Action TV Online - The Mask Of Janus episode guide

The Mask Of Janus
BBC 1965

Them Is Anyone That Isn't Us

TX : 8th October 1965
Director : William Slater
Script : John Gould

Cast : Jane Hylton (Mrs Lane), Peter Arne (Copic), Cyril Shaps (Hamil), Richard Pescud (Lane), Michael Mellinger (Rabat), Stephen Yardley (Hughes), Donald Eccles (Sir Robert Crispin) and Richard Marner (Raslov).

Publicity : The Mask Of Janus - A series about the ceaseless peace-time war waged by secret agents: Who is Janus? He is the Roman god who stands at the year's end, wearing two faces, looking both forward and back. He is the god of beginnings and ends, of war and peace. And he is the special deity of the shadowed people who live a warlike peace and fight endlessly and boundlessly a peacetime war: the international intelligence agents - the spies. These agents, and particularly those of British Foreign Office Department D.I.6, are the people of the new thriller series which starts tonight. Their territory of operation is the unmapped country of Amalia, one of those unstable little nations whose situation makes it as likely as any other to see the eruption of a third world war. It lies right athwart the Iron Curtain, and is still - precariously - a "democratic monarchy". Britain, America and Russia all have interests there, and the jostling for influence is intense. Britain's Ambassador to Amalia is Sir Robert Crispin, and serving on his staff as Naval Attache and legal adviser is Commander Charles Hastings. But Hastings has a third and infinitely more important function: he is also the head of British Intelligence in Amalia. From the Amalian capital of Taira he controls a network which includes young Richard Cadell, vice-consul at the border city of Mansa, and is himself controlled by Anthony Kelly, D.I.6's man in Whitehall. The series is devised by John Gould and produced by Terence Dudley, and among those taking part are Peter Dyneley as Hastings, Dinsdale Landen as Cadell, and Simon Oates as Kelly. Tonight's opening story tells how an innocent bystander is unwillingly co-opted for service. (Radio Times, September 30, 1965).

Notes : Episodes were originally transmitted 8:00pm to 8:50pm.

And The Fish Are Biting

TX : 15th October 1965
Director : David Proudfoot
Script : Roger Marshall

Cast : Stephanie Bidmead (Sylvie), Garfield Morgan (Janacek), Barry Jackson (Werner), Vernon Dobtcheff (Colonel Valenkov), George Selway (Johnson), Michael Graham Cox (The Barber) and Yvonne Antrobus (Rosa).

Publicity : The Mask Of Janus - Tonight's story involves an attempt to do that most difficult spy trick - the quadruple cross: In the intelligence game even the rawest recruit knows how to stay on the alert for the double-cross. A tolerably experienced operator can unusually be trusted to spot the triple cross. But you have to be good - very good - to detect, or even to set up if need be, the quadruple cross. Richard Cadell, the young man who looks after British Intelligence in the Amalian second city of Marsa, from behind his front job of Vice-Consul, is already a very cagey operator. So when, in tonight's second story of The Mask Of Janus series, he meets with a call for his services, he first examines all the angles. There is a British trade exhibition going on in Marsa, and Cadell is tipped off that a scientist working on one of the stands seems to be suffering unwanted attention from agents of Amalia's Communist neighbour. Since the scientist, Janacek by name, was born a national of that country, he would appear to be a likely target for a blackmail or abduction attempt. Consequently, Cadell sees a chance to score a point against the Opposition, and with all proper precautions he acts on it; but in the intricate game of three-dimensional chess which is international intelligence, it is vital to know which are the knights and which the pawns. Or, changing the metaphor as one of the characters does, you have to know whether you're "slipping on the snakes or climbing up the ladders". The play, written by Roger Marshall and directed by David Proudfoot, is called And The Fish Are Biting, and Cadell is played by Dinsdale Landen in his first starring part for a BBC Television series. He worked in repertory for three years after leaving drama school, then in West End productions including Auntie Mame and The Provok'd Wife. He has had lead parts in several films, among them The Valiant, We Joined The Navy, and the forthcoming production of Rasputin. His best-remembered television part is probably that of Pip in the serial version of Great Expectations. (Radio Times, October 7, 1965).

The Sleeper

TX : 22nd October 1965
Director : Phillip Dudley
Script : Michael Winder

Cast : Donald Morley (Victor Trildy), Daphne Anderson (Sara Trildy), Christopher Page (Oliver Reece), Roberta Tovey (Katya Trildy), Janos Jurucz (Aristos), James Lynn (Blue Denim), Peter Brett (John Grantham) and Heather Stoney.

Publicity : The Mask Of Janus: In the special language of international espionage the term "sleeper" has nothing to do with railways or repose. A sleeper is an agent who is infiltrated into the enemy's governmental apparatus, told to win as much power, influence, and trust as he can, and then simply to wait. When his services are needed - perhaps many years later - he is "awakened"; and since a man's character changes as the years pass, the awakening can be a very painful one. This week's Mask Of Janus story is written by Michael Winder, a newcomer to BBC series drama, and is called simply "The Sleeper". In this case there is a Hungarian governmental code to be cracked, and working at the Hungarian Embassy in Amalia is a solidly-established Communist diplomat who was once a young and idealistic refugee in London. In London he had accepted a retainer from British Intelligence; now he must carry out his side of that almost-forgotten bargain. Or else. The job of "awakening" the sleeper is given to Richard Cadell, but Washington's undercover man, Bob Miller, finds out what is going on and interferes. Miller is played by Lawrence Dane, one of Canada's most noteworthy young actors who nowadays works as much in London as at home. He has appeared occasionally on BBC Television and was flown in specially from Canada for this series. After Janus he is slated to appear in three new television series for a Hollywood company. (Radio Times, October 14, 1965).

Rendezvous

TX : 29th October 1965
Director : Eric Hills
Script : John Pennington

Cast : Rosalie Crutchley (Madame Navachine), Kenneth J Warren (Vega), Keris Jones (The Receptionist), Paul Holdaway (The Pageboy), Artro Morris (Kasenkin), John Cazabon (Lunan), Jean Shaw (Elsa), John Southworth (Pollak) and Charles Hill (The Hotel Manager).

Publicity : The Mask Of Janus - Rosalie Crutchley as Madame Navachine plays an important role in tonight's story: When suspicious East meets wary West in trans-curtain negotiations, it is often through the medium of a trade delegation. But there is trade and trade, and sometimes the most precious commodity bought and sold on these occasions is simply information. This is why, in tonight's Mask Of Janus story called "Rendezvous", Richard Cadell finds himself attached to an East European trade mission visiting Amalia in the capacity of press officer. The whole thing takes place in one of those international hotels which seem just as smooth-running and just as characterless whether they are in Marrakesh or Montreal. In these anonymous surroundings Cadell's task is to contact a certain member of the mission who is in fact "one of ours"; but also in the delegation is a member of "their" counter-espionage service. Can Cadell identify the first without arousing the interest of the second? Prominent in the visiting group is one Madame Navachine, whose actual function is unspecified but whose air of authority seems to have a marked effect on her colleagues. She is played by Rosalie Crutchley, an actress who has made something of a speciality of portraying formidable foreign ladies. Although she has just been seen as the very British Mrs Liddell in Alice, she was previously the fearsome tricoteuse Madame Defarge in Tale Of Two Cities, before that the stately Madame Danglars in The Count Of Monte Cristo, and even earlier the no-nonsense landlady Mrs Sarti in Bertolt Brecht's Galileo. But perhaps her best known television part was that of the dauntless if eccentric near-gypsy in The Franchise Affair. (Radio Times, October 21, 1965).

The Public Interest

TX :
Director : Eric Hills
Script : Bill Barron

Cast : Dudley Foster (Ernest Fox), Derek Francis (Charles Caswell), Allan Cuthbertson (George Sykes MP), David Morrell (Lagutin), Derek Benfield (Parsons), Peter Arne (Kopic) and Richard Marner (Raslov).

Publicity : You can't mix spies with politicians without making some kind of a splash. The Mask Of Janus: It is a fact of mid-twentieth century life that international policies are governed, at least in part, by the work of national intelligence agencies. So espionage is an aspect of politics; but some politicians, operating in the open, instinctively resent this secret world co-existing with their own, and are even prepared to sabotage its operations. This week's Mask Of Janus episode tells of one instance of this. Delicate negotiations between the British and Russian intelligence services have ended in agreement to exchange two captured agents, and it has been further decided that the actual swap should take place in Amalia, as being less obtrusive than the usual Berlin location. Cadell has therefore been charged with supervising the affair. But a gadfly British MP disapproves on principle of such "hole-and-corner" arrangements, and he determines to leak the story to a roving Fleet Street correspondent called Charles Caswell. Cadell (Dinsdale Landen) has consequently to engage in some very tricky slight-of-hand work. The episode is called "The Public Interest" and is written by Bill Barron, a young writer who learned how television plays are constructed by working as an assistant floor manager in the studios. He even turned down promotion on the production ladder to continue his "education", and has up to now turned out two Z-Cars stories and acted as story editor on the Cluff series. He finds he does his best work when isolated in a remote Dorset cottage. (Radio Times, October 28, 1965 - Article by Michael Williams).

The Devil You Know

TX :
Director : David Proudfoot
Script : Jan Read

Cast : Peter Arne (Kopic), Edgar Wreford (Hugh Preston), Winifred Dennis (The Secretary), Julie Paulle (Teresa Conti), Tom Macaulay (The English Tourist), Norman Scace (Ionides), Lee Shepperd (Mavrak) and Michael Peake (The Police Inspector).

Publicity : The Mask Of Janus - Amalia's growing tourist traffic brings irritations to Letby the British Consul - and a problem for his assistance, Cadell: As air travel becomes progressively cheaper, more and more countries once off the beaten track start turning up in the travel agents' glossy brochures. Amalia is the latest "holiday paradise" to be so opened up, and the shiny new Memphis Hotel outside Marsa bears witness to this with its new weekly quota of perspiring, charter-flown, fully-packaged British visitors. This, of course, means a busy time for young Cadell (Dinsdale Landen). For in his official capacity of assistant to Mr Letby, the Consul, he has anyway to cope with all the new problems thrown up by this traffic; and in this week's episode he has also a job to do in his undercover role. Among the latest batch of tourists is one Doctor Preston, a Government-employed mathematician, known to be in debt and gambling desperately, and a serious security risk. But this is Cadell's private problem; for his routine-loving and thoroughly "legitimate" official superior Letby, such visitants as Doctor Preston are merely an irritation. This rather solid pillar of diplomatic rectitude is played by Hamilton Dyce, whose other television appearances have been almost too numerous to list. Among his most memorable BBC Television performances in the recent past was that of the headmaster in David Benedictus' Eton play The Fourth Of June. For the cinema he was working earlier this year in Hollywood on the yet-to-be released King Rat. He has just completed a further film for John Mills. (Radio Times, November 4, 1965).

Synopsis : It is funny how two sides can make exactly the same plans for exactly opposite reasons.

The Rack

TX :
Director : William Slater
Script : Brian Degas

Cast : Carl Schell (Dubroy), Mary Webster (Valentina), Jean Sadgrove (The Actress On Stage), Jane Constantine (The Actress In The Wings), Marguerite Young (The Dresser) and Donalc Eccles (Crispin).

Synopsis : The eye is a camera, but the mind is a distorting lens.

The Cold Equation

TX :
Director : Philip Dudley
Script : Tony Williamson

Cast : Kevin Brennan (Phed Kosniacos), Jerry Desmonde (Doctor Robert Stacey), Reg Lye (Tchernik), Marian Diamond (Tinas Verrill), Derek Benfield (Andrew Parsons), John Dawson (Edward Martin), Dallia Penn (Maria Galberti), John McCarthy (Luigi Feron), Michael Sheard (The Driver) and Graham Rigby (The Factory Manager).

Synopsis : Is a dangerous game the only game worth playing?

The Arranger

TX :
Director : William Slater
Script : David T Chantler

Cast : Ann Lynn (Rena), Barry Shawzin (Boris Daneo), Michael Brennan (Jevtic), Bruno Barnabe (Secony), Carl Duering (Milo), John Herrington (Hansel), John Louis Mansi (Woody), Hugh Munro (Harry), Gordon Faith (Petrov) and Agatha Angelos (Karl).

Publicity : The Mask Of Janus: Commander Hastings is not often seen in the role of a lover of the visual arts. Neither, for that matter, is Bob Miller, the American who looks after his country's intelligence interests in Amalia. Which would appear to make it all the more surprising that the two master-spies should be discovered together in the studio of the Amalian sculptor Milo, watching him mould his twisted and not very successful compositions. But perhaps it is not so remarkable after all, for some of the large stock of modeling clay which the sculptor keeps on hand proves in fact to be plastic explosive … This is the starting point for tonight's Mask Of Janus adventure, which has been written by David Chantler and is called "The Arranger". The discovery of the explosive indicates that Milo is linked with a plot to overthrow Amalia's monarchy, and with it the country's precarious stability; but it is clear that he is only a very small fish. Somewhere behind it all is The Arranger, and information about his plans is urgently needed. And it just so happens that Miller has a means of getting such information to hand; there is a Greek girl in Amalia whom he has come to know intimately, and who dare not return to her own country. She must be the instrument; for in the secret war love can be a very potent weapon - provided the user of the weapon is not squeamish about the consequences for ordinary vulnerable humans. (Radio Times, November 25, 1965).

Synopsis : In the secret war, love is sometimes a very important weapon. This time it is also very destructive.

Why Not Call Me Kruschev

TX :
Director : David Proudfoot
Script : Tony Williamson

Cast : Marius Goring (Doctor Kapaka), Leslie Sands (Andrei Borisov), Jennifer Daniel (Una Nadjin), Joby Blanshard (The Ticket Collector), Nancie Jackson (Mrs Winthrop) and Marigold Sharman (Mrs Travis).

Publicity : Why Not Call Me Kruschev: Dealing as it does with spying The Mask Of Janus series contains a great deal of mystery. But for tonight's episode the mystery extends to any advance information about the plot, to any elucidation of the intriguing subtitle "Why Not Call Me Kruschev". We have been asked to refrain from supplying even a hint of the content in order not to spoil the suspense of what the producer assures us is a very exciting story. From the billing we can however say that three guest stars are involved; they can be seen in our picture with Dinsdale Landen, who stars regularly as Cadell. From left to right they are Marius Goring, a very experienced and versatile actor though he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of NAZIs in films; Leslie Sands, who it is safe to assume will be playing a very different character from his most famous television creation, Sergeant Caleb Cluff, and Jennifer Daniel who, whatever her relationship to Dinsdale Landen in tonight's story, is in real life his wife. (Radio Times, December 2, 1965).

Synopsis : Richard Cadell is travelling by train from ________________ to ________________. Alone? Not all the time. Richard Cadell? Not all the time.

Arms And The Men

TX :
Director : Eric Hills
Script : David T Chantler

Cast : Alan Gifford (Datchet), Brian Peck (Connors), Brian Wilde (Dermot Brewer), John G Heller (Sabe), Derek Benfield (Parsons), Peter King (Ludeck), Cyil Shaps (Namil), Emrys Leyshon (The Aide To Kelly), Ernest Walder (Brazlow) and Edward Kelsey (Dejan).

Synopsis : Dermot Brewer, English businessman, is expected wherever he runs.