Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone Split! (1961–1969) Online

'Split!' was the first 'Avengers' episode made following the return of producers Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens, after John Bryce had been sacked by A.B.C. The casting of Linda Thorson they were unhappy with - she was fresh out of drama school and lacked television experience - but as there was no time to recast the role of 'Tara King' she stayed.

The episode has a title sequence that was never used again; Steed and Tara are chased round an empty studio by a telescopic sight, which the former swats away using his bowler. It was directed by Harry Booth, who also made the children's show 'Here Come The Double Deckers!' and two of the three 'On The Buses' movies. Robert Fuest was asked to come up with a different set of titles, and did - the one with Steed in a field full of suits of armour and Tara running across a bridge.

The story, written by Clemens, opens in a Ministry Of Defence establishment. Harry, an agent, is writing a report when he receives a strange phone call from someone asking to speak to 'Boris'. Then Harry's entire personality changes. The fingers of his left hand form a claw. He shoots another agent dead. A moment later, Harry is back to normal with no memory whatever of what had occurred.

Steed and Tara take the report to a handwriting expert, played by Christopher Benjamin. He ascertains that the report was begun by Harry, but completed by someone else. Someone with a cunning mind...

Nigel Davenport previously appeared in 'The Danger Makers'; here is he plays 'Lord Barnes', the second agent to receive a personality fusion. Russian spy Boris Kartovski, shot by Steed in Berlin in October 1963, is in fact, alive ( just! ) and in an English country hospital. Doctors have found a way to fuse his personality with those of other people. Hence British agents are turning traitor without anyone suspecting - until it is too late. Our old friend Julian Glover is around too, but for once does not play the chief villain ( that honour goes to Bernard Archard ). He had done so in 'Three's A Crowd' and 'The Living Dead', but here he is another of Boris' victims. He acts his socks off in the scene where he pleads with Steed to kill him.

No 'Mother' here, and Steed is still driving his familiar Green Bentley, both of which make 'Split!' feel like more of a 'Peel' episode rather than a 'Tara' one. As 'Tara', Thorson shows her inexperience only too well. She later grew into the role however.

In the '80's, Clemens wrote a script for an aborted 'Avengers' revival project entitled 'Reincarnation' ( which would have teamed Steed with Mrs.Peel's daughter and an American agent ), whose premise was clearly inspired by 'Split!'.

A top secret, high security, ministry office is an unlikely place for an assassination but that is exactly what happens in the opening scene of the episode. Seconds after getting a phone call asking for 'Boris', Harry Mercer picks up a gun and shoots a fellow employee. Moments later he has no recollection of the event and believes he has merely discovered the body. The only clue is the document he had been writing at the time; the handwriting suddenly changed from that of a dependable man to that of a psychopath. Steed and Tara start to investigate and a suspect emerges; Boris Kartovski… the only problem is that Steed shot him through the heart five years previously. Further investigation leads to a hospital where Mercer had been treated recently. After Steed asks a few questions Mercer is killed in a similar manner by Lord Barnes, who had also attended the hospital. Soon the villains are looking to create another 'Boris'; this time they plan to infuse his personality into a woman's mind... Tara's!

This is an enjoyable early 'Tara King' episode… although her character doesn't have much to do until near the end when she is captured. The plot is pure 'Avengers'; a nice mix of espionage and sci-fi. The way the assumed dead Boris can take over the minds of others is rather fun; there are no 'mind swaps' or possessions; instead his character is 'infused' into theirs in a way that can be done to any number of victims without effecting the real Boris. We can always tell when the 'Boris' persona is in charge as the victim holds their left hand like a claw. There is a reasonable amount of action, involving both Steed and Tara. The guest cast do a decent job, most notably Nigel Davenport as Lord Barnes, Christopher Benjamin who plays the handwriting expert, Swinton; and Julian Glover who plays Major Rooke; the scene where his character struggles internally with the Boris persona is particularly fine.

"Split!" was the first classic Tara King episode, but not surprisingly, was a leftover Emma Peel script. Maurice Good ("Hunt the Man Down" and "Don't Look Behind You") opens as Harry Mercer, dependable, hard working Ministry agent, welcoming the arrival of fellow agent Frank Compton (Iain Anders), who talks of the mundane grind that they go through day after day. A mysterious phone call asking for 'Boris' suddenly transforms the genial Mercer into a far different, more cunning assassin, gunning down his friend using Compton's own gun, then instantly reverting to his old self, with no recollection of what has happened. The most vital clue is a sample of Mercer's handwriting, which changes just as suddenly from honest to devious, yet was composed by the same hand! Tara gets little to do until the climax, mostly waiting in Steed's apartment, and uses her ingenuity to cover for her lack of fighting experience (her relationship with Steed is still developing). The marvelous Christopher Benjamin ("How to Succeed....at Murder" and "Never, Never Say Die") makes his final appearance as Swindon, the handwriting expert, with fine veteran support from Nigel Davenport ("The Danger Makers"), Julian Glover ("Two's a Crowd," "The Living Dead," "Pandora"), Bernard Archard ("The Master Minds"), John G. Heller ("Man-Eater of Surrey Green" and "The Correct Way to Kill"), and John Kidd ("A Surfeit of H2O"). Steven Scott ("Dragonsfield" and "Second Sight") appears as Boris Kartovski, enemy agent believed killed by Steed in October 1963, but the character's name was the same as that played by Steve Plytas in "A Touch of Brimstone" (a minor scriptwriting error). Director Roy Ward Baker bows out of the series in high style, reuniting with Julian Glover and Maurice Good, from his just completed Hammer production "Quatermass and the Pit."