The Sandbaggers is a British spy thriller television series created by Ian Mackintosh, about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV from 1978 to 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of espionage on the personal and professional lives of British intelligence officers and their American colleagues. All but three of the 20 episodes were written by Mackintosh, who disappeared in 1979 during production. The series was produced in Leeds by Yorkshire Television.
Premise Neil Burnside (Roy Marsden) is director of operations (D/Ops) in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). The series refers to the service as SIS rather than the more colloquial MI6, though reference is often made to MI5, the UK's domestic intelligence service. Burnside oversees a small, elite group of intelligence officers, the Special Operations Section, nicknamed "Sandbaggers", composed of highly trained operatives whose missions tend to be politically sensitive or particularly vital to UK security.
In many episodes, the primary antagonists are not foreign operatives but rather the UK government and the bureaucracy of SIS itself, as Burnside struggles to operate his directorate in the face of budget cuts and what he believes to be unwarranted interference. A continuing theme of the series is the so-called "special relationship" between SIS and America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the UK-USA Agreement, which Burnside goes to great lengths to preserve.
Series creator The Sandbaggers was created by Ian Mackintosh, a Scottish former naval officer turned television writer, who had achieved success with the BBC television series Warship. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series of The Sandbaggers. In July 1979, during the shooting of the third series, he and his girlfriend were declared lost at sea after their single-engine aircraft went missing over the Pacific Ocean near Alaska, following a radioed call for help. Some details surrounding their disappearance caused speculation about what occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact the plane crashed in the small area not covered by US or Soviet radar.
Mackintosh disappeared after he had written four scripts for the third series, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven. The Sandbaggers ends on an unresolved cliffhanger because the producers decided no one else could write the series as well as Mackintosh and chose not to continue it in his absence. Ray Lonnen, who played Sandbagger Willie Caine, indicated in correspondence with fans that there were plans for a follow-up season in which his character, using a wheelchair, had taken over Burnside's role as Director of Special Operations. As Lonnen was the only cast or production team member to state knowledge of this fourth season storyline, it is unclear if this was the actual storyline planned or an attempt at humour by Lonnen.
Because of the atmosphere of authenticity that the scripts evoked and the liberal use of "spook" jargon, there has been speculation that Mackintosh might have been a former operative of SIS or had, at least, contact with the espionage community. This has extended to speculation that his disappearance was not an accident, and/or was a consequence of a secret mission he was undertaking. There is a possibility that Mackintosh may have been involved in intelligence operations when in the Royal Navy, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced. When asked, Mackintosh himself was always coy about whether he had been a spy.
Whether or not Mackintosh had experience in espionage, the structure of the SIS depicted in The Sandbaggers is perhaps closer to the CIA than the SIS. There is no formal section of the SIS known as the Special Operations Section, as far as is publicly known, and there is no intelligence unit known as the Sandbaggers. However, the departures from accuracy in the show may have been deliberate, to avoid problems with the SIS under the Official Secrets Act. Lonnen mentioned in an interview that one episode in the second series was vetoed because it dealt with sensitive information, which explains why the second series has only six episodes.
Production and story style
The series takes a realistic, austere, and cynical view of Cold War espionage, undercutting many conventions of the spy thriller genre, in direct contrast to the "girls, guns, and gadgets" of James Bond. Burnside is a harried spymaster who doesn't drink; Willie Caine is an intelligence officer rather than a "super spy", who abhors guns and violence, and is paid a basic civil servant's salary. There are very few action sequences in the dialogue-heavy episodes; the drama instead arises from the high emotional toll taken on Burnside and the Sandbaggers operating in a world of moral ambiguity.
The plots are complex, multi-layered, and unpredictable: regular characters are killed off abruptly, and surprise twists abound. In a typical episode, Burnside moves from office to office speaking and arguing with his colleagues across Whitehall and in the intelligence community. These are interspersed with scenes of the Sandbaggers operating in the field, as well as the "Ops Room", where missions are coordinated and controlled.
Theme music The title theme music, composed by jazz pianist Roy Budd, establishes its rhythmic undertone with the cimbalom, an instrument often associated with spy thrillers (John Barry, for example, used the cimbalom in his scores for The Ipcress File and The Quiller Memorandum). From series 2 onwards, the theme contains an additional organ playing the same melody line. This version (or 'mix') was also used in the opening titles of episode 2 and episode 7 of series 1).
Unusually for an episodic drama, The Sandbaggers is almost entirely devoid of incidental music. One notable exception is the last episode of series 1 (episode 7) where Burnside's feelings get the better of him for reasons the audience (by then) fully understand.
Locations Most exterior filming was done in Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire countryside. The producers successfully used the modernist and brutalist architecture available in Leeds and Yorkshire to create convincing vignettes of eastern bloc locations, but much of this has been redeveloped, reclad or demolished in recent years. Additional exteriors were filmed on location in London and Malta, otherwise the series uses stock footage and set-up shots of foreign locations. With the exception of a very few interior locations, most of the interiors were standing sets, shot on videotape, at Yorkshire Television's studios on Kirkstall Road, Leeds. The contrast between the studio work and the location work on 16mm film is clear to see on screen.
The series uses several regular London locations to set the scene, most notably in and around Westminster. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Whitehall and the adjacent King Charles Street appear regularly, and this is where the statue of Robert Clive is sited, looking out into St James's Park. The Boyle Street entrance to 25 Savile Row in Mayfair was used as SIS headquarters and despite some superficial changes it is still recognisable today. The former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair is the location of Jeff Ross's office (and is now a hotel).
Art
In series one and two, the large painting that hangs in Greenley's office is "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Robert Alexander Hillingford. When Gibbs becomes "C" in series three, it is replaced by a painting of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The painting in Wellingham's office is "Northumberland House, Charing Cross," by John Paul. The painting in Peel's office is an unnamed wooded landscape. In Burnside's office is an unnamed cavalry painting.
Cast
Neil Burnside (Roy Marsden)
Burnside is the Director of Operations (D/Ops) of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6). Himself a former Sandbagger and a former Royal Marine officer, Burnside has been D/Ops for only six months at the start of the series. He is arrogant and obsessively dedicated to his job, and regularly finds himself at odds with his superiors, politicians, the Foreign Office, and the Security Service (MI5). The opening titles reveal that Burnside's middle initial is D., as shown on a letter addressed to "N.D. Burnside, Esq." on his desk.
Willie Caine (Ray Lonnen), "Sandbagger One"
Caine, a former paratrooper, is head of the Special Operations Section. He shares a bond of friendship and trust with Burnside, and is not afraid to speak his mind; Burnside describes Caine as "probably the best operative currently operating anywhere in the world". He is the only character besides Burnside to appear in every episode of the series.
Sir James Greenley (Richard Vernon), "C" (series 1 and 2)
Greenley is the recently appointed chief of SIS, code-named "C". Burnside is initially wary of Greenley, who was a diplomat before becoming C, but over time they develop a close relationship; Burnside describes Greenley as "the best C SIS has ever had". He retires at the end of the second series due to angina and is replaced by John Tower Gibbs.
Matthew Peele (Jerome Willis), Deputy Chief
As Deputy Chief, Peele is usually the first person to whom Burnside reports. They share an antagonistic relationship, as Burnside views Peele as a nuisance with no opinions of his own, while Peele considers Burnside reckless, arrogant, and untrustworthy. Peele is generally disliked by most characters, but displays considerable tact and intelligence throughout the series, as he is often more aware of/concerned with the bigger picture than Burnside.
Sir Geoffrey Wellingham (Alan MacNaughtan)
Burnside's personal and professional life come together in Wellingham, Burnside's former father-in-law and the Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office which oversees SIS. They share an informal but sometimes antagonistic relationship which on occasion is tested to its limit, but also maintain an unspoken fondness and respect for each other.
Jeff Ross (Bob Sherman), head of London station, CIA
Ross is Burnside's only friend, and the two maintain a close personal and professional relationship; he tends to share Burnside's disdain of bureaucratic and political interference. They occasionally work at odds with one another, but are most often allies fighting their common enemies (the Soviets, and bureaucracy within their own agencies). Ross shows himself to be considerably more ruthless and cold-blooded than Burnside on several occasions.
John Tower Gibbs (Dennis Burgess), "C" (series 3 only)
Gibbs replaces Greenley as C in the last episode of the second series. A former head of station with whom Burnside has an antagonistic relationship, Gibbs disapproves of Burnside and his method of operating. His appointment (along with a continued lack of funding) leads to increased tension within SIS. Gibbs and Burnside regularly clash throughout the third series.
Other Sandbaggers
The posts of Sandbaggers Two and Three are filled throughout the series by Jake Landy (David Glyder), Alan Denson (Steven Grives), Laura Dickens (Diane Keen), Tom Elliott (David Beames) and Mike Wallace (Michael Cashman).
Other characters
Diane Lawler (Elizabeth Bennett) is Burnside's fiercely loyal personal assistant; she leaves SIS when she marries at the end of the second series, handpicking her replacement, Marianne Straker (Sue Holderness), who stays with Burnside for the remainder of the series.