"Lobster Quadrille" is the twenty-sixth episode of the third series of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman. It was first broadcast by ABC on 21 March 1964. The episode was directed by Kim Mills and written by Richard Lucas.^[2]

Steed and Cathy investigate an illegal drug smuggling operation.^[3]

• Patrick Macnee as John Steed
• Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale
• Leslie Sands as Captain Slim
• Burt Kwouk as Mason
• Gary Watson as Max Bush
• Jennie Linden as Katie Miles
• Norman Scace as Dr. Stannage
• Corin Redgrave as Quentin Slim
• Valentino Musetti as Jackson

The episode title is a reference to "The Mock Turtle's Song", also known as the "Lobster Quadrille", a song and dance in Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The episode is notable for a number of lasts:

• This is Honor Blackman's final appearance as Cathy Gale. Blackman's forthcoming appearance in the Bond film Goldfinger, is alluded when Cathy remarks to Steed she is going 'Pussyfooting'.
• This is the final episode in the original series run to be recorded on videotape. From series four and continuing into The New Avengers, The Avengers would be recorded on film.
• Lobster Quadrille would be the last time the original Avengers theme, composed by Johnny Dankworth would be used. Laurie Johnson composed a new theme tune for series four and onwards. Johnson would remain as primary composer for the sequel series, The New Avengers.
• The last episode to have John Bryce as producer, Richard Bates as story editor (who wrote this episode under the pseudonym 'Richard Lucas') and Kim Mills as director. John Bryce would return for series six, but left after three episodes. The episodes initially produced by Bryce (Invitation to a Killing, Invasion of the Earthmen and The Great Great Britain Crime) were re-edited and produced under the Fennel/Clemens banner.

• Lobster-quadrille
• Quadrille
• Quadrille paper

• "Lobster Quadrille" at IMDb
• Episode overview on The Avengers Forever! website

v t e The Avengers
Characters	John Steed Cathy Gale Emma Peel Tara King Mike Gambit Purdey Mother
Episodes	Series 1 "Hot Snow" "Crescent Moon" "Girl on the Trapeze" "Dance with Death" "The Frighteners" "Tunnel of Fear" Series 2 "Mr. Teddy Bear" "Propellant 23" "The Decapod" "Bullseye" "Mission to Montreal" "The Removal Men" "The Mauritius Penny" "Death of a Great Dane" "The Sell Out" "Death on the Rocks" "Traitor in Zebra" "The Big Thinker" "Death Dispatch" "Dead on Course" "Intercrime" "Immortal Clay" "Box of Tricks" "Warlock" "The Golden Eggs" "School for Traitors" "The White Dwarf" "Man in the Mirror" "Conspiracy of Silence" "A Chorus of Frogs" "Six Hands Across a Table" "Killer Whale" Series 3 "Brief for Murder" "The Undertakers" "Man with Two Shadows" "The Nutshell" "Death of a Batman" "November Five" "The Gilded Cage" "Second Sight" "The Medicine Men" "The Grandeur That Was Rome" "The Golden Fleece" "Don't Look Behind You" "Death a la Carte" "Dressed to Kill" "The White Elephant" "The Little Wonders" "The Wringer" "Mandrake" "The Secrets Broker" "Trojan Horse" "Build a Better Mousetrap" "The Outside-In Man" "The Charmers" "Concerto" "Esprit de Corps" "Lobster Quadrille" Series 4 "The Town of No Return" "The Gravediggers" "The Cybernauts" "A Surfeit of H2O" "The Hour That Never Was" "A Touch of Brimstone" "What the Butler Saw" Series 5 "From Venus with Love" "The Fear Merchants" "Escape in Time" "The See-Through Man" "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" "The Winged Avenger" "The Living Dead" "The Hidden Tiger" "The Correct Way to Kill" "The Superlative Seven" "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" "Death's Door" Series 6 "The Forget-Me-Knot" "Have Guns — Will Haggle" "The Morning After"
Related	Cast Radio episodes The New Avengers Film Minikillers
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