The Sweeney

The Sweeney is a British television police drama focusing on two crime-fighting members of the Flying Squad, an elite branch of the British police force specialising in armed robbery and violent crime. The programme title came from Cockney rhyming slang: Sweeney Todd - 'Flying Squad'. The programme, made by Thames Television Euston Films Limited subsidiary, was originally aired on ITV from 1975 until 1978 and starred John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as Detective Sergeant George Carter. Such was its popularity in the UK that it even spawned two theatrically-released feature film spin-offs, Sweeney! and Sweeney 2.

The Sweeney was the first really modern British TV police-based series. Previously, most dramas featuring the police had shied away from showing 'coppers' as fallible human beings. The police in The Sweeney were a world away from Dixon of Dock Green or Z Cars. They were brutal and violent in dealing with London's hardened criminals.

Origins

The series was created by writer Ian Kennedy Martin, brother of the better-known Troy Kennedy Martin, the latter of whom also contributed several episodes and wrote the second film. The programme was born out of a one-off drama, called Regan, which Ian Kennedy Martin had written for Thames Television's Armchair Cinema series of one-offs in 1974. From the very beginning the show was seen as having series potential and after it scored highly in the ratings work began on the development of the series proper.

Writers were brought in and given quite strict guidelines to follow: "Each show will have an overall screen time (minus titles) of 48mins 40secs. Each film will open with a teaser of up to 3 minutes, which will be followed by the opening titles. The story will be played across three acts, each being no more than 19 minutes and no less than 8 minutes in length. Regan will appear in every episode, Carter in approximately 10 out of 13 episodes. In addition to these main characters, scripts should be based around three major speaking parts, with up to ten minor speaking parts."

Characters

The main two characters were Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Sergeant George Carter, their superior officer being Frank Haskins.

Jack Regan

Detective Inspector John 'Jack' Regan is the Flying Squad's chief thief-taker. He's a tough no-nonsense copper, who is often frustrated by Scotland Yard red tape. Heavy drinking and smoking (comically, Jack is more often than not stealing other people's cigarettes), Regan also has some success with the ladies, although not as much as George Carter. He has an ex-wife, Kate, and a daughter, Susie. In the last episode of the first series, Abduction, Susie is kidnapped. Regan is a hardman but he is human: he helps out a ex-informer whose son is kidnapped in Feet of Clay (Series 4), and his sympathetic pushing enables his boss Haskins to ask for help when his wife goes missing after a breakdown in Victims (Series 4) - it is Regan who finds her. Regan repeatedly bends the rules in order to achieve the desired result, e.g. fabricating evidence and arranging for a criminal to be kidnapped in "Queen's Pawn" or illegally entering private properties and threatening to lie about being attacked by a prisoner in order to get information in "Regan." Despite this, he is unwilling to cheat for purely personal gain and delivers a sharp put down to a corrupt copper in "Bad Apple" and refuses to take advantage of the bung (bribe) in "Golden Fleece."

George Carter

We learn from numerous episodes that George Carter comes from South London, e.g. Regan seeks him out in the pilot episode based on his knowledge of the South London area. His age is given in the "Hit and Run" episode as 26. In the series' timeline we learn that George had previously been in the squad but had quit for family reasons (cf. Regan and Jigsaw). George is married to Alison Carter. He is a former amateur boxer as we see from the pilot "Regan" .and is described as having professional boxing potential in the episode 'Chalk and Cheese'. Like his superior he is fond of drinking, football and womanising (after the death of his wife).

Frank Haskins

Haskins, married with 3 children at boarding schools, is Jack Regan's immediate superior. Prior to the series timeline the character had done "National Service in the Royal Seamen in a minor intelligence role" ("Stay lucky, eh?" episode). He is frequently seen at odds with Regan in preferring more conventional policing methods.

The main "Haskins episodes" are "Golden Fleece", where he is set up to be the victim of a corruption enquiry, and "Victims", where his wife suffers a mental breakdown due to memories of a miscarriage.

Other characters

The Squad

In the early episodes the team has a variety of drivers including Len (the first 2 episodes) and Fred (the episode Jigsaw). However, the episode "The Placer" in the first series introduces the character of Bill the driver and he remains a constant throughout the series, although he plays a peripheral role in most episodes.

Tom Daniels is the most prominent member of the supporting squad. Other members include Sergeant Kent, DC Thorpe and Matthews in the first series, Jerry Burtinshaw (series 1-3) and Jellyneck (series 4). DI Maynon appears occasionally as a superior officer, and is seen as more willing than Haskins to bend the rules to get a result in the episode "Queen's Pawn". With Haskins absent, a semi-regular superior officer Braithwaite appears in Series 4.

Family

Other main characters included the close family of the three leads.

Regan's ex-wife appears in the episode "Abduction" after previously featuring in the pilot, while his daughter appears in several episodes, most notably "Abduction".

Carter's wife Alison is seen attempting to prise him away from the Squad in the episode "Jigsaw", while her hostility towards Regan is apparent in the episode "Abduction". She is murdered in a case of mistaken identity in the episode "Hit And Run". In the DVD commentary for "Abduction" it is mentioned that the reason for this was that the actress was asking for too much money to continue to appear in the series.

Doreen Haskins plays a minor role in some episodes, although the penultimate episode "Victims" deals with her deteriorating mental health and returns to the theme of the job's impact on family life. One of Haskins' three children Richard appears in this episode.

Production

The filming of each episode normally took ten working days, shooting about five minutes of edited screen time per day. Because of this the number of different filming locations had to be restricted to ten, i.e. one location per day. There was a standing set built of the Flying Squad offices which provided an alternative option should the weather restrict a day's filming. Two days would normally be spent filming on the set, equalling 10 mins of any episode being set in the offices. Shooting took place through the summer, so exterior night shooting was expensive and limited to 3 minutes of external night material in any episode.

Each episode had an eight and a half week production schedule: two weeks pre-production (for casting, finding locations etc...), two weeks shooting, four weeks picture editing (the first two weeks of which overlap with the shoot), two weeks sound editing and two and a half days dubbing.

Filming Locations

Most of the show was filmed in the West London area, mainly in the Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush areas. However other areas included Chertsey Marina, Surrey ("Bad Apple", "Jack or Knave?") Staines, Surrey ("The Placer") Wimbledon ("May", "Lady Luck") Peckham ("Ringer") Battersea ("Jigsaw")

Episodes

In all 4 series were made with Series One being transmitted between January and March 1975 and Series Two following between September and December of the same year. Series 3 was transmitted between September and December 1976 with the final series being shown 2 years later. 2 films were also made.

Series 1

The promotional episode shown to the press was Thin Ice, although this is generally seen by fans as being one of the weaker episodes from the first series. Highlights of the first series were "Ringer" where the team were attempting to prevent a criminal being sprung from prison, "Jackpot", "Stoppo Driver" and "Abduction" in which Regan's daughter Suzy was kidnapped, focussing on the strains which the job caused on family life. The early episodes featured a great degree of hostility and mistrust between Regan and his superior Haskins, who in one episode attempts to have Carter separated from Regan in order to help his career development.

Meanwhile the episode "Queen's Pawn" is a classic display of how Regan is willing to bend the rules in order to get a result as he fabricates evidence, illegally opens private mail and even arranges the kidnapping of one of the criminals in order to get the desired result.

Series 2

The episodes "Faces" and "Thou Shalt Not Kill" were among the highlights of the second series. In the former an anarchist group (which appears to be German-based in echoes of the then contemporary Baader-Meinhof gang) is staging a number of robberies in order to raise funds for its cause. However, the group has been infiltrated by British intelligence and this leads to complicated inter-departmental politics between the police and the security services. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" features a tense hostage situation inside a bank with the squad faced with the dilemma of whether to risk the hostages lives by a simultaneous shooting of the criminals.

Other episodes included a pair of slightly tongue-in-cheek episodes "Golden fleece" and "Trojan Bus" featuring 2 Australian villains played by Patrick Mower and George Layton. Carter's wife Alison is murdered in the episode "Hit And Run".

Series 3

"In From The Cold" and "Taste Of Fear" were two of the highlights of the third series. The latter introducing violent psychopathic criminal Tim Cook, an army deserter, whose experiences in Northern Ireland have left him embittered. Cook also appears in the later and less successful episode 'On The Run.' Other episodes explored different themes: "Tomorrow Man" focussed on the clash between traditional policing methods and new more technological ways of solving crime, which ironically in the real world, have made crimes such as villains in stocking masks carrying out wages snatches in The Sweeney seem anachronistic. "Bad Apple" dealt with police corruption and here Regan, despite being seen to bend the rules in other episodes to achieve convictions, is seen holding the deepest contempt for the corrupt officers.

Series 4

There was a two year gap between the third and fourth series and the title sequence was changed for the final series. A number of other changes took place with the Haskins character being absent from a number of episodes. The final series has been criticised as the weakest by many with episodes such as "Latin Lady", "Drag Act", "Trust Red" and "Hearts And Minds" in particular being singled out for criticism.

The opening episode "Messenger of the Gods" divides fans with some seeing it as wonderfully tongue in cheek and others viewing it as moronic comedy.

Other notable episodes included "Nightmare", which features a slightly experimental dream sequence as part of the plot. This is also the episode with the highest body count and features another contemporary (for the time) plot of two ex-IRA men committing a major crime in order to buy their way back into the organisation (stealing modern machine guns with lasers attached). "Bait" featured a strong performance by George Sewell, who had starred in The Sweėney's Euston films forerunner Special Branch series as well as the film Get Carter which was a major influence on The Sweeney, and whose main character Jack Carter may have been the inspiration for the name of the two main Sweeney characters.

"Hearts And Minds", the last episode to be filmed, featured the popular comedians Morecambe and Wise and was intended as quid pro quo for the appearance of Waterman and Thaw in a Sweeney themed sketch in the 1976 Morecambe and Wise Christmas special.

The final episode "Jack or Knave" saw a slightly ambiguous ending with the main character Jack Regan being temporarily locked up after being implicated in a corruption scandal of which he was exonerated. He then announces that he's had it with the squad and the series ends with him quitting in disgust.

Guest stars

As well as making John Thaw and Dennis Waterman big names, The Sweeney also had an impressive list of guest stars, including Morecambe and Wise, Diana Dors, Brian Blessed, Warren Mitchell, Roy Kinnear and Maureen Lipman, as well as the writers Lynda La Plante and Colin Welland. Many up and coming actors such as Karl Howman, Ray Winstone, Andrew Paul and Hywel Bennett also appeared in the show during its run.

Dialogue

The show was known for many memorable lines of dialogue which included:-

"Get yer trousers on, you're nicked." This line became synonymous with the show, however it was only ever used in the pilot episode. Despite the line's Sweeney associations it was actually first used in Euston films series "Special Branch", in the episode 'Date of Birth.'

"SHUT IT!" This line is most associated with The Sweeney, and is used by Regan in numerous episodes.

"We're The Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner. You've kept us waiting, so unless you want a kicking you tell us where those photographs are." (Ringer)

"I hate this bastard place, it's a bloody holiday camp for thieves and weirdoes, all the rubbish. You nail a villain and some ponced up pin stripe Hampstead barrister screws it all up like an old fag packet and pops off for a game of squash and a glass of Madeira. He's taking home 30 grand a year and we can just about afford 10 days in Eastbourne and a second hand car. Nah, it's all bloody wrong my son!" (Abduction)

"You couldn't find an Irishman in a Harp Club." (Abduction)

"He's a weirdo and he's hard enough to rollerskate on." (Jackpot)

"If you weren't who you are, I'd kick your arse up to your shoulderblades."

"Now the question is do I write my statement and then get drunk or get drunk then write it." (Taste of fear)

"The world does not revolve around your body. This bloke Galileo proved it, it goes around the sun." (Night out)

Trivia

The repeat of the episode "Selected Target" in December 1978 had the highest viewing figure of the series with 19.05 million people watching.

Dennis Waterman was cast after his performance in the Special Branch episode 'Stand and Deliver.' In the same episode Stephanie Turner (who played his wife in The Sweeney) played his sister.

DVD and CD releases

The complete series of The Sweeney is available on DVD (Region 2, U.K.) from Network. The pilot episode "Regan" was also released on DVD in November 2005.

A soundtrack album "Shut it! The music of The Sweeney" is also available and features much of the incidental music used in the programme as well as many classic pieces of dialogue.

External links

ITV television programmes | Crime television series

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