The Avengers (TV Series) You Have Just Been Murdered (1967) User Reviews

Sheer originality, great episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 1 September 2022]

Rich men are being targeted in the strangest possible way, an assassin is breaking into their homes, and showing just how easy it would be to murder them.

There are a wealth of ideas throughout this great episode, so much cleverness, so many mind vending concepts, I don't think I've ever seen a show with such a plot.

Beautifully shot and produced once again, I'm sure many didn't forget Emma Peel's Riverside fight scene, the whole thing looked wonderful.

I've sometimes been a little critical of some of the villains, and it's fair to say that Needle ranks up there are one of the wildest, but George Murcell was awesome here I thought, I really enjoyed his presence.

I know this was written by Philip Levene, but for me it felt like it had come from the imagination of Brian Clemens, it felt to me like an episode of his series Thriller, it had that vibe, that cleverness.

Mrs Peel is definitely getting some classics, and going out in style.

9/10.

You Have Just Been Murdered

[guswhovian · 7/10 · 19 September 2020]

After several prominent businessman suddenly withdraw a million pounds each, Steed and Mrs Peel suspect a fiendish blackmailer is at work.

This one takes a while to get going, but it's worth watching for the last twenty minutes. There's a good guest cast, good fight scenes and a memorable villain from George Murcell as Mr Needle (whose hideout is in a haystack). It's nice to see Diana Rigg getting more to do as well.

Another good episode.

[tonygarraway2009 · 9/10 · 21 January 2018]

This is another stylish episode from the colour Diana Rigg season.

An extortionist is blackmailing some prominent wealthy people for large sums of money. The method used is rather interesting. Each 'victim' is put through the distressing act of apparently being murdered. However, on each occasion the act is only played out as a warning, i.e the gun fires blanks or the knife is only a toy one. If the individual does not need the number of warnings, eventually they will be murdered for real.

Simon Oates stands out as the impassive assailant with an air of mystery (he very rarely speaks in the entire episode).

The fact that the villain of the piece is called Nathaniel Needle and has a real hideout in a haystack is actually rather amusing.

Both Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg are on top form as per usual.

The episode looks great on dvd, the picture looks great and the colours are very vivid.

9/10.

"By the numbers thriller albeit a fun one."

[jamesraeburn2003 · 4 August 2008]

Steed and Emma are called in by Lord Maxstead (Robert Flemyng) of the British Banking Corporation who is concerned because a number of his wealthiest clients have been withdrawing the sum of £1,000,000 in cash. Things become more serious when one of those clients, Gilbert Jarvis (Geoffrey Charter) is murdered. Needle (George Purcell) and Skelton (Simon Oates) specialise in mock murder attempts aimed at wealthy and influential men to frighten them into paying up. When they select tycoon George Unwin (Barrie Ingham), a close friend of Steed's as their next target, The Avengers set a trap. They tail Unwin to the remote and derelict Bridge Farm where Emma succeeds in trapping the guy sent to collect the money and forces him to lead her to his boss. But she is overpowered by Skelton. Meanwhile Steed accosts Unwin who tells him that there is a time bomb in the attaché case containing the money. Now Steed is faced with finding the hideout and Mrs Peel before the bomb detonates but it is going to be like looking for a Needle in a haystack!

The screenplay by Philip Levene who along with Brian Clemens was the series' most prolific writer and the most influential in terms of its style allows for some very suspenseful situations. For instance, Steed's climatic battle to find Needle's hideout since unknown to the mastermind and Mrs Peel, Unwin tried to box clever by planting a bomb inside the loot. Some of the fake murder attempts are pretty flesh creeping as well thanks to the direction of Robert Asher (brother of ace Cinematographer Jack whose work was a highlight of the early Hammer gothics). In the handful of Avengers episodes he directed, Robert Asher proved that he was very proficient with the tongue in cheek thriller genre and it was a pity that on the big screen his work consisted mainly of trivial Norman Wisdom comedies and The Intelligence Men was Morecombe and Wise's first albeit unsuccessful bid for big screen stardom. Compared to Levene's previous offerings such as the delightfully eccentric and bizarre fantasy episodes like Man Eater Of Surrey Green, the one in which Steed and Emma tackle - guess what?- a man eating plant, You Have Just Been Murdered seems like a by the numbers thriller albeit a thoroughly enjoyable one. As always there is an amusing tag scene at the end of the episode in which Steed shows Emma his self-made million made up of half pennies all stored neatly in little boxes except he is half a penny short of a complete million. "Whoever heard of a nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nineraire?" he gasps. But Mrs Peel does the honours by contributing the outstanding half penny out of her own pocket to complete Steed's million. "There" she says "You are now a fully fledged, self-made, half penny millionaire."

Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg are as good as always as Steed and Emma with their usual chemistry which defined the shows popularity while George Purcell runs through all the traits of arch villainy as Needle a mastermind with a love of puns - he makes his hideaway in a haystack as a nod to his name thinking that it is so obvious that it will make him impossible to find. But the most interesting member of the supporting cast is Simon Oates who later portrayed Steed on the stage version of The Avengers in the early seventies.

Overall, You Have Just Been Murdered seems like a routine thriller compared to some of the more way out, fantasy plots that prolific series writer Philip Levene has written in the past. Nonetheless, it is still a thoroughly enjoyable episode complete with some good chemistry between Steed and Emma and some suspenseful sequences.

A needle in a haystack

[kevinolzak · 10/10 · 2 April 2011]

"You Have Just Been Murdered" is another ingenious Philip Levene plot line, as millionaires are being blackmailed by extortionists who demonstrate how easily each can be killed (four times is the limit before the exchange takes place). George Murcell ("Square Root of Evil") plays the mastermind Nathaniel Needle, conveniently hiding out in a haystack, but it's Simon Oates ("Super Secret Cypher Snatch") who steals the show as the smiling assassin Skelton (Oates would go on to portray John Steed in a stage production of THE AVENGERS). Diana Rigg's Emma Peel is more stylish than usual, whether climbing a tree or throwing an opponent over her shoulder while immersed in water. Series veteran Frank Maher makes his fifth of six appearances (a terrific fight to the death with a leather-clad Mrs. Peel), along with Geoffrey Chater ("You'll Catch Your Death"), John Baker ("Requiem"), and Les Crawford ("The 50,000 Breakfast"). Leslie French ("Death of a Great Dane") plays the victimized Lord Rathbone, so named in honor of the late Basil Rathbone, who died July 21 1967, just as this episode began shooting. In an unusual twist, Rathbone was in New York City, en route to England, where he was to do "The Blood Beast Terror," co-starring with Peter Cushing, replaced at the last moment by Robert Flemyng, who here appears as the banker, Lord Maxted (best remembered for his starring role opposite British beauty Barbara Steele in the 1962 Italian Gothic "The Horrible Dr. Hichcock").

'Killed' for a million

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 7 March 2015]

A series of millionaires have each taken one million pounds in cash out of their accounts and it is up to Steed and Mrs Peel to find out why. The viewer is clearly shown why; each of the men is repeatedly 'murdered' by an unspeaking assailant. After shooting the victim with an unloaded gun, stabbing them with a fake knife or almost running into them with his car he gives them a card bearing the words 'You have just been murdered'. It doesn't matter whether they are out in the open or in a locked room; they can be got to. After the fifth attack, by which time they are understandably petrified, they receive a telephone call from Nathaniel Needle, the man behind the scheme, demanding a million pounds in cash or the next murder will be for real. Steed learns the identity of the latest victim but he is unwilling to talk so he and Mrs Peel devise a plan to follow him to the drop point where she can retrieve the money… not knowing that man had decided to fight back by putting a bomb in with the money!.

This was an enjoyable episode; the opening scene where a victim is 'shot' by the villainous Skelton had me gripped. This is largely down to Simon Oates portrayal of the man; the way he smiles but doesn't speak is genuinely creepy. In fact he is a better villain than the man behind the scenes… and he is quite a good character as well. The 'bomb in the bag' proved a nice twist at the end and increased the tension as Mrs Peel blithely carries the case not realising it could explode at any moment. As expected we get to see Mrs Peel fighting a villain but this time in a lake; which made an interesting change… as does the villain's use of a sickle once the pair have exited the water. Those who prefer the more fantastical stories may be a bit disappointed but those who like a story that is vaguely believable are likely to really like this; the plot may be a little far-fetched but it is believable. Overall a good episode with a solid set of villains.

ORIGINAL AND INTELLIGENT ARGUMENT

[asalerno10 · 10/10 · 3 June 2022]

One of the strangest and most original arguments ever made. Several wealthy businessmen receive strange death threats, which consist of exposing how defenseless they are in the face of an attack, no matter how many security measures they have, and then ordering them to pay large sums of money in exchange for their lives. Although in this episode we don't have fantastic elements, the methods used by these criminals is highly unprecedented and original that gives the script edges of great suspense and mystery.

Exciting episode

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7/10 · 21 March 2019]

I remind this episode from my childhood. I love it, but there is no fantasy here, nor spy game, only thriller. But two things are unexplained: Rathbone character, who seems to be so greedy and scared - see how he cut himself from the outside world .... I don't undertsand why he drives his old car with no protection at all. And nothing is explained about John Steed's sudden wealth at the very end of the story. NO SPOILER HERE.