Callan

UK TV

Season finale: The Fixer

15 April 2008 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

ITV has something of a problem. It’s had such rubbish programmes on for so long that even when it gets some decent shows, no one will watch them. And since no one watches them, it can’t get the advertising to fund them properly so they’re not as well made. Have a look at the Hornblower adaptations with Ioan Gruffudd for examples of what happens when you get a good cast and good scripts but bog-all cash.

Or, indeed, take a look at The Fixer. On the one hand, we’ve seen it all before: convicted criminal bust out of jail by the government to assassinate criminals who are above the law. It’s La Femme Nikita, isn’t it? Then make him a taciturn, thoughtful guy who has qualms about his job; give him an irritating sidekick and a stern boss who’ll have him dumped in a river if he starts misbehaving and you’ve essentially got Callan for the 21st century: nu-Callan if you will.

But the show really transcended that unoriginal formula to give us a show worth watching. It’s been an action show that’s far less concerned with action than it has been about character, plot and dialogue. Sure, it was afflicted by Tamzin Outhwaite as an implausible femme fatale. But with Peter Mullan on hand to make even George Cowley of The Professionals seem like a soft Sassenach jessie, fine performances by Andrew Buchan and Jody Latham as the Fixer and his sidekick Callum (hmm…) respectively, and some interesting plotting pyrotechnics, it’s been an interesting, gritty show that just needed a bit of a polish. And some budget.

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UK TV

Review: The Fixer 1×1

11 March 2008 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

In the UK: Mondays, 9pm, ITV1
In the US: Not yet acquired

Once upon a time, ITV ruled the roost of action TV. With the classic shows of ITC such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Danger Man and The Avengers, ITV pretty much dominated the 50s and 60s. Then there was The Sweeney, The Professionals, Out et al during the 70s and Robin of Sherwood in the 80s, as well as all those glorious US action imports that almost always ended up on ITV first.

In the 90s, post-franchise change, it all went pear-shaped. Now ITV1 is a bit of a gamble when it comes to action shows. You might get lucky and find a show like Sharpe’s Progress/Plimsolls/Whatever that starts off well and continues to be good. Or you might find a show that starts off well then becomes a bit of a turkey (eg Ultimate Force). Most of the time, though, you’ll come across something dismal like The Outsiders that’s so bad it has a biohazard warning next to it in the Radio Times.

But ITV1’s turned over a new leaf. It wants to be known for quality programmes. Can it do quality action TV? The Fixer, which started last night, is actually a very good attempt at a quality action show.

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Callan: The Movie on YouTube

7 March 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments



Some enterprising soul has uploaded the whole of Callan: The Movie (aka This is Callan) onto YouTube. God bless ’em.

For the unenlightened, Callan, starring future Equalizer Edward Woodward, was one of the best spy shows of the 60s, eschewing the flash and escapism of James Bond, The Man From UNCLE, The Avengers et al in favour of a far more downbeat, Ipcress File approach to spies.

David Callan, a regular ex-army working class man who lives in a grotty flat and does menial clerical jobs to make ends meet, is really one of the guys who does the dirty work for the British government: assassinations, blackmail, kidnappings and more. Although the plots are cracking Cold War fun, as much of the show is about Callan’s feelings of guilt over his work, as well as his fear that if he can’t do the job any more, he’ll end up in a ‘red file’ just like his victims. There’s also the interplay with his rather smelly informant (Russell Hunter), understandably nicknamed ‘Lonely’, his far posher partners Meres (played first by Peter Bowles then by Anthony Valentine) and Cross (Patrick Mower), and his revolving series of bosses, all of whom are called ‘Hunter’.

It’s quite dark and nasty, so I love it. I’ve droned on about it elsewhere so you can read there for more info. It’s worth checking out – particularly the black and white episodes if you can find them, but the colour ones are available from various bargain stores, I’m sure (they’re a bit over-priced on Amazon at the moment), and the movie is available from Amazon at a more reasonable rate.

The movie is really just another adaptation of the original Armchair Theatre play that launched the series in the 60s, A Magnum For Schneider. It has few of the original cast, only Woodward and Hunter, with Peter Egan stepping into Valentine’s shoes and Eric Porter becoming the last in a long line of Hunters (until the 80s ‘reunion episode’ Wet Job). It also has an awful theme tune, which is sad, because the Callan title sequence is one of the most iconic in TV history – and I’ve put it below for your enjoyment. Nevertheless, the movie does give you a flavour of the show’s downbeat style and is better than nothing. It should be easily digestible in nine minute chunks and the first part, which I’ve put at the top of the post, gets to the point very quickly.

US TV

Review: Burn Notice 1×1

2 July 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Burn Notice

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, USA Network

In the UK: Not yet acquired but Hallmark or Five will probably get their greedy mitts on it

I’m rather partial to a good spy show. A good spy show is better than almost any other kind of genre show you can think of.

But note the use of the word ‘good’ there, because there haven’t been many good spy shows. Not proper spy shows. Callan, The Sandbaggers, a couple of episodes of Man in a Suitcase but that’s about it.

Don’t you even think about mentioning Spooks. Just don’t.

The other spy shows all suffer from a serious lack of realism. They aren’t so much spy shows as action shows (or comedies in most other cases). And as Jeffrey Donovan points out during the voice over at the beginning of Burn Notice, most spy work is about as interesting as sitting in a dentist’s waiting room all day. It isn’t action work.

Burn Notice tries to have its cake and eat it. It tries to be a proper, grown-up spy show – the first the US has probably ever produced (don’t even think of saying 24. Or Threat Matrix. Or whatever you were just about to say. Just don’t). But it also tries to mix in a bit of action, a bit of humour – mostly through Donovan but also through MAN GOD Bruce Campbell – and a bit of that relentless “character” that USA Network is now (in)famous for.

And you know what? It actually works. I think.

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UK TV

Review: Out – The Complete Series – Special Edition

29 April 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Many people will only know of the late Tom Bell as the sexist DS Otley in Prime Suspect. But his acting career was wide and varied. Perhaps Bell’s finest hour was in Out in his BAFTA-winning lead role of Frank Ross, a former bank robber who tears up his old manor after eight years inside, trying to find out who put him behind bars.

Written by Trevor Preston, a contributor to Callan and previous Euston Films productions such as Special Branch, Out is firmly rooted in the revenge thriller genre, as well as the general Euston Films milieu. Like Walker in Point Blank (1967) and Carter in Get Carter (1971), Ross is an iconic figure, a sharply dressed gangster who’s prepared to go to almost any lengths to find out who informed on him.

While the grittiness of those films lives on in these six episodes, it would be wrong to think of Out as simply a standard crime thriller. Taking the Krays and other real-life criminals as guidance, it explores the relationships that a career criminal might make with others, including his family, his friends, other criminals and the police, as well as the rules that bound societies like that together during the 60s and 70s.

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