8mm Forum: The Sweeney. Ringer. 3 x 400ft Walton. (on 1 x 1200)

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 19, 2017, 04:02 PM:

I viewed this episode with a point of moving it on as i remembered a few years ago it had some fade. The annoying thing here is as always, i am very pleased to see that once that walton logo has gone, (its red), the actual film colours,though have some fade, are actually very good but my digi camera just seems to not pick the blues yellows and greens that are there. I have no idea how to get over this but hey ho, these give you an idea. This was the first episode of series one of this hard hitting police programme from ITV here in the UK in the early 70s & it caused a bit of a storm due to its realism and violence at that time. We also have an episode called i want the man which is on Agfa stock. These episodes, (4 in all) were hit and miss as to what stock you got. In this one we were unlucky but its still has a few years left in it. A lot of people think this was the pilot, in fact the pilot was called Regan and was a TV film length episode. I have only seen it once but recall it being pretty good.

First of all this part is worth a read, i am not taking credit for this bit, i have simply taken this extract from various web readings. It puts it into a nutshell and to the point.

For those who enjoy TV trivia, Ian Hendry appeared in the first episode (‘Ringer’) of the first series of The Sweeney – playing the part of Dave Brooker. In fact, he is the very first person to appear on screen in the series!
The Sweeney’s main characters were Detective Inspector John “Jack” Regan (played by John Thaw) and Detective Sergeant George Carter (played by Dennis Waterman). Two other notable members of the cast for this episode were Brian Blessed and Alan Lake – who was the husband of Diana Dors at the time.
The story behind the making of this episode and the characters involved, is well told by Gabriel Hershman in his biography on Ian.
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. The programme’s title derives from Sweeney Todd, which is Cockney rhyming slang for “Flying Squad”.
The programme was shot entirely on 16mm film by Thames Television’s film division, Euston Films. It originally aired on ITV between 2 January 1975 and 28 December 1978 in the 21:00–22:00 weekday (usually Monday) slot with repeated showings at the same time until the early 1980s. It starred John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan, and Dennis Waterman as his partner Detective Sergeant George Carter. Such was its popularity in the UK that it spawned two theatrically released feature film spin-offs, Sweeney! and Sweeney 2.
The series aired during a dark period for the real-life Flying Squad, which in the late 1970s had been publicly censured for being involved in bribery, police corruption and excessively close links with the criminal fraternity. Unlike the unwavering high standards seen in the fictional Sweeney, the actual commander of the Flying Squad, Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Drury was convicted of five counts of corruption and jailed for eight years on 7 July 1977. An internal investigation, called Operation Countryman, was then launched to stamp out more corruption. A further 12 officers were convicted and many others resigned.
The series was created by writer Ian Kennedy Martin, brother of the better-known Troy Kennedy Martin who contributed several episodes and wrote the second film. It was born from a one-off drama, entitled Regan, which Ian Kennedy Martin wrote for Thames Television’s Armchair Cinema series of standalone films in 1974. The part of Regan was specifically written for Thaw, by a friend of Kennedy Martin with whom he had worked on Redcap.
From the very beginning, the show was seen as having series potential. After Regan scored highly in the ratings, work began on the development of the series properly.
Some of the UK members will recognise a young Dot Cotton here, (from Eastenders which i HATE with a passion)

Posted by David Skillern (Member # 607) on May 20, 2017, 03:30 AM:

Hi Tom,

Ive got this and the last time I saw it - the colour and sound had held up well - for the 1st episode it had a cracking supporting cast, but the one thing i was pleased about was having Ian Hendry in the cast - who I always thought was a cracking actor who unfortunately allowed alcohol to get the better of him. He had a genuine talent - such a shame - but great to think that some of his performances are still with us on celluloid.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 20, 2017, 04:38 AM:

Thats true David, was a very good actor and as you say Walton did very well to get this particular episode out. [Wink]

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on May 22, 2017, 09:05 PM:

It's striking how rarely these TV episodes seem to come up for sale. I wonder if that's because collectors are hanging on to them, or might there be relatively few in circulation?

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 23, 2017, 06:42 AM:

I think there are quite a few around but to get a good one with excellent colours,(Walton's Agfa stuff was superb), you have to be lucky. As said, we have an episode called I want the man, its a great episode and has 1st class image.sound and colours but unfortunately ours has a couple of annoying scratches but only for the last Two minutes [Mad]

They were there when we bought it but have to add it was only £20 so for that reason its very good and the guest star is Roy Kinnear. It isn't a comedy role and i will add he is a very good actor in this. We also had Down to you Brother but had to sell this one due to the colour fade. I dont mind slight fade but the red is more than the rest of the film its time to sell or bin.

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