High School Spy Movie

High School Spy Movie
Series 04, Episode 08
Airdate	February 8, 2010
Previous	Doppelgängers
Next	Black Hole

High School Spy Movie is episode 8 of Series 4.

Synopsis

Lars Von Tripod is a maestro at making films. He is also extremely demanding and has a penchant for smashing chairs. The spies gain some intel about Von Tripod and his team - for decades every time he has made a film a valuable artifact has been stolen.

The team decide to lure Von Tripod to Saint Hopes with a script that features three ordinary school pupils, who are also spies. The plan is for Rose and Oscar to audition for the parts and therefore allow them to keep an eye on the bait. The bait is King Canute's scepter and sandals, worth millions of pounds, just the kind of artifact likely to be stolen on one of his films.

Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong when neither of them get past the first audition. Instead, Davina and Scoop get the parts. How can Rose and Oscar keep an eye on the artifacts when they're not part of the film?

Von Tripod's muse, Sydney Barbour, will be starring in "High School Spy Movie" and Carrie is extremely excited, since Sydney is her hero. Sydney and Carrie hit it off immediately and Sydney enlists Carrie to be her personal assistant, a role Carrie takes very seriously. This is also a perfect way for the spies to remain close to the film. Carrie starts to notice that Sydney struggles with the action scenes in the film and needs to sit down regularly, which is slightly odd. To make things worse, Von Tripod decides that the scepter and sandals should feature in his film, so the spies struggle to keep tabs on the valuables.

The artifacts are stolen and Sydney goes missing! Is Carrie's hero worship of Sydney about to come abruptly to an end? Will the spies recover the artifacts and discover who has been stealing them and why?

Trivia

• References to the spy genre.
  • ”Green Finger” -- The title is a reference to the James Bond novel and film “Goldfinger”.
  • ”High School Spy Movie” -- Sydney Barbour references “From Russia with Love”.
  • ”Mission: Incredible”
    • “Spy Game” -- in “What, Micah Worry?” Micah Simms must expose a traitor who is a friend of the United States president.
    • The title is a reference to “Mission: Impossible”.
    • The theft is similar to the first “Mission: Impossible” film and several of the “Mission: Impossible” series episodes.
    • The method used to expose Janus as a KORPS agent is similar to the storylines seen in “Mission: Impossible” when the Impossible Missions Force needed to convince someone that a trusted advisor had changed loyalties.
      • “Gitano”
      • “Operation Heart”
      • “The Train”
      • “The Vault”
  • ”Moontaker” -- The title is a reference to the James Bond novel and film “Moonraker”
  • ”Mrs King - License to Spy” -- The title is a reference to a license to kill.
  • ”Old School” -- The episode is a parody of 1960’s spy films.
  • ”Revenge is Sweet”
    • The mission to steal the antidote is similar to “Mission: Impossible”, where the team would have been disavowed if caught.
    • In “Mission: Impossible II” Hunt destroys the virus and retrieves the antidote. Both storylines involve increasing the price of a chemical.
  • ”The Others” -- James Blonde is parody of James Bond. There is a reference to ”Doctor No”.
  • ”We Need to Talk About KORTEX” -- Stella Knight is seen reading the James Bond novel “The Spy Who Loved Me”.
• The name on the script Oscar gives Von Tripod is a reference to Quentin Tarantino.
• King Canute is a reference to a line of Kings from Denmark.
• Sydney Barbour
  • Sydney Barbour's aliases are references to other actresses.
    • Glynda Fairbrother (Victoria Fairbrother)
    • Jane Hardiman (Jane Hardiman)
    • Judy Drench (Judi Dench)
    • Penny Harlow (Jean Harlow)
    • Sydney Barbour (Lyndall Barbour)
  • Sydney Barbour feared being typecast in an elderly ”Miss Marple” role even though older actresses have played various character types.
  • Sydney Barbour references “From Russia with Love” and ”Where Eagles Dare”.
  • Sydney Barbour
    • Age: 70
    • Intervals between surgery: 5 years
• The set for the M.I. High base under Saint Hope's was used as the set for the spy base in Von Tripod's film. However, he was furious with how the set looked, stating that it ”looks nothing like a spy base!”

Galley

Oscar and Carrie

Sydney Barbour