Wet Job

There were some great episodes of that classic TV series, Callan. And there was the odd one that was a little disappointing. This follow-up show is one of the latter unfortunately.

Edward Woodward is intense, as usual, in his old role of David Callan. Russel Hunter is brilliant in his return as Lonely (damn that man was a fine actor).

Where it mainly fails is that the story meanders, and never quite develops a consistent plot. It's almost as if the writers didn't care where it was going, because they knew there'd be enough loyal Callan fans out there to ensure good ratings anyway.

Also, production quality was poor, even for those of us who grew up on British TV of that era, and are used to seeing things like stage lights reflecting in people's glasses. The soundtrack and incidental music are almost amusingly bad.

For a Callan fan, it's still worth watching. Just don't expect a classic.

For fans of the original series of "Callan" this is disappointing. It is of course, fantastic to see Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter working together again but the very poor plot, stiff acting in parts and absolutely terrible incidental music makes this a poor effort overall I think.

Hugh Walters is very good as the new Hunter and George Sewell is also a great addition to this one off. Felicity Harrison plays the new Liz, albeit only for a few minutes. There are very few action scenes in this and is focused mostly on the life of Callan since leaving his old job and the sub-plot surrounding Callan's landlady is actually pretty dire.

Overall, it is worth seeing if you are a Callan and/or Edward Woodward fan, simply to find out what happened to the hero, but don't be surprised if you are disappointed by this episode - a great shame, but it is understandable why this is unlikely to shown again.

Just a note to one of the other reviewers (rev-584-459122), Wet Job is NOT a remake of the original play A Magnum for Schneider, which formed the basis of the Callan movie. This is a sequel to the original popular TV series in which an aging Callan has been forcibly retired from the security services, but is reactivated for yet another job. Though the performances of Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter and some others aren't bad, it's very poorly made with a tenuous plot, frequently incompetent camera-work, and irritating incidental music. Having watched it when it was first shown and again recently on DVD I suspect the production was hurried and with a smaller budget than it should have had.

Kind of a bummer this was the last time we get to see Callan! The whole episode seemed to have been pretty thrown together. You'd think the producers would have gone all out with the writing and bringing back more core characters for this comeback episode. It's not all bad at least. Getting a little bit of Lonely was a treat for sure. The main gripe was the terrible music that hits you over the head at the wrong times in volume and tone of the melody, except for the end part when David is going into the country house. The video production is no better or worse than the colour episodes of the old show. Overall not super, but definitely worth watching if you're a fan of the REALLY great TV show. The 1974 film is a better send off of the character than Wet Job.

Lacklustre drab and miserable. Amateur acting, dreadful , or was it just badly written screenplay , or was it just badly directed ? Which of those possibilities, or all of them ? Commplicated to the point of switch off and read a good book ! Admittedly I did not avidly follow Callan exploits back in the day so maybe , just MAybe this would have clicked as interesting ? After 30 minutes I opted out !