The Sweeney

Jack Regan and George Carter are hard-edged detectives in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan Police. They pursue villains by methods which are underhanded and often illegal, frequently violent and - more often than not - successful.

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Cast:John Thaw , Dennis Waterman , Garfield Morgan , John Alkin , Martyn Read , Morris Perry , Benjamin Whitrow , Stephanie Turner , James Warrior , John Flanagan , Nick Brimble , Jennifer Thanisch , Peter Brayham , Del Baker , Patrick Mower , Stuart Wilson , George Layton , George Sweeney

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ Ringer

Thu, Jan 2, 1975

After Regan's car is stolen with invaluable surveillance photos from a stakeout, the thief gives a heads-up to Sweeney's target.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ Jackpot

Thu, Jan 9, 1975

Regan's flying squad falls under suspicion after they apprehend a gang of hijackers, but a bag with 35,000 pounds in it has somehow disappeared.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ Thin Ice

Thu, Jan 16, 1975

Regan clashes with an arrogant police superintendent when a crime kingpin is allowed to leave the country and go to France.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ Queen's Pawn

Thu, Jan 23, 1975

After a high-powered lawyer gets three petty thugs off on a murder charge, Regan is authorized to use whatever means necessary to bring the hoodlums in.

5Season 1

S1.E5 ∙ Jigsaw

Thu, Jan 30, 1975

Regan is convinced that Eddie Boyse, a recently released career criminal, is responsible for a robbery, but Boyse was with Regan when the crime occurred.

6Season 1

S1.E6 ∙ Night Out

Thu, Feb 6, 1975

When the Superintendent finds out that there is a bank robbery in progress on a Saturday afternoon, he assigns Regan to visit an old girlfriend whose apartment is adjacent.

7Season 1

S1.E7 ∙ The Placer

Thu, Feb 13, 1975

Regan adopts a new identity as an ex-con and goes undercover as a truck driver to expose a hijacking ring.

8Season 1

S1.E8 ∙ Cover Story

Thu, Feb 20, 1975

It's unclear whether a beautiful crime reporter is involved with a criminal gang or just a catspaw.

9Season 1

S1.E9 ∙ Golden Boy

Thu, Feb 27, 1975

When seedy informant Harry Fuller is spotted by Regan in a pub flush with money, he knows something is up and interrogates Harry.

10Season 1

S1.E10 ∙ Stoppo Driver

Thu, Mar 6, 1975

After their own getaway driver is killed fleeing police, a gang blackmails a young policeman into being their driver by kidnapping his bride.

11Season 1

S1.E11 ∙ Big Spender

Thu, Mar 13, 1975

The Smith Brothers, a vicious group of mobsters, abandon their usual strong-arm tactics to run a parking ticket scam at a car park.

12Season 1

S1.E12 ∙ Contact Breaker

Thu, Mar 20, 1975

After Danny Keever, a convict on weekend release and due for parole, is framed in a bank robbery, Regan works to clear him.

13Season 1

S1.E13 ∙ Abduction

Thu, Mar 27, 1975

After Regan gets a tip about an upcoming robbery from a trusted informant, the gang kidnaps his daughter to blackmail him into inaction.

1Season 2

S2.E1 ∙ Chalk and Cheese

Mon, Sep 1, 1975

Giles Nunn and Carrie Selhurst are an upper crust couple who, partly for kicks and for the profits, commit highway robbery in lonely country lanes, along with the lower class boy Tommy Garret, whose dad is a friend of George Carter. Regan is on to them and Carrie gets arrested, but her unwillingness to cooperate leads to the death of the next victim.

2Season 2

S2.E2 ∙ Faces

Mon, Sep 8, 1975

A masked gang robs a security van and Carter's informant names ex-soldier Tober as its leader. Regan trails the gang to their junk shop hide-out where they plot their next heist for their client, a German political terrorist. The Secret Service has one of their men infiltrating the gang and Regan is told to back off arresting them so as not to blow his cover. Regan, however, is his own boss and goes ahead with the ambush.

3Season 2

S2.E3 ∙ Supersnout

Mon, Sep 15, 1975

Joey Stickley, Regan's informant, is greedy but generally reliable. With Haskins in Toronto, his stand-in, Quirk, is obsessed with catching the 'Post Office Gang' and his grass tells him they are about to rob a jeweller's shop. Carter goes undercover as a driver and meets Stickley, one of the gang, on the dummy run, but, come the actual robbery, Stickley has been replaced by Quirk's informant, to whom he has fed wrong information, in order to settle an old score with Quirk. As a consequence, the police operation is a failure.

4Season 2

S2.E4 ∙ Big Brother

Mon, Sep 22, 1975

Suspect Andy Deacon collapses whilst Regan is interviewing him and a doctor claims that his injuries were caused by an assault. Whilst Regan never touched him, he is suspected of giving the lad a kicking. Deacon's dangerous older brother Phil puts out a hit on Regan, whilst muck-raking journalist John Frewin also tries to expose him in the local press. Regan and Carter must find the man who really hospitalized Andy Deacon before it is too late, though Regan's new lady-friend, a probation officer, is able to help.

5Season 2

S2.E5 ∙ Hit and Run

Mon, Sep 29, 1975

Carter's school-teacher wife Alison is deliberately killed by a hit and run driver whilst posting his football pools. Alison had actually borrowed a coat from Judy, the French mistress, who consequently goes on the run as it was clear that she was the intended victim. On her trips to France with her class she had become involved with a gang for whom she would smuggle goods but has made it clear that she wanted out, hence the attempt to silence her. Regan has to find her before Crofts, the gang boss, gets to her.

6Season 2

S2.E6 ∙ Trap

Mon, Oct 6, 1975

Five years earlier Regan got promotion following the Golden Maid dairy robbery, thanks to a tip-off from Noah Riley. Now a reporter, Thomas, has got Noah and offers him money for his elderly mother if he will claim Regan acted illegally in order to discredit him. Regan's efforts to find Noah and prove conspiracy without telling Haskins put him in danger of suspension and Noah's mother in danger from the dairy robbers. Perhaps mini-cab boss Manny Bellow can come up with helpful information.

7Season 2

S2.E7 ∙ Golden Fleece

Mon, Oct 13, 1975

Colin MacGruder and Ray Stackpole, two Australians with the theme "Nice 'n' easy does it", commit eleven armed robberies, in each case stealing Kruger Rands purchased from the same firm, the managing director's secretary tipping them off as to the whereabouts of the coins. They also pay an informant to make it look as if Haskins is taking a bribe and plant money in his greenhouse, so that he is suspended. Regan traces the Kruger Rand connection but all the villains escape. However, the absence of witnesses means that Haskins is completely exonerated and reinstated.

8Season 2

S2.E8 ∙ Poppy

Mon, Oct 20, 1975

Vic Labbett, a violent robber who fled England following a robbery, has now returned from exile but only temporarily. His aim is to pick up the cash from the heist and convert it into diamonds and fly out of the country again. Regan is on to him and although Labbett initially eludes him, a muddy car chase across the air-field leads to his downfall.

9Season 2

S2.E9 ∙ Stay Lucky Eh?

Mon, Oct 27, 1975

Two young villains, Tyson and Jenner, working for gang boss Tony Kirby, are relieved of the spoils of their robbery by a mysterious gun-man, who shoots Jenner in the leg. Nobody knows who he is until Regan has a word with Jenner's disgruntled father-in-law, which leads to a shoot-out in a theatre. At the same time Regan is made a tempting offer to go into private security work.

10Season 2

S2.E10 ∙ Trojan Bus

Mon, Nov 3, 1975

Australian villains Colin MacGruder and Ray Stackpole return to London and steal a bus, posing as its crew. They rob an art dealer travelling on the bus of a Goya painting, which they plan to sell to a buyer in Amsterdam. Regan tracks them down by leaning on their accomplice, the dealer's female assistant, leading to a river chase and a shoot-out, making it the end of the line for the boys from Down Under.

11Season 2

S2.E11 ∙ I Want the Man

Mon, Nov 10, 1975

Informant Popeye is abducted by villain Maynard whilst staking out small-time crook Frankie Little after a jewel theft. Regan pulls Little but agrees to drop charges if Little will go ahead as planned, acting as Maynard's driver on an upcoming robbery. However, all Little is able to phone in to Regan on the eve of the heist is "Old Readies". Regan must locate where the crime will take place before it is too late for Popeye.

12Season 2

S2.E12 ∙ Country Boy

Mon, Nov 17, 1975

An armed gang kidnap telephone engineer Ronald Peters and hold him in an empty house, using his expertise to trigger off false alarms in some banks, diverting the police whilst the gang rob alarm-free premises. Regan is initially resentful when college graduate Sergeant David Keel, a telecommunications expert from Bristol CID, is drafted in to help, but comes to respect his knowledge and his bravery in catching the gang.

13Season 2

S2.E13 ∙ Thou Shalt Not Kill!

Mon, Nov 24, 1975

The day before the start of a new term, the university branch of the National Mercian bank is robbed. Regan and his squad arrive and catch or shoot most of the gang but known killer Wands and simple side-kick Monks are still inside with the manager and two women hostages. Haskins' hesitancy in ordering the police marksmen to fire on the robbers leads to a car chase and fatalities, causing Regan to round on his boss.

1Season 3

S3.E1 ∙ Selected Target

Mon, Sep 6, 1976

Cell-mates Titus Oates and Colly Kibber plan a robbery together whilst they are in prison. However, when they are released, they stage a dramatic fight to give Regan the impression that they have fallen out with each other. Regan trails Kibber, believing that he may have killed Oates, but this is just the diversion the two villains are looking for, leaving Oates to put the criminal plan into place.

2Season 3

S3.E2 ∙ In from the Cold

Mon, Sep 13, 1976

Some years earlier Billy Medhurst was one of a gang of thieves, one of whom shot and crippled police sergeant Eddie Jackson before escaping to Spain. Now he is back and Regan is determined to nail him. Haskins advises against making it seem personal since Medhurst has a sharp lawyer to back him up. However, when a meat lorry is robbed, all the evidence points to Medhurst, despite his supposedly being dead, and Regan is eventually justified.

3Season 3

S3.E3 ∙ Visiting Fireman

Mon, Sep 20, 1976

Turkish policeman Captain Shebbeq arrives in England for his old friend Regan to help him track down a gold-smuggling ring, possibly connected to an insurance firm which is fire-bombed. Their joint investigation leads them to uncover another form of smuggling, in the process of which someone puts a bomb in Regan's car. However, he does have the last word on the zealous fellow cop who had him suspended.

4Season 3

S3.E4 ∙ Tomorrow Man

Mon, Sep 27, 1976

Technophobe Regan is initially all at sea when he comes up against the clever computer expert Tony Gray. Gray is bent on revenge against Dennis Longfield, intending to steal his gold bullion consignment with the help of a little computer trickery but, at the end of the day, it's Regan's old-fashioned policing methods that get the results.

5Season 3

S3.E5 ∙ Taste of Fear

Mon, Oct 4, 1976

Robert Hargreaves, who has an apparently distinguished military background, joins Regan's team. However, at a raid on a caravan site to capture a gang of ex-soldiers who have carried out a violent robbery and are armed, Hargreaves bottles it and cowers behind a tree. Running against the general tide of opinion, Regan believes he is unsuitable for the job but needs to find out more.

6Season 3

S3.E6 ∙ Bad Apple

Mon, Oct 11, 1976

Haskins is concerned that, in an adjacent manor, crooks seem to be getting nicked and then released without charge. Posing as an ex-con Regan follows a lead to the Blue Parrot club, haunt of corrupt officers Perraut and Huke who take bribes from villains to let them go and are running a protection racket. Using marked notes he sets them up.

7Season 3

S3.E7 ∙ May

Mon, Oct 25, 1976

Young Davey Holmes is arrested on suspicion of a violent robbery, but insists he was innocent. Can he be helped by an old friend of his mother, Detective Inspector Jack Regan? And if Davey is innocent, what secrets is he hiding?

8Season 3

S3.E8 ∙ Sweet Smell of Succession

Mon, Nov 8, 1976

Gang boss Joe Castle dies, leaving his ill-gotten gains to long-lost son Steven, who has no criminal connections but seems willing to learn. Regan warns Castle's warring minions not to cause trouble but one of them, Pat Tarley, threatens Steven, saying he wants everything from his father's 'businesses'. The thieves are falling out and Steven cannily plays them off against each other, making Regan's job that much easier.

9Season 3

S3.E9 ∙ Down to You, Brother

Mon, Nov 22, 1976

At a stag party Regan re-encounters well-to-do Raymond Meadows, an ex-criminal who drunkenly admits that his wealth is due to a robbery he once pulled, for which Regan let him go for lack of evidence. Widower Raymond disapproves of his daughter Debbie's boyfriend, flash villain Dougie Owen, and Regan suspects Raymond is using him to get the boy out of the picture. However, Owen plays directly into Regan's - and Raymond's - hands by using Debbie as the innocent pawn in a robbery.

10Season 3

S3.E10 ∙ Pay Off

Mon, Nov 29, 1976

Carter is asked by an old flame, Shirley Glass, to try and help her locate her partner Eddie, who has gone missing. Eventually Eddie, a small time crook, is discovered but he is well and truly dead. Shirley works as a croupier for the smooth Arnold Drake, whom Regan and Haskins suspect of large scale misdemeanours, and they use Shirley and Carter as bait to trap him.

11Season 3

S3.E11 ∙ Loving Arms

Mon, Dec 6, 1976

Retired engineer Fred Booth has a very religious but very sick wife and is in need of money. He meets wide boy Artie Ward who pays him to make guns, which Fred genuinely believes to be replicas, but they are in fact the real thing and Artie sells them to kids who use them to hold up small businesses. When an off-duty policeman is killed by one of these faulty guns along with the youth he was chasing Regan is desperate to find the source.

12Season 3

S3.E12 ∙ 'Lady Luck'

Mon, Dec 13, 1976

Middle-class housewife Marcia Edmunds approaches Regan in a pub and, in exchange for sex, supplies the names of the gang who recently robbed a bookies - including that of her husband Martin. He is recognized by a witness but has a cast-iron alibi, which Regan is eventually able to break. At the same time he begins to feel that Marcia is using him to get rid of a husband of whom she has long tired.

13Season 3

S3.E13 ∙ On the Run

Mon, Dec 20, 1976

Violent psychopath Tim Cook, dubbed 'The Leopard' by the press, escapes from custody on a hospital visit, having vowed to get Regan, who put him away. He is sheltered by ex-cellmate Ian Pinder in a house belonging to Pinder's gay uncle but after freaking out and attacking Uncle goes on the run and hides in the woods. Regan and Carter lead the Sweeney in a manhunt which leads to a shoot-out.

1Season 4

S4.E1 ∙ Messenger of the Gods

Thu, Sep 7, 1978

A hung-over Regan pulls local Lothario Lukey Sparrow for his part in the theft of thirty thousand pounds worth of mercury. The boy has an alibi - he was in bed with a married woman, but wants it kept quiet, as he is getting wed next day, to Linda, daughter of the fearsome Lily Rix. Regan proves Lukey's part in the crime but needs to reach him before some very dangerous heavies do. Either way the wedding seems unlikely to go ahead, subjecting Regan to the full wrath of Mrs. Rix.

2Season 4

S4.E2 ∙ Hard Men

Thu, Sep 14, 1978

Dour Scots sergeant Davy Freeth arrives from Glasgow in pursuit of three villains who, he claims, have come to kidnap somebody, but he will say no more, even when one of them is found dead. Regan is patronising towards him, calling him Jock, but when a kidnap attempt on a little girl is bungled and the girl escapes, Freeth annoys Regan by admitting he has known all along who the real intended victim is - the daughter of a Scots heavy, Boyd, living in London, and Freeth has tipped him off about the surviving pair. Between them, Boyd and Freeth do Regan's job for him whilst he is in bed with the fair Susan.

3Season 4

S4.E3 ∙ Drag Act

Thu, Sep 21, 1978

A daring gang of cold-blooded thieves make off with lorries carrying brandy on two separate occasions, killing a driver and injuring a policeman. The Sweeney are made to look a laughing stock at their failure to catch the gang. Carter's new girlfriend Julie Kingdom and her colleague Mike Seton, both young uniformed rookie cops, go out on a limb to pursue a known fence, and recover the brandy. However, Regan is into damage limitation and wants to take the credit for himself, putting him at odds with Carter.

4Season 4

S4.E4 ∙ Trust Red

Thu, Sep 28, 1978

A burglar falls to his death from a roof and another gang member, 'Red' Redgrave, feels he should have saved him but his sight is failing. Furthermore his estranged wife is about to marry someone else and he is having doubts all round about his life. Regan is fairly sure that Red's gang are about to carry out another burglary and yet Red seems to be deliberately pointing Regan towards catching them. Regan wonders what Red's motives are.

5Season 4

S4.E5 ∙ Nightmare

Thu, Oct 5, 1978

A lorry containing cigars is hi-jacked, and the driver and one of the robbers are killed. The gang is, in turn, attacked and wiped out by another, Irish gang, led by Farrell and Flynn, because some of the cigar-boxes contain drugs, which the I.R.A. are planning to exchange for a new model of gun with laser sights. Regan traces the gang via the sale of some stolen cigars and the trail leads to a house in the country where the Irishmen are expecting a plane to arrive. All along Regan's girlfriend Jane has been having bad dreams about harm coming to him and she may well be proved to be right.

6Season 4

S4.E6 ∙ Money, Money, Money

Thu, Oct 12, 1978

Eddie Monk has been straight for some years and he and his wife are good friends to Regan. He wins the pools but is blackmailed over a robbery for which he was never caught eleven years earlier and is killed after a fight with the blackmailer, Fischer. Using leads from a former gang member and his old mentor, Regan tracks down Fischer and has his revenge. Haskins is less fortunate when an important witness is put out of action.

7Season 4

S4.E7 ∙ Bait

Thu, Oct 19, 1978

Regan is staking out vicious robber Vic Tolman and his girl-friend Lyn Hurst, who have stolen the wages from the firm where Lyn worked. A surveillance is in progress on the flat belonging to Lyn's sister Joan, who is looking after her daughter. Regan and Carter eventually break into the flat and use the two women as bait for Tolman. He turns up but things do not go as planned.

8Season 4

S4.E8 ∙ The Bigger They Are

Thu, Oct 26, 1978

Tycoon Leonard Gold is being blackmailed by Harold Collins, who has a photo of him present at a massacre of civilians in Malaya when he was in the Army twenty-five years earlier. He appeals to ex-commanding officer Masterson, who, with two mercenaries, breaks into a bank vault and steals the photo and other evidence. However, the job done, Gold finds that Masterson is an even more dangerous blackmailer than Collins.

9Season 4

S4.E9 ∙ Feet of Clay

Thu, Nov 2, 1978

Regan absents himself from the stakeout of a gang who rob wealthy tourists to come to the aid of Alan Ember, who, years earlier, had been a helpful informant. Now a rich businessman he has had a phone call to say that his son Paul has been kidnapped for a ransom of ten thousand pounds. Against Regan's advice Ember pays the ransom and the boy is returned, but the reunion soon turns sour.

10Season 4

S4.E10 ∙ One of Your Own

Thu, Nov 9, 1978

Jimmy Fleet cons two businessmen out of a cache of diamonds, which he hides before being arrested and remanded in Wormwood Scrubs. Carter goes undercover as his cell-mate and gains his confidence and when Jimmy is released for lack of evidence the two go on a drinking spree, rudely interrupted by Patsy Kearney, a villain who steals from other villains. The Sweeney come to the rescue. Jimmy is unaware that his girl-friend, who is supposed to have the diamonds, is double-crossing him and, when he arrives at her empty flat, assumes that she has been captured, causing him to go after those he believes to be responsible with a gun. The consequent face-off involves Jimmy and Carter both doing each other a big favour.

11Season 4

S4.E11 ∙ Hearts and Minds

Thu, Nov 23, 1978

A burglar is found dead at the home of Professor Busby, though nothing appears to have been stolen. Government official Bellcourt tells Regan and Carter that Busby was working on pills to relieve heart disease and that the burglary was no doubt masterminded by Danilov, the opponent of a head of state friendly to Britain - who would benefit from the pills. Busby goes on the run, entrusting his supply of pills to his girlfriend Wendy, who works with comedy duo Morecambe and Wise. They in fact end up with the pills - and are pursued by villains and Sweeney alike, ending in a very fishy climax.

12Season 4

S4.E12 ∙ Latin Lady

Thu, Nov 30, 1978

As Doctor Delacroix, an apparently respectable gynaecologist, is leaving his clinic on his way to the airport, he is jumped on by a gang of thugs in a car and robbed of his suit-case. He is initially reluctant to disclose the contents of the case, which turn out to be untaxed monies which he was hoping to smuggle out of the country. Regan's investigations lead him to villain's glamorous girlfriend Christobel Delgado, a Latin lady, but she is definitely not what she first appears to be.

13Season 4

S4.E13 ∙ Victims

Thu, Dec 14, 1978

Detective Sergeant Taylor is shot and wounded, and names his informant, Jimmy Park, as pulling the trigger. Regan visits Park's girl-friend Eve, who says that Taylor was corrupt, and gives her tail the slip in order to give money to Park, who is lying low in an old disused warehouse. Regan eventually tracks him down and more shots are fired. At the same time Haskins is having problems with his wife as she starts to lose her grip on reality and live in the past.

14Season 4

S4.E14 ∙ Jack or Knave

Thu, Dec 28, 1978

A security guard is murdered during a payroll snatch. The local police force under Chief Superintendent Canning have no luck in catching the robbers and Canning is reluctant to work with Regan when the Sweeney are called in, frequently clashing with him. When Regan apprehends all the gang without telling him, Canning is far from happy. Regan is accused of corruption nine years earlier and Canning, his contemporary, refuses to help him. Fortunately Carter finds someone who will, but the whole experience leaves Regan extremely bitter.