Indeed, I do know it, and I have a DVD boxset of The Sandbaggers stored away. That said, I've only watched it once, probably around 15 years ago now, so perhaps it's time for me to revisit it.
It was made by Yorkshire TV for the ITV network, and as was the style at the time for most UK dramas, location work was shot on film, but studio work was shot on video tape. I think in many viewers' eyes, that lowered its "quality" a bit, but it was highly regarded and Roy Marsden is excellent. He would go on to star as Det Inspector Adam Dalgleish in Anglia TV's adaptation of PD James' detective novels in which he played an erudite detective - a sort of precursor to Morse. (Note the Dalgleish novels have been revisited in more recent times). I think The Sandbaggers isn't as well remembered because a year after its 1978 debut, the Alec Guinness version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy came out and that was really a high water mark for cold war spy stories of the era. It was a co-pro and so was fully shot on film. It was based on John Le Carré's highly regarded novels and of course it starred Guinness, who was a massive star appearing in everything from Ealing comedies through to Doctor Zhivago and Bridge on the River Kwai. And of course, most recently at that point, Star Wars. Plus, big movie stars didn't do TV at that time, so getting him to make Tinker Tailor, and then afterwards Smiley's People, was a massive coup. I guess that you've seen both of those, but if not, do find them. They both remain for me some of my favourite dramas from the 70s and 80s, and it annoys me sometimes that people think that TV didn't do serious stuff really well until The Sopranos. They've been restored for Blu Ray so the HD versions look fantastic. And also check out 1987's A Perfect Spy which is also excellent, based on Le Carré's most autobiographical novel. Adam On Tue, Oct 8, 2024 at 3:44 AM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > Amazon pushed this to me this weekend, by way of Brit Bix I think, and I > inhaled the three short seasons (series). Shocked I had not heard of it > before, as a little googling reveals it is highly regarded in the UK, has > been run several times on PBS, and seems to clearly be a bit of an > inspiration to one of my favorite shows of all time (and which I just > rewatched for the 5th time earlier this summer) Spooks (MI5). > > I wonder if Adam, or anyone else who may be familiar with the show, know > how it played originally in the late 1970s? These were the Carter years in > the US, and the transition from the Labor government of James Callaghan to > the ultra Tory government of Margaret Thatacher in the UK. The show reads > as partly a love letter to Thatcherism, but it does seem several cuts above > propaganda because it’s Thatcherite hero in MI6, Burnside (who by my > reading of twilight Cold War history was proven to be pretty much dead > wrong), while being lionized in characterization is also shown to be flawed > and mistaken in some of his judgements and schemes. But I can’t tell if he > was seen at the time as a flawed and often misguided hero, whose > antagonists were better than he gave them credit for being, and often right > where he was wrong, or was the show catching an early Thatcher wave that > saw itself as preaching the Gospel? > > > Sent from Gmail Mobile > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2BHaijo1wy6TvN8YtZyo10EuZXhcw-9n2OU2i867S75cQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2BHaijo1wy6TvN8YtZyo10EuZXhcw-9n2OU2i867S75cQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGD4pOe-jYDgdbgDTnDeFDPSTP6iieaoH6fo2DjR1wySXw%40mail.gmail.com.
