--- title: "The Sweeney" year: 1975 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-sweeney" fi1m_score: 84 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-09-16T16:46:38.226675+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T16:46:38.737923+00:00" region: "US" 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." --- # The Sweeney (1975) Created by Ian Kennedy Martin · 1h 00m · MPA TV-PG · Action & Adventure, Drama, Crime **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Regan and Carter are excellent company until we remember we might need a solicitor > John Thaw and Dennis Waterman make *The Sweeney* forceful, funny crime television, helped by its drab London locations. The violence has weight; the programme is sometimes too fond of the men inflicting it. ## Synopsis In 1970s London, Det. Insp. Jack Regan (John Thaw) and Det. Sgt. George Carter (Dennis Waterman) go after criminals with little patience for the rules governing their own work. Det. Chief Insp. Frank Haskins (Garfield Morgan) sits above them in the police hierarchy. Regan wants results, and the prospect of violence does not deter him from pursuing them. Carter shares a working life of hard drinking, confrontation and comradeship. The work carries them through the city’s drab streets, with official procedure offering little restraint on their methods. ## Review *The Sweeney* is gripping police television, though it indulges its detectives more often than it should. Created by Ian Kennedy Martin, it puts Regan and Carter’s rule-breaking close enough to their comradeship that separating our pleasure from our objections takes work. The London of the 1970s matters here: drab locations give the aggression an everyday setting, rather than somewhere conveniently distant from ordinary life. The detectives look at home in those streets. John Thaw plays Det. Insp. Jack Regan with the force needed to make his impatience compelling. Dennis Waterman, as Det. Sgt. George Carter, makes the partnership feel companionable without smoothing away its roughness. We warmed to them, then felt uncomfortable about how readily that warmth softened our judgement of their violence. Their loyalty gives the programme much of its feeling, and the performances persuade us that these men would seek each other out even without a job to do. The 16mm location filming supplies much of the force. Cinematographers Michael J. Davis, Roy Pointer, Dusty Miller and Norman G. Langley give the drab London surroundings enough presence to compete with the actors. The grain helps those streets feel used rather than arranged for an important confrontation. There is pleasure in looking at this unwelcoming city, and the photography makes that pleasure possible without prettifying it. The locations keep the detectives’ swagger from taking over every part of the picture. Directors including Tom Clegg and Douglas Camfield give the confrontations a bluntness that suits the material. The violence feels unpleasantly physical, with little invitation to admire anyone’s technique. Editors Peter Delfgou, Ian Toynton, Chris Burt and John S. Smith keep the action readable and the exchanges brisk, so the roughness does not become an excuse for slack storytelling. That pace is an asset, although it can also carry us past questionable behaviour before we have had time to object. Garfield Morgan’s Det. Chief Insp. Frank Haskins gives official authority enough weight to matter alongside the more immediately appealing partnership. Regan is still an inspector in a hierarchy, however much his behaviour suggests he would prefer otherwise. Morgan keeps that fact present without needing to compete with the leads for force of personality. The programme benefits from having someone whom their camaraderie need not persuade. The weakness is the fondness for familiar misconduct. Hard drinking and rule-breaking can tell us something about the work, but they can also become comforting habits for a programme and its audience. Writers including Richard Harris and Trevor Preston understand the appeal of these men, but the programme sometimes accepts their excuses too easily. In the weaker passages, being fond of Regan is supposed to settle too much. His certainty can become wearing. As police drama, it is strongest when friendship complicates our response to what the detectives do. It is funny enough, and the acting sufficiently alert, that the moral discomfort seldom makes the programme heavy going. There is ample reason to spend time with these men, with a little caution about adopting their view of the job. Watch for John Thaw and Dennis Waterman; keep a few objections handy. *Fi1m score 84, published 16 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (2) - **The Telegraph**, Simon Heffer (90/100, inferred): The critic identifies The Sweeney as the best police drama ever seen on television and a true monument to its times. It singles out the rule-breaking violence, comradeship between Regan and Carter, atmospheric 16mm location shooting in 1970s London, and its essential cultural insight. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11998344/The-Sweeney-gave-us-TVs-most-arresting-coppers.html) - **The Guardian** (85/100, inferred): The critic calls The Sweeney the only cop show that mattered in the 1970s, a classic born from real Met turbulence and rule-bending tactics. It singles out the glorious 16mm film look, drab London locations, and how the show captures 1970s society through its bleary, hard-drinking antiheroes. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/feb/14/the-sweeney-box-set) ## Details - **Created by:** Ian Kennedy Martin - **Creator:** Ian Kennedy Martin - **Director:** Tom Clegg, David Wickes, Douglas Camfield, Terry Green, William Brayne, Mike Vardy, Viktors Ritelis, Jim Goddard, Christopher Menaul, Sid Roberson, Ted Childs, Graham Baker, Chris Burt, Ben Bolt, Peter Smith - **Writer:** Trevor Preston, Roger Marshall, Ranald Graham, Troy Kennedy Martin, Ted Childs, Tony Hoare, Ray Jenkins, Allan Prior, Andrew Wilson, Richard Harris, Robert Wales, Tudor Gates, Murray Smith, Robert Banks Stewart, Donald Churchill, Peter J. Hammond, Peter Hill, Martin Hall - **Cinematography:** Dusty Miller, Norman G. Langley, Roy Pointer, Michael J. Davis - **Editor:** John S. Smith, Chris Burt, Ian Toynton, Peter Delfgou - **Cast:** John Thaw as Det. Insp. Jack Regan; Dennis Waterman as Det. Sgt. George Carter; Garfield Morgan as Det. Chief Insp. Frank Haskins; Brian Wilde as Stanley Hedges; Wanda Ventham as Brenda; T. P. McKenna as Det. Supt. Grant; Prunella Gee as Sandy Williams; Tony Jay as Lambourne - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-PG - **Release (the US):** 2 January 1975 - **Genres:** Action & Adventure, Drama, Crime ## Where to watch in the US - BritBox: streaming, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, sd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: CA, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The French Connection* (1971), Fi1m 85: The police work is exhausting, the pursuit gripping, the shortcuts troubling. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-french-connection.md) - *Get Carter* (1971), Fi1m 86: British criminal brutality with even less reassurance about whom to trust. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/get-carter.md) - *High and Low* (1963), Fi1m 90: A kidnapping investigation that pays close attention to class and city streets. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/high-and-low.md) - *Memories of Murder* (2003): More detectives confusing force with competence, with darker consequences and bitter humour. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/memories-of-murder.md) - *Spiral* (2005): French police work with tangled loyalties and little appetite for clean hands. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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