THE SWEENEY - PART ONE

I'm becoming almost addicted to a British television series from the 1970s. The Sweeney is what we in North America call a "cop show". A cop show is what I call something I'm generally not interested in watching. Certainly any example from the last few decades.

A few years ago a friend gave me a VHS tape containing two episodes of The Sweeney that he had picked up for himself when he was last in England. (Since we both worked in the video business it was easy to make a good quality NTSC copy from the PAL original.)  I watched the tape and immediately took to the show and its characters.

The characters are super. John Thaw, as Jack Regan, and co-star Dennis Waterman (George Carter), have great chemistry. Apparently they would occasionally improvise on the set as the camera was rolling. The show has that 'anything goes' 1970s Brit-rawness and what we would term today as "not politically correct". Some of the 'stuff' that comes out of Regan's mouth, often due to exasperation, is hilarious. Don't think for a moment that he is some kind of prejudiced git... just a human being who often has a lot less control of the situation than would his contemporary Frank Cannon, across the pond. More realistic? Of course. Which is why I watch.  These cops, as they are members of the armed robbery and violent crime squad, actually carry guns. It's kinda weird hearing an English (or Irish) bloke say something along the lines of "stop, or I'll shoot".

Seeing a British police series, and one from the mid Seventies (1975-78), was revealing. As a young man I watched Sidestreet on the CBC every week in those same years. It too had a rawness; but a more polite rawness. (Like like dramatic tv series' made here in Canada at that time, The Sweeney was shot on 16mm "Reversal" film giving it a documentary flavouring.)

I've used the ever dependable Youtube to get my Sweeney fix. I made the 'mistake' a couple of weeks ago of watching an episode, which only opened the flood-gates.

I should mention that another fun part of The Sweeney is spotting actors: John Hurt; Catherine Schell; Brian Blessed; Ray Winstone; John Rhys Davies; T.P. McKenna; Diana Dors; Ian Hendry; Lesley-Anne Down; Julian Glover; George Sewell; and on.

Sorry, I gotta stop here:  Time to cook-up some Bangers & Mash, then sit down to watch another episode....


Wikipedia entry on The Sweeney...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sweeney