This is more like it! A colourful and engaging adventure. We have a scientist, a moneyman, a politician. It’s not a subtle allegory, but it allows for some very interesting interplay as agendas are pursued, and the balance shifts. The ‘frogs’ are the disposed citizens, who suffer the collateral damage; spirited and sympathetic performances. All the performances are great, in fact, and there’s some really cracking dialogue.

It’s another of the international adventures that seem much more common in these early series: set in Greece and aboard a yacht. Steed’s holiday is interrupted by One-Six (returning, and since they made a point of not having met in Conspiracy of Silence, a rare bit of continuity that ensures this episode has to come later). One-Six still has his earpiece in, for some reason. Steed has already smuggled Venus about the yacht so he stowed away. For once, Venus’ reaction to Steed is hostile (despite their cordiality in Man in the Mirror) but I find it a much more understandable response given the circumstances. And Venus has her audience back. It’s just a pity she breaks the fourth wall again.

We learn a little about Venus’ past; her father was a boat man and she used to live aboard a barge. This is the last of Venus’ appearances and I’m going to miss her.

Frank Gatiff makes his second appearance (a performance not wildly different to that in The Sell Out).

A gem of an episode.