Sandbaggers

This is one of those series, you think you know and when you get to the end you realize, you missed something important.

This is a series which has many layers, in most cases something is missed and you feel you need to watch it again see how it was missed.

This is not a James Bond style series. It is centred around the head of the special ops of the British secret service. On the surface it appears to be about the politics of running a department. Even though it was filmed in the 70's, it holds up well. This is not to say it does not show. This could be a distraction for anybody wanting the slick production of present day.

It is well written, the acting does not get in the way of the stories, the characters are believable.

I watched the series again recently and it left me wanting more TV of this quality. I highly recommend this series.

This show is incredible. The first episodes were slo0w and I thought that there was a paucity of skilled writing re: some imaginative thinking but OH HOW WRONG I WAS. The writing is SPOT-ON and the plot moves on at a parlimentary pace....each carefully-made move thought and re-thought and analyzed until it had a soul of it's own and finally...the pieces begin to fall into place....like a well made jigsaw and reveal the underlying plots and sub-plots that make up a good.....no...GREAT...political spy thriller. I would say this is BY FAR....the finest and best written series of it's kind that I have EVER seen.....bar none! Don't miss this if you have a chance to see it and don't be put off by the first few episodes....it'll soon have you wrapped up in intrigue like no other show you've ever viewed.

A previous commenter noted that the series seemed to end abruptly and wondered if our British friends were holding out on us. The reality is that the series was supposed to continue for at least another season, but there was one problem: the producer/writer of the series died at the end of the first season. This was one of those rare situations where the originator of the series also wrote all of the episodes. That intimacy with the characters and the ability to weave various plot lines over multiple episodes was one of the characteristics that made Sandbaggers so enjoyable. But it also made it vulnerable to disaster because only the producer/writer knew all the plot lines he had planned for the second season. Most of that was in his head. With few notes to go on, the production company staff found it impossible to figure out what to do with the series, so the second season was never produced. It's a tragedy because Sandbaggers was so wonderfully done. We can only guess whether Willie survived and how Burnside dealt with his ex-wife.

Finally on DVD in Canada. Saw this on PBS in the 80's a wonderful complex description of how intelligence operations work, political interference, budget worries, a conscious rejection of the " James bond" hi-tech image. If you are look for big explosions and supermodels then this is not for you, what violence that is seen is short range knives and bullets in dark alleys. Well done and intelligent,Marsden and the rest of the cast is excellent.0 have only watched the first couple of episodes but it holds up well although the situations could often be very different in today's internet/cell phone world. The only down side is that it has been broken into 3 or 4 $30 boxes. This whole series should be in one set but just seeing it again is great.

Brilliant series : well-written and well-performed. Sophisticated plots that didn't strain credulity and rarely ended up neatly resolved. The best spy/international intrigue series ever produced, in my book.