---
name: "Ian Kennedy Martin"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/ian-kennedy-martin"
roles: ["Creator"]
born: "13 May 1936"
died: "27 June 2026"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T16:47:41.976800+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ian Kennedy Martin

Creator. Born 13 May 1936 in London, England. Died 27 June 2026.

## Details

- **Work:** Creator
- **Born:** 13 May 1936, London, England
- **Died:** 27 June 2026

## Fi1m on Ian Kennedy Martin

> Ian Kennedy Martin gave police drama forceful central characters and good reasons to distrust them. We rate his feel for comradeship and conflict, though *The Sweeney* can make its detectives’ rule-breaking rather too easy to enjoy.

John Thaw and Dennis Waterman look at home in the drab London streets of *The Sweeney* (1975), and that is part of the trouble. The series is forceful, funny police television, with violence that has weight. We were gripped by Regan and Carter’s comradeship, then uneasy about how readily it made us forgive their rule-breaking. Kennedy Martin puts that friendship close enough to the misconduct to make separating the two difficult. The programme is sometimes much too fond of them.

After early television work including script editing on *Redcap* (1964), the decisive step was *Regan* (1974), the pilot for *The Sweeney*. Kennedy Martin devised Jack Regan for Thaw, a choice that puts a particular performer at the centre of his writing. Thaw’s force and the humour he shares with Waterman help explain why the series can get away with so much. Kennedy Martin left after the pilot over disagreements about production style. We should not credit him with every strength of the subsequent series, or hold him responsible for every indulgence.

The drab locations make the aggression harder to dismiss as something that belongs only in a television thriller. Regan and Carter look at ease there, and their comradeship gives us a reason to stay with them beyond the promise of more violence. Thaw and Waterman can be funny without making that violence feel harmless. These are substantial pleasures, and our objections do not make *The Sweeney* any less gripping.

The later creations *Juliet Bravo* (1980) and *The Chinese Detective* (1981) give the officer’s difficulties with the force a different cause. One centres on a female police inspector confronting sexism; the other features a British-Chinese detective and addresses racism within policing. Kennedy Martin is still interested in people who do not fit comfortably into their institution, but the trouble is not simply an awkward temperament. Those premises give the familiar conflict something specific to examine. Start with *The Sweeney* for Thaw and Waterman, and do not feel obliged to like their detectives quite as much as the programme does.

## Biography

Ian Kennedy Martin was a British television scriptwriter. He created the action drama series *The Sweeney* (1975–78), produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and broadcast on ITV. He began his career in the 1960s as a script editor on the military police drama *Redcap* (1964) and later wrote episodes for series including *The Troubleshooters* (1965) and *The Onedin Line* (1971).

Martin also wrote the 1975 film *Mitchell* and created the BBC series *Juliet Bravo* (1980–85) and *The Chinese Detective* (1981–82). He continued writing for police and detective dramas into the 1990s, including ITV's *The Knock*. He was the younger brother of scriptwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, with whom he worked on *Redcap*.

Martin was born in London and died on 27 June 2026.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, theguardian.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Sweeney* (1975), Fi1m 84, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-sweeney.md)

## Also known for

- *The Sweeney* (2012), Characters
- *The Saint* (1962), Writer
- *Mitchell* (1975), Writer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ian-kennedy-martin