Callan was a series I discovered after being laid up with a heavy cold a couple of years back. Taughtly written, gritty, with an extraordinary air of oppression. David Challan worked for a secretive government department with a grim mission...
All I could say I was hooked.
This was espionage for adults, the perfect antidote to the CGI and exaggerated heroics of Bond and Bourne; Edward Woodward's David Callan - an angry, cynical, insubordinate ex- con/ ex- soldier - could have done them a nasty (and a half) without blinking. Prior to Callan, the closest we had to 'real' spies was Alex Le Mass or Harry Palmer...and like them Challan knew he was in a dirty business.
Good turns too from Russell Hunter, William Squire, Liz Langdon and Patrick Mower (staggers me he made Carry On England at this time!).
Harold Wilson said he liked the show too... while I admire his tastes - bearing in mind the climate of the Seventies - I have to ask what was going through his head when he watched it?
Highly recommended.
