Nov 27, 2019
Special Branch: Stand And Deliver (4.4, Thames, 1974)
"My brother and Ron Murray have had enough of poverty and squalor, enough of so-called democracy's lies, deceits, dishonesty. They've taken a stand, they've put themselves at risk - it's called courage, Mister, courage to buck the system, and you just can't understand that can you?"
"Oh yes I can, Miss Gosling, I understand it very well: it means violence and bloodshed. It means bereaved families, orphaned children, it means violence met with violence - it means a long leap on that road to hell, Miss Gosling, the hell that is all law and no order. The police state, I believe you call it Miss Gosling."
#special branch#Special branch rewatch#stand and deliver#1974#classic tv#george sewell#patrick mower#paul eddington#Frederick jaeger#dennis waterman#Ronald radd#Ray mort#Stephanie Turner#christopher benjamin#Edwin apps#Barrie Cookson#Lynn Dalby#Jonathan Elsom#Eric Mason#charles farrell#Michael J. Bird#Tom clegg#Special branch is often described as (accused of?) being a Sweeney blueprint. Here we get George Carter himself Den Waterman and his#Screen wife from that later show Stephanie Turner (who would herself star in Juliet Bravo the following decade). The story is a pretty#Unlikely one as two hapless labourers wander off with a high tech missile launcher and Craven and Co must convince them not to blow up#London. It all ends on a credulity stretching high note of tweeness too (SBv1 would probably have killed everyone off. Well maybe not but#Callan definitely would have). Still it's a nice character heavy ep with Eddington finally getting to do something other than lurk in the#Shadows (his explosive reaction quoted above is a highlight; not that he's right or that the audience necessarily agrees but Eddington#Absolutely sells that he believes himself to be right). Christopher Benjamin floats around as a dotty scientist and Radd grumbles about the#Youth of today in what is undoubtedly a minor but quite satisfying outing for the gang