Sandbaggers

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.

If you love this show, and there's no reason why you shouldn't, don't despair that only three seasons (about 18 episodes) were made. The Sandbaggers continues in more modern-day missions in the comic book "Queen and Country," by Greg Rucka. Now there's no Burnside or Willie, but it's pure Sandbaggers. Apparently Rucka was a huge fan of the show and wanted to continue the idea of a realistic special operations unit, where paper-pushing is more prevelant than gun fights and no one -- NO ONE -- is safe. I'm pretty sure you can find the books on Amazon.

I can't remember how I managed to stumble across this series a good many years ago now, but somehow - and I still haven't been able to work out just how - it managed to hook me almost instantly. There is so much subterfuge, nasty, backroom dealings and internal politics going on and plain intrigue that it hardly matters that there's almost no real action in this series. Virtually everything goes on in the offices of the Sandbagger unit and there's not even very much outdoor camera work, so I suspect this series was made on an incredibly cheap budget, but the scripts are good, the plots are believable, the acting is excellent when you consider that these guys are spies who are not meant to betray too much emotion, and the tension is constant. Good British psychological drama.

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.