eileen. While Cowley explains, again the voice over covers images of O'Leary tearing the solicitor's office apart while a terrified Helen cowers and sobs.
CI5 arrive in force at the solicitors, while inside, O'Leary has found a likely strongbox and shoots it open. And there it is, the manuscript, and he picks up the phone to make a call.
Outside, Doyle and Bodie play 'rock, paper, scissors' this time to decide who goes first, and Doyle loses again. It's funny. Especially the looks on both their faces, coz CI5 agents get to be light-heartedly playful and deadly serious at the same time. They gently push the door open, to see a secretary bound and gagged on the floor inside. Sign language by Doyle and violent nodding and jerking of the head on her part gives them a direction to follow. Movement can be seen through the frosted glass in the door to Pulford's office. Doyle cautiously heads that way…and a floorboard creaks. He flings himself to the ground as that frosted glass shatters in a hail of bullets from O'Leary's gun.
So, Doyle is now grounded and vulnerable, again, while Bodie remains out of sight, guarding his back. O'Leary moves forward to see who is there, while the Lads sign their next course of action to one another. In perfect formation, they leap into action, Bang, bang: you're dead. O'Leary is taken out. Pulford is also there, also dead. And the manuscript is secured.
And the banker won't be far away – he'll want the manuscript secured a.s.a.p. A badly shaken Helen confirms this – O'Leary told the person he phoned to meet him outside. So, the banker is very close – a big, expensive car with a VIP sitting in it, Cowley surmises, in voice over again as the camera cuts to…a big, expensive car with a VIP sitting in it.
Oh, and it's Lewis' moment of glory as it is he who accompanies Cowley to the bust. The Rt. Hon. Paul Cantwell is apprehended at last, and Cowley sends him off with Lewis while he heads off to look for Thomas Darby.
He goes straight to Brigadier Statten's place, and finds the old man sitting in a roomful of his old mob, that exclusive little group of survivors. Thomas Darby sits among them, dead – but not by their hand, any of them. His heart gave out. But would they have killed him?
Statten: "I don't know. I suppose we intended to. But he was such a pathetic wreck."
Cowley tells them he'll arrange to have the body removed, sees no need to ask for their silence (but says it anyway, for the camera) and confirms that there was a manuscript, now safely locked away and no, they can't read it.
Statten: "Makes you a very powerful man, Cowley. Guardian of a thousand secrets."
Cowley: "Aye. And don't you forget it, Brigadier."
Back to the warehouse, and CI5 come face to face with the KGB once more. The body of Thomas Darby is handed over, to be smuggled back to Russia for the news of his death to be announced there.
Yeshinkov: "I think you will find that he died next Monday."
Cowley: "I look forward to reading his obituary."
And then Cowley tells him that Cantwell will be sent to Moscow, never to return to the United Kingdom again. The fourth man is out at last. There's a bit more verbal fencing, and then the farewells are said.
Doyle: "Next time we'll ram your bloody car."
Bodie: "Up the Moscow Dynamos."
ROFL.
And what a great, substantial episode it was, with a real, meaty plot, entertaining guest characters, lots of fun dialogue and plenty of lovely Lads moments.
Episode 7 of disc 2, and a ship comes sailing into port, the camera closing in on one gentleman aboard in particular.
Cut to the pomp and ceremony of a Rolls Royce disembarking three suited men into…a shabby, disused warehouse. All around, CI5 agents (instantly recognisable due to their R/Ts, discreetly watch and wait. The terrible trio stroll in a v-like formation, not unlike that of migratory geese, through the warehouse, where they are met by…Mr Cowley and the Lads. Who instantly take up similar formation. A meeting based on mutual trust, they agree – a meeting between CI5 and the KGB.
Roll credits. Because in 1978 it was all Cold War and the KGB were a big deal, all very covert and hush hush. Close to three decades later, and it doesn't have quite the same impact. But the implication is clear enough.
In port, the ship has docked and the hat-wearing gentleman disembarks, while elsewhere the CI5-KGB meeting progresses. Cowley and his counterpart (Yeshinkov, and no, I've no idea if I spelled that right) discuss vague matters of international security, spy stories, and the like. Behind them, Doyle and Bodie mutter to one another rather more randomly (and amusingly!)
Bodie: "This dust gets right up me hooter. Plays hell with me sinuses."
Cowley complains that he's not getting any good information. He wants information, for example: Moscow, and Thomas Darby. Over images of the hat-wearing gentleman boarding a train, Yeshinkov insists there's nothing he can say that Cowley doesn't already know – that Darby has been a Soviet citizen for 20 years, is retired and in Moscow. Cowley, however, believes otherwise. Darby hasn't been seen in days; sources believe he has left Moscow. So where is he?
It's kinda like wandering into a spy flick by mistake, no?
Yeshinkov knows only that Darby is ill – dying.
Meeting over, the Lads shake hands with their counterparts.
Bodie: "Liverpool for the cup."
Doyle: "Keep taking the pills."
Leaving, Bodie seems happy to take the meeting at face value as a washout, but Cowley, on the other hand, knows otherwise. It's what they don't say that matters. He runs them through the history of notorious double agent Darby as they get into the car and we catch a brief glimpse of fellow agent Lewis. From the guarded conversation with Yeshinkov, Cowley has gleamed that the now dying Darby is on the run and carrying a stolen British passport under the name of Williams. He's coming home.
Switch back to man-in-hat on the train, and this, clearly, is double agent Darby, come home to die.
And CI5 are already on his tail, as immigration confirm that Williams arrived at Dover that day. Bodie, today playing the role of the viewers-proxy (asking questions on behalf of viewers in order for the exposition to be given), wonders why the fuss for some tired old spy. Because this tired old spy could topple the government, start a 'fair old' massacre and bring a lot of maggots crawling out of the woodwork. No, Cowley wants him. Plus, there's the matter of the fourth man – three double agents involved in the same scandal are all accounted for. But the fourth man was never identified, the banker, the one who stayed behind, no doubt rich and influential and still here, somewhere, still hidden after all these years. No, there'll be a lot of people coming after Darby's blood, but Cowley wants to get to him first, to find out why he's come back, and who the fourth man is…
Cowley runs through slides of Darby's known associates with Doyle. Sir Howell Mortimer, stockbroker, retired. Eileen Pierce, widow of an activist killed in the Spanish Civil War and believed to be a distant cousin of Darby. Rt. Hon. Paul Cantwell, ex-minister, retired. Arthur Pulford, solicitor.
Bodie screeches to a halt outside a random hotel and races inside to a murder scene, where Lewis greets him. He's found a photo of Darby at the scene.
A Brigadier James Statten is last on Cowley's list, Controller of SIS, and formerly Darby's superior. Officially retired, but believed to be still active as a consultant…and in the room right there with them, listening to the spiel. It was he who prepared the list of 'fourth man' suspects, including himself as so many suspected him at the time. His section was destroyed when Darby defected, and the very elderly, wheelchair bound Statten makes no secret of his hatred for the man.
Statten: "Sentimentality is a mortal enemy for spies."
Because, he explains, Eileen Pierce died ten days earlier. And she was neither the banker nor his cousin, but his lover. Cowley doesn't think that's enough, but there's more.
Statten: "Together they compounded an unforseen mistake."
They had a child. An 'occupational hazzard' for mistresses in the days before the pill. This daughter, Helen Pierce, is Darby's reason for returning.
Statten: "Sentimentality is a cardinal sin. Especially for traitors."
And, once his visitors have gone, he gets on the phone to let a few of 'the others' know that Darby is back. And former agents whose lives were destroyed by Darby's defection, are set on the warpath.
Back at the hotel, and Bodie debriefs Cowley on the murder. The dead man was some kind of agent, tailing assassin O'Leary from the airport, but not properly briefed, and this was the result. An Italian assassin has also arrived in the country – the agent was killed in a scuffle between the two.
Cowley sends Bodie and Doyle to stakeout Helen Pierce's house, and they fuss and moan about it, predictably enough. But Cowley demonstrates his ability to multi-task by having overheard their whispered conversation from while he was talking to Yeshinkov.
Cowley: "Twenty year old dust, but it's still lethal. It can choke you to death."
I love Cowley in this mood, well and truly on the warpath and bristling with righteous indignation.
Doyle, just arrived, is regretful to learn that the dead man was Forrester. He knew him. "Then you knew a bloody fool," is Cowley's parting shot.
Darby is dropped off by taxi to a graveyard, presumably to pay his respects to Eileen Pierce. A young girl is also there, carrying a bunch of flowers, and there can be little doubt that this is the daughter, Helen. She tends the grave as Darby approaches.
Two former agents, Sorenson and Elsa, meet to discuss Darby's return. Both are bitter and vengeful, having suffered badly as a result of his betrayal.
Back at the graveyard, Darby greets Helen, who recognises him ("The prodigal father"), presumably from photographs, and breaks down slightly, being vulnerable just at the moment. But he urges her to act normally, whatever that means.
Helen: "You appear from nowhere after twenty years and say 'act normally'."
But while Darby reassures Helen that he's all right, he can still make himself invisible, that the danger isn't that great, he is being watched – by Sorenson.
On stakeout, Doyle is musing aloud, wondering how good they really were – the Cold Brigade, Statten's mob. Doyle is thoughtful, pondering it all over; Bodie, though, is more matter-of-fact about it all. Nice scene to show the difference in outlook of the two Lads.
Bodie: "'Never send a boy on a man's errand, they'll pinch his bike', George Cowley, Words of Wisdom, Chapter One."
LOL: that Cowley Quote gets used again in later episodes (specifically, Slush Fund). Nice.
And then Doyle has a nasty thought – Helen Pierce isn't home, but what if there's someone waiting for her inside? Someone should check it out…
Doyle loses the toss, arranges his danger code for the R/T with Bodie, and heads off.
In the graveyard, Darby and Helen are still talking. He expected her to despise him, but although she doesn't understand what he did, or why, she says she could never hate him for it. And for him, that's all that matters. And then he asks about Eileen's solicitor…because he's still a pro, after all. Sentimentality only goes so far. Helen doesn't see anything amiss with the question, though, since she wasn't included in Cowley's debriefing on potential suspects for the fourth man, and is more concerned about her father's health, as he clearly is not well. They continue to walk. Behind them, Sorenson pulls a gun – and a funeral car cuts across his path, blocking them from his sight. By the time it has passed, they are gone, and he hams up his dismay.
While Bodie stews in the car, Doyle carefully breaks into Helen's place. Therein, he neatly takes out the Italian, Callinari, but is in turn taken out by O'Leary. Because there's two of them and only one of him. Unfair advantage, although to be fair, CI5 training should have prepared him for that. Callinari, furious, grabs his gun, points it at Doyle's face…
And O'Leary promptly stops him shooting, much to the relief of viewers. Especially the DDs, who really don't want to see their Lad left faceless.
Cowley plays Statten the tape of his talk with Yeshinkov. Cowley is still convinced there is more to Darby's return than Eileen's death and a sudden desire to see his daughter. Statten brings the conversation around to Darby's book, Red Spy at Night, his tell-all which didn't tell quite as much as it could have, and sold well enough to make him a small fortune, but didn't. Statten believes the manuscript for the book it should have been – real names, real places, real scandal – is still out there: worth a fortune, enough to support his daughter for the rest of her life. Cowley is delighted, focusing on working out where this manuscript might be, while Statten scowls, bitter and vengeful.
At Helen's place, Callinari is twitchy and O'Leary confident, playing with Doyle's R/T. Doyle lies bound and gagged on the floor. Outside, Bodie continues to wait, and worry, and spots Helen on her way home. He sends a covert warning to Doyle, which is picked up by O'Leary. Out back, Lewis guards the back door, much to the frustration of Darby, who had been aiming to enter that way.
Helen enters, and is nabbed by the very loathsome O'Leary. Sobbing, she admits that her father is waiting at the back for her to let him in, but knows nothing of the manuscript they are after. In the lounge, meanwhile, Callinari lurks by the window, peering out, and Doyle readies himself, tenses – and kicks! Callinari goes flying through the window, as neat a warning as you could wish to telegraph across the road to the waiting partner. Bodie is out of the car and sprinting across the road in a flash, while Lewis also goes racing in from the back lane.
Doyle grunts fiercely until Bodie frees him. But O'Leary has a hostage, and is thus able to make good his escape. It is all very tense.
Love the reaction shot of the neighbour with child beating a hasty retreat on seeing the guns.
And then a car comes screeching along, mounting the pavement and forcing the Lads to fall back. O'Leary drags Helen into it, and they are away. Leaping back into Bodie's car, the Lads take up a hot pursuit.
Out back, Darby manages to evade Lewis, only to run straight into his former colleague, Sorenson, and finds himself at gunpoint.
Sorenson: "I think of you, every time there's a bloody chill."
Elsa is with him, driving the car they get into. He is whisked away, but not before Lewis has come chasing in time to make note of the registration.
Bodie and Doyle's car chase continues right up until the KGB's Roller pulls out in front of them and they lose their prey. The Russian agents are grinningly unrepentant. "Keep taking the pills." "Liverpool for the cup."
Gotta say, the Lads were asking for that one, offering such dumb greetings and expecting agents stationed in their country not to understand. Be useless spies if they couldn't speak the language of the land they were posted to, no?
Back at Helen's place, Callinari is takena way by ambulance (presumably with an armed escort, just in case), while Cowley rants and raves about his viable operation descending into utter shambles. The ever-so nicely spoken Lewis deflects some of this rage, however, reporting that the car Darby was taken away in was licensed to Martin Sorenson – Cowley recognises the name. Retired civil servant? Retired spy…Sorenson was one of the agents Darby fingered when he defected, and spent 5 years as a prisoner of the KGB before being exchanged back 15 years ago. Spent 18 months in hospital after his release.
Cowley: "You can imagine how he feels about Thomas Darby."
In the car, Sorenson talks to Darby about what he did, and the impact on the lives of agents such as himself, and Elsa – and they were all agents, but Darby was a double agent, and escaped unscathed. Those he fingered were less fortunate.
Sorenson: "We're an exclusive little group, those of us who survived. We always think of you as our…founder."
So, giving up on Darby for the time being, Cowley decides to focus on Helen – starting at the office of Arthur Pulford, solicitor to both Darby and Eileen. While Cowley explains, again the voice over covers images of O'Leary tearing the solicitor's office apart while a terrified Helen cowers and sobs.
CI5 arrive in force at the solicitors, while inside, O'Leary has found a likely strongbox and shoots it open. And there it is, the manuscript, and he picks up the phone to make a call.
Outside, Doyle and Bodie play 'rock, paper, scissors' this time to decide who goes first, and Doyle loses again. It's funny. Especially the looks on both their faces, coz CI5 agents get to be light-heartedly playful and deadly serious at the same time. They gently push the door open, to see a secretary bound and gagged on the floor inside. Sign language by Doyle and violent nodding and jerking of the head on her part gives them a direction to follow. Movement can be seen through the frosted glass in the door to Pulford's office. Doyle cautiously heads that way…and a floorboard creaks. He flings himself to the ground as that frosted glass shatters in a hail of bullets from O'Leary's gun.
So, Doyle is now grounded and vulnerable, again, while Bodie remains out of sight, guarding his back. O'Leary moves forward to see who is there, while the Lads sign their next course of action to one another. In perfect formation, they leap into action, Bang, bang: you're dead. O'Leary is taken out. Pulford is also there, also dead. And the manuscript is secured.
And the banker won't be far away – he'll want the manuscript secured a.s.a.p. A badly shaken Helen confirms this – O'Leary told the person he phoned to meet him outside. So, the banker is very close – a big, expensive car with a VIP sitting in it, Cowley surmises, in voice over again as the camera cuts to…a big, expensive car with a VIP sitting in it.
Oh, and it's Lewis' moment of glory as it is he who accompanies Cowley to the bust. The Rt. Hon. Paul Cantwell is apprehended at last, and Cowley sends him off with Lewis while he heads off to look for Thomas Darby.
He goes straight to Brigadier Statten's place, and finds the old man sitting in a roomful of his old mob, that exclusive little group of survivors. Thomas Darby sits among them, dead – but not by their hand, any of them. His heart gave out. But would they have killed him?
Statten: "I don't know. I suppose we intended to. But he was such a pathetic wreck."
Cowley tells them he'll arrange to have the body removed, sees no need to ask for their silence (but says it anyway, for the camera) and confirms that there was a manuscript, now safely locked away and no, they can't read it.
Statten: "Makes you a very powerful man, Cowley. Guardian of a thousand secrets."
Cowley: "Aye. And don't you forget it, Brigadier."
Back to the warehouse, and CI5 come face to face with the KGB once more. The body of Thomas Darby is handed over, to be smuggled back to Russia for the news of his death to be announced there.
Yeshinkov: "I think you will find that he died next Monday."
Cowley: "I look forward to reading his obituary."
And then Cowley tells him that Cantwell will be sent to Moscow, never to return to the United Kingdom again. The fourth man is out at last. There's a bit more verbal fencing, and then the farewells are said.
Doyle: "Next time we'll ram your bloody car."
Bodie: "Up the Moscow Dynamos."
ROFL.
And what a great, substantial episode it was, with a real, meaty plot, entertaining guest characters, lots of fun dialogue and plenty of lovely Lads moments.
