The Sweeney: Season 2

Fasten your seat belts for this action-packed British cop drama, complete with jaw-dropping car chases, fistfights, boozing, break-ins, gunfire and brash dialogue! Starring John Thaw (Inspector Morse) as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman (Minder) as Detective Sergeant George Carter, The Sweeney follows the adventures of the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad, fighting armed robbery and violent crimes in 1970s London.

Season 2, Episode 1: Chalk and Cheese
Original Air Date-1 September 1975
Giles Nunn and Carrie Selhurst are an upper crust couple who, partly for kicks and for the profits, commit highway robbery in lonely country lanes, along with the lower class boy Tommy Garret, whose dad is a friend of George Carter. Regan is on to them and Carrie gets arrested, but her unwillingness to cooperate leads to the death of the next victim.

Season 2, Episode 2: Faces
Original Air Date-8 September 1975
A masked gang robs a security van and Carter's informant names ex-soldier Tober as its leader. Regan trails the gang to their junk shop hide-out where they plot their next heist for their client, a German political terrorist. The Secret Service has one of their men infiltrating the gang and Regan is told to back off arresting them so as not to blow his cover. Regan, however, is his own boss and goes ahead with the ambush.

Season 2, Episode 3: Supersnout
Original Air Date-15 September 1975
Joey Stickley, Regan's informant, is greedy but generally reliable. With Haskins in Toronto, his stand-in, Quirk, is obsessed with catching the 'Post Office Gang' and his grass tells him they are about to rob a jeweller's shop. Carter goes undercover as a driver and meets Stickley, one of the gang, on the dummy run, but, come the actual robbery, Stickley has been replaced by Quirk's informant, to whom he has fed wrong information, in order to settle an old score with Quirk. As a consequence, the police operation is a failure.

Season 2, Episode 4: Big Brother
Original Air Date-22 September 1975
Suspect Andy Deacon collapses whilst Regan is interviewing him and a doctor claims that his injuries were caused by an assault. Whilst Regan never touched him, he is suspected of giving the lad a kicking. Deacon's dangerous older brother Phil puts out a hit on Regan, whilst muck-raking journalist John Frewin also tries to expose him in the local press. Regan and Carter must find the man who really hospitalized Andy Deacon before it is too late, though Regan's new lady-friend, a probation officer, is able to help.

Season 2, Episode 5: Hit and Run
Original Air Date-29 September 1975
Carter's school-teacher wife Alison is deliberately killed by a hit and run driver whilst posting his football pools. Alison had actually borrowed a coat from Judy, the French mistress, who consequently goes on the run as it was clear that she was the intended victim. On her trips to France with her class she had become involved with a gang for whom she would smuggle goods but has made it clear that she wanted out, hence the attempt to silence her. Regan has to find her before Crofts, the gang boss, gets to her.

Season 2, Episode 6: Trap
Original Air Date-6 October 1975
Five years earlier Regan got promotion following the Golden Maid dairy robbery, thanks to a tip-off from Noah Riley. Now a reporter, Thomas, has got Noah and offers him money for his elderly mother if he will claim Regan acted illegally in order to discredit him. Regan's efforts to find Noah and prove conspiracy without telling Haskins put him in danger of suspension and Noah's mother in danger from the dairy robbers. Perhaps mini-cab boss Manny Bellow can come up with helpful information.

Season 2, Episode 7: Golden Fleece
Original Air Date-13 October 1975
MacGruder and Stackpole, two Australians, commit eleven armed robberies, in each case stealing Kruger Rands purchased from the same firm, the managing director's secretary tipping them off as to the whereabouts of the coins. They also pay an informant to make it look as if Haskins is taking a bribe and plant money in his greenhouse, so that he is suspended. Regan traces the Kruger Rand connection but all the villains escape. However, the absence of witnesses means that Haskins is completely exonerated and reinstated .

Season 2, Episode 8: Poppy
Original Air Date-20 October 1975
Vic Labbett, a violent robber who fled England following a robbery, has now returned from exile but only temporarily. His aim is to pick up the cash from the heist and convert it into diamonds and fly out of the country again. Regan is on to him and although Labbett initially eludes him, a muddy car chase across the air-field leads to his downfall.

Season 2, Episode 9: Stay Lucky Eh?
Original Air Date-27 October 1975
Two young villains, Tyson and Jenner, working for gang boss Tony Kirby, are relieved of the spoils of their robbery by a mysterious gun-man, who shoots Jenner in the leg. Nobody knows who he is until Regan has a word with Jenner's disgruntled father-in-law, which leads to a shoot-out in a theatre. At the same time Regan is made a tempting offer to go into private security work.

Season 2, Episode 10: Trojan Bus
Original Air Date-3 November 1975
Australian villains Colin MacGruder and Ray Stackpole return to London and steal a bus, posing as its crew. They rob an art dealer travelling on the bus of a Goya painting, which they plan to sell to a buyer in Amsterdam. Regan tracks them down by leaning on their accomplice, the dealer's female assistant, leading to a river chase and a shoot-out, making it the end of the line for the boys from Down Under.

Season 2, Episode 11: I Want the Man
Original Air Date-10 November 1975
Informant Popeye is abducted by villain Maynard whilst staking out small-time crook Frankie Little after a jewel theft. Regan pulls Little but agrees to drop charges if Little will go ahead as planned, acting as Maynard's driver on an upcoming robbery. However, all Little is able to phone in to Regan on the eve of the heist is "Old Readies". Regan must locate where the crime will take place before it is too late for Popeye.

Season 2, Episode 12: Country Boy
Original Air Date-17 November 1975
An armed gang kidnap telephone engineer Ronald Peters and hold him in an empty house, using his expertise to trigger off false alarms in some banks, diverting the police whilst the gang rob alarm-free premises. Regan is initially resentful when college graduate Sergeant David Keel, a telecommunications expert from Bristol CID, is drafted in to help, but comes to respect his knowledge and his bravery in catching the gang.

Season 2, Episode 13: Thou Shalt Not Kill
Original Air Date-24 November 1975
The day before the start of a new term, the university branch of the National Mercian bank is robbed. Regan and his squad arrive and catch or shoot most of the gang but known killer Hands and simple side-kick Monks are still inside with the manager and two women hostages. Haskins' hesitancy in ordering the police marksmen to fire on the robbers leads to a car chase and fatalities, causing Regan to round on his boss.

Directed by Tom Clegg, Douglas Camfield, David Wickes
Written by Ian Kennedy Martin, Trevor Preston, Roger Marshall
Produced by Ted Childs
Executive Produced by Lloyd Shirley, George Taylor
Cinematography by Dusty Miller, Norman G. Langley, Roy Pointer
Film Editing by John S. Smith, Chris Burt, Ian Toynton

Jack Regan
Detective Inspector John "Jack" Regan (played by John Thaw) is the Flying Squad's chief thief-taker. He's a tough, no-nonsense copper who is often frustrated by Scotland Yard's red tape. Originally from Manchester (like John Thaw himself), he has been in London for several years, so his accent has modified somewhat, but traces of his Northern origins are still evident. He also refers to his Northern roots every now and again (his poor upbringing, his father's work on the Manchester Ship Canal) which brings mild ridicule from Londoner George Carter. A heavy drinker and smoker (comically, he is sometimes seen stealing other people's cigarettes), Regan also has some success with the ladies - although not as much as Carter. He can be seen as quick with his fists. He has an ex-wife, Kate, and a daughter, Susie; and in the last episode of the first series, Abduction, Susie is kidnapped.
Regan is a hard man, but he is human. He helps out an ex-informer whose son is kidnapped in Feet of Clay (Series 4); and his sympathetic pushing enables his boss Haskins to ask for help when his wife goes missing after a breakdown, in Victims (Series 4): it's Regan who finds her. Regan repeatedly bends the rules in order to achieve the desired result: for example, fabricating evidence and arranging for a criminal to be kidnapped in "Queen's Pawn", and illegally entering private properties and threatening to lie about being attacked by a prisoner in order to get information in "Regan". Despite this, he's unwilling to cheat for purely personal gain: he delivers a sharp put-down to a corrupt copper in "Bad Apple", and refuses to take a bribe in "Golden Fleece".
In the Squad, informality was everything. Everyone called DCI Haskins simply 'Haskins' (except to his face); and no one ever called Regan "Mister" - except the villains, or sometimes Carter when talking to Haskins. To the Squad he was always simply "the Guv'nor", or just "Guv". In turn, he invariably called Carter and the other Squad members by their first name. But off-duty he and George Carter were friends and drinking buddies, so in private Carter always called him Jack.
Regan was driven around in a Ford Consul GT, which was one of the most recognisable sights on television during the 1970s and still has cult status some 30 years later. Although he is seen driving various cars himself in the series, he always has a driver when using the Consul (and the similar Ford Granada models used in later stories), which served as a Squad car: when the Squad traveled they always went 'mob handed'. Jack did have his own car outside of the squad, in the series.. it was a blue Vauxhall Victor FC Estate and in the movie Sweeney 2 he had a blue Austin Maxi.
As he is being arrested (for "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice" and "to accept a bribe") in the episode "Jack or Knave" he is addressed by his full name, John Albert Regan.

George Carter
We learn from numerous episodes that Detective Sergeant George Carter (played by Dennis Waterman) comes from South London; and Regan seeks him out in the pilot episode because of his knowledge of the South London area. His age is given in the episode "Hit and Run" as 26. In the series' timeline we learn that George had previously been in the Squad, but had quit for family reasons (cf. Regan and "Jigsaw"). George was married to Alison Carter, a school teacher, but is widowed in the episode "Hit And Run" when Alison is murdered by mistake by a gang of diamond smugglers. He's a former amateur boxer, as we see from the pilot "Regan", and is described as having professional boxing potential in the episode "Chalk and Cheese". Like his superior, he's fond of drinking, football, and - after the death of his wife - womanising. Carter isn't as violent or aggressive as Regan and usually plays the good cop. In the episode "Latin Lady" he introduces himself to Christobel Delgado (Meg Davies) as George Hamilton Carter.

Frank Haskins
Frank Haskins (played by Garfield Morgan), married with 3 children at boarding schools, is Jack Regan's immediate superior. Prior to the series timeline the character had done "National Service in the Signals Corps in a minor intelligence role" (as revealled in the episode "Stay Lucky, Eh?"). He is frequently seen at odds with Regan, preferring more conventional policing methods.
The main 'Haskins episodes' are "Golden Fleece", where he is set up to be the victim of a corruption enquiry, and "Victims", where his wife suffers a mental breakdown due to memories of a miscarriage. Although he appeared in the opening titles of every episode of the first three series, he did not appear in all of them.
The character was not present at the start of the fourth, final series, and his role was taken by other superiors such as Detective Chief Inspector Anderson, played by Richard Wilson and Detective Chief Superintendent Braithwaite played by Benjamin Whitrow. Haskins returned a few episodes into the fourth series. There are two versions of the fourth series opening credits - one without Haskins, and one with him.
Other characters

The Squad
In the early episodes the team has a variety of drivers including Len (Jack McKenzie) (the first 2 episodes) and Fred (in the episode "Jigsaw"). However, the episode "The Placer" in the first series introduces the character of

Bill the driver (played by Tony Allen, who subsequently worked as wardrobe manager for many of John Thaw's later projects), and he remains a constant throughout the series, although he plays a peripheral, non-speaking role in most episodes.

Detective Sergeant Tom Daniels (John Alkin) is the most prominent member of the supporting Squad. Other members include Sergeant Kent, Detective Constable Thorpe, and DS Matthews in the first series, DC Jerry Burtonshaw (Nick Brimble) (Series 1-3), and DC Jellyneck (Series 4). Detective Chief Superintendent Maynon (Morris Perry) appears occasionally as a superior officer, and is seen as being more willing than Haskins to bend the rules in order to get a result in the episode "Queen's Pawn". With Haskins absent, a semi-regular superior officer named DCS Braithwaite (Benjamin Whitrow) appears in Series 4.

Family
Other main characters include the close family of the three leads.

Regan's ex-wife Kate appears in the episode "Abduction", after previously featuring in the pilot; and his daughter Susie (Jennifer Thanisch) appears in several episodes, most notably "Abduction".

Carter's wife Alison (Stephanie Turner) is seen attempting to prise him away from the Squad in the episode "Jigsaw", while her hostility toward Regan is apparent in the episode "Abduction". She is murdered in a case of mistaken identity in the episode "Hit And Run". In the DVD commentary for "Abduction" it is mentioned that the reason for this was that the actress was asking for too much money to continue to appear in the series. Her death was convenient for the show, releasing Carter to play a more freewheeling role, 'on the pull'. Stephanie Turner went on to appear in Juliet Bravo, also devised and part-written by Ian Kennedy Martin.

Doreen Haskins plays a minor role in some episodes, although the penultimate episode "Victims" deals with her deteriorating mental health and returns to the theme of the job's impact on family life. One of Haskins' three children, Richard, also appears in that episode.