Control (Stephen Fry) and Tony (Hugh Laurie) engage in an awkwardly stilted conversation in their spy office, with Control demonstrating his new pedometer by pacing back and forth while discussing matters of international espionage. The sketch parodies 1980s British spy dramas with deliberately unnatural dialogue and overly explanatory conversation, as if speaking for the benefit of a potential surveillance bug. The exaggeratedly polite and measured tone, combined with the mundane focus on the pedometer amid supposedly important spy business, creates a brilliantly understated comedy that satirizes both poor acting in spy shows and the genre's conventions.
