Espionage
Espionage or spying is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information without the permission of the holder of the information. Spies help agencies uncover secret information. Any individual or spy ring, in the service of a government, company or independent operation, can commit espionage; the practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome and in many cases illegal and punishable by law. Espionage is a method of intelligence gathering which includes information gathering from public sources. Espionage is part of an institutional effort by a government or commercial concern. However, the term tends to be associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage. One of the most effective ways to gather data and information about the enemy is by infiltrating the enemy's ranks; this is the job of the spy. Spies can return information concerning the strength of enemy forces, they can find dissidents within the enemy's forces and influence them to defect.
In times of crisis, spies sabotage the enemy in various ways. Counterintelligence is the practice of thwarting enemy intelligence-gathering. All nations have strict laws concerning espionage and the penalty for being caught is severe. However, the benefits gained through espionage are so great that most governments and many large corporations make use of it. Information collection techniques used in the conduct of clandestine human intelligence include operational techniques, asset recruiting, tradecraft. Today, espionage agencies target terrorists as well as state actors. Since 2008, the United States has charged at least 57 defendants for attempting to spy for China. Intelligence services value certain intelligence collection techniques over others; the former Soviet Union, for example, preferred human sources over research in open sources, while the United States has tended to emphasize technological methods such as SIGINT and IMINT. In the Soviet Union, both political and military intelligence officers were judged by the number of agents they recruited.
Espionage agents are trained experts in a targeted field so they can differentiate mundane information from targets of value to their own organizational development. Correct identification of the target at its execution is the sole purpose of the espionage operation. Broad areas of espionage targeting expertise include: Natural resources: strategic production identification and assessment. Agents are found among bureaucrats who administer these resources in their own countries Popular sentiment towards domestic and foreign policies. Agents recruited from field journalistic crews, exchange postgraduate students and sociology researchers Strategic economic strengths. Agents recruited from science and technology academia, commercial enterprises, more from among military technologists Military capability intelligence. Agents are trained by military espionage education facilities, posted to an area of operation with covert identities to minimize prosecution Counterintelligence operations targeting opponents' intelligence services themselves, such as breaching confidentiality of communications, recruiting defectors or moles Although the news media may speak of "spy satellites" and the like, espionage is not a synonym for all intelligence-gathering disciplines.
It is a specific form of human source intelligence. Codebreaking, aircraft or satellite photography, research in open publications are all intelligence gathering disciplines, but none of them is considered espionage. Many HUMINT activities, such as prisoner interrogation, reports from military reconnaissance patrols and from diplomats, etc. are not considered espionage. Espionage is the disclosure of sensitive information to people who are not cleared for that information or access to that sensitive information. Unlike other forms of intelligence collection disciplines, espionage involves accessing the place where the desired information is stored or accessing the people who know the information and will divulge it through some kind of subterfuge. There are exceptions to physical meetings, such as the Oslo Report, or the insistence of Robert Hanssen in never meeting the people who bought his information; the US defines espionage towards itself as "The act of obtaining, transmitting, communicating, or receiving information about the national defense with an intent, or reason to believe, that the information may be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation".
Black's Law Dictionary defines espionage as: "... gathering, transmitting, or losing... information related to the national defense". Espionage is a violation of United States law, 18 U. S. C. §§ 792–798 and Article 106a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice". The United States, like most nations, conducts espionage against other nations, under the control of the National Clandestine Service. Britain's espionage activities are controlled by the Secret Intelligence Service. A spy is a person employed to seek out top secret information from a source. Within the United States Intelligence Community, "asset" is a more common usage. A case officer or Special Agent, who may have diplomatic status and directs the human collector. Cutouts are couriers who do not know the case officer but transfer messages. A
The Frighteners (The Avengers)
The Frighteners is the fifteenth episode of the first series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Ian Hendry, Patrick Macnee and Ingrid Hafner, guest starring Willoughby Goddard, Philip Gilbert, Stratford Johns, Doris Hare, Neil Wilson and Philip Locke. It aired on ABC on 27 May 1961. For many years it was the only full episode which remained from the first series until the earlier episode Girl on the Trapeze was discovered in 2001 and the episode Tunnel of Fear in 2016; the Frighteners was directed by Peter Hammond, designed by Robert Fuest, written by Berkely Mather. A wealthy businessman, Sir Thomas Weller, hires criminal thug racket named "The Frighteners" led by "The Deacon" to persuade his daughter's ill-suited boyfriend Jeremy de Willoughby to leave her. Weller is aware. Dr. Keel and Steed rescue de Willoughby from the gang and Steed investigates him, whilst Keel investigates the organization. Concurring with Waller that de Willoughby is a scoundrel, it is up to Steed and Dr. Keel to frighten his daughter away from de Willoughby.
Ian Hendry as Dr. David H. Keel Patrick Macnee as John Steed Ingrid Hafner as Carol Wilson Willoughby Goddard as The Deacon Philip Gilbert as Jeremy de Willoughby Philip Locke as Moxon Doris Hare as Mrs. Briggs / Doris Courtney Stratford Johns as Sir Thomas Weller Dawn Beret as Marylin Weller David Andrews as Nigel Godfrey James as Nature Boy Neil Wilson as Beppi Colisimo Eric Elliott as Butler Ann Taylor as Secretary Ralph Tovey as Waiter, Nicholl Benn Simons as Inspector Charlie Foster Eleanor Darling as Flower Seller Ben Nightingale as Fred the Cabbie Victor Charrington as Breckin Frank Peters as Janitor Charles Wood as Police Constable Production for the episode was completed on 25 May 1961; the episode is the first full episode. For many years it was the only full episode which remained from the first series until Girl on the Trapeze was discovered in 2001 and Tunnel of Fear in 2016; the episode premiered on ABC on 27 May 1961. Anthony Aldgate described the episode as a "tantalising glimpse into the content and style of the first season and suggests that, at least to begin with, the series was a low-key crime drama which bore little relation to the fantasy and stylistic excess, to follow in years...
It is a thick-ear melodrama, featuring seedy underworld locations and villains with a nice line in slang dialogue." Aldgate highlights that the episode does much to inform the viewers that Steed and Dr. Keel are still not professional detectives; the Avengers Forever! website described "The Frighteners" as technically being " just a teeny bit sloppy around the edges, with a few bumped cameras and fluffed lines. Not to mention the audio is rather muffled which, given that Ian Hendry tends to mumble, makes for some spotty dialog." However they consider Philip Locke to be one of their favorite guest stars, playing a "shifty-eyed" "young, brass-knuckled ruffian." The Frighteners on IMDb Episode overview on The Avengers Forever! website
Emma Peel
Emma Peel is a fictional spy played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers, by Uma Thurman in the 1998 film version. She was born the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight, she is the partner of John Steed. As a lady spy adventurer and expert in martial arts, she became a feminist role model around the world and is considered an icon of British popular culture. Regarded as a 1960s fashion icon, the character is remembered for the leather catsuit worn by Rigg in the first series. Mrs. Peel was introduced as a replacement for the popular Cathy Gale, played by actress Honor Blackman. Blackman left the programme at the end of the third season to co-star in the James Bond film Goldfinger. Elizabeth Shepherd was cast as Emma Peel and production on the fourth series began. After filming all of one episode and part of a second, the producers decided that Shepherd was not right for the part, she was dismissed. No footage of Shepherd as Peel is known to have survived.
The producers gave the job to Diana Rigg. The character was notable for a number of characteristics. Peel is a heroine, she is a master of a formidable fencer. A certified genius, she specialises in chemistry and other sciences, she is seen in episodes engaging in artistic hobbies and had success in industry at the helm of the company of her late father, Sir John Knight. Her husband, Peter Peel, was a pilot, he was presumed dead for many years, Peel went on to work with Steed. She drove a convertible Lotus Elan at high speeds, convincingly portrayed any series of undercover roles, from nurse to nanny, her favourite guise was that of a women's magazine reporter, trying to interview big business tycoons and rich playboys. The name "Emma Peel" is a play on the phrase "Man Appeal" or "M. Appeal", which the production team stated was one of the required elements of the character. Peel's verbal interactions with Steed range from witty banter to thinly disguised innuendo. Regarding the question of whether they had a sexual relationship at any time, Patrick Macnee thought they went to bed on a regular basis.
However, Rigg thought they were engaged in a enjoyable extended flirtation that went nowhere. Writer/producer Brian Clemens said he wrote them with the idea they had an affair before Emma's first appearance in the series, her style of dress typified the period, the character is still a fashion icon. John Bates was brought in as the costume designer for Emma Peel in the second half of the fourth series, he miniskirts. Before this, people had believed that lines and other bold patterns would not work on the television cameras of the day. Episodes were filmed before the miniskirt had become a mainstream fashion statement. Bates had to stop leaving hems on the mini skirts because the production team kept lowering them again, he licensed his designs to several manufacturers under the Avengerswear label and these pieces were sold in various shops throughout the country. Diana Rigg is remembered for the leather catsuit she wore early on in her first season. Rigg disliked wearing leather, so Bates designed softer stretch jersey and PVC catsuits for her instead.
When the show transitioned from black and white to colour, the designer was Alun Hughes who used bold colours and lurid, psychedelic patterns. Hughes created the Emmapeeler catsuit, made of stretch jersey in bright block colours; the Emmapeelers and several other pieces from this season's wardrobe were licensed and sold in the shops as well. When Peter Peel reappears, at the end of "The Forget-Me-Knot", Emma leaves Steed and her spy career behind. In the distant shot in which he appears, Peter Peel looks suspiciously like Steed, like him drives a two-door convertible Bentley, albeit a contemporary model. Emma meets her replacement, Tara King, who enters the building as she herself is leaving and tells her that Steed likes his tea stirred "anti-clockwise". Peel would be the last in a string of "talented amateurs" with whom John Steed was teamed, as her successor is a neophyte professional agent. In real life, Diana Rigg had chosen to leave the series for a number of reasons, one of, to accept a role in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
During her first series, Rigg learned that she was making less than the cameraman: afterwards her salary was tripled and combined with her loyalty to Macnee, she was persuaded to come back for 25 additional episodes. The arduous shooting schedules, conflicts with the producers, the lure of film and stage roles, a desire to challenge herself as an actress all combined in her decision to leave the show for good. After leaving the series, Rigg played a variation of the Emma Peel character in two German short films produced for the 8mm market: The Diadem and The Mini-Killers. Little behind the scenes information has surfaced. Although Emma Peel appeared on The New Avengers in flashback clips from the original series, she's features in the episode entitled "K is for Kill", she speaks with Steed over the phone and ment
Tunnel of Fear
Tunnel of Fear is the twentieth episode of the first series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Ian Hendry, Patrick Macnee and Ingrid Hafner, guest starring John Salew, Anthony Bate and Miranda Connell. It was recorded on 405-line monochrome videotape on 3 August 1961 and broadcast by the ABC on 5 August 1961, it is one of the three known complete series 1 episodes to have survived being purged from the ABC archives. The episode was written by John Kruse. Top secret information is leaking into Europe from a funfair somewhere in Southend, Harry Black, a recent escapee from prison, is rumoured to have worked there. Closer examination reveals that the ghost train is more scary than it looks and the owner of the funfair, Jack Wickram, is arranging the kidnappings. Trick cigarettes allow Steed to bluff the enemy into submission and Harry Black is proved innocent as he was hypnotised and framed. Ian Hendry as Dr. David Keel Patrick Macnee as John Steed Ingrid Hafner as Carol Wilson Anthony Bate as Harry Black Miranda Connell as Claire Doris Rogers as Mrs. Mary Black John Salew as Jack Wickram Douglas Muir as One-Ten Douglas Rye as Billy Stanley Platts as Maxie Lardner Bill Maxam as George Milner Nancy Roberts as Madame Zenobia Morris Perry as Police Sergeant Julie Samuel as Rosie Juno as Pupppy On October 3, 2016, it was announced that a pristine condition 16mm film telerecording of the episode had been recovered from a private collector and was screened in London on November 12
Mr. Teddy Bear
Mr. Teddy Bear is the first episode of the second series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman, it aired on ABC on 29 September 1962. The episode was written by Martin Woodhouse. Steed and Cathy must track down an elusive assassin nicknamed Mr. Teddy Bear. Patrick Macnee as John Steed Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale Douglas Muir as One Ten Bernard Goldman as Mr. Teddy Bear's voice Tim Brinton as TV Interviewer Kenneth Keeling as Colonel Vernon Wayne-Gilley John Horsley as Dr. Gilmore John Ruddock as Dr. James Howell Michael Robbins as Henry Farrow Michael Collins as George, the Technician/Mr. Teddy Bear Sarah Maxwell as Blonde Cafe Girl Mr. Teddy Bear on IMDb Episode overview on The Avengers Forever! website
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is an espionage British television series created in 1961. It focused on Dr. David Keel, aided by John Steed. Hendry left after the first series, his most famous assistants were intelligent and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. The series ran from 1961 until 1969; the pilot episode, "Hot Snow", aired on 7 January 1961. The final episode, "Bizarre", aired on 21 April 1969 in the United States, on 21 May 1969 in the United Kingdom; the Avengers was produced by a contractor within the ITV network. After a merger with Rediffusion London in July 1968, ABC Television became Thames Television, which continued production of the series, though it was still broadcast under the ABC name. By 1969, The Avengers was shown in more than 90 countries. ITV produced a sequel series The New Avengers with Patrick Macnee returning as John Steed, two new partners. In 2007, The Avengers was ranked; the Avengers was marked by different eras as co-stars went. The only constant was John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee.
Associated British Corporation produced a single series of Police Surgeon, in which Ian Hendry played police surgeon Geoffrey Brent, from September through to December 1960. While Police Surgeon did not last long, viewers praised Hendry, ABC Television cast him in its new series The Avengers, which replaced Police Surgeon in January 1961; the Avengers began with episode "Hot Snow", in which medical doctor David Keel investigates the murder of his fiancée and office receptionist Peggy by a drug ring. A stranger named John Steed, investigating the ring and together they set out to avenge her death in the first two episodes. Steed afterward asked Keel to partner him, as needed, to solve crimes. Hendry was considered the star of the new series, receiving top billing over Macnee, Steed did not appear in two episodes; as the first series of The Avengers progressed, Steed's importance increased, he carried the final episode solo. While Steed and Keel used wit while discussing crimes and dangers, the series depicted the interplay—and tension—between Keel's idealism and Steed's professionalism.
As seen in one of the three surviving episodes from the first series, "The Frighteners", Steed had helpers among the population who provided information, similar to the "Baker Street Irregulars" of Sherlock Holmes. The other regular in the first series was Carol Wilson, the nurse and receptionist who replaced the slain Peggy. Carol assisted Keel and Steed in cases, in at least one episode was much in the thick of the action, but without being part of Steed's inner circle. Hafner had played opposite Hendry as a nurse in one episode of Police Surgeon; the series was shot on 405-line videotape using a multicamera setup. There was little provision for editing and no location footage; as was standard practice at the time, videotapes of early episodes of The Avengers were reused. At present, only three complete Season 1 episodes are known to exist and are held in archives as 16 mm film telerecordings: "Girl on the Trapeze", "The Frighteners" and "Tunnel of Fear". Additionally, the first 15 minutes of the first episode, "Hot Snow" exist as a telerecording.
The missing television episodes are being re-created for audio by Big Finish Productions under the title of The Avengers - The Lost Episodes and star Julian Wadham as Steed, Anthony Howell as Dr. Keel and Lucy Briggs-Owen as Carol Wilson. Production of the first series was cut short by a strike. By the time production could begin on the second series, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to star and Steed became the focus of the series working with a rotation of three different partners. Dr Martin King, a thinly disguised rewriting of Keel, saw action in only three episodes produced from scripts written for the first series. King was intended to be a transitional character between Keel and Steed's two new female partners, but while the Dr. King episodes were shot first, they were shown out of production order in the middle of the season; the character was thereafter and dropped. Nightclub singer Venus Smith appeared in six episodes, she was a complete "amateur", meaning that she did not have any professional crime-fighting skills as did the two doctors.
She was excited to be participating in a "spy" adventure alongside secret agent Steed. Nonetheless, she appears to be attracted to him and their relationship is somewhat similar to that portrayed between Steed and Tara King, her episodes featured musical interludes showcasing her singing performances. The character of Venus underwent some revision during her run, adopting more youthful demeanor and dress; the first episode broadcast in the second series had introduced the partner who would change the show into the format for which it is most remembered. Honor Blackman played Dr Cathy Gale, a self-assured, quick-witted anthropologist, skilled in judo and had a passion for leather clothes. Widowed during the Mau Mau years in Kenya, she was the "talented amateur" who saw her aid to Steed's cases as a service to her nation, she was said to have bee
Hot Snow (The Avengers)
Hot Snow is the pilot episode of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Ian Hendry and Patrick Macnee. It aired on ABC on 7 January 1961. Only about 20 minutes, the first of three acts, remain; the episode was directed by Don Leaver and acknowledged to have been written by Ray Rigby, but Brian Clemens claimed to have written it. Dr. David Keel's fiancée and surgery receptionist Peggy is murdered by a ruthless gang of drug dealers. By accident he receives a consignment of heroin at his surgery. Believing it to have been sent by the gang who killed his fiance, he seeks revenge, with the help of a mysterious figure John Steed they hunt the gang down, they find the gang leader Spicer and set a trap for him, but he escapes and is caught in the next episode. Keel decides he enjoys playing amateur detective, decides to form a team with Steed. Ian Hendry as Dr. David H. Keel Patrick Macnee as John Steed Philip Stone as Dr. Richard J. Tredding Catherine Woodville as Peggy Stevens Godfrey Quigley as Spicer Murray Melvin as Charlie Charles Wade as Johnson Alister Williamson as Detective Superintendent Wilson Moira Redmond as Stella Astor Sklair as Detective Sergeant Rogers June Monkhouse as Mrs. Simpson Robert James as The Big Man/Ronnie Vance The episode was intended as a direct follow-up to Police Surgeon starring Ian Hendry as Geoffrey Brent, but in November 1960, producer Leonard White issued a memorandum which made it clear that "a new name is being found for Hendry's character, that The Avengers will now have nothing to do with Police Surgeon".
He continued to produce The Avengers and working with Hendry in a whole new concept, with Hendry playing the new character of Dr. David Keel; the episode is considered to have been written by Ray Rigby, based on a story by Patrick Brawn. The episode sets were designed by Alpho O'Reilly. Production by ABC Weekend Television was wrapped up on 30 December 1960; the episode premiered on ABC in the Midlands and North of England on Saturday 7 January 1961 at 10pm. Only the first 20 minutes or so of the first act of the episode survive; the extant footage ends with the sequence in which Keel's fiance Peggy is shot, before the introduction of John Steed. It has been released on DVD as a bonus feature by A&E Home Video in its Emma Peel Megabox collection, alongside the two complete surviving episodes from Season 1. Catherine Woodville, who plays Dr Keel's fiancée became Patrick Macnee's second wife; the episode and series is described by Anthony Aldgate as being "conceived within the discourse of psychological realism that informed most contemporary television drama.
It set up a motivation for the hero-figure of Keel, described by Hendry as'a most attractive character combines toughness with compassion and serves as the conscience of the team'. Steed, in contrast, is portrayed as a more cynical figure for whom the most obvious influence was James Bond. However, whereas Bond traveled to exotic foreign locations in his pursuit of international super-criminals such as Dr. No or Goldfinger, The Avengers was concerned with home-grown criminals whose ambitions were somewhat less grandiose." Toby Miller remarked that "Far from being rustic, The Avengers was a landmark in the cultural division of labour". The episode has been described as "dark, and, because it was shot on videotape and live-on-camera stagy, its subject matter was most unAvengers like, dealing with drug-smugglers and the seedy underside of British crime." The Avengers Forever! website technically regards the episode as at least as good as any Cathy Gale episode, with some "excellent camera work, including creative special-effects", but spotted deficiencies in the "repetitive use of certain music cues, a awkward sequence when Dr Keel's fiancée is shot."
They remarked that the episode shows a "high degree of professionalism and skill: good writing, good acting, great direction, and, in particular, a fine lead. Ian Hendry demonstrates why Sydney Newman was so anxious to get him in front of television viewers: he is a natural, his acting is easy and captivating." In January 2014 Big Finish Productions released an audio adaption of Hot Snow as the first part of a series of audio reconstructions of the missing stories from season 1, following the original scripts as as possible. Hot Snow on IMDb Episode overview on The Avengers Forever! website
