“Guard it Doyle, guard it with your life. In the wrong hands, that gun could create an instant disaster area.”
The one where…
CI5 are entrusted with the testing of a powerful, innovative new gun, and Doyle immediately loses it.
Although Cowley’s portentous warnings would suggest that the new gun central to the plot was some kind of doomsday weapon, the actual novelty of it is its laser sight; in every other way it’s just a (admittedly powerful) automatic rifle that had been on the market for a few years by this point.
The laser sight was something new though. While we’re now used to the familiar red dot on someone indicating that a gunman has a bead drawn on them, this had obviously never been seen before when this ep had made, leading to some interesting ideas about how it worked. As Cowley predicts, it has become an incentive to surrender just to see that red dot on yourself; less certain, however, is his assertion that it can be used to temporarily blind an opponent, as we see in the pre-credits sequence. And even less likely is the direction’s implication that targets can actually feel the thing – several people are seen to rub or scratch themselves where the dot appears.
But ok, it was new and nobody really understood how it worked. And in fact the gun isn’t the central aspect of the plot – it just leads us into a quagmire of who is trying to humiliate and then kill the unfortunate Doyle.
This actually isn’t too much of a difficult mystery to solve. Having been chased over the Woolwich flyover by a distinctive purple Porsche, Doyle leaves the gun in his none-too-secure apartment while going off on a pub crawl with Bodie and his old flame from Scotland Yard, Kathie Mason. Only those three know where the gun was, and obviously Bodie didn’t steal it – I wonder who it could have been?
Still, we know from last year’s When the Heat Cools Off that Doyle is a sucker for a femme fatale, so he spends most of the episode blissfully unaware of this while she lures him out of his apartment for a one night stand, enabling the gun to be stolen. Rightly accused of rank incompetence by Cowley, the shamefaced boys spend much of the ep chasing underworld contacts for info, while Kathie’s mysterious accomplice keeps deliberately failing to kill Doyle, just to scare him.
A fairly comprehensive bit of car sabotage – wheel nuts, steering, clutch, brakes and an explosive device – results only in the destruction of the car, as the bomb is set go off thirty seconds after crashing, giving Doyle time to get clear. An obvious letter bomb is sent to Doyle’s apartment – only it’s a fake, and neither of the boys seem to notice that Kathie is not in the least bit worried while they tinker with it. Pot shots are taken at him with the stolen rifle that can’t miss – they miss.
So it’s obviously something personal, where the unknown assailant wants to humiliate Doyle as much as possible before actually killing him. If the boys had spotted the bleeding obvious fact that Kathie was in on it, they might have spent less time coming to the conclusion that it’s a disgraced former police Inspector Doyle sent down for corruption years ago. And that Kathie is not only the guy’s old flame, but actually his wife – aren’t there records of that sort of thing? Lucky for them Cowley’s not so blinded by a pretty face…
How dodgy is Cowley this week?
By his previous standards, only a bit. When the outraged Bodie, having discovered Kathie’s treachery, threatens to kill both Preston then her, she looks to Cowley for support. He just shrugs and says, “I never heard a word. Not a single word.” Bodie obviously knows Cowley will let him get away with anything, so follows that up with, “his eyesight’s not very good either.”
The cars
This ep has a first, rather low-key, appearance for the Ford Capri Mk3 3.0S that would become so associated with the show – in this case, Bodie’s ‘Stratos Silver’ model, which is mostly used to drive sensibly from place to place. Even here, though, Bodie can’t help skidding it to a stop just to park it (“He always drives like that”, admits Doyle).
The Capri Mk3 wasn’t really a new generation of Ford’s sports coupe – more of a ‘facelift’ of the Mk2, with new bumpers, lower suspension, and a more aggressive-looking, quad-headlight front end. Brand new at this point, though, it successfully revitalised the car’s appeal and would continue in production (arguably for too long) until 1987.
Doyle is back in the Escort RS2000 again, but spends most of the ep driving around in an apparently beloved classic 1972 Jaguar E-Type Series 3. The third generation of Jaguar’s iconic sports car was the most powerful yet, equipped with the company’s smooth 5.3 V12 engine, but also much bigger and arguably less pretty than its earlier incarnations.
Bodie’s gentle ribbing about “that old thing” suggests he’s had it for a while, but this is the first we’ve seen of it. E-Types were instant classics and never reached the cheap ‘banger’ stage, so the one we see blown up is clearly a mock up made from bits of scrap rather than the actual one Doyle has been driving.
His pursuer Preston too has an iconic classic sports car – a Porsche 911E in an eye-meltingly horrible 70s shade of purple. The 911, still in (much-evolved) production today, could trace its lineage and design philosophy to the humble Volkswagen Beetle (though Porsche fans usually don’t like to mention this).
1970s clothes
After some nicely understated white shirt/dark blazer combinations for their pub crawl, Bodie and Doyle are back in their beloved leather again for the majority of the ep.
For Bodie, this means the light brown bomber we’ve been seeing since last season, with the enormous zipped side pockets.
In Doyle’s case, it’s the rather more understated dark brown bomber we’ve also seen before, combined with a pair of painfully tight looking jeans. For added 70sness though, he’s got a pair of green-shaded aviator sunglasses.
1970s references
More interesting locations this time, as the show makes the first of many location excursions to London’s then-derelict Docklands area on the Isle of Dogs. The Docklands had been a thriving port up until the late 60s, when the advent of shipping container-based freight meant that the much larger ships simply couldn’t use them, so the area became a windswept wasteland of abandoned warehouses and film crews for crime dramas. All this came to an end when the area was redeveloped and gentrified in the late 80s to become the Thatcherite monument to business it is today.
Also making the first appearance of many is Wembley’s derelict Palace of Engineering, where we first see CI5 testing out their exciting new gun. Built in the 20s for the colonial British Empire Exhibition (also the genesis of the much longer-lived Wembley Stadium), it had fallen into disrepair by the 70s, and became another much-used location. Obviously both The Sweeney and The New Avengers had already filmed there, and in addition to further appearances in The Professionals, it even featured in an episode of futuristic sci-fi drama Blake’s 7 (1979’s Death Watch). It was finally demolished in 1982.
Bodie and Doyle’s meeting with shady gun dealer Martell takes place for no apparent reason on the deck of the Woolwich Ferry, which still runs today. Presumably used to give more of that urban flavour ITV had demanded from the show’s second series, it gives some interesting looks at East London from the river as it was in 1978.
The first stop on the boys’ pub crawl has a very 70s throwback to the 19th century, as a female singer (Maria St Clare) is performing Victorian music hall standard Following in Father’s Footsteps for the edification of the punters. Singalongs in Cockney boozers were very much a staple of The Sweeney, which The Professionals often tried to emulate. It’s also notable that, on what seems like quite a lengthy pub crawl, Doyle doesn’t exactly refrain from drinking before leaping into his Jag to drive to the next boozer.
Continuity stuff
This is the first episode to establish the convention of CI5 agents having two digit numerical call signs for radio communication. Bodie is “three-seven”, and Doyle is “four-five”.
Doyle has yet another new apartment, at least the third we’ve seen since the series began. This one is a pretty cool looking split level job with a health and safety nightmare of a handrail-less staircase, which somehow has entrances on both levels (must be built into a hill). Thankfully for the sake of continuity, this will continue to be his apartment for some episodes to come.
CI5 HQ might be history, but Cowley obviously still has some kind of office, as we see him researching the case in a tiny windowless room. It also seems like his driver from the previous episode (Diana Weston) has become his new assistant, replacing the much-missed Betty; typically for the show, even though she’s named in the dialogue, she’s credited simply as “CI5 Girl”. She wasn’t to last long though – after one more episode, she’s never seen again.
Hey, it’s that guy from that thing!
Doyle’s embittered nemesis Preston is played by familiar British character actor Bryan Marshall, who had appeared in many quite large roles, including Captain Potter in the 1967 film of Quatermass and the Pit. You could be forgiven for having thought he was Australian though, as he moved there in the 1980s and had prominent appearances in the usual roll call of Aussie shows like Prisoner, Neighbours and Home and Away.
Doyle’s treacherous old pal/shag, and secretly Preston’s wife, Kathie is played by Cheryl Kennedy, who was more famous as a star of West End musicals than for her TV appearances. Inevitably, of course, she had been in The Sweeney, and had an odd gig doing weekly songs in the first 1973 series of BBC consumer show That’s Life.
Doyle’s now-retired Detective Sergeant Maurice Richards is the second appearance in the show for future EastEnders star Tony Caunter. Caunter had previously appeared in last year’s Long Shot, where he played… a Detective Sergeant. A different one, of course.
Sleazy informant Brownie, who ends up as an improbable hostage, is played by the flamboyant John Stratton. Doctor Who fans will remember him fondly (or not, it was a divisive story) as the even more flamboyant Shockeye in 1985’s The Two Doctors; but in a weird coincidence linking him with one of the other guest stars of the ep, he also played Captain Potter in the original 1958 TV version of Quatermass and the Pit.
Well-dressed arms dealer Martell is played by another hard-working character actor with roots in the theatre, Frank Barrie. Barrie appeared in something like 150 small roles on TV, though may be well-remembered as Edward Bishop, a choirmaster and love interest for Dot Cotton (of all people) in EastEnders from 2010-2011.
In a tiny role as Bodie’s latest disposable girlfriend Jo, seen during the pub crawl, is Vicky Michelle, who would go on to far greater fame as the seductive Yvette in long-running French occupation sitcom Allo Allo.
Nice bit of dialogue
The boys’ bonhomie is undimmed by actually being in a car chase, causing some surprise to Kathie.
Bodie: “I always wanted to be a racing driver!”
Doyle: “Shame to spoil his fun!”
Kathie: “Are you two always like this?”
Bodie: “Absolutely not. We sometimes imagine people are following us, don’t we? Tea?”
(she nods)
Doyle: “Your place or mine?”
Bodie: “Yours!”
Doyle: “Shut up Bodie!”
Casual Sexism
At the first pub, with Bodie’s date conspicuously starting to fall asleep, he immediately goes to the bar and starts trying to chat up the singer – while the other girl is still at the table. When Doyle admonishes him that the first girl might want to go home to bed, Bodie’s response (in front of his new attempted conquest) is, “I should be so lucky”. Fortunately Doyle has his back, stating, “That’s his sister back there, don’t let him tell you otherwise”. Which makes Bodie’s earlier remark seem more than a bit icky.
Hunter/Hunted is a fair though not brilliant example of the show’s new direction, with its more urban settings and increased action. The car chase is actually pretty exciting, with the added irony that Bodie and Doyle don’t realise it actually is one – they think it’s just one sports car owner trying to race another on a public highway, which, oddly for two law enforcement officers, they’re absolutely fine with. I’m also fairly sure that Bodie perching himself on the back of the Jag behind its two seats was pretty illegal even then.
Doyle for once gets to be more of a ladies’ man than Bodie, with his overnight tryst with the treacherous Kathie. Anyone with half a brain (which apparently doesn’t include Bodie and Doyle) could have worked out that she was the one behind everything from the beginning; and the super-duper gun turns out to be no more than a McGuffin for a plot that’s actually (again) about Doyle having pissed someone off when he was a copper. Mostly fun, though.
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