Naturally, I picked this one because it features Jacqueline Pearce, and her false eyelashes, in practically the whole show. It also features Philip Madoc, and his reliable German accent, in a couple of short scenes. I watched it when I got this set in from Network a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I’m thinking it was probably made a couple of months after Funeral in Berlin was released, so spy stories built around East Germany were really in vogue at the time.
“Somebody Loses, Somebody…. Wins?” was the only episode of Man in a Suitcase directed by John Glen. At the time, he was working as a film editor at ITC and done some work on this series, Danger Man, and The Sentimental Agent. Fourteen years later, he’d direct his first feature film, For Your Eyes Only. Then he’d helm the next four Bond films. I mentioned that this evening because, of course, our son has had enough cultural understanding of James Bond, plus he saw the trailer for No Time to Die a few weeks ago, and he’s chomping at the bit for me to let him watch those.
But honestly, he’s not yet ready for the complexities of Bond quite yet. Every once in a while, we’ll hit an episode of something that he does not understand – most recently the Saint installment “The Imprudent Politician” – and instead of asking us to pause it and explain it, he just starts resenting his misunderstanding. This one features McGill dealing with an ex-girlfriend, a client, and the fellow he’s looking for, and all of them are lying about who they really are. The ex may have even defected. Or possibly she’s a double agent. He sadly thought that the grown-ups understood what was happening and what was the truth, and just radiated unhappiness until we put on the brakes and clarified everything.
Eventually people started shooting at each other and driving cars very fast. That was better.
Fire Breathing Dimetrodon Time 