225 The Sweeney

First  watched : 24  November  1975

Tuesday  playtimes  in  the  autumn  of  1975  were  always  taken  up  with  re-enacting  the  previous  night's  episode  of  The  Sweeney  which  those  kids  with  less  conscientious  parents  ( i.e  nearly  all  of  them ) had  been  able  to  watch. That  left  me  at  a  disadvantage  so  my  mum  whose  favourite  programme  it  was , used  to  recount  the  previous  night's  action  to  me over  breakfast.  

So  it  was  that  when  the  second  series  was  coming  to  an  end  Mum  said  that my sister  and  I  could  stay  up  and  watch  the  last  episode as  a  special  treat, the  first  time  either  of  us  had  been  allowed  to  stay  up  until  ten  o  clock. The  episode  was  called  "Thou  Shalt  Not  Kill"  and  because  it  was  such  a  special  occasion,  I  think  I'd  have been  able  to  tell  you  the  plot  even  if  I  hadn't  seen  it  since.

A  group  of  armed  robbers  at  the  university  branch  of  a  bank  are  surprised  by  the  early  arrival  of  the  boys  in  blue  and  two  of  them ( played  by  Dean  Harris  and  Ron  Lacey )  decide  to  hunker  down  with  hostages  when  the  others  are  apprehended. John Thaw's  Regan  takes  charge  of  the  scene  initially   with  the  aid  of  Dennis  Waterman's  Carter  then  the  normally  desk-bound  Haskins  ( Garfield  Morgan ) arrives  at  the  scene. At  a  key  point  he  baulks  at  ordering  the  marksmen  to  fire  when  they  have  a  clear  sight  of  both  men  and  as  an  eventual  consequence  one  of  the  hostages  is killed.  Regan  isn't  slow  in  letting  Haskins  know  who  is  to  blame  for  this.

I was  absolutely  enthralled  from  start  to  finish  and  for  some  time  afterwards  wanted  to  watch  any  cop  or  detective  series  going  , an  enthusiasm  fuelled  by  the  success   shortly  afterwards  of  Billy  Howard's  novelty  hit  King  of  the  Cops.  I'm  not  sure  if I  was  allowed  to  watch  any  of   the  third  series  in  1976  but  I  clearly  remember  watching  the  final  episode  in  1978  which  ended  ambiguously  with  Regan  resigning  in  disgust  after  being  investigated  for  corruption.

The  Sweeney's  enormous  popularity  has endured,  with  frequent  repeats,  so  over  the  years   I  think  I've  probably  caught  up  on  all  the  ones  I  missed  and  seen  some  episodes  a  few  times  over. It's  still  an  option  I'll  sometimes  pick  when  trawling  through  the  TV  Guide  although  I  don't  think  it's  being  shown  at  the  time  of  writing.

The  Sweeney  was  the  brainchild  of  screenwriter  Ian  Kennedy  Martin  and  was  his  first  big  hit.  It  followed  the  adventures  of  two  members  of  the  Metropolitan  Police's  Flying  Squad  which  operated  across  the  capital  tackling  organised  violent  crime. Because  of  this   virtually  every  episode  guaranteed  some  violence  in  the  form  of  fitsicuffs, shoot-outs, car  chases  or  all  three  and  inevitably  earned  the  ire  of  Mary  Whitehouse  who  said  it  was  gratuitous  and  disrespectful  to the  police. It  was  not  only  the  violence  itself  that  upset  her   but  the  fact  that  Regan  and  Carter  obviously  relished  it. In  one  episode  Carter  actually  suggests  to  the  hard  man  played  by  Colin  Welland  that  they  have  a  ruck  before  the  formal  business  of  arresting  him. As  usual  it  only  made  the  series  more  popular.

It  was  enormously  influential  too. Dixon  of  Dock  Green  was  finally  put  to  bed  the  following  year  and  in  1977  the  Beeb  launched  a  direct  imitation which  we'll  come  to  in  due  course.

Thou  Shalt  Not  Kill  was  one  of  the  darker  episodes  but  there  was  quite  a  lot  of  humour  in  it  too  , such  as  the  episode  where  Regan's  snout  sets  up  a  false  scenario  to humiliate  Bill  Maynard's  police  chief  and  succeeds in  spades , although  the  one  which  featured  Morecambe  and  Wise  as  themselves  was  probably  taking  things  too  far. Thaw  and  Waterman  had  great  personal  chemistry  and  a  lot  of  their  improvised  banter  was  included.

Two  full  length  films  were  made   from  the  series  and  did  well  at  the  box  office. Sweeney !   has  a  complex   and  barely  credible  plot  with  Regan  ( Carter  is  just  a  secondary  character  in  the  script  ) mixed  up  in  an  international  conspiracy  to  fix  oil  prices  and  is  very  violent; Diane  Keen's  is  still  one  of  the  most  shocking  death  scenes  in  cinema. The  less  often  broadcast  Sweeney  2  is  a  more  conventional  cops  and  robbers  story  but  is  less  compelling.
There  was  a  recent  film  allegedly  based  on  the  series  with  Ray  Winstone  but  as  I  fell  asleep  when  it  was  broadcast  recently  I  couldn't  tell  you  much  about  it.

By  1978  both  Thaw  and  Waterman  felt  that  the  series  had  run  its  course  and  their  decision  to  quit  was  vindicated  by  their  subsequent  careers. As  far  as  TV  was  concerned,  John  Thaw  stayed  box  office  gold  until  his  death  in  2002  despite  a  well  publicised  mis-step  with  A Year  In  Provence .  Waterman  has  also  been  very  successful  and  it's  depressing  that  he  seems  to  have  become  a  figure  of  fun  recently  for  no  good  reason.  Garfield  Morgan  declined  to  appear  in  either  film  and  was  only  present  in  around  half  of  the  episodes in  the  final  series. He  continued  to  act , mainly  in  sitcoms,  until  his  death  in  2009  but  never  had  such  a  high  profile  role  again.