- "Gee, that's a lonely spot..."
— John Tracy
It's a house, and it's out in the country; but this particular Country House, located somewhere in the greater countryside beyond New York City, is in fact a crumbling and dilapidated quasi-ruin of a place, whose better days are long behind it...
...and its fortunes are about to take a turn very much for the worse, in the episode The Duchess Assignment...
A Duchess In Danger[]
Deborah, the Duchess of Royston, arrives in America from England, and is met at the New York airport by a man who identifies himself as the chauffeur of businessman Wilbur Dandridge, with whom she has an important appointment. In fact, the driver is a crook called Brophy, who's in cahoots with another crook to steal the valuable Braquasso painting she's brought along with her.
Brophy informs the Duchess that there's been a change of plan: rather than meet her at his office in town, he's been instructed to drive her to Dandridge's "country house" instead. They set off, with Deborah not realizing - yet - that she's being kidnapped...
When they arrive at the house, Brophy takes the Duchess to the cellar, where he ties her to a chair. And then, he simply leaves - while chiding her against trying to light any matches! Gas is seeping from old pipe work, and it's not long before she inadvertently causes the gas to ignite, while trying to free herself; and the entire house begins to burn around her...
Unknown to Deborah, though, her friend Lady Penelope (suspecting something amiss) has alerted Tracy Island - and help is on the way, in the form of Thunderbirds 1 and 2; and, with John guiding them from Thunderbird 5, Scott and Virgil are soon on the scene...
Trivia[]
- John homes in on a signal emitted by a St Christopher brooch worn by the Duchess...enabling him to pinpoint the location of the Country House: map reference alpha zeta 9, beta beta 4.