Thriller (TV Series) Mirror of Deception (1975) User Reviews

Too good to be true

[analoguebubblebath · 7/10 · 19 September 2005]

The enigmatically titled 'Good Salary - Prospects - Free Coffin' is a solid piece of television that forms part of Thriller's fifth series. The story is more like an episode of The Avengers in that it deals with the murky world of espionage and what follows is quite disturbing.

Three girls share a flat - Wendy, Babs and Helen. Wendy answers a mysterious looking job advert in the paper looking for someone with a 'sense of adventure'. Following an offscreen interview she is successful and is quickly whisked away to a large country house where she meets a girl who is not dissimilar in appearance to herself. The lookalike then shoots her and is commended by her two supervisors, Gifford (played menacingly by Julian Glover) and Carter (James Maxwell). Some weeks later an identical advert appears with Babs and Helen coming to the conclusion that Wendy must have not been able for the job. Babs, like her friend, is brought to the same location and meets a similar fate. It is then left up to Helen to try and uncover what has happened to her two flatmates. A trip to the American Embassy to change her marital status on her passport brings her face to face with another Babs (one who she feels is impersonating her former flatmate). Her unsympathetic and boorish husband Charley is sceptical and of no help.

Babs' brother Timothy returns from South America on a chance visit and immediately is taken into Helen's confidence. He launches an investigation of his own and in a memorable scene confronts Carter.

The remaining scenes are quite dramatic and the conclusion is reasonably neat. Bruce 'Waldorf Salad' Boa makes a fleeting appearance (his second in Thriller) as an Embassy employee. However the motives of the organisation are never clearly defined and this takes from the overall execution. Nevertheless this is an episode which keeps the viewer guessing and bears repeated viewing.

Rather good, certainly different.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 7 June 2018]

No episode of Thriller captures the 70's more so then Good Salary, Prospects, Free Coffin, it is very much Man from Uncle ground, bit of espionage, strange houses, undercover agents, cover ups and of course Mr Big. Watching it now the biggest shock of all is the possibility that someone can phone up regarding a Job, have an interview and get it there and then, admittedly what follows isn't particularly pleasant, but talk about a different time.

Lots of good points, a cunning story, and although it's not one of my favourites, it's memorable, and left its mark. Some very strong performances, particularly Julian Glover, who always plays villainous characters with such vigour, this was a few years before he appeared in Doctor Who's City of Death.

Some of the story doesn't really make sense, I couldn't quite get why these women were put in place, judging by Carter's accent I assume it was a Cold War infiltration. The start is excellent, baffling, curious, but it just doesn't carry on til the end in the same way. How did the brother gain entry to that establishment so easily?

Pretty good. 7/10

"Have You a Sense of Adventure?"!!!!

[kidboots · 9/10 · 26 April 2011]

Most of the victims in this excellent (though far fetched) "Thriller' episode thought they did, but what really got them the job was having no family or close friends!!! This packs a punch straight away, before the credits appear, with a pretty blonde girl looking out of the window and seeing a man digging the lawn - when she wonders what he is doing, is told "he's digging your grave"!!!

This was one of the "Thrillers" that stayed with me - from the time I saw it back in the 70s. When Babs finds a job in the paper "Have You a Sense of Adventure?" she is a bit put out to find pushy flatmate, Wendy (Janina Faye) has already applied and been hired. A month or so later, the same advert appears again, so Babs quickly applies. Her flatmate, Helen (Kim Darby) is back from her honeymoon and surprised that she hasn't received a letter from Babs, and also from the hostile, extremely angry reaction of her husband Charley Masters (Keith Barron - yes, he was young once!!), when she wants to pursue it. Masters is another of "Thrillers" red herrings - in the opening scenes he first alerts Babs to the job ad in the paper and to say he is obstructive about finding out the truth is an understatement.

Helen goes to the office where Babs had her interview but finds the place deserted, then suddenly.... the ad appears in the paper again!! With her husband's lack of support and the patronizing police she decides to apply herself!! This is a dangerous move as most of the applicants don't last half an hour when they get to the job's location. There they meet their "clones" who have already memorized their personal details and are awaiting their "doubles" with silencers - ready to kill them and step into their lives. Babs No. 2 makes a mistake when she is given a job at the American Embassy and comes face to face with her former "flatmate" Helen, who is bewildered to meet "Babs Bryant" who comes from York - of course Charley is on hand to belittle Helen and tell her she is imagining things. Also, Bab's brother makes an appearance to lull viewers into a false sense of security - he goes to the mansion and recognizes the pair of villains immediately - "I suspected it was you pair. You...." before he can say another word he is killed.

Kim Darby is the obligatory American star but I agree with the other reviewer she wasn't the best choice - she seemed a bit wishy washy. Susan Dury, the actress who played Babs, would have been a better selection for the main role. She was a go getter and nobody's fool and she definitely would not have put up with the insufferable Charley.

Highly, Highly Recommended.

A worthy prospect

[all-briscoe · 3 October 2004]

A middle-ranking outing of Brian Clemens's "Thriller" series. While not one of the best it is still very effective.

An excellent teaser leads into a young woman (Babs) spotting a great job opportunity, involving lots of travel, in a newspaper. To her consternation her flatmate has already found the job and snapped it up. Nothing more is heard for some time until the same advert reappears. Babs and her other flatmate Helen assume that their friend got fired, which they regard with a little glee. This time Babs has an unobstructed run and gets the job. She also doesn't make contact later and Helen is a little worried when she visits the employer's office and finds it empty. Her worries multiply considerably when she visits the American Embassy to change her passport details and finds a woman there answering to exactly the same description as Babs. Helen's new husband Charley believes it to be just coincidence but Helen disagrees and starts to investigate.

This is one of "Thriller"'s espionage episodes. The "employers", if that's quite the right word for them, are certainly not what they seem. The two men fronting this organisation, Carter and Gifford, are a curious pairing. Carter is a genteel man who seems to find his organisation's activities ghastly if necessary. His colleague Gifford is the man who does the dirty work, and seems to delight in doing so. There is a clear tension between the two that works extremely well. Both characters are highly memorable. One irritating aspect though is Gifford repeatedly using the word "pig" after Carter describes him as one.

There are other good supporting characters. Babs's brother, a journalist, briefly but powerfully appears inquiring into her disappearance. After a rather cringe-worthy entrance in which he tries to chat up Helen, who he assumes is single, he gets down to business. It is soon apparent that he knows rather more about Carter than the latter would like and there is a great scene in which the two, and Gifford, meet. Hanley is the head of security at the embassy who is a disconcerting and rather enigmatic figure.

Julian Glover (Gifford) and James Maxwell (Carter) are both fine, helped of course by great writing. Other performances are quite good without anyone being truly memorable. Kim Darby is not the most magnetic of "Thriller" heroines as Helen Masters but she still performs soundly. Keith Barron, who plays Charley, is of course a very familiar TV face and voice. The writing and direction are up to the usual standards with the murder scenes especially chilling.

The story is engaging but certainly picks up momentum towards the end. The climax is generally impressive with a number of twists, let down a little by one inadvertently amusing sequence and an ending that isn't as polished as it could be. On the whole though a strong piece of television.

You'll Never Complain About Political Correctness Again...

[Parks · 2/10 · 19 August 2019]

Ugh. While I enjoy "Thriller" on the whole - including the 70's fashion, attitudes and backdrop - it made this episode a turgid slog.

The story is a "Girl Who Cried Wolf" type affair, with poor spunky Kim Darby from "True Grit" forced to go up against a whole raft of patronising jerks who keep telling her not to worry her pretty little head about conspiracies as her friends disappear one by one.

Possibly the most worrying of these is the usually lovable Keith Barron. In this role he's forced to petulantly shout down Kim whenever she even attempts to allude that there might be something wrong. "I'M GOING TO BED!!!" he yells.

Helpful.

That Kim is proved right in the end is not much of a relief. It's a 60 minute journey to get there, most of which you'll spend shouting at the telly for our male heroes to get on with it.

Were things REALLY that bad in the 70's? I find it a little hard to believe.

Maybe it was just the writing was that bad back then.