The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a British police drama television series focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. It was produced by the Thames Television subsidiary Euston Films for broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom from 2 January 1975 to 28 December 1978.
The programme's title comes from the Cockney rhyming slang term "Sweeney Todd", a fictitious demon barber which rhymes with "Flying Squad", shortened to "The Sweeney" and used by London's criminal fraternity in the mid 20th century to refer to the Police.
The popularity of the series in the UK led to two feature films Sweeney! and Sweeney 2 both starring Thaw and Waterman, and a later film, The Sweeney, starring Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben Drew as Carter.
Background
The Sweeney was developed from a one-off TV drama titled Regan, which served as the pilot episode for the series. Regan is a 90-minute television film written by Ian Kennedy Martin for the Thames Television anthology series Armchair Cinema in 1974. The part of Jack Regan was written for John Thaw, who was a friend of Ian Kennedy Martin, with whom he had worked on the TV drama series Redcap in the 1960s. Dennis Waterman was cast after his performance in the Special Branch episode "Stand and Deliver", also produced by Euston Films.The Regan film was seen as having series potential from the very beginning. After it scored highly in the ratings, work began on the development of the series proper. Ian Kennedy Martin saw the subsequent series as being mainly studio-based, with more dialogue and less action, but producer Ted Childs, inspired in part by Get Carter and The French Connection, disagreed. Following this battle for creative control, Ian Kennedy Martin parted company with the project. His role as series writer were filled by his brother Troy Kennedy Martin, Roger Marshall, Ranald Graham and Trevor Preston.
Every writer on the series was given guidelines, "Each show will have an overall screen time of 48 minutes 40 seconds. 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 fewer 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".
Most TV police dramas had shied away from showing officers as fallible. The series shows a somewhat more realistic side of police life, depicting them as flawed human beings, some with a disregard for authority, rules and the "system". Police officers in The Sweeney are ready and willing to meet violence with violence when dealing with London's hardened criminals and are prone to cut corners and bend the law in pursuit of their prey, as long as it gets the right result. Until The Sweeney, the violent reality of policing was largely ignored by British television. The series broke new ground for TV drama and incorporated self-awareness and genre-referential humour. This is evident in episodes such as 2.7, "Golden Fleece", when Regan brandishes a lollipop at Carter and says "who loves ya, baby" in a nod to hit US crime series Kojak ; or in 2.10, "Trojan Bus", when Regan whistles the theme tune to the BBC's sedate police series Dixon of Dock Green after a particularly elementary piece of detective work.
The series also captured the zeitgeist as it was made during a dark period for the real-world Flying Squad. During the mid-1970s Flying Squad officers were publicly censured for being involved in bribery, corruption and for having excessively close links with the criminal fraternity. This reality served as a backdrop to the series and it is reflected in the mood, tone and story lines of The Sweeney. Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Drury, the Flying Squad's real-life commander, was convicted on five counts of corruption and imprisoned for eight years. Twelve other officers were convicted and many more resigned. In the late 1970s, this and other scandals led to a massive internal investigation into the activities of the Metropolitan and City of London Police led by Dorset Police, codenamed Operation Countryman.
Cast and characters
Main characters
The two main protagonists are Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Detective Sergeant George Carter. The third is Detective Chief Inspector Frank Haskins, their boss and a senior Flying Squad officer.Jack Regan
stars as Detective Inspector John Albert "Jack" Regan, a tough police officer, often frustrated by Scotland Yard's red tape. Originally from Manchester, he has been in London for several years. He occasionally refers to his northern roots, which prompts banter from George Carter, a Londoner, such as humming "The Red Flag". A heavy drinker and smoker, Regan has some success with women; although not as much as Carter. He has an ex-wife, Kate, and daughter, Susie, who live in Ruislip.Regan may be tough, but he is also a decent man, seen to help out an ex-informer whose son is kidnapped in 4.9 "Feet of Clay"; and his sympathetic pushing enables his boss Haskins to ask for help when his wife goes missing after a breakdown, in 4.13 "Victims"; it is Regan who finds her. Regan will bend the rules in order to achieve the desired result: for example, fabricating evidence, arranging for a criminal to be kidnapped, illegally entering private property and threatening to lie about being attacked by a prisoner in order to get information. Despite this, he has his own very strong moral code. He is unwilling to cheat for personal gain, delivers a blistering attack on a corrupt police officer, and refuses to take bribes.
Although he is seen driving various cars himself throughout the series, Regan usually travels by squad car with a police driver.
George Carter
plays Detective Sergeant George Hamilton Carter who comes from south London. In the series' timeline, George was in the Flying Squad prior to events in Regan, but quit for family reasons. Carter is less aggressive than Regan and usually plays the "good cop" role. He is married to Alison Carter, a schoolteacher, but is widowed when she is murdered in episode 2.5 "Hit and Run". He is a former amateur boxer, as shown in the pilot Regan, and is described as having professional boxing potential in episode 2.1 "Chalk and Cheese". Like Regan, he enjoys a drink and follows football. After the death of his wife, Carter is shown dating various women in several episodes.Frank Haskins
plays Detective Chief Inspector Frank Haskins. He is married and has three children, all at boarding school, and is Regan's immediate superior. Prior to the series timeline, the character had completed his National Service in the Signals Corps "in a minor intelligence role". He is frequently seen at odds with Regan, preferring more conventional "by-the-book" policing methods, though is still willing and able to "mix it" with villains on the street, giving Regan and Carter physical and/or armed support several times.The main episodes featuring Haskins are 2.7 "Golden Fleece", in which he is set up to be the victim of a corruption inquiry, and 4.13 "Victims", in which his wife, Doreen, suffers a mental breakdown.
During the first three series, Morgan appears in the opening titles of every episode regardless of whether Haskins makes an appearance.
Haskins is absent at the start of the fourth and final series due to Garfield Morgan's other professional commitments, but he returns a few episodes in. Correspondingly, there are two versions of the fourth series opening titles, one with, and one without, Haskins.
Other recurring characters
The squad
The series introduces several other squad officers over the years including: Detective Sergeant "Matt" Mathews ; Detective Sergeant Kent ; Detective Constable Jimmy Thorpe ; Detective Constable Jellineck ; Detective Constable Gerry Burtonshaw ; Detective Sergeant Tom Daniels.Regan's squad car comes with an "authorised" police driver. In the first series Regan has a variety of drivers including Len, Fred and Brian Cooney. Episode 1.7 "The Placer" introduces the character of Bill who becomes Regan's regular driver, although he plays a peripheral, non-speaking role in most episodes. Allen subsequently worked as wardrobe manager for many of John Thaw's later projects.
When Haskins is absent, other senior officers step in to manage the squad, including Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Quirk and Detective Chief Inspector Anderson, sarcastically referred to as "Andy Pandy" by Regan, Carter, and other squad officers.
Other more senior officers include: Detective Chief Superintendent Maynon, a semi-regular throughout the series and more willing than Haskins to bend the rules to get a result ; Detective Superintendent Grant ; Detective Chief Superintendent Braithwaite. Colin Douglas features as an unnamed commander in series 1, with Michael Latimer as Commander Jackman in series 2.
The relationship between squad officers is largely informal. Regan is always referred to as "Guv'nor", or just "Guv". He invariably calls Carter and the other squad members by their first names, or occasionally nicknames. Carter, as Regan's assigned sergeant, is frequently addressed by constables as "Skipper" or "Skip". When off duty, Regan and Carter are friends and drinking buddies, so in private Carter calls him "Jack". This is all in accordance with widespread police convention. Everyone calls DCI Haskins simply "Haskins", though Regan occasionally calls him by his first name, "Frank".