"Look - (stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers..." is unique and one of a kind, the only full blown comedy, and the most controversial episode of the entire series. For the first time, Tara wears a long haired brunette wig, making her look more like Emma Peel than ever before (exactly the opposite of what the original producers intended). A pair of vaudeville clowns are killing off the entire board of a development company taking the blame for putting their fellow performers out of work. A simple red nose left behind provides a vital clue as to the killer's identity, with future Monty Python star John Cleese making a brief but memorable appearance as Marcus Rugman, hilariously nervous caretaker of the clown makeup copyrights, carefully preserved on fragile eggs, laid out in a most unaccommodating series of shelves! (Tara: "you are a public office?" Marcus: "yes, that's the trouble!") The sort of uptight role that Cleese truly excels at, perhaps the single funniest part of his scenes is the elaborate messages ("Don't knock, don't even breathe!") posted on the door to his sanctuary (completed March 1968, 18 months before Python's debut). A vibrant combination of mirth and malice, Julian Chagrin's silent pantomime as Jennings conjures fond memories of Harpo Marx, but it's Jimmy Jewell's quick changing Merry Maxie Martin who steals the show, his climactic tussle with Steed yielding 7 different costume changes. Also featuring Bernard Cribbins ("The Girl from Auntie") playing gag writer Bradley Marler, who laughs at every groaner he utters, Johnny Vyvyan, later seen on THE BENNY HILL SHOW, showing up in costume at the rest home where the comics receive their marching orders, plus Talfryn Thomas ("A Surfeit of H2O"), John Woodvine ("Dead of Winter" and "The Murder Market"), and Robert James, veteran of "Hot Snow," "Brought to Book," "Death A La Carte," and "Too Many Christmas Trees." Echoing "How to Succeed....at Murder," which also featured a ventriloquist, and best seen when familiar with the AVENGERS formula, as described by Patrick Macnee (for whom this entry remained a favorite); that is, to take perfectly ordinary situations and tilting them slightly, emphasizing the humor, which had been sadly lacking throughout the earliest Tara shows. Better than ever as Tara (her 8th episode), Linda Thorson's delightfully charming performance compares most favorably with the departed Diana Rigg, in keeping with the overall tone, finally on equal footing with Macnee's Steed (who does his share of quick changes in the tag scene). And to think, all it took was a little bit (a lot?) of humor!