8.0/1074 votesLoading...#1 - The Pied Piper of Hambledown
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 9/30/1969
LOCATION: Hambledown, Hampshire, England DATE: April 16th A woman goes to bed early, taking a sedative, to get enough sleep for a beauty contest. When she wakes up the next morning her entire village is deserted. The only clues Department S can find are a man with a shotgun in a home on the outskirts of the village and a freshly-painted mailbox post.
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Donald James
8.0/1071 votesLoading...#2 - The Man in the Elegant Room
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/14/1969
LOCATION: Islington, London, England DATE: May 12th A real estate agent, taking a man to see a warehouse, discovers a room constructed inside the warehouse. Worse, a dead body and a babbling man are locked inside the room. Stewart tries to interrogate the man, but he is killed before anything can be made of his babbling.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: Terry Nation
7.7/1061 votesLoading...#3 - One of Our Aircraft Is Empty
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/7/1969
LOCATION: London Airport DATE: April 30th Sky Tripper 190 requests auto land clearance at Heathrow Airport in London. When boarded, the plane is totally empty. While investigating Stewart locates the body of the pilot, and Annabelle sees a reclusive industry CEO boarding the plane in a photograph.
Director: N/A
Writer: Tony Williamson
7.6/1083 votesLoading...#4 - Six Days
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/9/1969
LOCATION: Aboard Astair flight Golf-Alpha-Zulu-Echo-Bravo DATE: July 17th An airplane lands at Heathrow 30 minutes early, according to all indications on board. When the plane lands the crew is met by anxious airport officials, notifying them that they are not 30 minutes early, but six days overdue. Department S has a vested interest in the flight, because Sir Curtis was aboard. As they begin investigating, people start dying.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
7.6/1054 votesLoading...#5 - Black Out
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 10/28/1969
LOCATION: London, England DATE: May 26th A chef goes to the opera in London. Three days later he is found by Mexican authorities in the desert, still his formal attire, unaware of what happened after he left the opera. A case of mistaken identity, leading the Department to Jamaica for turtle in the shell while Sir Curtis is off to America to witness a rocket launching. How are they connected?
Director: Ray Austin
Writer: N/A
7.4/1057 votesLoading...#6 - Handicap Dead
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/21/1969
LOCATION: Colindale Golf Course, Scotland DATE: June 6th Stewart attends a golf tournament in Scotland. The tournament leader is found dead near the course. The Department is unofficially involved until someone breaks into the dead man's living quarters and steals his golf clubs.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.3/1065 votesLoading...#7 - The Trojan Tanker
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/1969
LOCATION: Bedfordshire, England DATE: July 3rd A tanker is involved in an accident. A witness swears he saw a woman in the back of the tanker, but when the police look there is no one inside. The tanker, however, is not carrying fuel, but rather is elaborately rigged as a living space. A search for the missing woman leads Jason to an old friend, and eventually to France.
Director: Ray Austin
Writer: N/A
7.1/1061 votesLoading...#8 - A Cellar Full of Silence
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/23/1969
LOCATION: London, England DATE: June 20th Four men dressed in various costumes are gunned down in a cellar. The gun of one had been fired, the bullet turning up in the body of a man found in the trunk of a submerged car. Stewart pays a call on a crime broker to see who hired the men and how the crimes relate to a house in St. John's Woods, where a woman is being kept sedated because she thought she saw four men wearing disguises committing a robbery in the house.
Director: N/A
Writer: Terry Nation
NaN/100 votesLoading...#9 - The Double Death of Charlie Crippen
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/4/1969
LOCATION: Bay of Naples, Italy DATE: August 14th Assassins attack a limousine with a land mine, but the “man” killed turns out to be a mannequin. Jason nicknames the mannequin “Charlie Crippen” while the Department sets to find out who did the attack, and who the real target is.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#10 - The Treasure of the Costa del Sol
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/11/1969
LOCATION: The Costa del Sol, Spain DATE: July 31st A man goes scuba diving while his friend waits in the car. The man returns from the dive with a fish, and his friend shoots him. Before he dies he is able to return fire with a spear gun, killing the shooter. A policeman happens upon the scene and finds the diver's catch: a plastic fish with $100,000 inside.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#11 - Who Plays the Dummy?
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 11/18/1969
LOCATION:The Sierra de Guadarrama, Spain DATE: September 12th A car, apparently out of control, rushes to its doom in a mountainous, uninhabited area of Madrid. And its only occupant is a tailor's dummy sitting at the wheel. The chief clue is the expensive tie on the dummy, a British-made tie that Jason notices on someone else in town.
Director: N/A
Writer: Tony Williamson
NaN/100 votesLoading...#12 - The Man Who Got a New Face
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 11/25/1969
LOCATION: Cap d'Antibes, France DATE: August 16th A man takes enormous risk by sneak onto the grounds of an estate. He steals nothing, taking the gamble instead to glue a classic theatrical comedy mask onto a sleeping man's face. The man wakes and sees the mask, dying of a heart attack trying to remove it. Since the man was a friend of Sir Curtis, he wants the Department to investigate who performed "this bad joke"--and why.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#13 - Les Fleurs du Mal
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/2/1969
LOCATION: Rome, Italy DATE: September 26th A small package has the key to the disappearance of $5 million taken in a robbery. The man charged with delivering the package to a man in Paris is curious, so he opens the package to find three flowers and a cryptic passage from a book. He does not know what the message means, only that people involved in the robbery are being murdered, including the prime suspect in the robbery.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#14 - The Shift That Never Was
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/9/1969
LOCATION: Stepney, London, England DATE: October 10th The police are called to investigate a manufacturing company manager’s claim that no one showed up for work on a Wednesday in spite of neighbors’ claims that everything at the plant appeared to be perfectly normal. The shift substitution somehow ties to the opening of a nuclear-powered generating station.
Director: N/A
Writer: Donald James
NaN/100 votesLoading...#15 - Dead Men Die Twice
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 12/16/1969
LOCATION: Southern France DATE: July 19th A man's home is invaded by armed intruders intent on killing him. He has a heart attack and dies before they can, however. The two men go to the morgue to see the body, where they put two bullets into the corpse. Department S investigate the shooting of the body of a man who bears a striking resemblance to a notorious criminal who allegedly died three years earlier.
Director: Ray Austin
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#16 - A Ticket to Nowhere
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 12/23/1969
LOCATION: Heathrow Airport, London, England DATE: December 6th A pilot coming in for a landing spies a man on the runway. He is unable to miss the man, killing him. Jason, at the airport to fly to Paris, stumbles onto the situation by befriending the deceased's niece. In Paris, the Department is charged with the task of finding a missing scientist who has perfected an advanced form of brainwashing. When Jason finally arrives in Paris, he realizes the man discovered on the runway dressed in pajamas is their missing scientist.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: Tony Williamson
NaN/100 votesLoading...#17 - Last Train to Redbridge
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 12/30/1969
LOCATION: London DATE: November 22nd A subway arrives at its final destination for the evening. A conductor finds a car filled with dead people, and he is overcome by something in the air and dies as well before he can leave the car or notify anyone. As Annabelle is escorting the widow of one of the victims from the morgue, the widow is abducted at gunpoint. Jason further complicates matters by being abducted by the people responsible, while Stewart and Annabelle try to figure out why the massacre happened and who was behind it.
Director: N/A
Writer: Gerald Kelsey
NaN/100 votesLoading...#18 - The Ghost of Mary Burnham
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/6/1970
LOCATION: London DATE: January 4th John Burnham’s wife was murdered in the parking garage as they were leaving for the evening. However, John continues to see Mary and receive phone calls from her. Who killed Mrs. Burnham and why is a matter of utmost importance for the Department to solve, since, as Sir Curtis tells Stewart in giving him the case, “John Burnham is an important man to the world.”
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#19 - The Man from X
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 1/13/1970
LOCATION: London, England DATE: February 2nd A couple, necking in a car, are shocked to find a man in a spacesuit coming at them. He falls dead before he reaches their car. The Department wants to know what a man in a spacesuit was doing in London at night, and how it might tie to a planned robbery.
Director: N/A
Writer: Tony Williamson
NaN/100 votesLoading...#20 - Death on Reflection
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 1/20/1970
LOCATION: Bond Street, London, England DATE: January 18th Sir Curtis attends an auction. A mirror that he suspects is worth no more than £2,500 goes for £9,000. He is perplexed as to why, and even more concerned when the man who bought the mirror at auction is murdered.
Director: Ray Austin
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#21 - The Perfect Operation
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 1/27/1970
LOCATION: City of Southwark Hospital, London DATE: October 24th A British government official suffers a brain hemorrhage. While in surgery, his surgeon is replaced by another man. Instead of killing the official, the substitute doctor completed the operation. The Department must find out why, while Jason disputes the official government records that state the official has never been to Istanbul.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#22 - The Duplicated Man
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/3/1970
LOCATION: Foreign Office, London DATE: February 16th. A plane carrying a British MI5 agent explodes over the English Channel. Witnesses on a boat crossing the Channel see the plane explode and are certain no one survived. Sir Curtis, however, is confident the agent jumped from the plane prior to the explosion, and sends the Department out to find the agent. The Department’s activity catches the interest of Russian agents, who are also certain the agent “who was also working for the Russians” is still alive.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#23 - The Mysterious Man in the Flying Machine
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 2/10/1970
LOCATION: Paris, France DATE: March 8th A man murders another man on a flight. He then orders no one to move and opens the airplane door, jumping -- to the floor of a warehouse. Other men aboard the ""plane"" chase and shoot the killer in the warehouse. The Department is called in to learn who would build such an elaborate set in order to murder someone.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#24 - Spencer Bodily Is Sixty Years Old
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 2/17/1970
LOCATION: London, England DATE: May 8th A man commits suicide beneath a tree in a park. He has no identification and is completely untraceable. To complicate matters, the coronor's report indicates the dead man is 60 years old -- even though his physical appearance makes him appear to be in his 20s. Before the Department can question the autopsy, the corpse is stolen.
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#25 - A Fish out of Water
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 2/24/1970
LOCATION: Beruit, Lebanon DATE: March 22nd The body of an Interpol agent is found near the shore shortly after he arrives in Beruit for vacation. Stewart is upset, not because the man was a friend, but because Sir Curtis accepts the report that the death was accidental. Stewart rejects that, claiming his friend was an expert diver. Stewart must control his emotions and work around his supervisor's order to not work on the case in order to discover the truth.
Director: Cyril Frankel
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Department S
Every episode of Department S ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Department S!
Department S is a United Kingdom spy-fi adventure series produced by ITC Entertainment. The series consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969–1970. It...
Genres:Action & AdventureDramaSci-Fi & Fantasy
Network:ITV1
Best Episodes Summary
"The Pied Piper of Hambledown" is the best rated episode of "Department S". It scored 8/10 based on 74 votes. Directed by Roy Ward Baker and written by Donald James, it aired on 9/30/1969. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Man in the Elegant Room".