London Bridges

At first Dennis Weaver, Terry Carter and a bunch of other NYPD cops are providing security for a swank society party. But there's more than one group of crooks operating here.

Jack Cassidy guest stars in this McCloud episode as an English Lord with a cash flow problem who supplements his income with a little cat burglary on the side. Watching Cassidy in this role he seems to be paying a homage to Ronald Colman as Raffles.

While plying his avocation Cassidy both steals some blueprints as well as jewelry that he does not know what they mean. At the same time he sees the murder of the host of the party Bernard Behrens by some IRA terrorists.

Society guy Behrens also had an avocation as an arms dealer which got him killed. Chasing Cassidy back to London, Dennis Weaver uncovers what the IRA plans are and its big. Think the classic film Hennessy from the Seventies and you'll know what.

The usual grumpy Chief Clifford is on overtime here. In the middle of the night he's ordered to go to London to supervise McCloud and I do mean immediately. J.D. Cannon leaves home, hearth, and wife Coleen Gray. More than even for him, Cannon is not a happy camper.

Let's say the whole United Kingdom is grateful to the marshal from Taos, New Mexico when this show ends.

I remind that wonderful TV show when I watched it, in my childhood. But maybe not this very episode, that permits me to see the late Jack Cassidy, escaped from his nearly usual Columbo épisodes. Here, his character reminds me too the one he had facing Peter Falk. I love this early seventies atmosphere, with Dennis Weaver and JD Cannon. I am happy and lucky to watch this whole series soon, during the year. And the épisodes are long enough, as the Columbo ones were. Plots may, this way, be fully explained, in deep way enough for the audiences. I won't repeat this one already done in the plot line above. But, believe me, it's really worth watching, for nostalgia gem diggers. I will certainly be back to comment more épisodes.

Having last week just watched the first official "Columbo" episode with Jack Cassidy among the guest stars, I decided to then watch this one of "McCloud" which turned out to be his last role as he died months before this one aired. He plays an English Lord who does some jewelry burglary at a costume party when he then witnesses a killing. It seems what he stole had some microfilm which has some bombing plans from some Irish terrorists. Sam McCloud finds out about them and goes to London with Cassidy to try to stop those plans. I'll also mention that Cassidy's character is friends with McCloud's girlfriend Chris the reporter. This was another entertaining ep of the New Mexico marshal-transferred-to-New York series especially when Chief Clifford does his exasperated self concerning McCloud. And I love the London locations here, a place I visited last year. So that's a recommendation for the "London Bridges" ep of "McCloud". P. S. It's amusing seeing future "WKRP in Cincinnati" star Richard Saunders employing an Irish accent in his role here.