Episode complete credited cast: | |||
Patrick Macnee | ... | John Steed | |
Honor Blackman | ... | Catherine Gale | |
Daniel Moynihan | ... | Gordon | |
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Paul Whitsun-Jones | ... | Charles |
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Philip Anthony | ... | Cummings |
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Gwendolyn Watts | ... | Julie |
Geoffrey Palmer | ... | Dr. Terence | |
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Anne Godfrey | ... | Miss Quist |
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George Little | ... | Sigi |
Doug Robinson | ... | Rudi (as Douglas Robinson) | |
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Terence Lodge | ... | Borowski |
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Robert Lankesheer | ... | Holiday Camp Official |
A young government official staying at a holiday camp is killed and replaced by an exact double, part of a plan to gain information. Two other doppelgangers are also part of the plot, being hatched in the camp, and Mrs. Gale is sent to deal with the false Steed. Hopefully, she will get the right one. Written by don @ minifie-1
"Man in the Shadows" was a superior entry, one of the three third season episodes to feature an appearance by one of Steed's superiors, in this case Charles (Paul Whitsun-Jones), who would show up again in "The Wringer" (Ronald Radd pops in once as Quilpie in "The Outside-In Man"). Daniel Moynihan ("The Hour That Never Was") starts things off with a bang as William Gordon, shot dead by his identical duplicate, an enemy agent who has been trained for nearly three years for the moment when he can take over on the other side. Charles accompanies Steed on a visit to see the brainwashed Peter Borowski (Terence Lodge, "The Wringer" himself), who leads them to believe that a total of three agents have been targeted for replacement, with Steed on the short list, having spent four days as a prisoner with the enemy five years before, also the only one known to have escaped. This was the second and last time that Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale appeared clad only in a bra and underwear (see her very first episode, "Death Dispatch"), completely relaxed as Patrick Macnee's Steed cannot stifle a huge cake-eating grin at the delectable sight! Fittingly, there is more to their personal relationship than was usual, because Cathy is ordered to kill the fake Steed, the question being how to tell? It all adds up to the best duplicate story done on the series, and certainly not the last ("Two's a Crowd" "Who's Who???" "They Keep Killing Steed" to name a few). Philip Anthony later did "The Outside-In Man," but returning were Geoffrey Palmer ("Propellant 23"), George Little ("The Removal Men"), and Douglas Robinson ("The Decapod").