The Avengers (TV Series) Wish You Were Here (1968) User Reviews

A great homage to The Prisoner.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 12 September 2022]

The Elizabethan Hotel, a beautiful hotel, with all manner of facilities and luxuries, the only issue, once you're in, you cannot leave, so when Tara visits her Uncle Charles, she becomes a Prisoner.

It's definitely not the first time the show decided to take inspiration from another series, and in this case it's of course The Prisoner. What I'll applaud the fact that they're not sending it up, the same factors that made The Prisoner absurdly creepy, apply here.

Cracking episode, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's a great mix of action, humour and zany themes.

It's great that Tara is pretty much solo once again, and as was the case in All done with Mirrors, she's joined not by Steed, but by someone who's not exactly competent. Basil is a bit of a fop, but he's charmingly played by Brook Williams.

I really enjoyed seeing Dudley Foster and Robert Urquhart here, Derek Newark was great as Vickers, suitably menacing.

Loved it, 9/10.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 6 April 2015]

This episode opens with two gentlemen talking about their escape plans; at first it appears that they are in prison but as the camera moves in becomes apparent that they are actually in a country hotel! One of them goes to leave but doesn't make it; he slips on the recently polished steps. The management deny anybody is held against their will and nobody else seems to be having problems. It turns out the other man is Tara's Uncle Charles and she is starting to wonder where he has disappeared to; his business partner reassures her that he merely decided to extend his holiday and gives her a postcard from the hotel. She heads down to see him and soon finds herself a prisoner too… it's not that she is physically held prisoner but every attempt to leave is blocked by an 'accident'. Tara is needed for an operation so Mother sends his nephew, and incompetent agent, Basil Creighton-Latimer to bring her back… with the inevitable results.

This enjoyable Tara centred episode is inspired by the cult TV series 'The Prisoner' but one doesn't have to be familiar with that programme to enjoy this. The idea of being held prisoner in a hotel where other guests are free to come and go is of course ridiculous but within the context of 'The Avengers' it works delightfully, creating a nicely claustrophobic atmosphere. The methods the hotel uses to keep its prisoners are interesting; no grand schemes just a series of low level accidents which individually won't raise suspicion. Linda Thorson does a good job in the lead role and is able supported by Liam Redmond and Brook Williams, who play her uncle and Mother's nephew, and Dudley Foster, who plays the hotel manager; a character adept at making excuses but never actually helping his 'guests'. Steed takes a bit of a back seat but his scenes with Mother are entertaining and it was nice that he arrived just after Tara, her uncle and Basil had dealt with their captors rather than saving her yet again.

This ain't Hotel California

[kevinolzak · 9/10 · 30 April 2011]

"Wish You Were Here" is basically a solo Tara adventure like "All Done with Mirrors," right down to burdening her with an incompetent assistant for the unavailable Steed. Charles Merrydale (Liam Redmond, "Small Game for Big Hunters"), Tara's uncle, is among a select number of guests in an Elizabethan hotel who are held prisoner out in the open, with his business being taken over by Stephen Kendrick (Gary Watson, "Death on the Slipway," "Immortal Clay," "Lobster Quadrille"). Any attempts to check out meet with flat tires, staged 'accidents,' or simply lame excuses from the manager (Dudley Foster, "The Hour That Never Was" and "Something Nasty in the Nursery"). Tara's arrival meets with success once the experience of working alongside Steed is put to ingenious use. A marvelous Tony Williamson script, embellished by an excellent cast of familiar faces, including Robert Urquhart ("Castle De'ath"), Richard Caldicot ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station"), Derek Newark ("Trojan Horse" and "From Venus with Love"), and David Garth ("The Big Thinker" and "How to Succeed....at Murder").

Tara Becomes Number Six!

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 27 March 2009]

'The Avengers' often went in for gentle mockery of other spy shows. Sometimes it would be reflected in the story titles, such as 'The Girl From Auntie' and 'Mission: Highly Improbable', while 'The Winged Avenger' cheekily spoofed the 'Batman' series. 'Wish You Were Here' was originally titled 'The Prisoner', and was a send up of the famous Patrick McGoohan I.T.C. series.

Tara's uncle Charles Merryvale ( Liam Redmond ) has been missing for a month. Actually, he is on holiday in a pleasant olde worlde style country hotel. But no-one can reach him there. She goes to see him. He tells her that he - along with a number of other guests - are prisoners. Whenever anyone leaves, a dreadful accident befalls them. To test his theory, she walks out of the door - only to be drenched by water from a window cleaner's bucket. She sends her clothes off to be cleaned, but they return damaged. Putting on a new outfit, she tries to drive off - her car won't start.

Meantime, Mother wants Tara for a new assignment with Steed, so dispatches his incompetent nephew Basil Creighton-Latimer ( Brook Williams ). He too is caught in the spider's web. The hotel is an upmarket prison for wealthy people so that relatives can take control of their business empires. Tara realises that no-one in the place can be trusted...

Part of the fun of this episode is spotting the references to the McGoohan series - a man behind a stair rail which looks uncannily like prison bars, people riding bikes in good weather, Basil inflating a beach-ball ( the 'Rover' balloon ), blow-ups of monochrome photographs ( the 'SpeedLearn' broadcasts in 'The General' ) and Mother on a scales that resemble the see-saws used in the Village Control Centre. As Number Six did in 'Fall Out', Tara organises a break-out with help from fellow guests. Not surprisingly, the director, Don Chaffey, was responsible for several 'Prisoner' episodes.

The hotel manager, Parker, is played by the late Dudley Foster, an actor who specialised in charming villains, and who would have made an excellent 'Number Two'. With Steed mainly absent, it is up to Basil to partner Tara. He does not get off to a good start - putting a golf ball into Mother's drink!

One wishes that the 'Prisoner' allegory had been taken a lot further. Surveillance cameras in the guests' rooms, for instance. Mother's contribution to the story is minimal. He rants a lot about double agents, but nothing is made of it. An enjoyable romp, all the same.

PROBABLY INSPIRED BY THE SERIES THE PRISONER

[asalerno10 · 8/10 · 10 June 2022]

Tara King's uncle sends his niece a postcard from a quiet hotel where he is staying with the legend Wish You Were Here, this phrase that may sound like he wants to share the wonder of these vacations is actually a desperate request for help for being rescued from the Elizabethan Hotel, which works like a prison and where its guests have no way to escape, and every time they try they have strange accidents that force them to return. Surely when they wrote this script they were inspired by the series The Prisoner starring Patrick MacGoohan, since the premise is the same, people kidnapped in an apparently vacation place, controlled all the time and without knowing which of the guests are prisoners and which infiltrators. The original is the ending, where Tara turns the situation around and ends up causing her captors the same unfortunate events they went through to finally take control of the hotel. A creative and clever twist to history.

Thorson beautiful and magnificent in this

[bobforapples-40146 · 9/10 · 9 March 2024]

Her character is wonderfully fleshed out also by having a relative of Tara's be in this. The very idea of her being locked up so against her will for life has intrigue.

But this episode has a big problem knocking it from ten stars down to eight and a half. We will forget any inspiration for this episode. That is unimportant! Now to to the problem. It is the lack of Steed. We only see him mostly at headquarters. The scriptwriters have a bumbling agent go in to try to rescue prisoner Tara. Why? Why not have given the job to Macnee's far more competent Steed himself? While I totally love the way Thorson's character handles the situation I did not want the superfluous guest starring agent in this. It would have been more than sensible enough for Steed to have showed up himself at the strange resort and to have had him team up with Tara in rescue. A sad lack and underuse of the great Steed character!

Actually Steed may have rescued Tara after all. There may have been more captors on her than one sees.