Groundbreaking British police drama series following the exploits of the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police. An elite group of officers tasked with protecting London from spies, terrorists, and subversives.
When a psychotic ex-CID officer barricades himself and a hostage in an office building, lacing it with multiple bombs, Craven and the Special Branch team are called in. Time ticks down as negotiation...
The Special Branch team face a quandary. Why should Morales, a foreign VIP whose help is vital to Britain, turn out to be as dubious as the thugs who relieve him of a fortune in diamonds? Craven is ...
When two children run riot in the luggage department at London Airport and cause a mix-up with passengers' baggage, it inadvertently results in the discovery of a sinister secret - which leads Craven...
Gritty British-made Police drama series set in the beautiful location of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Cynical Dutch Detective Commissaris "Piet" Van der Valk (Barry Foster) and his colleagues investigate murders, kidnappings, and political corruption.
Stars:
Barry Foster,
Michael Latimer,
Joanna Dunham
Cynical, dour and world-weary, private eye Frank Marker is frequently the unwitting stooge in bigger criminal wheels in his attempts to make a tenuous living on the outskirts of London.
Greg Callan's cousin David Callan is the top agent/assassin for the Security Service (British counterintelligence), but he is an embittered man who performs his duties "for Queen and ... See full summary »
Stars:
Edward Woodward,
Russell Hunter,
Lisa Langdon
Jack Regan is a hard edged detective in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan Police. He pursues villains by methods which are underhanded and often illegal, frequently violent, and more often than not, successful.
Stars:
John Thaw,
Dennis Waterman,
Garfield Morgan
This is a British television series in which Dr. Roger Corder (Herbert Lom) is a psychiatrist who is able to treat and cure any patients' mental disorders through Freudian and contemporary approaches.
Most people know A.J. Raffles only as a gentleman of leisure and a top-rated cricketer, but he is also "the amateur Cracksman", an expert jewel thief. Alternately aided and hindered by his ... See full summary »
Stars:
Anthony Valentine,
Christopher Strauli,
Victor Brooks
The Protectors were Harry Rule, the Contessa di Contini and Paul Buchet, three freelance troubleshooters who ran an international crime fighting agency. Based in London, Harry was the ... See full summary »
Stars:
Robert Vaughn,
Nyree Dawn Porter,
Tony Anholt
After resigning, a secret agent is abducted and taken to what looks like an idyllic village, but is really a bizarre prison. His warders demand information. He gives them nothing, but only tries to escape.
Stars:
Patrick McGoohan,
Angelo Muscat,
Peter Swanwick
A thirty-something year-old man named Harold and his elderly father, Albert, work as rag and bone men (collecting and selling junk). Harold is ambitious and wants to better himself, but his... See full summary »
Stars:
Wilfrid Brambell,
Harry H. Corbett,
Frank Thornton
The prisoners in Colditz Castle make many attempts to escape captivity from the arrival of the first British prisoners after Dunkirk in 1940 until the liberation of the castle by the ... See full summary »
Stars:
David McCallum,
Richard Heffer,
Paul Chapman
Groundbreaking British police drama series following the exploits of the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police. An elite group of officers tasked with protecting London from spies, terrorists, and subversives.
Unlike a good deal of British television from the 1950s to the 1970s, every episode of this show has been preserved in the archives. See more »
Crazy Credits
The credit lists for many episode in Season 3 only listed the character names for the main characters; a lot of minor parts were listed as actor names with no corresponding character names. See more »
This cop show about Britain's police force which fights crime with a national security angle is actually two almost completely different series, each of which ran for two seasons.
The first is a studio-made production from the late 1960s starring Derren Nesbitt (Jordan), with Wensley Pithey (Eden) and then Fulton Mackay (Inman) as his superiors, all three putting in excellent performances. Nesbitt in particular, looking immensely trendy, is magnificent, characteristically twitchy.
This Special Branch is in a state of perpetual tension with MI5, Britain's spy service, represented by the wily Moxon, who makes Machiavelli look naive. The first season contains a running thread following a failed case in the first episode, 'Troika', which puts Eden under pressure from his mysterious superiors.
The quality of script and acting of these two seasons is marvellous, but the productions mix studio-bound scenes, with the painted 'view' from Eden/Inman's window particularly obvious, with location-filmed inserts. Excellent, and very much of its time.
The third and fourth seasons are totally different under the same brand or banner, with virtually no overlap in cast with the first two seasons. These were entirely filmed by Euston, and intended to look gritty and realistic - and so it seemed at the time, but it looks a bit pedestrian in comparison with, say, The Sweeney, never mind The Wire. Compared with the first two seasons, it shifted the focus from talk to action, from internal politics to enemy action, and was much less cerebral and concerned with character. Not quite dumbed down, but the last two seasons were certainly inferior to the first two.
The star of the show was George Sewell. He had a posh sidekick, Roger Rowland who proved extremely boring (he was one of the very few cast overlaps with the first two seasons, having appeared in a small part in an early show), so while the third season was being filmed they pepped up the cast with the addition of Patrick Mower, who quickly added a bit of tension and his peculiar brand of sleazy glam.
All four seasons are available on DVD in the UK, but make sure you know what you are buying. Seasons 1 & 2 are traditional, talky and studio set, so comparable with something like the Sandbaggers (not as good, I should add, but not unlike in style). Seasons 3 & 4 are location-filmed, gritty and action-oriented, so more like The Sweeney (not as good either).
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This cop show about Britain's police force which fights crime with a national security angle is actually two almost completely different series, each of which ran for two seasons.
The first is a studio-made production from the late 1960s starring Derren Nesbitt (Jordan), with Wensley Pithey (Eden) and then Fulton Mackay (Inman) as his superiors, all three putting in excellent performances. Nesbitt in particular, looking immensely trendy, is magnificent, characteristically twitchy.
This Special Branch is in a state of perpetual tension with MI5, Britain's spy service, represented by the wily Moxon, who makes Machiavelli look naive. The first season contains a running thread following a failed case in the first episode, 'Troika', which puts Eden under pressure from his mysterious superiors.
The quality of script and acting of these two seasons is marvellous, but the productions mix studio-bound scenes, with the painted 'view' from Eden/Inman's window particularly obvious, with location-filmed inserts. Excellent, and very much of its time.
The third and fourth seasons are totally different under the same brand or banner, with virtually no overlap in cast with the first two seasons. These were entirely filmed by Euston, and intended to look gritty and realistic - and so it seemed at the time, but it looks a bit pedestrian in comparison with, say, The Sweeney, never mind The Wire. Compared with the first two seasons, it shifted the focus from talk to action, from internal politics to enemy action, and was much less cerebral and concerned with character. Not quite dumbed down, but the last two seasons were certainly inferior to the first two.
The star of the show was George Sewell. He had a posh sidekick, Roger Rowland who proved extremely boring (he was one of the very few cast overlaps with the first two seasons, having appeared in a small part in an early show), so while the third season was being filmed they pepped up the cast with the addition of Patrick Mower, who quickly added a bit of tension and his peculiar brand of sleazy glam.
All four seasons are available on DVD in the UK, but make sure you know what you are buying. Seasons 1 & 2 are traditional, talky and studio set, so comparable with something like the Sandbaggers (not as good, I should add, but not unlike in style). Seasons 3 & 4 are location-filmed, gritty and action-oriented, so more like The Sweeney (not as good either).