Much respect should be given to the producers of THE SWEENEY . There's only so many plots involving slags doing blags . A typical plot revolves around Regan and Carter trying to catch hardened criminals . How much mileage is their in this premise ? The fact that 53 episodes were produced and the series never got stale says a lot about the quality . Perhaps because the series ended after 53 episodes was for the best , compare this to MINDER which carried on for several years too long and proves it's always best to retire at the top
That said this episode by Murray Smith his only contribution to the show does show a little bit of cliché and a slightly outlandish plot featuring a member of the German Red Army Faction trying set up an off-shoot in Britain and funding this via armed robbery . They're very much the bad criminals who aren't really interested in Marxist theory of revolution and historical determinism but more interested in stealing from the rich and keeping it for themselves while maiming the occasional security guard who gets in their way . There is of course a " good criminal " Tober , played by future Oscar winning screenwriter Colin Welland, a former Royal Marine who is very old school in that he doesn't grass his mates and doesn't hurt kids , a true stand up hard as nails gent that only exists in the realms of film and television
Having just seen this on ITV4 I do notice a large amount of editing has taken place . A sequence has been taken out where Tober and The German have a slight disagreement . This leads to The German nodding his head and the rest of the gang trying to dish out a kicking to Tober who survives getting a chair broken over his head and promptly proceeds to give the rest of the gang a doing . I've always wondered where gangs in film and television get this psychic ability from ? If someone nodded their head to you would you automatically interpret it as an instruction to bash someone's head in ? The episode ends with an officer in MI5 telling Regan that his inside man in the gang would be hung out to dry if he hadn't escaped to which Regan replies " Ba..." . I'm sure in the unedited non ITV4 version the word is " Bastard "
That said this episode by Murray Smith his only contribution to the show does show a little bit of cliché and a slightly outlandish plot featuring a member of the German Red Army Faction trying set up an off-shoot in Britain and funding this via armed robbery . They're very much the bad criminals who aren't really interested in Marxist theory of revolution and historical determinism but more interested in stealing from the rich and keeping it for themselves while maiming the occasional security guard who gets in their way . There is of course a " good criminal " Tober , played by future Oscar winning screenwriter Colin Welland, a former Royal Marine who is very old school in that he doesn't grass his mates and doesn't hurt kids , a true stand up hard as nails gent that only exists in the realms of film and television
Having just seen this on ITV4 I do notice a large amount of editing has taken place . A sequence has been taken out where Tober and The German have a slight disagreement . This leads to The German nodding his head and the rest of the gang trying to dish out a kicking to Tober who survives getting a chair broken over his head and promptly proceeds to give the rest of the gang a doing . I've always wondered where gangs in film and television get this psychic ability from ? If someone nodded their head to you would you automatically interpret it as an instruction to bash someone's head in ? The episode ends with an officer in MI5 telling Regan that his inside man in the gang would be hung out to dry if he hadn't escaped to which Regan replies " Ba..." . I'm sure in the unedited non ITV4 version the word is " Bastard "