Review: The Sandbaggers (Series 3)
- Article 6 of 7
- Action TV, February 2007
A review of the third series of The Sandbaggers on DVD
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On paper, The Sandbaggers could have been one of many lesser shows. Detailing life for the “Special Operations section” of MI6/SIS, it could have been a James Bond-esque tale of daring-do. It could have been a slightly more sedate, John Le Carré-style affair, all intrigue, politics and back-biting. Instead, it proved to be a combination of both worlds, marrying the excitement of a Fleming book with the authenticity of Le Carré.
Throughout the show’s three series, the agents of the piece – the eponymous Sandbaggers – and their boss, former Sandbagger Neil Burnside (Roy Marsden) were faced with as many murky plots from the depths of Whitehall and from the UK’s supposed allies as they were by Soviet espionage. They failed or died in their missions on any number of occasions because of office politics back home, all while being paid a civil service salary.
The success of the show was as much due to the authenticity of the scripts as it was the mesmerising central performance of Marsden. Much of that was a result of the (possible) inside knowledge of the show’s creator, former naval officer Ian Mackintosh, who wrote all the scripts for the show’s first two series. At the very least, it was because of his talent as a scriptwriter.
Tragically, Mackintosh died in an aircraft crash before the start of the third series of the show. He’d managed to write a number of scripts, including the final episode’s, but without his continued input, the show failed to hit the creative heights of the previous two series.
It started on a high, however, with All in a Good Cause, possibly the show’s finest hour. A magnificent example of how to orchestrate complex plot threads, it gives Mackintosh a chance to show the full gamut of Sandbaggers techniques he’d developed over the previous two series: double-dealing; misdirection; inter-departmental rivalry; political machinations and more. The DVDs are worth buying for this episode alone.
To Hell with Justice, the first of the series’ occasional excursions to Malta, sees an old friend under suspicion and a typically tragic conclusion. For all the cold, hawkishness of the show, it’s a hard person who doesn’t have tissues to hand while watching it.
Unusual Approach is an uncharacteristically flawed script from Mackintosh, with Burnside forced to go on holiday to Rhodes, leaving chief Sandbagger Willy Caine (played by Ray Lonnen) in charge. Caine, more used to the problems of the field than office politics, finds himself adrift as he’s played by the various sides gathering around the department in Burnside’s absence. This essentially gives Lonnen and Marsden a chance to swap their plot roles as well, Marsden now providing comic relief and Lonnen the serious elements of the show. It’s an experiment that unfortunately doesn’t work.
The first Sandbaggers episode written by someone other than Mackintosh, My Name is Anna Wiseman, shows what The Sandbaggers would have been without Mackintosh at its helm from the beginning. Mostly a tiresome polemic that fits badly with the Real Politik of the rest of the series, it involves Burnside’s attempt to plant a long-term double agent behind the iron curtain, neglecting to mention to his bosses that her real mission would be short-term human rights propaganda.
Arden Winch’s Sometimes We Play Dirty Too is equally uninspiring, a simple police story masquerading as a Sandbaggers plot. Why did an agent die in a car crash in Prague? And do we care?
Who Needs Enemies is probably the best of the non-Mackintosh scripts. Although it has many of the standard Sandbaggers qualities, including political manoeuvrings within SIS to get Burnside reassigned, it fails to understand some of the important relationships between the characters that make the various power-plays depicted implausible.
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