The Avengers (TV Series) A Surfeit of H2O (1965) User Reviews

"Yes, well I've put a down payment on a canoe."

[bensonmum2 · 7/10 · 18 July 2021]

Steed and Mrs Peel set out to investigate a mysterious death. The odd thing is that the man drowned in the middle of a field. Shortly, our intrepid pair find themselves battling wits with a scientist out to control the weather for nefarious purposes.

Controlling the weather - sounds a bit like the disastrous The Avengers (1998) movie. In contrast to that overblown mess of a film, A Surfeit of H2O proves that very often less is more. Instead of an overblown, over-produced, almost unwatchable film, this episode (like most of the series) keeps things simple and understated. Death caused by heavy rain - what could be more simple (regardless of how unlikely). And the writing here is so much better. The dialogue in the scene with Diana Rigg and Talfryn Thomas or the one with Patrick Macnee and Sue Lloyd are delightfully witty. I could watch these scenes all day they're so enjoyable. In fact, the whole episode is enjoyable and would have deserved a higher rating had it not been for Noel Purcell's overacting. His performance would have been more at home in the movie.

I admit I looked up the word "surfeit". Seems it means "an excessive amount of something". I'll have to remember that.

7/10.

A Surfeit of H20

[guswhovian · 7/10 · 14 July 2020]

When a poacher drowns in the middle of a field, Steed and Mrs Peel investigates a winery where a scientist is conducting experiments to control the weather.

A Surfeit of H20 is a fun episode. There's plenty of good scenes throughout the episode, such as Steed posing as a wine merchant. There's also a great scene between Diana Rigg and Talfryn Thomas, wonderfully played by both of them. It gives us this great exchange: "and then he fell..." "...into the pit of iniquity." "No, into Granny Gregson's sparkling spring water." Great stuff.

Noel Purcell is entertaining as the fire-and-brimstone preacher, and the ubiquitous Geoffrey Palmer appears as one of the baddies. Sue Lloyd (Cordelia from The Baron) is rather wasted in a pointless role.

That's another big story.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 4 July 2022]

A Village poacher drowns on a field in very strange circumstances. Steed and Peel are on the case, and begin at a local wine makers.

I love the plot here, it's a crazy mix, it's almost a fusion of science fiction horror, and biblical storytelling through Jonah Barnard, Noel Purcell put in a larger than life performance, Moses inspired perhaps.

It's awash with humour, gentlemen should knock before entering, humorous one liners and double entendres throughout, it is amusing in parts.

To crush Steed's bowler hat, that would have been like tearing Mrs Peel's fabulous cat suit.

It's very well made, the sets and press look great, some nice water effects too, one or two of the sets do shake a little, but it was the 60's.

8/10.

Awash with sheer class

[peterbird · 10/10 · 9 February 2007]

It's hard to say which came first with The Avengers - the totally bemusing plots, the brilliantly iconic, style-setting characterisations (the immaculately turned-out Steed with is oh-so-English bowler hat and umbrella, the gorgeously feminine but totally unsubservient Mrs Peel in her slinky cat-suits, racing around in her Lotus Elan and chopping up baddies with martial arts long before chop-socky movies had been thought of) or the amazingly slick flare with which it was all put together. But, undoubtedly, the whole production team went for class, and class is timeless. There were many brilliant episodes, so good that the show is still being re-shown on BBC4 (as of 2007) - 'Maneater of Surrey Green,' 'The House that Jack Built,' no other show was just so 'out there' with its imagination and originality.

But with 'A Surfeit of H2O' they really pushed the boat out. Admit it - even the title has you intrigued. An absolute all-time classic of Television, the bizarre, almost surrealist thriller series that was The Avengers reached such a lofty zenith with this episode that, even now, over 40 years later, whenever heavy rain blows in, a creepy feeling crawls up my spine and I think of this show.

Grab your brolly, you'll need it!

It's not a Bowler - what is it?

[rwdc-84728 · 10/10 · 14 May 2022]

Classic episode and one of the very few episodes where Steed isn't wearing a bowler hat!!

Ardent fan of The Avengers (the REAL Avengers), saw this episode again last night and I saw something I had forgotten - Steeds hat! It's not a bowler, what is it? Very dapper, none the less.

Thank you very much Patrick Macnee and A&E for making this classic TV show available for all to see!!

Uneven, but fun

[slabihoud · 7/10 · 17 February 2009]

From today's point of view the "The Avengers" suffer from a small budget and a limited shooting schedule. The actors are mostly fine, at least solid and the direction is sometimes above the average but mostly okay. The fighting scenes look awkward mostly because the producers were concerned that kids might pick up some tricks and hurt themselves or others! Unbelievable, considered what you see today on so many screens. Therefore you hardly ever see what they do instead you see the bodies flying through the air like magic.

Spoiler from here on: When you take these things into account it is surprising with how many other things they got away without much ado. Although you never see blood there are many different cruel murders happening and some are well shown. In "A Surfeit of H2O" twice we see men drown in a pouring rain plus a realistic looking drowned man in a water tank. The drowning is not very convincingly filmed and acted and therefore too long. Mrs. Peel is in danger to be squashed in a heavy machine and this scene have much more effect since we saw before how it works.

One of the weaker moments of this episode appears surprisingly in the acting of Noel Purcell, a well-known regular of many British films. His performance in the final fighting scene is everything but professional and spoils most of the fun. On the other hand Albert Lieven is a pleasant and civilized villain, the kind that Hitchcock liked most. All in all, uneven, but fun.

Drenched with suspense

[kevinolzak · 9/10 · 19 February 2011]

The first of five episodes that never aired in the US, "A Surfeit of H2O" is a well remembered entry, in which a level grass field yields its share of victims mysteriously drowned, and the locals believing that another Noah's Ark is necessary to survive the coming flood. Steed gets the best line posing as a wine merchant, choking on a brand described as "old bark," remarking, "they must have put the dog in it too!" Marred only by some intrusive comedy where Jonah Barnard (Noel Purcell) inserts himself into the climactic downpour, this marked the last appearance from Geoffrey Palmer, who had previously done "Dance with Death," "Propellant 23," and "Man with Two Shadows." British actress Sue Lloyd, who played Peter Cushing's demanding wife in 1967's "Corruption," is not to be confused with Canadian actress Suzanne Lloyd (who appeared in the previous episode, "The Murder Market"), John Kidd would return for "Split!", and Talfryn Thomas would return for "Look- (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers..."

A surfeit of H20

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 12 December 2023]

Sudden rainfall and the death of a poacher has one villager, Jonah, building Noah's Ark, so the Avengers are sent to investigate. They discover a winery making vegetable-based wines, but Dr Sturm doesn't seem to know the difference between wine and spirits. After more deaths, Mrs Peel is captured and put in the wine press- will she be rescued

There's a surfeit of fabulous balmy characters, most notably Eli Barker (Talfryn Thomas) and Jonah Barnard (Noel Purcel), and it has the usual intrigue with a great fight as Jonah enthusiastically joins the Avengers in a soggy battle with the baddies. It's fun episode but not the most striking. The villains are a bit bland, though they have an interesting apparatus to "squeeze"information out of Mrs Peel.

Steed buys some wine and Emma gets into a tight situation

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 22 April 2015]

When a poachers is found drowned in field it is clear that something strange is going on; it happened in a normally dry part of the country and there were no indications that the body had merely been dumped there. When Steed and Mrs Peel arrive at the scene the man's brother is convinced that it is a case of divine retribution for the man's sinful ways… most notably his breaking into the local winery to sample their wares. He isn't the only person in the village fearing the wrath of God; another, Jonah Barnard, is convinced that there will be a second flood and is building his own ark. Posing as a wine buyer, Steed heads to the winery and starts asking questions; they are evasive… clearly they have something to hide but exactly what they are doing and why remains a mystery but it is likely that it has something to do with the strange black cloud that stays above the winery.

This is solid episode with a nice mix of science fiction, eccentric characters, dramatic moments and humour. For once it isn't the villains who are wildly eccentric; most notable is the aforementioned Jonah, played Noel Purcell in a way that some will find amusing and others will find a bit irritating. We also have Talfryn Thomas's Eli Barker; the devout Welshman who also believes God is behind the strange weather. The main drama comes when Mrs Peel is placed in a wine press and looks set to get crushed… this also provides some humour after Steed rescues her and demonstrates that his operation of the machine was skill rather than luck… then crushes his bowler! The artificial rain looks good for the most part although once or twice it was noticeable that it wasn't covering the whole scene. There is some accidental humour too; we have people who can manipulate the weather but their winery makes wine out of just about anything but grapes… clearly making traditional wine in England in 1965 was considered too far-fetched even for 'The Avengers'!

The Avengers: A Surfeit of H20

[s_reid_2004 · 10/10 · 14 January 2015]

There are so many splendid components in this episode which make it one of my favourites from that season: the superb performance by Noel Purcell, whose presence in any production always ensured it would be worth watching; Emma trapped in the wine-press and rescued by Steed, with his customary suave lines (how many variations of that moment were there in The Avengers?); and the film-reversing trick to make the wine-press stop a fraction of an inch from Steed's hat (in the scene it slows unrealistically because it actually had to start from being stationary).

However my best moment is the quiet dispensing of natural justice in the opening scene. This is a quality that ran discreetly through so much of The Avengers' output, and for me it represented a measure of the producers' worth and decency. In this case it is where a gamekeeper (or is he a poacher? - it hardly matters as they are equally vile) is drowned after laying snares. Snares subject animals to a horrible death and it is good to see the misfits who do such disgusting things get what they deserve. (To any gamekeeper reading this, I apologise: I am sorry for not realising that you can read.)

By this point in the run, the Steed/Emma relationship was clearly established and the remainder of episodes in this and subsequent seasons would benefit from the meticulous developmental work invested up to, and including, A Surfeit of H20.

After that, it would never matter how many times Emma was in peril, tied to a railway line, wired into an electrical circuit, or indeed trapped in a wine-press; or that we knew Steed would arrive with seconds to spare; what was important was that he DID arrive to save the day, and with calming words for good measure. In a wicked and dangerous world, then as now, The Avengers was a lovely metaphor representing the eternal belief that deliverance will always come at the very moment when hope appears finally to be lost.

That is what has made the wonderful Avengers timeless and inspiring across the decades.

I Love Mrs. Peel, But Not Always Her Episodes

[aramis-112-804880 · 5/10 · 14 October 2021]

Having been caught in torrential rains (in hurricane seasons), knowing how rain can beat somebody down, I can see the premise of killing people by even heavier, controlled and concentrated, rains might work. But this episode doesn't work for me.

It's nice to see a young Geoffrey Palmer but he doesn't do much. And it was nice to see Sue Lloyd as the one person I think I've ever seen who didn't buy Steed's line of piffle (in this case, wine-drinking babble).

The company making the rain, you see, makes wines. Wines from vegetables and flowers. Potatoes. Buttercups. That's bad enough. But . . . I won't give it away. Even telling the story gives away too much. Let's just say Steed and Mrs. Peel are sent to find out why so many people are drowning in normally dry fields (I kept wondering why they didn't get stuck in the field, which should have been marshy, but being "The Avengers" they had an explanation up their sleeves).

Despite the commanding Noel Purcell, who desperately tries to keep this episode afloat (pun intended), this episode lacks energy. Purcell is stuck in the stereotypical "religious zany" role so familiar from scriptwriters. And since he's often cast in nautical roles it's a double-whammy as he thinks himself the new Noah who, distressed by the heavy rains, is building an Ark. He makes the most of his role but the rest of the script is simply too lame.

Mrs. Peel gets stuck in a woman-in-danger part near the end. It has its humorous side but she deserves better. And nothing, to my mind, could be worse than being killed by the villains in that silly leather cat-suit she was forced to wear in her first outings.

The villains are weak (despite being several in number and including Geoffrey Palmer), their cause is silly, and though it might have been novel back then I've come to see all people who think humans control the weather all like Noel Purcell's character, Jonah. Back then he would be a religious zany. These days he'd be an environmentalist.

I ought to add kudos to Talfryn Thomas, playing another wild-eyed lunatic, which whom Mrs. Peel casually sits down to tea.

Overall, not one of the better Mrs. Peel B&W's.