7.4/10463 votes#1 - Overture
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1971
A retired judge who regrets those criminals he had to let get away arranges for Brett and Danny to meet, and then gets them arrested so that they have the choice of either helping him out in his fight against crime or staying in jail. Their first assignment is to locate an heiress by her heart-shaped birthmark.
Director: Basil Dearden
Writer: Brian Clemens
7.2/10370 votes#2 - The Gold Napoleon
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1971
Danny and Brett must discover whether or not Gold Napoleon coins are the originals, or replicas as a coin dealer claims them to be.
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Val Guest
7.5/10327 votes#3 - Take Seven
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1971
Danny and Brett try to help a girl whose ""long lost brother"" has suddenly appeared, cutting her off from her inheritance.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Terry Nation
8.0/10354 votes#4 - Greensleeves
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/8/1971
Brett's family mansion seems to have been restored without his knowledge, and taken over by strangers. To find out why, he pretends to be the actor they have hired to impersonate him, and ends up helping the Prime Minister.
Director: David Greene
Writer: Terence Feely
7.5/10312 votes#5 - Powerswitch
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1971
When the Judge tricks Brett and Danny into identifying a dead woman found floating in the waters of the French Riviera, they end up investigating an international stock swindle.
Director: Basil Dearden
Writer: John Kruse
7.4/10277 votes#6 - The Time and the Place
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1971
Danny runs into political intrigue when he discovers the dead body of a reporter, then can't find it until it turns up in a car crash hours later.
Director: Roger Moore
Writer: Michael Pertwee
7.7/10301 votes#7 - Someone Like Me
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1971
After Brett loses seven days, Danny thinks Brett is acting strange but Brett thinks someone is impersonating him. They both can't be right.
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Terry Nation
7.5/10279 votes#8 - Anyone Can Play
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/5/1971
Danny has to go on the run from enemy agents after his gambling winnings at a Brighton casino turn out to be part of a communist plot to pay off spies when they use the right code words.
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: Tony Williamson
7.5/10296 votes#9 - The Old, the New and the Deadly
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/12/1971
It seems that everyone including a former Nazi wants a German Eagle statuette, and they think that Danny is the one who has it.
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: Brian Clemens
7.1/10308 votes#10 - Angie... Angie
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/1971
An childhood friend of Danny's from the Bronx turns out to be a hit man hired to kill an American labor leader on holiday at the Cannes Film Festival.
Director: Val Guest
Writer: Milton S. Gelman
7.9/10298 votes#11 - Chain of Events
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 11/26/1971
While out camping at Brett's family estate, Danny gets chained to a brief case which he can't get off that contains a bomb.
Director: Peter R. Hunt
Writer: Terry Nation
7.6/10263 votes#12 - That's Me Over There
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/3/1971
In order to catch a war criminal, Danny must impersonate the kidnapped Brett, but how will he explain an English Lord with a Brooklyn accent?
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: Brian Clemens
7.5/10262 votes#13 - The Long Goodbye
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/10/1971
When Danny and Brett find the decade-old dead body of a scientist in a crashed plane in the Scottish Highlands, several women claiming to be his daughter offer them various inducements to part with the formula they found.
Director: Roger Moore
Writer: Michael Pertwee
7.6/10262 votes#14 - The Man in the Middle
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/17/1971
When Brett's plan to capture a traitorous British spy by pretending to be him results in his own capture, Danny enlists the aid of one of Brett's relatives to rescue him.
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: Donald James
7.6/10256 votes#15 - Element of Risk
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 12/24/1971
At a London airport, a gang of crooks who are planning a bullion heist mistake Danny for a criminal mastermind when the man's suitcase accidentally ends up in Danny's luggage cart.
Director: Gerald Mayer
Writer: Tony Barwick
7.8/10273 votes#16 - A Home of One's Own
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 12/31/1971
Danny buys a `handy man's special' cottage in England and discovers that his neighbors are into the occult.
Director: James Hill
Writer: Terry Nation
7.7/10280 votes#17 - Five Miles to Midnight
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/7/1972
Trying to open a travel business, Danny and Brett encounter a New York hoodlum who needs to be smuggled out of Italy after he killed an Italian gangster.
Director: Val Guest
Writer: Terry Nation
7.4/10235 votes#18 - Nuisance Value
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/14/1972
After Danny is accused of kidnapping his blind date, a rich man's spoiled daughter, Brett and Danny decide to help rescue her from the real kidnappers but have problems keeping her rescued.
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: Tony Barwick, David Rolfe
7.4/10248 votes#19 - The Morning After
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 1/21/1972
Brett wakes up one morning and discovers that he got married the night before.
Director: Leslie Norman
Writer: Walter Black
7.5/10245 votes#20 - Read and Destroy
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 1/28/1972
Seeking sanctuary with his old friend Brett is a spy who plans to publish his memoirs, which contain the name of every NATO, SEATO, and ANZUS agent.
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Peter Yeldham
8.1/10315 votes#21 - A Death in the Family
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/4/1972
Brett's relatives are being killed off one by one, so Brett and Danny decide to find the killer before he gets to Brett.
Director: Sidney Hayers
Writer: Terry Nation
7.2/10263 votes#22 - The Ozerov Inheritance
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/11/1972
To retain the family jewels, an elderly Russian duchess must present proof of her marriage into the Russian Royal Family, which she says she can do with the help of a journal kept by one of Brett's uncles.
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Harry W. Junkin
7.3/10245 votes#23 - To the Death, Baby
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 2/18/1972
Brett and Danny both end up wooing an heiress after they are asked to break up a romance between a her and a gigolo who is courting her.
Director: Basil Dearden
Writer: Donald James
7.3/10241 votes#24 - Someone Waiting
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 2/25/1972
Brett resumes race car driving, only to become the target of someone who is willing to kill him in order to make him stop.
Director: Peter Medak
Writer: Terry Nation
The Best Episodes of The Persuaders! Season 1
Every episode of The Persuaders! Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Persuaders! Season 1!
An English aristocrat and an American millionaire come together to tackle crime.
Genres:ComedyAction & AdventureCrime
Network:ITV1
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Overture" is the best rated episode of "The Persuaders!" season 1. It scored 7.4/10 based on 463 votes. Directed by Basil Dearden and written by Brian Clemens, it aired on 9/17/1971. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "The Gold Napoleon".