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MovieMail's Review
All 22 colour episodes of the Thames TV's excellent series about a reluctant professional killer working for British inteligence. Its standards never slipped, says Julian Upton.
Edward Woodard’s Callan — a triumph of controlled violence, disarming vulnerability and hairpiece adhesive — returns in full colour in this box set containing Series 3 and 4.
Back at ‘The Section’ after being shot at the end of Series 2, Callan is deemed unfit for work, much to his superior’s chagrin. “There is a gross retardation of the aggressive instinct,” his doctor announces solemnly. “He is unwilling to be shot at, and unwilling to kill.” Needless to say, he is soon back on form, thanks to some departmental mind games.
This is really where Callan succeeds as the antithesis to the James Bond films: not so much in the dingy, workaday evocation of Callan’s clandestine profession, but in the ‘psychological warfare’, backstabbing and internal politics rampant in The Section. Series 3 begins as claustrophobically as the earlier episodes, but Series 4 is more ambitious, with better production values, more complex plots and guest stars.
The final, three-part story, with T.P. McKenna giving Woodward a run for his money, sees the show at or very near its best. Callan’s standards never slipped.
Edward Woodward gives an electrifying performance as a reluctant professional killer working for British Intelligence. Callan became a national phenomenon in the late 1960s, making Woodward one of the highest profile actors on television and paving the way to his eventual career in America on shows like The Equalizer.
Created by James Mitchell (When the Boat Comes In) and exploring the dingy, twilight world of the professional spy, Callan was the antithesis of the James Bond films (back in the days of Connery and Moore) and presented what was, until that point, television’s most realistic portrayal of government espionage.
This set contains all twenty-two colour episodes from the Thames Television-produced series three and four – the majority of which have been unseen for over twenty years and are available here for the first time.
