Jim Goddard gave crime television a strong sense of place and actors room to work. We value his feel for drab London, though The Sweeney can be too indulgent towards the men who do the damage.
Fi1m perspective
The London locations in The Sweeney (1975) are drab, and that is part of their value. Goddard’s crime television takes such places seriously, giving the people somewhere convincing to behave badly. We rate this forceful, funny programme highly, with John Thaw and Dennis Waterman providing much of the pleasure. We were unsettled by the violence because it has weight, even when the programme seems too fond of the men inflicting it. The humour does not cancel out that reservation.
Goddard’s painterly approach to bleak urban locations gives us a reason to look closely at places that might otherwise seem unpromising. That visual care matters: a crime programme still needs to be worth looking at when nobody is throwing a punch. He could work with studio videotape as well as filmed locations, and his reputation for sympathetic handling of actors matters as much as the visual style. We would not credit the director alone for what Thaw and Waterman achieve, but their force and humour belong in any account of why The Sweeney works.
The Euston Films work of the mid-1970s onwards brought a key collaboration with writer Trevor Preston. Out (1978), a six-part crime serial, is the next stop for its atmosphere and moral uncertainty. Fox (1980) extends the scale to a thirteen-part family saga. The blend of art-house techniques, action and attention to character makes these collaborations more interesting than the label of tough television suggests. Preston is the writer to keep in view when exploring further.
The later international miniseries Kennedy (1983) and Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) widened his field. Shanghai Surprise (1986) was an unsuccessful move into features, but it should not be allowed to stand for the television work. He subsequently returned to British television. A long television career need not be treated as preparation for a feature film. Start with The Sweeney, provided its affection for its violent men will not spoil the evening.
Biography
Jim Goddard (also credited as James Goddard) was an English film and television director. Born James Dudley Goddard in Battersea, London, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and began his career as a production designer, working on series such as The Avengers before moving into directing.
He directed episodes of numerous British television series, including Public Eye (1965), The Sweeney (1975) and Inspector Morse (1987). Other notable credits include the miniseries Kennedy (1983), for which he won a BAFTA, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982) and the feature film Shanghai Surprise (1986). He also directed episodes of The Bill and Holby City.
