The Sandbaggers: The Complete Series [DVD]

I'm very in to spy fiction, particularly the John Le Carre side of things, and to be quite frank, if you want a truly terrifying show about British deep state goblin kings, i would scoot right past Callan, as not only are the plots quite pedestrian, but his constant moral quandaries made his character difficult to believe not matter how well Woodward portrayed him and the general portrayal of intelligence work seemed to be grim for entertainment's sake rather than realism. Burnside makes Callan look like Duckworth Drew and at some points Francis Urquhart resemble Ben Swain.The Sandbaggers manages to be so, so much grimmer. and never stretches believability. Neil Burnside is about as far from Edward Callan as you can get. Rather than a low level grunt he's a senior intelligence officer, and rather than a reluctant spook as imagined by a tv writer, constantly complaining (he even manages to object to bringing in a death camp commandant in an ill advised 60's episode) yet never actually quiting- Neil Burnside has no moral qualms with espionage, assassination, blackmail of innocent civilians for state security ends. This is not to say he is completely immoral- but it is, to misquote Jon Pertwee's Doctor "not about not feeling empathy for others, but feeling empathy and doing it anyway" that makes him so much more believable, compelling and disquieting as a monster. I get the feeling that after the season 1 final he had allowed his job to destroy everything he ever loved until it was only thing left and he had no choice but to keep doing it.Best original spy show period.

The other option would be 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' (also available on Amazon, by the way) but it's a toss up between the two really.'Spooks' is very good as well but a bit more glamorous - maybe that's what it's like nowadays but I doubt it - than either 'Tinker, Tailor' or 'The Sandbaggers' but these two are the best and the latter probably even tops the former.There are a few reasons in my opinion why it does:1. It covers a broader range of operations than 'Tinker, Tailor', with the latter concerned with just one (finding the mole).2. It even better shows the basis of real intelligence services work as a field officer, which is basically 90% shuffling papers around and trying to avoid the idiotic bureaucracy around you, 5% complete terror and 5% complete professional focus on getting out of a dangerous situation.3. There are more episodes in 'The Sandbaggers' then in 'Tinker, Tailor' and every single one of them is excellent.The standard of acting is the same in both series (superb), the writing is excellent in both, and the mix of banality and excitement (for want of a better word, or adrenalin, perhaps) is also equally well done in both.Really, if you have an interest in how things really work in the Service - over and above gadgets - then you would enjoy both series but if I had to choose one it would be 'The Sandbaggers'.

Difficult to know how to rate this - I gave up waiting for a remaster and transfer to Blu Ray - so was expecting poor quality video - and it is - although watchable. It also has slight lip sync problems in places.So the program itself gets five stars but the DVD gets two.

The series improves as it goes on and the main characters don’t spend all their time shouting at one another.

The Sandbaggers is a British television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. It scrutinises the consequences of the undercover undertakings on the private and professional lives of British and American intelligence professionals.A series that is still as stressed as a coiled spring as the day it was first broadcasted. This is cold war dirty tricks department, but still carries the trappings of a Civil Service Department - dabbling in sabotage, defector-lifting, anti-communist coup d'état's, and the occasional political motivated killing. The Sandbaggers do the dubious paraphernalia that democratic governments can't own up to. Accordingly, its boss Neil Burnside (played by Roy Marsden) is in a 'constant fender-bender with his political masters, chiefly his inept, upper-class, public school twit of a boss.Sandbaggers is a hidden classic in my opinion while it hasn't got the "mythos" built up around it in the same way as Tinker Tailor, it can live on its own, and stand out as one of those great ITV shows from an era when ITV was a group of companies acting together, rather than the bland media conglomerate that it is now. A series that is much more cynical, more involved in realpolitik and highly revealing of the casual sexism of the period it was made. It has its problems, but for an episodic series it always kept you guessing and long before Spooks etc. came along, it was shocking viewers with its bleak treatment of its main characters. Whenever the Sandbaggers do go into `the field', there's an eruption of ensuing violence, with operatives dropping like flies across the entire series: just as you're starting to get invested into a character, he or she is killed off during some dreadful blunder. To quote Burnsides' character, as he says: "There are no charmed lives in this business." There is also a nod to the `Special Relationship' between SIS and the CIA in the series, at times they are strained as one CIA operative says Burnside is that a coke you're drinking or just vinegar?' Add into the mix Roy Budd's rather catchy theme - and this becomes a much more atmospheric series.The New York Times called The Sandbaggers "the best spy series in television history". Need I say more?