1 9 7 7 – 1 9 7 8 (UK)
22 x 50 minute episodes
The door-kicking, pistol-in-the-face exploits of Detective Superintendent Steve Hackett (Patrick Mower, ex-Special Branch), a detective with No. 13 Regional Crime Squad, working the ports on the south coast of England and taking on armed robbers, drug dealers, kidnappers, human traffickers and art thieves, among other villains.
Hackett’s team consisted of brooding Detective Chief Superintendent Tate (Philip Madoc), refined Detective Sergeant Louise Colbert (Vivien Heilbron), motorbike-fixated Detective Sergeant Frank Bonney (Brendan Price), and Detective Constable Dukes (Carl Rigg).
Shot on film and intended as the BBC’s version of The Sweeney, it mistook violence and bad language for realism with the result that a squall of protests cut short the first season and toned down the second.
Even so, it continued to confuse over-dramatic seriousness for police professionalism and a third season was not commissioned.
Detective Superintendent Steve Hackett
Patrick Mower
Detective Chief Superintendent Tate
Philip Madoc
DS Louise Colbert
Vivien Heilbron
DS Frank Bonney
Brendan Price
DC Dukes
Carl Rigg