The Sandbaggers

''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 of the three series were written by Mackintosh, who died during the recording of series three. 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). Although commonly known as MI6 among the general public, the service is only ever referred to as SIS in the series to reflect the ethos of realism and factual accuracy employed in the writing.

The series follows Burnside as he 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 especially vital, such as escorting defectors across borders (or preventing defections from the UK), carrying out assassinations, or rescuing operatives from behind the Iron Curtain.

Several episodes revolve around Burnside's frustration at trying to operate his directorate in the face of budget cuts and what he believes to be unwarranted bureaucratic or political interference.

One of the themes running through the series is the relationship between SIS and America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the UK-USA Agreement. Burnside goes to great lengths to preserve the agreement and the so-called " special relationship", most notably in the episode of the same name (1-07).

Series creator

''The Sandbaggers'' was created by Ian Mackintosh, a Scottish former naval officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed BBC television series ''Warship''. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series of ''The Sandbaggers'', but in July 1979, during the shooting of the third series, he and his girlfriend—a British Airways stewardess—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 of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either US or Soviet radar.

Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the 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 cliff hanger because the producers decided that no one else could write the series as well as Mackintosh had 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.

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 no accident or had to do with a secret mission he was undertaking. There is a possibility that Mackintosh may have been involved in intelligence operations during his time 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 any experience in the world of espionage, the organisational structure of SIS depicted in ''The Sandbaggers'' is probably closer to that of the CIA than that of 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, in order to avoid problems with the SIS under the Official Secrets Act. Ray 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, unvarnished, and occasionally bleak look at espionage. ''The Sandbaggers'' undercut many of the accepted conventions of the spy thriller genre, in direct contrast to the "girls, guns, and gadgets" of James Bond. Indeed the characters often explicitly disparage the fictitious world of James Bond and the romanticised view of espionage. As Burnside puts it in episode 1.01 "First Principles":

"Special operations doesn't mean going in with all guns blazing. It means special planning, special care. Fully briefed agents in possession of all possible alternatives. If you want James Bond, go to a library. But if you want a successful operation, sit at your desk and think. And then think again. Our battles aren't fought at the end of a parachute, they're won and lost in drab, dreary corridors in Westminster."

''The Sandbaggers'' features ordinary people doing extraordinary work. The scripts are laced with black humour, depicting the high emotional toll taken on espionage professionals who operate in a world of moral ambiguity. There are very few action sequences, and the equipment available to the operatives is standard and often outdated. Burnside is a harried spymaster who doesn't drink; Willie Caine is an intelligence officer not a "super spy", who abhors guns and violence, and is paid a basic civil servant's salary.

The plots are complex, multi-layered, and unpredictable: regular characters are killed off abruptly, and surprise twists abound. Episodes consist of a series of conversations, but the dialogue is intelligent and frequently witty. 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, or of 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).

Episode-specific locations

1-01 "First Principles". The Norwegian Embassy is at 25 Belgrave Square, London. Torvik and Burnside meet at Park Square, Leeds. Ross and Burnside meet by the Roosevelt memorial on Grosvenor Square, London. The crash site and tundra of the Kola Peninsula were filmed up on Ilkley Moor. The Oslo airport interior was filmed in Leeds Bradford Airport (now completely remodelled).

1-02 "A Proper Function of Government". Burnside's apartment block is at Frobisher House off Dolphin Square in Pimlico. Burnside leaves his flat, walks south onto Grosvenor Road, turns right onto St George’s Square and walks north to Lupus Street, and waits to catch the number 24 bus to Westminster at the stop opposite 15 St George’s Square. In Vienna, Caine intercepts Hopkins in a park in Yorkshire (location tbc). Wellingham and Burnside walk north along Victoria Embankment next to Westminster Pier.

1-03 "Is Your Journey Really Necessary?". Burnside confronts Sally Graham by the orangery in Holland Park gardens in London.

1-04 "The Most Suitable Person". Colin Grove is seen walking along Devonshire Place in London, close to Harley Street

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