The Sweeney/Sweeney 2 [DVD] [1976]

SWEENEY!(the actual title of the first spin-off film) at least tries to be a little different to the series, with a plot filled with post-Watergate corruption and paranoia revolving round a smilingly evil 'Public Relations' consultant who uses sex, blackmail and murder to advance the agendas and profits of the shadowy foreign interests employing him (Thames TV regular Barry Foster slimes up the premises nicely in the role, though his American accent needs work). Regan gets pulled into the web by the murder of an informant (whose tip-off on a wages snatch provides Regan's entire Flying Squad team an excuse for a full-scale street brawl early in the film), and from there he winds up suspended from the Force, under investigation and stalked by hitmen with machine guns. The theatre format allowed for more swearing, gore and nudity than was permissible on the telly, and it frankly gets a bits tiresome (Regan has so many near-misses, usually resulting in someone next to him dying messily, that it's utterly unbelievable by the end of the movie). There's more than the usual tension between Thaw and Waterman here, but it's utterly forgotten by the time we get to...

SWEENEY 2, which seems to have been strung together by regular series writer Troy Kennedy-Martin (best known for the original ITALIAN JOB) from an episode outline and a dozen bits that he couldn't fit into the show. This one draws on elements from Britain's Great Train Robbery with slight hints of the Manson Family, with a group of robbers blagging banks every month or so (armed with a distinctive gold-plated shotgun) to keep up the maintenance on the communal offshore paradise they've set themselves and their families up in. Subplot after subplot goes absolutely nowhere (most notably one involving Regan's corrupt Superintendent being packed off to prison, which serves no real purpose except to fill time and provide the movie with its one 'name' guest star, Denholm Elliott - the tenuous link with the main plot is so obviously an afterthought that the plot point it replaced wasn't removed!), and the result is a muddled and rather boring film 'spiced up' by more 1970s violence (one smashup car chase, Carter smacking around a couple of crooked bobbies, and a nasty, bloody ending) and forced attempts at humor (Regan and Carter on a boozy flight to Malta, Regan's prissy new driver, thickwitted Squad detectives, etc, etc).

Audio and video quality on the DVD transfer are quite good, but extras are nil - chapter selections, and that's it.

Completists will want this, but it's definitely the weakest Sweeney ever made - the original pilot film REGAN or the boxed Series 1 set are a far better introduction to a British TV classic.