"Who's Godot?"
"Plays full back for QPR."
I knew of The Sweeney, of course. I certainly knew the theme tune, one of those based nicely around the syllables of the name of the programme. I knew "get your trousers on, you're nicked". I knew John Thaw was in hisearly thirties, looking somehow much older... but then, everyone seemed to in the '70s. The endless nicotine and the Lutwaffe, no doubt.
And yes, I knew it was incredibly laddish, about the Flying Squad, the East End, and policing in a world before the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, a very different world. So... is the first episode what I expected?
Well, yes. It is. This episode is a nice little opener, establishing what Regan and Carter are like, whata maverick Regan is, how his strai-laced superintendent can't stand him. It shows us a vanished East End underworld not long after the Krays. It shows us a world, not long agos, when photographs needed to be developed. It establishes that this is going to be great actor spotting fun- we have Brian Blessed and Ian Hendry as gangsters, and June Brown as a little scrote's mum.
It also shows us the '70s, though. The clothes, the different values- Life on Mars for real- and the cars, oh the cars.
I think I'm going to like this...
I had a go with the first season of 'The Professionals'. Very different values, especially the sexism. In one episode, Bodie and Doyle arrive at a situation where a nurse is being held hostage and one of the first things they do is... make a guess at her bra size.
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