My favourite cop show was The Sweeney which was first broadcast in the 1970s so although at the time it was SHOCKINGLY gritty and tough, it’s very tame by today’s standards.
It was always full of deliberate sardonic humour.
It’s even more, accidentally, humorous now because the seventies setting seems positively historic.
It was one of the main inspirations for Life On Mars which is mentioned above. It starred John Thaw who, acting very differently, went on to star in Morse also mentioned above.
Is it a “only watch if there is absolutely nothing else available and you are a little bit drunk” kind of thing? I looked it up and it’s actually on BritBox but the pictures really scream 1970s.
The blond sidekick, Lawrence Fox, has now gone full loon and totally destroyed his acting career with comments and campaigns against vaccination, masks, footballers taking the knee, Pride, and just about everything really. He stood for Mayor of London (failed spectacularly) and has become the leader of a right-wing pro-Brexit party. He was fine in Lewis though!
He played Hathaway, detective sergeant to Inspector Lewis and at one point, they were going to continue with an Inspector Hathaway series. That was before Laurence Fox started with the politics.
I did think that, but Lewis ended in 2014, and Fox was still (at least outwardly) sane back then. He was on Celebrity Gogglebox for a while - (for anyone who doesn’t know, that’s where celebs sit around watching TV - better than it sounds!) and came across quite well there. His decline has been really sudden.
Wow. I looked at his Wiki, what a fucking nutcase. So you have to put up a deposit to run for mayor? Is it your own money? Can’t say I’m sorry he lost it. Don’t send him this way, we have enough of our own.
Your own money, or money from your party or your supporters. It’s £10k, which is a lot more than it costs to stand as an MP (£500), but if you can’t crowd-fund £10k then you have no hope of getting anywhere near winning anyway.
It’s a bit further on the dark and brooding film noir end of the spectrum from the formulaic whodunnit format of Death in Paradise, et al. But Luther is very good (it launched Idris Elba’s career) and on BritBox.
Yep, we’ve seen those. Alice was a great character too.
This was our favorite NZ series. Everyone nails their roles perfectly. Too bad about the cast changes in the last year. Really missed having Jared gone in the last season and I don’t remember if they even gave an excuse for his absence.
There is a spinoff of Father Brown in production, starring the nun who has a better crime lab than the police. They contacted me with a question about one of the shows. It got held up due to Covid. I’m going to have to subscribe to BritBox when it comes out. I’ve seen most of the shows mentioned here on Acorn or on local PBS stations, including the new Death in Paradise.
It is chock-full of gags with a strongly local reference (Jane McDonald’s “Secretions”!) that may very well pass most Americans by. A coarser cousin of Shakespeare and Hathaway.
Hard to know whether it can be recommended to others and particularly hard to recommend to an American.
I watched it as a child and genuinely loved it back then. It was ground breaking in depicting cops as tough and barely any different to the villains they were after. I would imagine (possible exaggeration here) for an American it was the difference between watching the old black and white Lone Ranger (if he is considered a law officer) and then watching Hill Street Blues or even The Shield.
Before The Sweeney British people saw TV cops as Dixon of Dock Green where Dixon was a very old (he played the role for years, until the actor was over seventy years old) as an avuncular figure. The Sweeney regularly (although not as standard) had guns! Plus went out in their scruffy anoraks and duffle coats to ‘nick a few slags’ (apprehend some suspects for questioning) while puffing and panting from the exertion. And the fags (cigarettes) and the booze.
I enjoyed it at the time. Still feel it holds up although that might be nostalgia playing a part. The 70s setting and attitudes are accidentally humorous. As noted if you like Life on Mars (British version) this is what directly inspired it. Also, if you enjoy other British shows, you can do the usual spotting actors from other shows.
There’s also stuff true to the 70s but very odd now. Back then police did use police employed but civilian drivers. With no mobile phones an occasional plot point would be for one of the team to ask the driver to drop them off near a public telephone box so they can make a call.
I like it a lot. It is very British (London based) and very much of its era. I would suggest giving a few episodes a go.
Note the tone occasionally varies so some episodes are basically VERY comedic. There’s one episode with (famous in the UK) film star Diana Dors as a stereotype Mother in Law. Another episode built around legendary British comedy duo Morecambe and Wise. They are outliers though.
Most episodes are drama with black humour never far away.
I wonder whether John Simm’s character was responsible for the tipping point that led to the parallel universe? Accidentally delayed a young Margaret Thatcher on her way to an early political meeting? Crushed a butterfly while beating up a suspect? Endless possibilities.
