Bojan Scores
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Terry you’re very devious when a bird’s involved...
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Post by Bojan Scores on Aug 4, 2021 11:55:45 GMT
I’m really enjoying watching this series from Yorkshire Television at the moment. The synopsis being that the Sandbaggers are an elite special operations unit within the British Secret Service, basically doing any underhand or dangerous tasks no other department will handle. Starring Roy Marsden and Ray Lonnen, the series plots and weaves the politics, departmental rivalries, and the bleak reality of operations at home and abroad. I’m into series two of three and I can’t say I’ve seen a bad episode yet. It’s nearest comparison is ‘Callan’ and it may well be as good and in some ways better than that series. Apparently the New York Times called it ‘the best spy series in television history’. Definitely recommended.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Aug 4, 2021 14:15:23 GMT
I’m really enjoying watching this series from Yorkshire Television at the moment. The synopsis being that the Sandbaggers are an elite special operations unit within the British Secret Service, basically doing any underhand or dangerous tasks no other department will handle. Starring Roy Marsden and Ray Lonnen, the series plots and weaves the politics, departmental rivalries, and the bleak reality of operations at home and abroad. I’m into series two of three and I can’t say I’ve seen a bad episode yet. It’s nearest comparison is ‘Callan’ and it may well be as good and in some ways better than that series. Apparently the New York Times called it ‘the best spy series in television history’. Definitely recommended. Good theme tune I seem to remember.
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Post by Charles Bronson on Aug 4, 2021 14:45:52 GMT
I would like to see this series as I'm a fan of Roy Marsden. I bought the complete Adam Dalgleish series a few years ago, and we very much enjoyed watching that. I will look out for The Sandbaggers..
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Mickyosan
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Post by Mickyosan on Aug 5, 2023 12:00:34 GMT
I remember the series as a kid but definitely never watched it.
forty-five years later and I’ve finally caught up with it in the last few days as the choice was generated by my YouTube algorithm. All episodes are available and I’ve watched about eight.
Gritty, edgy and very well written with lots of plot twists with heavy international positioning and decision-making.
Roy Marsden is a permanently troubled man with the weight of the world on his shoulders and a B&H seemingly perma-lit in his gob as he has to tackle daily pressures of serious life or death decision-making whilst constantly trying to steer the ship of international incident into calmer waters.
The dialogue is very urgent and punchy, with the action sometimes nerve-wracking.
Much of the content deals with incidents in Eastern Europe/Soviet block or the middle-east and is mainly played inside the offices of power in London (most probably in Leeds) although there’s some Whitehall/Westminster views of the time in 1978-80, plus what look like various London or Leeds backstreet locations dressed-up as a foreign land with the appropriate carefully added signage.
if the Professionals of the same era was mainly about the action, this is far more sobering and more about the plot, the script and the pressure of it all. Absolutely worth a look.
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Mickyosan
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Post by Mickyosan on Aug 20, 2023 16:26:48 GMT
To bookend my Sandbaggers post, I’ve now completed the series and thoroughly enjoyed them all. The amount of nicotine consumed by Burnside and the other lead characters throughout the series is extraordinary. Even John Alkin (DS Tom Daniels from the Sweeney makes appearances in two episodes of S3). All episodes are currently watchable gratis on YouTube so as long as you can accommodate the inconvenience of adverts in your busy, time-poor lives, you’ll be happy. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdpqz-8kHRuCQoyT8p39XofS6as6cdgaZEven the final episode of the third season is gripping and there’s more to it than meets the eye because a fourth series had already been planned but writer Ian Mackintosh disappeared on 07/07/79 and that unfortunately was the end of that. According to Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Mackintosh, “On the evening of 7 July 1979, Mackintosh was flying with two others (his girlfriend, Susan Insole, and British Airways captain Graham Barber, who was the pilot) over the Gulf of Alaska in a light aircraft. The plane sent out a distress signal, which was picked up by the United States Coast Guard. The plane's last-known position was searched, but no wreckage of the plane was ever found and its passengers have not been heard from since.” Contemporary notes following his disappearance toyed with the idea of others being tasked with writing series 4 but is seems this option was discounted for the simple reason that “Nobody could write it as well as Ian.” Fair praise indeed.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Aug 20, 2023 21:26:13 GMT
Thanks for the recommendation chaps.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Aug 21, 2023 20:47:55 GMT
Yes thanks for the recommendation on this I'll try and give it a watch on YT at some point soon.
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Post by Charles Bronson on Aug 24, 2023 15:06:07 GMT
This is one of the series I've been meaning to try myself. I'm a fan of Roy Marsden and used to have the box set of his Adam Dalglish series. I will get around it sooner or later.
The past 18 months or so I've watched a huge amount of old series on YouTube even though I've bought loads of dvds over the years.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Aug 26, 2023 17:38:16 GMT
Good theme music as well.
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Post by Peter Picard on Sept 16, 2023 15:29:59 GMT
The theme was composed by the fantastic Roy Budd.
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