The Persuaders! (TV Series) Chain of Events (1971) User Reviews

"...all he ever gave me was measles..."

[Brucey_D · 7/10 · 15 February 2017]

Whilst out fishing for his breakfast, Danny somehow gets a briefcase full of secrets chained to him by a dying man. This does rather spoil their camping holiday, because various interested parties will go to any lengths to retrieve it.

This is a pretty representative episode of 'The Persuaders' in that it has a good cast (many of whom we will have seen elsewhere), a fair amount of action, a beautiful lady secret agent, a good deal of tongue in cheek humour, and a wildly implausible plot.

Peter "Grouty" Vaughan plays a bad guy, George Baker and Suzanna Leigh are secret agents, with good performances from the rest of the cast too.

Terry Nation's script is one that with minor changes could have been shoehorned into 'the Saint', 'the Avengers', or one of several other shows. Probably it was meant for one of those and just ended up being a Persuaders episode because that was the series being made at the time.

What elevates this above the average are the humorous bits; Brett's 'glamping' arrangements are wildly OTT (e.g. his tent has a chandelier in it....), Tony Curtis makes a good effort to clown about with his chained briefcase, and there are other moments with good dialogue such as when Brett visits his friend the electronics expert, who is listening to some taped music which appears to end;

" ...it's not finished yet; it's a silent movement...enchanting, isn't it?".

"...well, how do you know when it's finished...?".

".. the orchestra gets up and goes home..."

Danny the fugitive is described as being 'about six feet tall' whereas Curtis must have been somewhat conscious of his height playing alongside Moore; Curtis wasn't quite 5'9" in reality and regularly wore built-up heels. Of course this might go unnoticed alongside Brett's extravagant "designed by Roger Moore" wardrobe, which is arguably the single thing that most dates this show in modern eyes; start as you mean to go on... some folk refer to the '70s as 'the decade that taste forgot' and not without justification.

The scene where the briefcase is opened (by George Baker) appears to have been edited; in a recently broadcast version on UK TV (which is in 16:9 format, surprisingly without obvious detriment), you don't get to see that there are James Bond books inside; there is the barest glimpse of -AM- -ON- and that is all. Presumably some copyright issue...

In this episode they ought to have been blown up, shot, irradiated, hospitalised through having been beaten up, and heaven knows what else. How they failed to find a hacksaw or a file for that long is a mystery. Brett's clothes strangely clean themselves at the end of the episode, and Danny (despite voluntarily wearing the same, presumably now rather whiffy shirt that he hasn't been able to change for days) gets the girl.

So on the face of it, it is all a bit nonsensical, absolute hokum; and it is. But it is quite enjoyable hokum, and I guess that is the point. Although another series was planned, and then not made because of Moore's Bond commitments, in hindsight twenty-four episodes of this sort of thing was probably plenty enough; any more and the descent into ever-greater levels of self-parody would have been too much.

You're pulling my chain...

[canndyman · 8/10 · 14 June 2020]

Danny and Brett are enjoying a spot of glamping in the English countryside... what could possibly go wrong? Their rural idyll is soon disturbed by an unfortunate and improbable twist of events that leave Danny literally chained to a mysterious attache case - and on the run from various parties who it seems will stop at nothing (and even kill) to retrieve the precious cargo.

This has always been one of my favorite episodes, and zips long in fine style as Danny and Brett are caught up in a cat and mouse game with their deadly antagonists. As always, they run into unexpected difficulties along the way - but accept their plight in good humor, as they desperately try seek a way to part Danny from his unwanted hand luggage.

There's great support from the likes of Peter Vaughan and George Baker, but it's Suzanna Leigh who steals the show as the lively and glamorous Emily Major - whose charms Danny finds difficult to resist as she finds her own methods of attempting to prise the case from his person.

Lots of good outdoor filming, fun and action make this a very memorable and entertaining episode that gives Brett and Danny a case they'll never forget!

A disturbing case

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 5 August 2012]

Terry Nation's 'Chain Of Events' opens with Brett and Danny each enjoying a British camping holiday in their own particular way: the latter is roughing it, the former is living in luxury with all mod cons to hand. While out searching for food, Danny finds a dying parachutist who clamps a briefcase to his wrist. Suddenly, people are out to get him, most notably the sinister 'Lance Schubert' ( Peter Vaughan ). While Brett and Danny try to stay alive, there is the problem of what the briefcase actually contains. 'Dr.Rogers' ( John Glyn-Jones ) X-Ray machine identifies the contents as electronic...

A fun episode that looks and feels as though it might originally have been intended for the final season of 'The Avengers'. Instead of Linda Thorson's 'Tara King', we have Susanna Leigh as karate-chopping British agent 'Emily Major'. Standing in for Patrick Newell's 'Mother' is Morris Perry as intelligence head 'Beecham-Bennett'. It was directed and edited by Peter Hunt, responsible for what is in my view the best James Bond film ever - 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' ( 1969 ). the late George Baker a.k.a. 'Britten' was 'Sir Hilary Bray' in that movie. In a sly in-joke, 'Carlton' ( Jeremy Child ) opens a briefcase in Beecham-Bennett's office to find instead of the expected secrets a set of Ian Fleming books. Guess which one stands out most prominently?

Persauders or Avengers?

[aramis-112-804880 · 9/10 · 15 September 2017]

One of the better "Persuaders" episodes finds Danny (Tony Curtis) chained to a mysterious briefcase everyone wants. He doesn't know what's in it, he just wants it off while on the run from everyone (including Peter Vaughan in a strange performance).

Suzanna Leigh makes a persuasive appearance as one of his pursuers. Her determination and her skill at some sort of oriental fighting technique are reminiscent of Honor Blackman in "The Avengers." She also has a similar hairstyle to Blackman's (though she lacks the black leather). And Curtis is no John Steed, dressed in an American-frontier buckskin replete with ridiculously long fringe.

This is a largely Curtis episode; Moore makes middling appearances.

Bondian HIlarity

[aramis-112-804880 · 9/10 · 7 February 2019]

Danny (Tony Curtis) finds himself chained to a briefcase that literally dropped from the blue. And the woods are filled with ruthless people who want it.

I don't usually like episodes where the boys blunder into trouble rather than being handed assignments by the judge, but this episode is so much fun it's become one of my favorites.

Curtis' efforts to rid himself of the briefcase before one of the many parties looking for it kills him are most enjoyable. And Moore is always at his best when he plays to his strengths in comedy/suspense.

Co-starring as a villain is Peter Vaughan, that almost ubiquitous English actor right up to Maester Aemon in "Game of Thrones."

Suzanna Leigh has a plum role as a character similar to Mrs. Gale in "The Avengers" . . . Played by Honor Blackman, who left that part to become James Bond's main squeeze in "Goldfinger." Leigh looks and acts a lot like Blackman. Coincidence?

Episodes of "The Persuaders!" are hit-and-miss, but despite the extreme stretch of credibility, this one is a palpable hit.

Suzanna Leigh is the female Persuader!

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 11 November 2013]

Good spies and bad spies are all after a mysterious briefcase that's chained to Danny Wilde's wrist; it is, of course, a classic McGuffin (it doesn't really matter what's inside the case, just that so many people want it so much that they're ready to kill for it), and at the end it turns out to be a double McGuffin. This is an amusing (particularly when Tony Curtis gets into a verbal argument with the case!) but average episode of the "Persuaders"; what makes it stand out is female guest star Suzanna Leigh. Dressed in an ultra-tight sweater, she dispatches most of the bad guys all by herself at the end, while Danny can only hit one of them over the head with the case and Brett is absent. Technically, she is the Persuader in this episode. And she is very sexy. **1/2 out of 4.