The Sweeney - The Complete Third Series

Bluesky

ITV's classic 1970s British cop show The Sweeney ran for four series between 1975 and 1978. The first set up the formula for what would be, probably, the best police drama of the 1970s. It had a highly capable core cast. John Thaw, as Detective Inspector Jack Regan, doubled up with Dennis Waterman, as Detective Sergeant George Carter. The pair were backed up by Garfield Morgan, playing their Governor Detective Chief Inspector Frank Haskins.

It had the fights and car chases, choreographed by Peter Brayham, that were gritty and realistic, and very much in keeping with the cinema of its day. The cinematic style low angle shots and claustrophobia which combined with Harry South's music brings the likes of Get Carter and The French Connection to the small screen. The scripts were tight, three acts, laced with witty banter, mostly good humoured, not yet the viciously sardonic dialogue that would show up in STV's Taggart (1983) "We don't have ligatures in Maryhill." The BBC tried to compete with its own hard hitting cop drama Target, but that show has faded from memory. The only real competition to The Sweeney comes from another ITV show, The Professionals, with Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw) and a theme tune by Laurie Johnson.

By series three the formula, now tried and tested, is, for the most part, followed. But there are changes. Excepting one episode in the second series, Golden Fleece, the cops always win. Not now: right from episode one, they lose. They do still win but often there is something pyrrhic about the victory. Before there was always a subtext regarding police corruption. That, as a theme, is now brought into the open, most notably in the episode Bad Apple. Malpractice is also on display. The allusions to improper behaviour are gone. Female characters have, in general, more agency. In the episodes Loving Arms and Lady Luck, they have leading rolls. It is by no means proper representation, but it is better than much of what else was out there at the time. At this point The Sweeney was also the show to be seen in. It had a certain cachet about it. It could boost an actor's career. The faces of actors like John Hurt (Alien) and Simon Callow (Four Weddings And A Funeral) make appearances.

When it comes to the third instalment, more of the same but different, sums it up quite positively. The Sweeney keeps close enough to the original formula to maintain what was good about it whilst adding the changes needed to keep it fresh.

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