The Sandbaggers
Encyclopedia
The Sandbaggers is a British
television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War
. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV
in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage
game on the personal and professional lives of British and American intelligence specialists.
), Director of Operations in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service
(also known as MI6, although the name "MI6" is never uttered in the series). Burnside oversees, among others, a small, elite group of British intelligence officers: the Special Operations Section nicknamed the "Sandbaggers". This group is composed of highly-trained officers whose work includes dangerous missions that tend to be politically sensitive or especially vital, such as escorting defectors across borders, carrying out assassination
s, or rescuing other operatives who are in trouble behind the Iron Curtain
.
Why the group was called the Sandbaggers was not explained in the context of the show, but it may have to do with putting up sandbag
s as a defence against an incoming flood. To "sandbag" someone also means to coerce him through heavy-handed means or to misrepresent one's position to gain an advantage. It may also refer to the officially accidental death in 1941 of a Japanese cryptographer in that country's New York consulate on the 38th floor of Rockefeller Center
, one floor below the offices occupied by Sir William Stephenson
(a/k/a "Intrepid"), in which a scaffolding broke through the window and the Japanese man was bludgeonded to death by a construction sandbag; Ian Fleming
who served under Stephenson at the time, later claimed that he had killed the agent in question with a sandbag.
In the series, the United States
Central Intelligence Agency
and SIS have a co-operative agreement to share intelligence. The Sandbaggers depicts SIS as so under-funded that it has become dependent on the CIA. Burnside consequently goes to great lengths to preserve the "special relationship" between the CIA and SIS—most notably in the episode of the same name. The personal price he pays in that episode sparks an obsession with the safety of his Sandbaggers and the survival of the special section in subsequent episodes, contributing to Burnside's gradual psychological unravelling and the series' unresolved cliffhanger
ending.
, a Scottish former naval
officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed Warship
BBC
television series. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series. However, during the shooting of the third series in July 1979, Mackintosh and his girlfriend, a British Airways
stewardess, were declared lost at sea after their single-engine aircraft
mysteriously went missing over the Pacific Ocean near Alaska
following a radioed call for help. Some of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either US or USSR radar.
Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the scripts for Series Three, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven. The Sandbaggers ends on an unresolved cliffhanger because the producers decided that no one else could write the series as well as Mackintosh, and they chose not to continue with it in his absence. Actor Ray Lonnen, who played Sandbagger Willie Caine, has indicated in correspondence with fans that there were plans for a follow-up season in which his character, using a wheelchair, had taken over Burnside's role as Director of Special Operations.
Because of the atmosphere of authenticity that the scripts evoked and the liberal use of "spook" jargon, there has been speculation that Mackintosh might have been a former operative of SIS or had, at least, contact with the espionage community. This has extended to speculation that his disappearance was no accident or had to do with a secret mission he was undertaking. There is a possibility that Mackintosh may have been involved in intelligence operations during his time in the Royal Navy, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced. When asked, Mackintosh himself was always coy about whether he had been a spy.
However, even if Mackintosh may have had experience in the world of real-life espionage, the organisational structure of SIS depicted in The Sandbaggers is actually closer to that of the CIA than the real-life SIS. There is no formal section of SIS known as the Special Operations Section (as far as is publicly known), and there is no intelligence unit known as "Sandbaggers." This may have been deliberate, so as to avoid problems with SIS and the Official Secrets Act
. For example, Ray Lonnen
(who played Sandbagger One, Willie Caine) mentioned in an interview that a second series episode was apparently vetoed by censors because it dealt with sensitive information, explaining why Series Two has only six episodes.
, based in Leeds
. Though the Sandbaggers' missions took them all over the world, most of the exterior filming was actually done in the city of Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire
countryside. Additional exterior scenes were filmed in London
and Malta
. Interior studio scenes were shot on videotape.
The Sandbaggers inverts most of the conventions of the spy thriller genre
. In sharp contrast to the "girls, guns, and gadgets" motif established by the James Bond
movies, The Sandbaggers features very few action sequences, no flashy cars, and no high-tech gizmos. On more than one occasion, in fact, characters explicitly disparage the fictitious Bond and the romanticized view of the intelligence business that some amateurs and outsiders have. In contrast, Neil Burnside is a harried spymaster who doesn't drink; Willie Caine is a secret agent
who abhors guns and violence; and no character is seen to have sex
over the course of the series. The bureaucratic infighting is reminiscent of John le Carré
's George Smiley
novels.
The overall style is one of gritty realism. The series is particularly grim (though laced with black humour), depicting the high emotional toll taken on espionage professionals who operate in a world of moral ambiguity.
The plots are complex, multi-layered, and unpredictable: regular characters are killed off abruptly, and surprise twists abound. The dialogue
is intelligent and frequently wit
ty. Indeed, most of what happens in The Sandbaggers is just conversation
. In a typical episode, Burnside moves from office to office having conversations (and heated arguments) with his colleagues in Whitehall
and in the intelligence community. Sometimes his conversations are intercut with scenes of the Sandbaggers operating in the field; other times the audience sees more of the buzzing "Ops Room," where missions are coordinated and controlled, than of the Sandbaggers' actual field activities.
Unusual for an episodic drama, The Sandbaggers is almost entirely devoid of incidental music
. The title theme music, composed by jazz pianist Roy Budd
, establishes its rhythmic understone with the cimbalom, an instrument often associated with spy thrillers (John Barry
, for example, uses the cimbalom in his film score for The Ipcress File
).
The Sandbaggers stars Roy Marsden
as Neil D. Burnside, who is the Director of Special Operations (D-Ops) of the British Secret Intelligence Service
(SIS, also known as MI6). Himself a former Sandbagger and a former Marine
, Burnside has been D-Ops for only a short time at the start of the series. He is arrogant and regularly finds himself at odds with his superiors.
Starring alongside Marsden for the series' first two series is Richard Vernon
in the role of Sir James Greenley, code-named "C"
and head of SIS. Because of Greenley's diplomat background, Burnside is initially wary of him, but over the course of the show, they develop a friendly relationship. In the third season, he is replaced as "C" by John Tower Gibbs (Dennis Burgess
), who openly disapproves of Burnside and his method of operating.
Similarly, Matthew Peele (Jerome Willis
), Deputy Head of SIS, often mistrusts Burnside. Burnside's demeanour towards his superior is insubordinate and sometimes even hostile. Peele is generally considered a nuisance by most characters, although he is temporarily considered for the position of "C" in lieu of Gibbs.
Burnside's personal and professional life come together in Sir Geoffrey Wellingham (Alan MacNaughtan
), who is both Burnside's former father-in-law and the Permanent Undersecretary of State
at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
that oversees SIS. They share an informal but sometimes antagonistic relationship but also maintain an unspoken fondness for each other.
Ray Lonnen
portrays Willie Caine, "Sandbagger One" and head of the Special Operations Section. He shares a bond of friendship and trust with Burnside, although they are occasionally at odds with each other. Burnside refers to Willie as "the best operative currently operating anywhere in the world". He is the only Sandbagger to stay alive from the series' beginning to end.
In the beginning of the series, there are two other Sandbaggers, Jake Landy (David Glyder) and Alan Denson (Steven Grives). They are both killed and replaced for the first series by Laura Dickens (Diane Keen
), the only female Sandbagger, killed at the end of the first series. The second series opens with two new Sandbaggers: Tom Elliot (David Beames), who is soon killed, and Mike Wallace (Michael Cashman
), who survives as of the end of the third series. Another recurring character is Edward Tyler (Peter Laird), the SIS Director of Intelligence (D-Int), who dies early in the third series.
Serving as Head of the London Station of the American Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) is Jeff Ross (Bob Sherman
), who rescued Burnside from death in the 1975 fall of Saigon. The relationship between the CIA and SIS (in which the CIA has more resources, but the SIS has more freedom of action) is considered a special one and serves as the subject of multiple episodes. Ross and Burnside are friends, but are forced to work against one another on occasion; in one episode, Ross sends his wife, a former CIA field agent, to seduce a British official. During the second series Ross is assisted by Karen Milner (Jana Shelden), a CIA field officer who works with SIS from time to time and is romantically interested in Burnside.
Burnside's personal assistant Diane Lawler (Elizabeth Bennett
) has regular clashes with her boss but is fiercely loyal to him. She retires at the end of the second series, hand-picking her replacement, Marianne Straker (Sue Holderness
).
Animated bumpers similar to the end credits lead into and out of the commercial breaks. They read: "End of Part One," "Part Two," "End of Part Two," and "Part Three." These bumpers are intact on the R2 DVD releases, although absent from the R0, and also the Series Two NTSC videotape release.
dubbed The Sandbaggers "the real stuff" for fans of the spy genre. He goes on to note, concerning the seventh episode ("Special Relationship"): "Although the issue of love versus duty is overdrawn and the tale, like others, is a bit forced in places, the Burnside character and the urgency of the story-telling make it work. Most of the Sandbagger episodes work." Similarly, critic Terrence Rafferty called The Sandbaggers "the best spy series in television history"
The Sandbaggers, television critic Rick Vanderknyff also wrote, "is many things American network television is not: talky and relatively action-free, low in fancy production values but high in plot complexity, and starring characters who aren't likable in the traditional TV way"
aired at least five runs of The Sandbaggers after it became "a local phenomenon.
American Sandbaggers fandom
produced fanzine
s, website
s, and even a convention
: Ray Lonnen was the guest of honor at "Sandbagger One" in New Jersey
in 1992.
, novelist and creator of the comic book espionage series Queen & Country, has said that the comic book is consciously inspired by The Sandbaggers and is in a sense a "quasi-sequel". In the comic book, the structure of SIS mirrors that seen in the television series, down to the division of responsibilities between Directors of Operations and Intelligence and the existence of a Special Operations Section known as the "Minders". The comic book also features a more modern and sophisticated Ops Room, and bureaucratic wrangling reminiscent of the television series.
Several characters and situations in Queen & Country parallel The Sandbaggers, including a fatherly "C" who is eventually replaced by a more political and less sympathetic appointee; a Director of Operations who is fiercely protective of the Special Section; a Deputy Chief antagonistic to the independent nature of the Minders; a rivalry with MI5; and a cooperative relationship with the CIA. In addition, several scenes and lines of dialogue are similar or allude to the television series. However, as the comic book takes place in the present day, the geopolitical situation is very different. In addition, the stories are more action-oriented and focus on the exploits of Minder Tara Chace rather than on Paul Crocker, the Director of Operations.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
game on the personal and professional lives of British and American intelligence specialists.
Series premise
The protagonist is Neil D. Burnside (played by Roy MarsdenRoy Marsden
Roy Marsden is an English actor, who is probably best known for his portrayal of Adam Dalgliesh in the Anglia Television dramatisations of P. D. James's detective novels.- Education :...
), Director of Operations in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
(also known as MI6, although the name "MI6" is never uttered in the series). Burnside oversees, among others, a small, elite group of British intelligence officers: the Special Operations Section nicknamed the "Sandbaggers". This group is composed of highly-trained officers whose work includes dangerous missions that tend to be politically sensitive or especially vital, such as escorting defectors across borders, carrying out assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s, or rescuing other operatives who are in trouble behind the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
.
Why the group was called the Sandbaggers was not explained in the context of the show, but it may have to do with putting up sandbag
Sandbag
A sandbag is a sack made of hessian/burlap, polypropylene or other materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification, shielding glass windows in war zones and ballast....
s as a defence against an incoming flood. To "sandbag" someone also means to coerce him through heavy-handed means or to misrepresent one's position to gain an advantage. It may also refer to the officially accidental death in 1941 of a Japanese cryptographer in that country's New York consulate on the 38th floor of Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
, one floor below the offices occupied by Sir William Stephenson
William Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...
(a/k/a "Intrepid"), in which a scaffolding broke through the window and the Japanese man was bludgeonded to death by a construction sandbag; Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
who served under Stephenson at the time, later claimed that he had killed the agent in question with a sandbag.
In the series, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and SIS have a co-operative agreement to share intelligence. The Sandbaggers depicts SIS as so under-funded that it has become dependent on the CIA. Burnside consequently goes to great lengths to preserve the "special relationship" between the CIA and SIS—most notably in the episode of the same name. The personal price he pays in that episode sparks an obsession with the safety of his Sandbaggers and the survival of the special section in subsequent episodes, contributing to Burnside's gradual psychological unravelling and the series' unresolved cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
ending.
Series creator
The Sandbaggers was created by Ian MackintoshIan Mackintosh
Ian Mackintosh, MBE, was a Scottish naval officer, a writer of thriller novels, and a screenwriter for British television.His first novel, A Slaying in September, was published in 1967...
, a Scottish former naval
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed Warship
Warship (TV series)
Warship was a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. It was also dubbed into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens...
BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series. However, during the shooting of the third series in July 1979, Mackintosh and his girlfriend, a British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
stewardess, were declared lost at sea after their single-engine aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
mysteriously went missing over the Pacific Ocean near Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
following a radioed call for help. Some of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either US or USSR radar.
Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the scripts for Series Three, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven. The Sandbaggers ends on an unresolved cliffhanger because the producers decided that no one else could write the series as well as Mackintosh, and they chose not to continue with it in his absence. Actor Ray Lonnen, who played Sandbagger Willie Caine, has indicated in correspondence with fans that there were plans for a follow-up season in which his character, using a wheelchair, had taken over Burnside's role as Director of Special Operations.
Because of the atmosphere of authenticity that the scripts evoked and the liberal use of "spook" jargon, there has been speculation that Mackintosh might have been a former operative of SIS or had, at least, contact with the espionage community. This has extended to speculation that his disappearance was no accident or had to do with a secret mission he was undertaking. There is a possibility that Mackintosh may have been involved in intelligence operations during his time in the Royal Navy, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced. When asked, Mackintosh himself was always coy about whether he had been a spy.
However, even if Mackintosh may have had experience in the world of real-life espionage, the organisational structure of SIS depicted in The Sandbaggers is actually closer to that of the CIA than the real-life SIS. There is no formal section of SIS known as the Special Operations Section (as far as is publicly known), and there is no intelligence unit known as "Sandbaggers." This may have been deliberate, so as to avoid problems with SIS and the Official Secrets Act
Official Secrets Act
The Official Secrets Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Malaysia and formerly in New Zealand for legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security.-United Kingdom:*The Official Secrets...
. For example, Ray Lonnen
Ray Lonnen
Ray Lonnen is an English stage and television actor. His most prominent roles include Willie Caine in the cold-war spy drama series The Sandbaggers , and also as Harry Brown in the television mini-series Harry's Game .-Television career:Lonnen's early television appearances include The Power Game ,...
(who played Sandbagger One, Willie Caine) mentioned in an interview that a second series episode was apparently vetoed by censors because it dealt with sensitive information, explaining why Series Two has only six episodes.
Production and story style
The series was produced by Yorkshire TelevisionYorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
, based in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
. Though the Sandbaggers' missions took them all over the world, most of the exterior filming was actually done in the city of Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
countryside. Additional exterior scenes were filmed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. Interior studio scenes were shot on videotape.
The Sandbaggers inverts most of the conventions of the spy thriller genre
Spy fiction
Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War , when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century...
. In sharp contrast to the "girls, guns, and gadgets" motif established by the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movies, The Sandbaggers features very few action sequences, no flashy cars, and no high-tech gizmos. On more than one occasion, in fact, characters explicitly disparage the fictitious Bond and the romanticized view of the intelligence business that some amateurs and outsiders have. In contrast, Neil Burnside is a harried spymaster who doesn't drink; Willie Caine is a secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
who abhors guns and violence; and no character is seen to have sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
over the course of the series. The bureaucratic infighting is reminiscent of John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
's George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
novels.
The overall style is one of gritty realism. The series is particularly grim (though laced with black humour), depicting the high emotional toll taken on espionage professionals who operate in a world of moral ambiguity.
The plots are complex, multi-layered, and unpredictable: regular characters are killed off abruptly, and surprise twists abound. The dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
is intelligent and frequently wit
Wit
Wit is a form of intellectual humour, and a wit is someone skilled in making witty remarks. Forms of wit include the quip and repartee.-Forms of wit:...
ty. Indeed, most of what happens in The Sandbaggers is just conversation
Conversation
Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people who are following rules of etiquette.Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational...
. In a typical episode, Burnside moves from office to office having conversations (and heated arguments) with his colleagues in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
and in the intelligence community. Sometimes his conversations are intercut with scenes of the Sandbaggers operating in the field; other times the audience sees more of the buzzing "Ops Room," where missions are coordinated and controlled, than of the Sandbaggers' actual field activities.
Unusual for an episodic drama, The Sandbaggers is almost entirely devoid of incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
. The title theme music, composed by jazz pianist Roy Budd
Roy Budd
Roy Frederick Budd , was a British jazz musician and composer, known for his film scores.Born in Mitcham, Surrey, Budd became interested in music from an early age and had built up a vast musical repertoire by the age of eight...
, establishes its rhythmic understone with the cimbalom, an instrument often associated with spy thrillers (John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
, for example, uses the cimbalom in his film score for The Ipcress File
The Ipcress File (film)
The Ipcress File is a 1965 British espionage film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine, Guy Doleman, and Nigel Green. The screenplay by Bill Canaway and James Doran was based on Len Deighton's 1962 novel, The IPCRESS File. It has won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award for best...
).
Cast
Roy Marsden
Roy Marsden is an English actor, who is probably best known for his portrayal of Adam Dalgliesh in the Anglia Television dramatisations of P. D. James's detective novels.- Education :...
as Neil D. Burnside, who is the Director of Special Operations (D-Ops) of the British Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
(SIS, also known as MI6). Himself a former Sandbagger and a former Marine
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
, Burnside has been D-Ops for only a short time at the start of the series. He is arrogant and regularly finds himself at odds with his superiors.
Starring alongside Marsden for the series' first two series is Richard Vernon
Richard Vernon
Richard Vernon was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles...
in the role of Sir James Greenley, code-named "C"
Mansfield Smith-Cumming
Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, KCMG, CB was the first director of what would become the Secret Intelligence Service , also known as MI6...
and head of SIS. Because of Greenley's diplomat background, Burnside is initially wary of him, but over the course of the show, they develop a friendly relationship. In the third season, he is replaced as "C" by John Tower Gibbs (Dennis Burgess
Dennis Burgess
Dennis Burgess is a British television actor. He played the recurring role of Flambeau in Father Brown.-Filmography:* Bluebeard * Massacre in Rome * The Elephant Man -Television roles:* Father Brown* Triangle...
), who openly disapproves of Burnside and his method of operating.
Similarly, Matthew Peele (Jerome Willis
Jerome Willis
Jerome Willis is a prominent British stage and screen actor with more than 100 screen credits to his name.Willis had a leading role in the ITV drama series The Sandbaggers as Matthew Peele. He also appeared in Z Cars as DCS Richards, Within These Walls as Charles Radley, and Doctor Who as...
), Deputy Head of SIS, often mistrusts Burnside. Burnside's demeanour towards his superior is insubordinate and sometimes even hostile. Peele is generally considered a nuisance by most characters, although he is temporarily considered for the position of "C" in lieu of Gibbs.
Burnside's personal and professional life come together in Sir Geoffrey Wellingham (Alan MacNaughtan
Alan MacNaughtan
Alan MacNaughtan was a Scottish actor, born in Bearsden, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. An experienced Old Vic, West End and Broadway actor, he became active in television and certain films between 1954 and 1999....
), who is both Burnside's former father-in-law and the Permanent Undersecretary of State
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...
at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
that oversees SIS. They share an informal but sometimes antagonistic relationship but also maintain an unspoken fondness for each other.
Ray Lonnen
Ray Lonnen
Ray Lonnen is an English stage and television actor. His most prominent roles include Willie Caine in the cold-war spy drama series The Sandbaggers , and also as Harry Brown in the television mini-series Harry's Game .-Television career:Lonnen's early television appearances include The Power Game ,...
portrays Willie Caine, "Sandbagger One" and head of the Special Operations Section. He shares a bond of friendship and trust with Burnside, although they are occasionally at odds with each other. Burnside refers to Willie as "the best operative currently operating anywhere in the world". He is the only Sandbagger to stay alive from the series' beginning to end.
In the beginning of the series, there are two other Sandbaggers, Jake Landy (David Glyder) and Alan Denson (Steven Grives). They are both killed and replaced for the first series by Laura Dickens (Diane Keen
Diane Keen
Diane Keen is an English actress.Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British TV drama Doctors which she has been in since 2003 , and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz and Rings on Their Fingers.-Personal life:Keen has one daughter, actress Melissa Greenwood, from...
), the only female Sandbagger, killed at the end of the first series. The second series opens with two new Sandbaggers: Tom Elliot (David Beames), who is soon killed, and Mike Wallace (Michael Cashman
Michael Cashman
Michael Maurice Cashman is a British former actor, now a Labour politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands constituency since 1999.- Acting :...
), who survives as of the end of the third series. Another recurring character is Edward Tyler (Peter Laird), the SIS Director of Intelligence (D-Int), who dies early in the third series.
Serving as Head of the London Station of the American Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) is Jeff Ross (Bob Sherman
Bob Sherman (actor)
Robert Sherman was an American-born dramaturge, playwright, and film and television actor, best remembered for his role as CIA agent Jeff Ross in the British television series The Sandbaggers.-Select television:...
), who rescued Burnside from death in the 1975 fall of Saigon. The relationship between the CIA and SIS (in which the CIA has more resources, but the SIS has more freedom of action) is considered a special one and serves as the subject of multiple episodes. Ross and Burnside are friends, but are forced to work against one another on occasion; in one episode, Ross sends his wife, a former CIA field agent, to seduce a British official. During the second series Ross is assisted by Karen Milner (Jana Shelden), a CIA field officer who works with SIS from time to time and is romantically interested in Burnside.
Burnside's personal assistant Diane Lawler (Elizabeth Bennett
Elizabeth Bennett (actress)
Elizabeth Bennett is a British actress.Bennett has appeared in several British TV series, including The Sandbaggers, The Bill, The Lakes, Chef!, The Duchess of Duke Street and Heartbeat. She played "Enid Thompson" in the British situation comedy Home to Roost, and played "Enid Tompkins" in the US...
) has regular clashes with her boss but is fiercely loyal to him. She retires at the end of the second series, hand-picking her replacement, Marianne Straker (Sue Holderness
Sue Holderness
Sue Holderness is an English actress. Since 1985 she has played the role of Marlene Boyce in the British sitcom Only Fools and Horses and its spin-off The Green Green Grass .-Career:...
).
Episodes
Each of the 20 episodes of The Sandbaggers runs just under 50 minutes without commercials. Each episode did, however, originally air with commercial breaks which divided the episode into three acts.Animated bumpers similar to the end credits lead into and out of the commercial breaks. They read: "End of Part One," "Part Two," "End of Part Two," and "Part Three." These bumpers are intact on the R2 DVD releases, although absent from the R0, and also the Series Two NTSC videotape release.
| Episode # | Original Air Date (UK) | Episode Title | Writer | Director | Guest cast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-01 | 18 September 1978 | First Principles | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson Michael Ferguson (director) Michael Ferguson is a British script writer, television director and television producer. Ferguson has been described as a “long term champion of realistic popular drama”. Ferguson was executive producer of the BBC soap opera, EastEnders between 1989 and 1991... |
Olaf Pooley Olaf Pooley Olaf Pooley is a British actor and writer born February 2, 1916, in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, England, of an English father and Danish mother.Pooley married the actress Irlin Hall in 1946 and together they had a daughter, the actress Kirstie Pooley and son comedian Seyton Pooley... , Richard Shaw, Barkley Johnson |
| 1-02 | 25 September 1978 | A Proper Function of Government | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson | Brian Osborne Brian Osborne Brian Osborne is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in Upstairs, Downstairs and The Sandbaggers. Osborne has also had minor roles in six Carry On films as well the TV series Carry On Laughing.-Early life:... , Michael O'Hagan, Laurence Payne Laurence Payne Laurence Payne was an English actor and novelist.-Early life:Laurence Stanley Payne was born in London. His father died when he was three years old, and he and his elder brother and sister were brought up in by their mother, a Wesleyan Methodist in Wood Green, London... , Barkley Johnson |
| 1-03 | 2 October 1978 | Is Your Journey Really Necessary? | Ian Mackintosh | Derek Bennett | Brenda Cavendish, Andy Bradford |
| 1-04 | 9 October 1978 | The Most Suitable Person | Ian Mackintosh | David Reynolds | Stephen Greif Stephen Greif Stephen Greif is an award-winning English actor.His television appearances include Waking the Dead , Spooks , Mistresses 2 , He Kills Coppers , Holby City , The Last Days of Pompeii as Sporus, Judge John Deed , Space Race , EastEnders , The Bill and... , Christopher Benjamin, John F. Landry, Hubert Rees Hubert Rees Hubert Rees was a Welsh character actor who had supporting roles in British television shows throughout the 1970s and 1980s.-Career:... , David McAlister, Jonathan Coy Jonathan Coy Jonathan Coy is a British actor born in Hammersmith, London on 24 April 1953. He has worked since 1975 largely in television, notably as Henry in the long running legal series Rumpole and as Bracegirdle in the television series Hornblower, adapted from the books by C. S. Forester... |
| 1-05 | 16 October 1978 | Always Glad to Help | Ian Mackintosh | David Reynolds | Malcolm Hebden Malcolm Hebden Malcolm Hebden is an English television and stage actor best known for his role as Norris Cole in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.-Early life:... , Peter Miles Peter Miles Peter Miles is a British actor. He has played many television roles including several different characters in Z-Cars and Doctor Who. His other television work has included Survivors, The Sweeney, Dixon of Dock Green, Moonbase 3, Poldark and Bergerac.In the science fiction series Blake's 7 he played... , Terence Longdon Terence Longdon Terence Longdon was an English actor. Longdon, born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire was best known for his lead role in the 1950s-1960s British TV series Garry Halliday where he played a Biggles-like pilot who flew into various adventure situations. In film he was Drusus, Messala's personal... , Gerald James Gerald James Gerald James was a British actor best known for his character actor roles in British television productions such as The Sandbaggers, The Professionals, Secret Army, Sapphire and Steel and The Pickwick Papers. He also appeared on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company.-External links:... |
| 1-06 | 23 October 1978 | A Feasible Solution | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson | Donald Churchill, Barkley Johnson, Sarah Bullen, Richard Cornish, Kenneth Watson Kenneth Watson Kenneth Watson was a British television actor. He is best known for playing Brian Blair in Take the High Road in the 1980s but he also played Ralph Lancaster in Coronation Street from 14 May 1975-13 February 1980. He was booked to play a farmer in Doctor Who: The Time Monster but was replaced by... |
| 1-07 | 30 October 1978 | Special Relationship | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson | Brian Ashley, Alan Downer, Cyril Varley, Richard Shaw |
| 2-01 | 28 January 1980 | At All Costs | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson | Peter Laird |
| 2-02 | 4 February 1980 | Enough of Ghosts | Ian Mackintosh | Peter Cregeen Peter Cregeen Peter Cregeen is a British television director, producer and executive. He is possibly best known for being the original director of ITV's successful police drama, The Bill, and his substantial contribution to the serial thereafter... |
Edith MacArthur Edith MacArthur Edith MacArthur MBE is a Scottish actress, born in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire on 8 March 1926, and noted for her elegant screen presence. Her best known role was the Lady Laird Elizabeth Cunningham in Take the High Road which she portrayed from the first episode in 1980, until December 1986 when the... , Donald Pelmear, Jurgen Anderson, Barbara Lott Barbara Lott Barbara Dulcie Lott was a British actress probably best remembered as Ronnie Corbett's character's mother, Phyllis Lumsden in the comedy series Sorry!... , Wolf Kahler Wolf Kahler Wolf Kahler is a German actor.Born in Kiel, since 1975 he has appeared in many US and UK television and film productions. Due to his height - he is 6 feet 2 inches tall - sharp features, blond hair and blue eyes he is often cast in roles as Nazis or other unsympathetic German characters... |
| 2-03 | 11 February 1980 | Decision by Committee | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson | David Freedman, Marla Gillot, David Beale, Kim Fortune, Stephanie Fayerman, Andrew Lodge |
| 2-04 | 18 February 1980 | A Question of Loyalty | Ian Mackintosh | Michael Ferguson | Patrick Godfrey Patrick Godfrey Patrick Godfrey is a British actor of film, television and stage.Godfrey was born in the United Kingdom, the son of Lois Mary Gladys and Frederick Godfrey, who was a reverend... , Charles Hodgson, Philip Blaine |
| 2-05 | 25 February 1980 | It Couldn't Happen Here | Ian Mackintosh | Peter Cregeen | Weston Garvin, Daphne Anderson Daphne Anderson -External links:... , Don Fellows Don Fellows Don Fellows was an American actor, born in Salt Lake City, Utah, who spent the bulk of his career acting in England, mostly in television.... , Norman Ettlinger Norman Ettlinger Norman Ettlinger was an English actor who appeared in Rumpole of the Bailey as his colleague Percy Hoskins. He also played many other roles, both on stage and screen.-Notes:... |
| 2-06 | 3 March 1980 | Operation Kingmaker | Ian Mackintosh | Alan Grint | Peter Laird |
| 3-01 | 9 June 1980 | All in a Good Cause | Ian Mackintosh | Peter Cregeen | Gale Gladstone, John Steiner John Steiner John Steiner is an English actor. Tall, thin and gaunt, Steiner attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked for a few years at the BBC. Steiner featured in a lead role in a television production of Design for Living by Noel Coward. Later he found further work primarily in films... , Peter Laird, Kristopher Kum |
| 3-02 | 16 June 1980 | To Hell With Justice | Ian Mackintosh | Peter Cregeen | John Alkin John Alkin John Alkin was a British actor turned spiritual healer.Alkin is best remembered for 2 roles, namely that of DS Tom Daniels in The Sweeney, and as barrister Barry Deeley in the long running daytime TV Drama Crown Court... , Glynis Barber Glynis Barber Glynis Barber is a South African actress of Afrikaner descent, born and brought up in South Africa. She was born Glynis van der Riet. When she was five years old, her parents divorced, and she and her mother moved to Johannesburg. She is best known for her portrayal as Sgt... , Mark Eden Mark Eden Mark Eden is a British actor.-Career:Born in London, Eden has appeared in repertory theatre in England and Wales and at the Royal Court Theatre. His many television and film roles include the Doctor Who serial Marco Polo in which he played Marco Polo... |
| 3-03 | 23 June 1980 | Unusual Approach | Ian Mackintosh | David Cunliffe | David Horovitch David Horovitch David Horovitch is an English actor best known for playing the character of Inspector Slack in Miss Marple.-Life and career:... , Brigitte Kahn Brigitte Kahn Brigitte Kahn is a German-born actress, best remembered for her performances on television.She remains best known for her role as Dagmar in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Other TV credits include: Secret Army, The Sandbaggers, The Gentle Touch, The Professionals, C.A.T.S... , Terry Pearson, Rio Fanning, Philip Bond Philip Bond (actor) Philip Bond is a British actor best known for playing Albert Frazer in 24 episodes of the 1970s BBC nautical drama The Onedin Line.... |
| 3-04 | 30 June 1980 | My Name Is Anna Wiseman | Gidley Wheeler Charles Gidley Wheeler Charles Gidley Wheeler was a television screenwriter and historical novelist whose work has been acclaimed in Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and The New York Times.... |
David Cunliffe | Carol Gillies, Anthony Schaeffer, Terry Pearson, Guy Deghy, Terry Walsh Terry Walsh (actor) Terry Walsh was a British actor stuntman, stunt arranger and fight arranger who contributed much to British television and film, especially during the 1970s. He stunt-doubled for Michael Caine, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and David Warner amongst others.Walsh is known for his work on the science... |
| 3-05 | 7 July 1980 | Sometimes We Play Dirty Too | Arden Winch | Peter Cregeen | John Line, Susan Kodicek, Milos Kirek, Derek Godfrey Derek Godfrey Derek Godfrey was a British actor who appeared in several films and BBC television dramatizations during the 1960s and 1970s.... , Michael Sheard Michael Sheard Michael Sheard was a Scottish actor who featured in a large number of films and television programmes.-Early life:... , Sherrie Hewson Sherrie Hewson Sherrie Lynn Hutchinson is an English actor, broadcaster and novelist.-Early life:Born in Nottinghamshire, Hewson was brought up in a showbusiness family; her father was a singer and her mother a model. She began performing at the age of six, touring the UK's theatres in revues with her own... , Aimée Delamain |
| 3-06 | 14 July 1980 | Who Needs Enemies | Gidley Wheeler | Peter Cregeen | David Robb David Robb David Robb is an English actor.Robb has starred in various British films and television shows, including films such as Swing Kids and Hellbound. He is well known for playing Germanicus in the famous 1976 BBC production of I, Claudius and as Robin Grant, one of the principal character in Thames... , Harry Webster, John Eastham, Edith MacArthur Edith MacArthur Edith MacArthur MBE is a Scottish actress, born in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire on 8 March 1926, and noted for her elegant screen presence. Her best known role was the Lady Laird Elizabeth Cunningham in Take the High Road which she portrayed from the first episode in 1980, until December 1986 when the... |
| 3-07 | 28 July 1980 | Opposite Numbers | Ian Mackintosh | Peter Cregeen | John Alkin John Alkin John Alkin was a British actor turned spiritual healer.Alkin is best remembered for 2 roles, namely that of DS Tom Daniels in The Sweeney, and as barrister Barry Deeley in the long running daytime TV Drama Crown Court... , David Robb David Robb David Robb is an English actor.Robb has starred in various British films and television shows, including films such as Swing Kids and Hellbound. He is well known for playing Germanicus in the famous 1976 BBC production of I, Claudius and as Robin Grant, one of the principal character in Thames... , Frank Moorey, Larry Hooderoff |
Critical review
Television critics' reviews of The Sandbaggers have been almost uniformly positive. In 1989, Walter Goodman of The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
dubbed The Sandbaggers "the real stuff" for fans of the spy genre. He goes on to note, concerning the seventh episode ("Special Relationship"): "Although the issue of love versus duty is overdrawn and the tale, like others, is a bit forced in places, the Burnside character and the urgency of the story-telling make it work. Most of the Sandbagger episodes work." Similarly, critic Terrence Rafferty called The Sandbaggers "the best spy series in television history"
The Sandbaggers, television critic Rick Vanderknyff also wrote, "is many things American network television is not: talky and relatively action-free, low in fancy production values but high in plot complexity, and starring characters who aren't likable in the traditional TV way"
Broadcast history
- In the United Kingdom, Series One was broadcast nationwide on ITV in September and October 1978; Series Two, January-March 1980; Series Three, June and July 1980. ITV repeated The Sandbaggers once in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the cable/satellite channels Granada Plus and SelecTV showed repeats.
- In CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the CBCCanadian Broadcasting CorporationThe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
aired The Sandbaggers nationwide in the 1980s. - In AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the Nine NetworkNine NetworkThe Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
aired The Sandbaggers nationwide in 1982. - In the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, there was never a nationwide broadcast, but The Sandbaggers was sold in syndicationTelevision syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
to individual PBS stations from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s. - In Italy, the series was briefly shown on some local television stations in 1988. All episodes were dubbed in Italian.
- In IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Channel 1 aired The Sandbaggers (titled "The Selected") nationwide in the mid 1980s. All episodes were subtitled in Hebrew.
DVD
- All 20 episodes of The Sandbaggers are available in the North American market in Region 0 NTSC-format DVD sets which were released by BFS Entertainment in August 2001 (Series 1 and 2) and September 2003 (Series 3).
- All 20 episodes are available in the UK and European market in Region 2 PAL-format DVD sets, the first two series being released by Network DVD in August 2005 and May 2006 respectively. (Unlike the BFS DVDs, the Network DVDs include in each episode the "bumpers" which led into and out of advertisement breaks during transmission on commercial television. These bumpers display "End of Part One", "Part Two", "End of Part Two" and "Part 3" accompanied by a snippet of the theme music.)
Video
- The complete series is also available on NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
videotapes, in three sets. (Episode 7, "Special Relationship," was omitted from the Series One set and thus appears out of order on the Series Three set.) - Four episodes were released on two PALPALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
videocassettes in the mid-1980s, but these PAL tapes are out of print.
Books
- The Sandbaggers by Ian Mackintosh (Corgi Books, 1978) novelises "Always Glad to Help" and "A Feasible Solution". Out of print.
- The Sandbaggers: Think of a Number (Corgi Books, 1980) is an original novel by "Donald Lancaster," a pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
for mystery writer William MarshallWilliam Leonard MarshallWilliam Marshall is an Australian author, best known for his Hong Kong-based "Yellowthread Street" mystery novels, some of which were used as the basis for a British TV series....
, who was commissioned to write it after Ian Mackintosh's disappearance. Out of print.
Other
- American Sandbaggers fanzines and T-shirts from the early 1990s turn up from time to time on eBayEBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
.
The Sandbaggers in America
Although not a huge ratings hit during its initial UK broadcast, The Sandbaggers generated a cult following when telecast abroad, most notably in the USA. PBS station KTEH-Channel 54 in San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
aired at least five runs of The Sandbaggers after it became "a local phenomenon.
American Sandbaggers fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
produced fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
s, website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s, and even a convention
Fan convention
A fan convention, or con , is an event in which fans of a particular film, television series, comic book, actor, or an entire genre of entertainment such as science fiction or anime and manga, gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and...
: Ray Lonnen was the guest of honor at "Sandbagger One" in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in 1992.
Queen & Country
Greg RuckaGreg Rucka
Gregory "Greg" Rucka is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.-Career:Rucka's writing career...
, novelist and creator of the comic book espionage series Queen & Country, has said that the comic book is consciously inspired by The Sandbaggers and is in a sense a "quasi-sequel". In the comic book, the structure of SIS mirrors that seen in the television series, down to the division of responsibilities between Directors of Operations and Intelligence and the existence of a Special Operations Section known as the "Minders". The comic book also features a more modern and sophisticated Ops Room, and bureaucratic wrangling reminiscent of the television series.
Several characters and situations in Queen & Country parallel The Sandbaggers, including a fatherly "C" who is eventually replaced by a more political and less sympathetic appointee; a Director of Operations who is fiercely protective of the Special Section; a Deputy Chief antagonistic to the independent nature of the Minders; a rivalry with MI5; and a cooperative relationship with the CIA. In addition, several scenes and lines of dialogue are similar or allude to the television series. However, as the comic book takes place in the present day, the geopolitical situation is very different. In addition, the stories are more action-oriented and focus on the exploits of Minder Tara Chace rather than on Paul Crocker, the Director of Operations.