To Trap A Rat

DVD, The Champions (To Trap A Rat)

This is it: if you were watching this series in the hopes of seeing some Swinging Sixties spy drama then this is as swinging as it gets. Although the series exotically attempted a global focus, the reality was that it was an English TV show on an English budget in the days when there were no multimillion pound budgets, so any time they filmed somewhere other than England it had to be a created illusion. They did a good job for the most part, but as I've noted in previous reviews, location shooting could make all the difference between selling the place as real, and settling for a cardboard and polystyrene mockup (or dressing merry olde England up for any number of other countries). You look at episodes like this or 'The Invisible Man' and you can see the difference it makes being in the open air among genuine buildings in the city. They can pull off the illusion, most successfully in 'Happening,' which still stands out as a relatively unexpected highlight of the first few episodes, but even that would have benefited from some real desert. Here we have real Sixties London and it adds a gigantic layer of realism and curiosity to proceedings. It's fascinating to watch quite apart from the story for the chance to see what it looked like in 1967 (and make me wonder what these same locations look like now), and it gives them a chance to let loose and play more than the constraining effects of set-based filming.

Often that's a literal letting loose, as in the scene where Richard steals a girl's handbag so Craig can stop him and inveigle his way into the narcotics network they've been sent to bring down. Were they sent to bring it down or investigate it? I forget, but they have plenty of fun along the way and you can see the actors enjoying it, too. With the three of them working in close proximity it's more reassuring and enjoyable, indeed there are scenes where the boys are tracking the villain with Sharron as backup in the car and, presumably because they're so attuned to each other, she pops up just at the moment they need to continue in a vehicle. It's this fast, upbeat and confident interplay that grows the characters on an audience from mere 'heroes' to people you want to hang out with. They didn't always get that right, but here it's spot on, and there's still room for the usual individual feats and tasks, all three having their moments. Sharron gets them on the track of dealer Frank (I have to assume he was the 'Edwards' of the end credits since there's no Frank listed and he was one of the main guest characters), doing a passable impression of a druggie in need of a fix and just happening to run into Kate O'Mara's Jane Purcell. Craig ends up tracking down the guy behind it all, suave sophisticate Walter Pelham (and finds himself on the rack), and Richard deals with Frank.

Tremayne doesn't feature much, just the beginning and end where they bumble out of his office on the pretext of meeting someone and mumbling about it being the way reports are written up that confuses Tremayne, when he's troubled by how they caught up to the guy after losing him. But that's really the boss' proper place, he wasn't made to get mixed up in the missions personally, otherwise why post agents to these places? The trio are the focus, as it should be, and they're here, there and everywhere, tailing using an electronic bug, which shows up the limitations of technology of the era in that the high-pitched beep it emits that only they can hear runs out of battery after a while - I'd have liked to see dogs running after Frank to show the nature of the sound in action, but details like that were a little outside the series' way of doing things. As usual, the champions' own abilities are more reliable than technology. I wonder where they got that device, it couldn't have been made especially for them as there's no Q figure that would know they would be able to track it, and I can't imagine things like that could be acquired off the rack. If there had been a line saying that one of them had modified a piece of Nemesis equipment it would have helped, but again, details like this aren't what the series is about, it just gets down to business and enjoys itself.

It's quite a different episode in many respects, being more immediate and pacey thanks in part, I suspect, to the manner of filming so much externally. Occasionally you can see passersby looking faintly bemused as if they're not used to seeing a television camera poking out at them, and it must have been filmed on the fly rather than closing up roads or blocking off areas, which adds more colour and vibrancy to the scenes. I suppose a lot of it must be handheld, too, if they had that capability in those days. It even features a teaser that has none of the main characters whatsoever, entirely focused on Jane as she hunts down Frank in a frenzy for a fix, The Bird Cage full of bright lights and hip young folk dancing the night away. It was directed by the famous Sam Wanamaker (Father of Zoe), and you can tell he was in his element the way he shoots her drama in the club, the faces distorted by the curved mirror or metal pillar, whatever it was, and the contrast between her desperation and the casual enjoyment of those around her, oblivious to her self-inflicted plight. I even thought they may have ignored the standard post-credits voiceover explaining who the champions are and showing what they can do, because it opens in Tremayne's office with Sharron and Richard hanging around. It might be the first time we see the world map actually swing round as Richard uses it as a screen for them to play a simple game of cards where Sharron 'reads' which ones he picked.

I like the way the episode is integrated into what is usually an entirely separate section of the story, as if to point to the fact that the whole episode is much more cohesive and realistic than normal due to the simple fact of being able to film in London. They have their little experiment, then Tremayne comes in with Craig to brief them on the mission (and they hear the pair approaching with their superior ears). I think what I liked about the whole thing was that it was kind of cosy, reassuring - they split off on their tracking, then Richard meets up with Craig early the next morning with a flask of coffee. There's a good sense of progression in the time they're on the case. They're not in some fake jungle on an island trying not to be discovered by soldiers, they're mixing with Londoners and trying to fit into the crowd. Well, ironically, in order to 'take a shortcut' as Craig put it, they deliberately make themselves obvious through Sandra that they're looking for the man at the top ("They set a trap for us, we walk into it. That's the shortcut," Craig says blithely). They're still in danger, however, by the fact they make clear that they can't involve Scotland Yard since Tremayne wants it off the record. I'm not sure why they wouldn't liaise with the police or MI5, or whomever, aside from the obvious advantages to drama, but it only adds to the cosiness of these three running around the streets of London, going from dives like The Bird Cage to a zoo (London Zoo?), to the palatial residence of Pelham at the top of the drugs food chain.

While this is filmed in a swift and speedy style compared to some other recent episodes, this approach also extends into the dialogue and activities of the characters. Like Richard on the phone trying to ring up Pelham's address so he can work out where Craig is, and it suddenly occurs to him that Sharron should play his secretary to make it more authentic. It's these actions on the fly that make the characters seem more with it, reacting to whatever comes their way with the kind of reflex brains and bodies they're supposed to have. The same for physical moments such as when we think Richard's about to get a surprise from Frank's chauffeur whom he hasn't appeared to notice just outside the door when he surprises Frank. Except, whether he did know he was there or not (and I tend to think he did and was just lulling them into a false sense of security, since we know he heard the footsteps coming up the stairs and could probably have distinguished how many there were), he reacts without even looking at him, the first thing the chauffeur knows about it is being thrown over Richard's shoulder, crashing through a sofa, skidding into the next room on the floor and having shelves of Frank's best china rain down on his head! Even when Frank apparently gets the upper hand by pulling a gun, Richard is able to hypnotise him and the last we see of the unfortunate dealer is vacantly guarding his downed chauffeur with orders to watch him!

The powers are less played up, there isn't as much of the mystical bell music we often hear, there isn't the time for slow closeups on their faces (though Sharron does see Craig's pain when he's being stretched between a car and the wall), they just do their thing and sometimes it's obvious and other times we can just assume it's their gifts (like Sharron showing up with the car at just the right moment). It makes it feel much more modern than a Sixties series, which is strange because everything is quite archaic, from the men wearing suits all the time, the women wearing colourful Sixties garb, to the coal man delivering the coal, and everything has that unmistakable period look, from the sports cars to the magazines on tables. So it's almost strange to see these characters so young and energetic when it's so many decades ago, because the past is 'old.' It's difficult to explain, but it's like they burst out of the period and were they wearing less period specific wardrobe they could be contemporary to us now. It's not something I usually get from the series, it's purely because of the strong period setting. Not that the Sixties would have been dull, drab, slow and old, but it's just that it's easy to think that way and forget that at any period in history there would have been people with energy and vitality running around.

When Sharron senses Craig's pain is she getting actual pain or is it just the situation he's in, because I wouldn't have thought he would have been troubled by that car, especially the way he pulls off the chains when they come to rescue him - yes, another trope, one of them always has to be captured and rescued, but even that was done with some panache and an old-fashioned villainous top hat and tails manner (Pelham wouldn't have looked out of place in such villainous getup, he had that old music hall look about him), the twist this time being that, like The Joker and Bane, capture was all part of the plan. There's a free-for-all rumble in the underground car park (always a good place for such things because of the cars, pillars and shadows), and even Sharron gets to beat up an old man, a servant of Pelham. Richard does a rather Clark Kent thing, lifting up the back wheels of fleeing Pelham's car so he can't escape. It doesn't take champion powers to be quick and witty, but it was clever how Richard and Sharron narrow down the Pelham residence by listening to the chimes of Big Ben on the hour and the other sounds of the area, such as roadworks and the coal man. I'm not sure why Richard and Craig needed to lipread out of Sandra's window, would it not have been easier to communicate telepathically? But that's one of the things that hasn't been tied down: do they have to speak aloud to send their message? They did a similar thing in 'The Experiment' where they were outside the window and were able to talk with Sharron, so maybe this time they just chose to lipread, and it was perfectly effective anyway.

What I can't quite reconcile is how Craig somehow hears the numbers of the phone when Sandra rings Pelham to warn him about people poking into his business. Was it the time it took for the dial to go round that he could keep track of? A similar thing had happened earlier when Sharron watched Jane ring Frank and saw the number from across the room, but Craig was actually listening, not looking! If their ears are so sensitive as to be able to pick up the high-pitched bug and the tiny sounds of a phone being dialled how much must it have hurt them at the zoo with all those screeching animals, where even ordinary human, Frank, was bothered by the cacophony! They no doubt have the ability to be selective in what they take in and can filter out the rest. Hearing may be one of their most important assets as so much information can be gleaned by hearing things that no one else does, or overhearing those that don't want to be overheard. The ability to seem simple and obvious must be a gift too, as Craig manages to impress Sandra the 'car greaser' as he designates her, when she's out walking Nicky the dog and has her bag snatched by Richard. Chesterfield Motors is either very progressive in featuring mainly girls as workers, or it's a marketing ploy to get customers to come in more often, not that Craig minds having to infiltrate the gang through this route…

It's fun seeing Craig chase Richard through a kiddies' play park and about, though I'm not sure Richard needed to actually bop him on the nose for that level of realism! I'm assuming Sandra was the name of the girl as I don't remember her being named in dialogue, but there's only one other female character, and that was Jane. Kate O'Mara would go on to fame in soaps and 'Dr. Who,' and she's pretty good as the junkie used as their key into the organisation of drugs that are killing the users. She has a ferocity and desperation about her that is only lessened by the shadow that follows her when she tries to get out of the house, probably that of the cameraman, which does undermine that moment subtly because we're supposed to be expecting someone creeping up behind her. But you have to expect little mistakes in such a comparatively frenetic instalment of the series, and we do get at least one other: in the park when Richard walks out from behind a tree trunk you can see the boom mike drop into frame for a moment. As often is the case, the choice of who ends up in the credits is a mixed bag: Higgs, or 'Peanut Seller' as he's credited, is there, but the man guarding Jane at her house isn't. The Ambulance Doctor and Ambulance Man, who share one tiny scene explaining how close Jane came to dying, are there, but the foreign dignitary supplying the drugs apparently isn't, so I don't know how they decided such things. Aside from the main speaking roles it's almost potluck. I think the chauffeur was called Bates (was Pelham's a different guy to Frank's?), and Frank calls up a couple of heavies called Jimmy and Lenny, but I'm not certain we ever met them.

Regardless of cast credits, this is a good, fun episode that never becomes wacky or silly - they're there to do a serious job involving pertinent issues of the day, the Sixties known as much for its opening of the floodgates of drugs as anything else. While that side of things is necessarily muted, being a family series, it's good that they were able to tackle something of that nature, an evil that is as great to the common person as the threat of rogue states, nuclear weapons and the misuse of technology, which are the more standard fare of the series. It doesn't have the same emotional weight as the German war survivors of the previous episode, but they've made an excellent choice in scheduling very different episodes in theme and environment in this first batch, and this episode continues that success.

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