In the episode, 'Valentin Gaultier' is supposed to be the real name of Chauvelin - an irrelevant inconsistency that adds nothing to the story, but does seem to provide an explanation for Martin Shaw's horrific performance (he's not actually playing the Baroness' ruthless agent - oho! Makes perfect sense!) Neither is Chauvelin having a daughter an original concept of the series - 'Sir Percy Hits Back', a sequel to TSP, covers the same ground and much more convincingly, giving Chauvelin depth and a heart.
And anybody would have made a much better Lady Blakeney. This episode is actually bearable, compared with the title monstrosity, but Elizabeth McGovern was horrendously miscast - too old, too frumpy (she was actually pregnant/a new mother at the time of filming, which goes to explain a lot, but doesn't excuse her), and with a dull, forced accent (why was an American playing a French woman with an English accent?) It made me laugh when the first word Chauvelin used to describe her to a Vendee spy was 'beautiful' - blue-eyed, yes, but not beautiful.
You also raise an excellent point about the plot - too many irons in the fire indeed! This episode in particular has at least three of Orczy's novels condensed into one story - Mam'zelle Guillotine (very well done to Denise Black in the role, an excellent piece of casting for once!), Sir Percy Hits Back and Child of the Revolution - and then there's the added history lesson of La Vendee! Not only is the viewer bombarded with the writer's research, but there is just too much going on, and the episode is too drawn out as a result. Not only that, the 'secret daughter' plotlet is then recycled in the second series, as if once wasn't enough.
Sarah
"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy
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