Episode 242
Strax is Tara King
Sunday 9 October 2022
This week we’re joined by Steven from New to Who to discuss one of the great loves of our lives — Dame Diana Rigg, whose astonishing performance makes The Crimson Horror one of the best episodes of the era.
Notes and links
So, Diana Rigg. As we all know, her breakout role was as Mrs Peel in The Avengers from 1966 to 1968. And so this is not her first appearance on Flight Through Entirety. Before discussing The Seeds of Doom, Brendan, Nathan and Richard discussed the Avengers episode that undoubtedly inspired it: The Man Eater of Surrey Green (see Episode 43: Sexiest Exposition Trope). Since then, on Bondfinger, we’ve discussed several more episodes of The Avengers that she starred in, as well as the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), which also starred the recently-cancelled George Lazenby as Bond.
Richard’s Pick of the Week: the “almost unwatchable” German Super 8 films starring Diana Rigg — Der goldene Schlüssel (1966), minikillers (1969) and Diadem (1969). They’re all available on YouTube, but we would completely understand if you decided not to follow the links.
Mark Gatiss named Mr Sweet after his friend Matthew Sweet, the author of Inventing the Victorians (2001), which attempts to demythologise the culture of the Victorian era: turns out, they were just as much fun as we are, apparently. Sweet is also known for his probing interviews of Doctor Who actors which can be found as extras on many DVD and Blu-ray releases.
We occasionally mention or allude to The League of Gentlemen, a sketch comedy series set in the fictional northern town of Royston Vasey, which ran for three seasons, a movie and a return season 15 years later. It doesn’t totally hold up now, for many reasons, but it’s certainly a useful text when it comes to understanding Mark Gatiss’s interests as a writer.
Richard points out that the opening scene of the episode echoes the famous Hovis Bread commercial from 1973, directed by Ridley Scott, which the people at Hovis (credibly) claim is “Britain’s most iconic and heart-warming advert”. More about the ad here.
Mrs Gillyflower’s revival meeting reminds Nathan of Mrs Melrose Ape, the lady preacher from Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, which we know that Mark Gatiss is aware of, because he plays a small role in Stephen Fry’s film adaptation of the novel, Bright Young Things (2003).
And finally, as a well-known Sherlockian, Gatiss ties this episode into the Holmes canon: in The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, Watson briefly refers to his notes on “the repulsive story of the red leech”.
Follow us
Nathan is on Twitter as @nathanbottomley, Brendan is @brandybongos, Richard is @RichardLStone and Steven B is @steedstylin. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.
Steven B is one of the hosts of the New to Who podcast, which discusses Classic Doctor Who stories and introduces the Classic series to new fans. You can follow New to Who on Twitter at @NewToWhoPodcast and check out the episodes wherever podcasts can be found.
We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on Apple Podcasts, or we’ll sprinkle pepper down the front of our blouse instead of salt so we can laugh at the sound of your sneezing.
And more
You can find Jodie into Terror, our flashcast on the Whittaker Era of Doctor Who, at jodieintoterror.com, at @JodieIntoTerror on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and wherever podcasts can be found. We’ll be releasing our final episode on The Power of the Doctor a couple of days after 23 October, turns out.
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else as well.
We can also be heard on the Blakes 7 podcast Maximum Power, which will be returning to your podcatcher with a second series (a Series B, if you will) even more action-packed and breathtaking than the first.
And finally, there’s our Star Trek commentary podcast, Untitled Star Trek Project, featuring Nathan and friend-of-the-podcast Joe Ford. This week, we welcomed the USS Voyager’s long-awaited return home in Endgame.