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Callan: The Monochrome Years (TV)
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (22nd February 2010). |
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The Show
 A landmark television series that is consistently regarded as one of the best British television dramas ever produced, Callan (ABC/Thames, 1967-72) survived for four series. The first series was developed in response to the introduction of the character of David Callan in a 1967 episode of ITV’s anthology series Armchair Theatre (ABC/Thames, 1956-74), ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. The response to ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ was unambiguously positive: The Daily Mirror’s newspaper critic Kenneth Easthaugh even compared the drama to the work of Shakespeare, stating in his review that ‘William Shakespeare crossed swords with TV writer, James Mitchell this weekend and, in terms of sheer impact, Shakespeare lost’ (White, 2003: 184). The character of David Callan (played by Edward Woodward, in what is arguably a career-defining performance) proved extremely popular, later appearing in the 1974 film Callan (directed by Don Sharp) – which was essentially a reworking of ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ – a one-off television film entitled Wet Job (ATV, 1981) and a series of five novels by the series’ creator James Mitchell, beginning with Red File for Callan in 1969. In the world depicted in the series, Callan is a former thief and an agent for ‘the section’, which specialises in counter-espionage. Callan is an expert at assassinations (sometimes called ‘wet jobs’ in the series). However, Callan is frequently railroaded by the section, which at times seems to function as a Kafkaesque bureaucracy. Callan often finds himself placed in a ‘trick bag’, either framed by the section or abandoned to the enemy; he is frequently a helpless witness to the execution of innocents.  
Callan’s experiences bring him into conflict with his section leader, known only as Hunter. Throughout the four series of Callan, Hunter was played by a number of different actors (beginning with Ronald Radd in 'A Magnum for Schneider'). The various Hunters are, the series suggests, interchangeable agents of bureaucracy; this aspect of the series has led some commentators to draw comparisons between the role of Callan's numerous Hunters and the succession of Number 2s in The Prisoner (ITC, 1967-8) (see Clark, 2003: np). Callan’s outbursts of frustration, rage and aggression are frequently directed against Hunter and the bureaucracy that he represents. From time to time Callan openly threatens Hunter: in ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’, Callan tells Hunter 'I know that you can have me killed. But don't you push me too far, will you? Because I might just let myself be killed. Only believe me, you won't be there to see it because, mate, I'll get you first. And I can do it; believe me, I can do it. You ought to know, because after all you did train me'. However, Hunter also threatens Callan: in the same episode, Hunter effectively blackmails Callan into accepting a job by reminding Callan that he has acquired a red file (in other words, he is marked for elimination): 'You do this for me, or I'll have you destroyed', Hunter tells Callan. Later, Hunter tells Meres that 'Callan and I seem to have arrived at a very good working arrangement, what you might call a balance of terror'. However, Callan’s insolence is not simply a product of his association with the section. Several times, we are told that Callan also displayed an anti-authoritarian streak during his time in the military. In ‘A Magnum for Schneider’, Callan tells Schneider, 'I was a corporal, twice [….] I didn't get on with officers'. In ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’, Callan’s former commanding officer Brigadier Pringle tells his daughter Sarah that Callan was ‘Brave enough, certainly, but far too much of an individualist for the army. He always questioned orders, went his own way [….] But as a killer, Callan was unequalled’. However, as Callan reminds Pringle at the end of the episode, ‘You bloody taught me how to kill, and when I got too rough, mate, you didn’t like it, did you?’ The working-class Callan also frequently comes into conflict with his colleague Toby Meres (played in ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ by Peter Bowles, in the series by Anthony Valentine and in the 1974 film by Peter Egan), who Callan refers to as ‘a public school Capone’ (in ‘A Magnum for Schneider’). However, throughout the episodes in the first and second series Callan and Meres develop a grudging relationship and, eventually, mutual respect. In ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’, when an Israeli agent tells Meres that Callan ‘annoys me', Meres responds by telling the Israeli agent that Callan 'annoys everybody; he's a damn good operator'. 'You like him?', the Israeli agent asks Meres. 'I detest him; but he's still good', Meres concedes. In ‘Red Knight, White Knight’, when Hunter asks Meres about his attitude towards Callan, Meres replies, 'I detest him. But he knows the job. The only thing is, he likes to know why it has to be done'. In ‘Let’s Kill Everybody’, after Callan’s sweetheart Jenny is killed by an East German operative, Meres informs Callan of the identity of the killer; Callan declares that he plans to ‘take care of’ Jenny’s killer, and although it contravenes Hunter’s orders, Meres acknowledges and respects Callan’s decision. In ‘Heir Apparent’, during a joint operation in East Germany, Callan and Meres show a concern for each other’s welfare, and when Callan is shot at the end of series two Meres shows genuine concern for Callan, who bows out of the series with the simple declaration, 'Toby, I've been had'. (In the third and fourth series, the character of Meres was replaced with a younger and more unbalanced agent named Cross, played by Patrick Mower.) Callan is a perpetual outsider: like Len Deighton’s unnamed spy in the 1962 novel The IPCRESS File (christened Harry Palmer in the 1965 film adaptation) and Brian Freemantle’s Charlie Muffin, Callan is a working-class anti-Bond. Callan’s world is in juxtaposition with the milieu of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels (and the films based on them): the world of counter-espionage depicted in Callan is anything but glamorous, filled with treachery and paranoia; throughout the series, Callan is manipulated by the bureaucracy around him. Callan’s outsider status aligns him with the underdog, and Callan’s conscience is most clearly pricked when he is faced with situations in which innocent parties are made to suffer through the actions of the section. In ‘Nice People Die At Home’, Callan displays concern when the owners of a pet shop, which also functions as a dead drop for enemy agents, are placed in the firing line; in ‘The Little Bits and Pieces of Love’, Callan is aggrieved by Hunter’s decision to involve a Holocaust survivor in a trap for her former husband, who she believes to be dead. Callan also suffers the death of his sweetheart Jenny, in ‘Let’s Kill Everybody’. Callan’s key ally in these episodes (and, increasingly, in series three and four) is Lonely (Russell Hunter), a pitiful man who emits a foul odour when he is frightened. (In ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’, Lonely tells Callan that 'The way I smell is psychosomatic': he was told this by 'A doctor, in the [Wormwood] Scrubs'.) Callan frequently employs Lonely to obtain information or to tail suspects. Lonely and Callan clearly rely on one another. However, despite their inter-dependence Callan keeps Lonely in line by threatening him. (In ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’, Callan tells Lonely 'You're scared again, aren't you? […] You should be, mate, because I don't need a gun to take you'.) Nevertheless, Callan empathises with Lonely, and in ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’ he goes out of his way to avenge Lonely, who has been beaten and, it is suggested, tortured by Meres.      Callan’s titles sequence is one of the most instantly recognisable titles sequences in the history of British television drama: a bare lightbulb swings against a brick wall, with the title ‘Callan’ superimposed on it. A gunshot is accompanied by the explosion of the lightbulb, and a shot of Woodward’s face is accompanied by a second gunshot; the image of Woodward’s face shatters. This iconic titles sequence first makes an appearance in ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’ and is referential of the method by which enemy agents are interrogated: placed under a cocktail of hallucinogens and tranquilisers administered by what Callan and Meres refer to as a ‘headshrinker’, the suspect is placed in front of a swinging lightbulb intended to disorient and frighten them into revealing the information sought by the section. (We first see the swinging lightbulb used in an interrogation sequence in ‘Red Knight, White Knight’.) The series’ main theme was reworked as a song, ‘This Man Alone’ (‘He’s alone, a man apart/Bitter hurt deep in his heart’), which appeared on Edward Woodward’s 1970 album of the same title. The music, which was the theme for Callan throughout its four series, was licensed from the de Wolfe library and originally titled ‘Girl in the Dark’ (written by James Trombey). Callan’s use of ‘Girl in the Dark’ was the subject of a copyright dispute due to the track’s alleged similarities with the 1963 Italian song ‘Sogno Nostalgico’, by Armando Sciascia (see Jones, 1975: 65). This DVD set contains what remains of the first and second series of Callan: of the twenty-one episodes produced between 1967 and 1969, ten have been wiped and are considered lost. Series one was produced by ABC, and from series two onwards Callan was produced for Thames Television. Series three and four, shot in colour, exist in their entirety and have already been released on DVD (series three was released on DVD in the UK by ClearVision, and series three and four have both been released on DVD in Australia by Umbrella). In mid-2010, Network plan to release series three and four in the UK. Disc One: Armchair Theatre: ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ (54:46) Series One: ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’ (50:56) ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’ (46:27) Disc Two: Series Two: ‘Red Knight, White Knight’ (47:29) ‘The Most Promising Girl of Her Year’ (49:00) ‘The Little Bits and Pieces of Love’ (46:19) Disc Three: ‘Let’s Kill Everybody’ (47:14) ‘Heir Apparent’ (47:47) ‘Death of a Friend’ (47:50) Disc Four: ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’ (49:29) ‘Nice People Die At Home’ (47:23) ‘Death of a Hunter’ (53:14) Episodes:  
Armchair Theatre: ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ (Dir: Bill Bain) Produced for ITV's Armchair Theatre anthology series, ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ was written by James Mitchell. Mitchell later reworked ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ into a novel, Red File for Callan, which was published in 1969 and marked the first of five Callan novels that Mitchell would write. In 1974, ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ was also reworked into the feature film Callan (directed by Don Sharp). ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ opens on a lonely shooting range. The desolate theme music, immediately recognisable from the later episodes of Callan, is already in place. In Hunter’s office, Meres (Peter Bowles) tells Hunter (Ronald Radd) that 'He's younger than I'd imagined him, sir'. Hunter asks Bowles if Callan looks 'Soft, would you say?' Bowles asserts that 'I understand that he [Callan] is a very good shot'. Callan practices on shooting range. He holds a gun up to a target but Hunter bursts through the door and stands in front of the target just before Callan is about to pull the trigger. The moment is almost metonymic of the antagonistic relationship between Callan and the various Hunters throughout the entire run of Callan. 'I gather you're not too happy in your present employment', Hunter asserts; 'That employer of yours is boorish'. 'He's a bastard', Callan retorts. Callan has already left the secret service. 'Your talents are all so specialised. What can you do? Use a gun; use your fists; open locks. Legally, you're unskilled, Callan', Hunter reminds Callan. Holding a gun in his hand, Callan asserts, 'Tools of the trade. I used to like my trade'. Hunter tells Callan, 'You've always been a problem to us, old son. I mean, you fight well; you shoot well; you could always deliver the goods; but after all, what's my section for?' 'Getting rid of people', Callan asserts tersely. Hunter responds: 'Exactly: bribery; frame-ups; deportation... If when there's no other way, yes'. 'You're the judge and jury, and I was the executioner', Callan informs Hunter. Hunter re-enlists Callan in his section, although he reminds Callan that ‘You worried about the innocent, and I like that; but you also worried about the men you killed, and I had to let you go'. Callan’s weakness as an assassin was that he sympathised with his victims, and Hunter wants to see if Callan’s outlook has changed. Hunter tells Callan that he has a target in a red file. Callan lets Hunter know that he remembers the section’s colour-coded filing system: 'If a bloke joined the wrong party, he got a blue file; if he was under surveillance, he got a yellow one; and if he was dangerous, really dangerous, he got a red one [….] You're whole bloody world is in primary colours. It's funny, but I always got the red ones'. The target is a low-level bureaucrat named Schneider (Joseph Furst). Callan asks what he's done. Hunter asserts to Callan that 'You're always asking for reasons; that makes you weak. Schneider's in a red file; that's reason enough'. Despite his desire to know the reasons why Hunter wants Schneider eliminated, Callan accepts the job and is given a week in which to kill his target. Callan makes contact with Schneider; both men share an interest in model soldiers, and Schneider – who fought for Germany during the Second World War – tells Callan that 'Playing at soldiers is better. Here it is all brilliance and triumph and splendor. No blood. I do not care for blood, Mr Callan; not at all'. Two police officers, Detective Inspector Pollock (Martin Wyledeck) and Detective Sergeant Jones (John Scarborough), visit Schneider. Schneider tells them that he imports and exports anything he can buy cheap and sell at a profit. The policemen ask if he ever exported to the Indonesian Republic or imported from Japan. The policemen suspect him of importing guns from Noguchi, a Japanese company, and selling them in Indonesia Callan meets his contact Lonely (Russell Hunter) in a pub and arranges to buy a gun from Lonely, a .38 calibre revolve with ten or twenty bullets. Callan then breaks into Schneider's office and discovers Noguchi pencils. 'Hunter knows all about Noguchi', Callan tells himself. Dressed as a repairman, Callan breaks into Schneider's home. He cracks Schneider's safe and finds around twenty thousand pounds in cash and paperwork tying Schnieder to the Noguchi company. 'A good, steady customer', Callan describes Schneider as in voiceover. Schneider also has paperwork tying him to Indonesia. Callan finds cuttings from newspapers about British servicemen who have been killed in that part of the world. This discovery morally validates the red file that has been issued on Schneider, and in his narration, Callan intones sardonically, 'Aren't you doing a marvelous job, Mr Schneider? Yes, I am going to have to kill you'. Later, Schneider tells his Japanese mistress, Jenny (Francisca Tu), that 'the last delivery and the biggest one' is on the way. It will reap one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Schneider. Callan tells Hunter that he will kill Schneider that evening, at eleven o’clock. However, Meres has been tailing Callan and overhears Callan making a recording that implicates Hunter in the assassination of Schneider. Callan has made the recording in the event that he is killed or captured by the police. Meres knocks Callan unconscious and seizes the recording, later describing it to Hunter as 'A kind of letter to be opened “in the event of”. I destroyed it, of course'. Callan drinks heavily before making the journey to Schneider’s house. Meanwhile, Meres appears to be making his own plans to eliminate Schneider. 
An exceptionally powerful hour of television, ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ disregards the conventions (mythical or not) associated with ITV’s Armchair Theatre (ABC/Thames, 1956-74) strand ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ makes use of a fluid camera with lots of set-ups; although shot on video, the result is a gritty and cinematic television drama that has more in common with Euston Films’ later anthology series Armchair Cinema (Euston/Thames, 1974-5) than the more static dramas associated with Armchair Theatre. ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ firmly establishes the world of Callan: Callan’s antagonistic relationship with Hunter; the inter-dependency that exists between Callan and Lonely; Callan’s crises of conscience when faced with the effect his actions may have on innocents. Callan’s relationship with Meres is slightly different here, with Meres displaying overt jealousy at Callan’s appointment with the section, but rather than being sourced in the writing this discrepancy is arguably more to do with the differences between Peter Bowles’ performance in ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ and Anthony Valentine’s characterisation of Meres in Callan. Driven by Callan’s perspective on the action, ‘A Magnum for Callan’ also makes highly effective use of offscreen narration by the character of Callan. This feature cropped up intermittently in the first two series of Callan but was dropped by the time the series made the transition to colour in 1970. Series One: Of the five episodes in the first series of Callan, only two survive: the first episode, ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’, and the final episode of the series, ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’. ‘Goodbye, Nobby Clarke’, ‘The Death of Robert E. Lee’, ‘Goodness Burns Too Bright’ and ‘But He’s a Lord, Mr Callan’ were all wiped and no longer exist. ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’ (Dir: Toby Robertson)  
‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’ opens with Hunter (Ronald Radd) and Callan watching footage of German soldiers during the Second World War. Hunter tells Callan that his target is a man named Reinhold Strauss (Powys Thomas), an officer of the SS who was responsible for the deaths of three thousand people. Strauss appears to be masquerading as a businessman named Nicolas Stavros. The Israelis are coming to collect Strauss/Stavros, and Callan is ordered to 'keep an eye on him'. After reminding Callan of his status and his red file ('You do this for me, or I'll have you destroyed', Hunter tells Callan'), Hunter tells Callan that Strauss 'used to organise the slave labour for the V2s'; Callan's parents were killed by a V2 rocket twenty-three years earlier. Callan is ordered not to kill Strauss. He is to masquerade in Strauss' organisation as a book-keeper. Meres (played from this episode onwards by Anthony Valentine) displays ire over Callan's appointment with the section, and Hunter tells Meres that 'Callan and I seem to have arrived at a very good working arrangement, what you might call a balance of terror'. Callan is employed by Strauss/Stavros and introduced to Miss Jeanne Roche (Linda Marlowe), Strauss/Stavros' secretary. To Strauss/Stavros, Roche observes that 'There is something about him [Callan] – something ugly'. Meanwhile, Callan notes to his Israeli contact Avram (Tom Kempinski) that 'He [Strauss/Stavros] doesn't look like a killer to me. He's podgy, he's soft. He's got a girl'. Avram reminds Callan that appearances can be deceptive: 'Men change; their crimes do not'. Stavros and Roche go to see a performance of Wagner's Twilight of the Gods at Covent Gardan. Whilst they are out, Callan breaks into Strauss/Stavros' private quarters and discovers a box of diamond jewellery and some secure wardrobe-sized lock boxes. Meanwhile, during the performance of Twilight of the Gods Meres meets with Avram and Berg (David Lander), a Jewish man who suffered under Strauss during the Second World War – being forced to work as a servant to Strauss – and can identify him. Although he is still clearly petrified of Strauss, Berg identifies Stavros as Strauss. Berg tells the British operatives that Strauss 'was not a cruel man for pleasure; he was a cruel man for duty', and one day Berg broke a plate. Strauss retaliated by breaking three of Berg's ribs. 'When you fear a man, you watch him all the time: “Is he going to be angry? Please God, make it so that he will be kind”. You do not let him see that you are watching him, for then he is sure to be angry. Tonight, I watched this man as I learned to watch'. Callan has bought a gun, a .38 Noguchi revolver, from Lonely. Using the revolver as his insurance, Callan telephones Hunter and lets him know that Callan has both the means and the motive to kill Hunter, if things should go wrong. Lonely also asks Lonely to tell him how to successfully open the lock boxes in Strauss/Stavros' private quarters. Using the information from Lonely, Callan successfully breaks into Strauss/Stavros' lock boxes and discovers a suitcase containing Strauss' SS uniform, Nazi party card, a leather bag containing thousands of small gold nuggets (tooth fillings from Jewish prisoners, Callan muses to Hunter later) and a Luger. Callan also finds cyanide pills hidden behind the lapels of Stavros' jackets. However, Roche discovers Callan in Strauss/Stavros' private quarters. Callan and Roche discuss Strauss' assumed identity. 'Can't you see he's different?', Roche asks Callan; she clearly believes that Strauss has changed. However, Roche appears to be the person who reported Strauss to the authorities, after suffering from nightmares about Strauss' activities during the war, with her positioned in the dreams as a Jewish prisoner. Roche threatens to report Callan's activities to Strauss. Callan is faced with a moral dilemma: can a man such as Strauss change and atone for past misdeeds? 
The central theme of this episode is the issue of whether a man can change his behaviour or not. Strauss' change to Stavros and his inability to escape his past is mirrored in Callan's own situation and his attempts to escape from his life of violence as an agent who specialises in 'wet jobs' (assassinations). Early in the episode, Callan reminds Hunter that 'You sacked me, remember. You said I'm too soft. Well, I'm still soft, Hunter: I still worry about the people I killed. I'm done with you, mate: I'm finished'. 'Nobody's ever finished with me, Callan', Hunter responds: 'You're a killer: it's what you do'. In a later conversation with Lonely, Lonely asks Callan 'What's it like, using that thing [the gun]?' Callan replies: 'What's it like? It's like eating your lunch: if you've got the stomach for it, it's easy. Trouble is, you get to like it'. Callan begins the episode believing in a man's ability to change and acquire a new identity (an anti-essentialist stance) but this belief becomes undermined throughout the episode. When Callan tells Avram (during their first meeting) that Stavros 'doesn't look like a killer to me', Avram asserts that 'Men change; their crimes do not'. When Callan finally confronts Strauss/Stavros, Strauss/Stavros reminds Callan that 'For twenty-three years I have not harmed a living soul. Right now, Strauss is dead. I am Nicolas Stavros, Callan; and Stavros would not hurt an animal, let alone a human being [….] Will they never forgive me?' 'After what you did, how could they?' Callan queries. Strauss/Stavros later suggests that he has seen the error of his ways and has been redeemed: when Callan suggests that Strauss can not be forgiven for his crimes, Strauss/Stavros asserts that 'With Strauss, they are right, of course they are. Strauss was beyond forgiveness. But Stavros is different, and I am human, Callan. I have suffered, and a man can be redeemed through suffering and through love'. The episode also potently asks what society can do with war criminals such as Strauss. Strauss tells Callan, 'Please, I beg of you. What use is a monster in a cage?' Callan reminds Strauss that 'It's what they want. They think that people forget too easily [….] They've earned the right to think so'. Ultimately, Strauss/Stavros reflects on his changing feelings towards his SS uniform, the symbol of his crimes, telling Callan that the SS uniform 'was a memory of my greatness. I knew that one day I would be a great man. Then I grew to fear it, for I knew that it would destroy me. But in my destruction, I know that I am redeemed'. ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’ (Dir: Piers Haggard)  
Lonely is badly beaten by a mysterious intruder who Lonely discovered ransacking his home. When Callan arrives, Lonely tells Callan that ‘I’ve been duffed up before, but this bloke… I really thought I was going to die’. The man who attacked Lonely is later revealed to be Loder (Derek Newark), an associate of Meres. Meres convinced another man, Pollock (Jon Laurimore), that Lonely was the man who burgled Pollock's home, a ground floor flat on Holland Park. It seems that Meres and Pollock have employed Loder to retrieve an item that Lonely took from Pollock's flat. Callan reveals to Lonely that he robbed the flat and was interrupted by a man ‘who just stood there. Mr Callan: he was scared’. Callan decides to ‘take a look at that flat’. Callan enters the flat disguised as a representative of the Inland Revenue named of J. A. Pomfred. Callan discovers from the porter (Bernard Stone) that the flat's occupant is Major Binns, who has apparently been in the Bahamas for six months. The porter claims during this time, the flat has been unoccupied. Callan suspects that something else is afoot, and Lonely picks up a newspaper and recognises Pollock – who the article identifies as an escaped spy – as the man he saw in the flat. Pollock worked as a biochemist for an American firm; he helped in the development of a new type of nerve gas but was selling information to the Soviets. Callan caught Pollock and 'got him eighteen years'. However, Pollock has escaped from his captors and is on the run; the newspapers are suggesting that the Russians have helped Pollock to escape. His interest piqued by the attack on Lonely and the reappearance of Pollock, Callan investigates the flat and spots Meres outside it with a woman who, in Callan's words, 'used to be Pollock's bird'. Disguising himself as a police sergeant, Callan approaches the home of 'Pollock's bird', Sue Lyall (Pinkie Johnstone). It seems that Meres has also been masquerading as a policeman, Sergeant Turner, in order to get information from Sue. When Meres tells Hunter about Lonely's discovery of the flat and Pollock, Hunter asserts that ‘I don’t want Callan involved’. Callan discovers Loder’s involvement in the attack on Lonely; Callan approaches Loder in the shooting range and knocks him to the floor in revenge for his assault on the pitiful, helpless Lonely. However, this doesn’t dissuade Meres’ interest in Lonely, and Lonely wakes up to find Meres in his home. Meres tells Lonely ‘I’m going to have to teach you… properly’, before apparently torturing Lonely, causing him to scream in agony. When Callan finds Lonely in a bad way after Meres has finished with him, Lonely denies any association with the burglarly of the flat, telling Callan that he ‘never screwed that drum’ and never saw Pollock: ‘It’s all just a dream’. Callan telephones Hunter, telling him that Meres assaulted Lonely. ‘I want Meres’, Callan declares: ‘Besides, Meres knows I look after Lonely, so when he was beating him up he wasn’t just attacking him, he was getting at me. Now, he’s not going to get that kind of edge on me, Hunter, and neither are you’. ‘What a relief’, Hunter replies: ‘for a moment you sounded like a knight in armour; it’s only selfishness after all’. Pollock telephones Sue Lyall and asks her if she’s ‘still got that ring I gave you’. It seems that he secreted the microfilm detailing the formula for the nerve gas into the ring. However, the ring seems to have disappeared. Callan closes in on Pollock; all parties seek to identify the whereabouts of the missing microfilm. 
This episode serves to highlight the relationships between Callan and the section, and Callan and Lonely. Lonely and Callan rely on one another: Callan provides Lonely with money, and Lonely provides Callan with information. Callan also seems to see Lonely as a shadowy reflection of himself: both men are outsiders who find it difficult to integrate themselves into society. At one point, Hunter sardonically tells Callan that ‘Your affection for that smelly little man is really quite touching’. However, as Hunter bullies and manipulates Callan, Callan bullies and manipulates Lonely: Lonely is Callan’s ‘property’, and at one point Callan tells Lonely that ‘If anyone’s going to beat you up, boy, it’s going to be me’. Ultimately, when Callan is asked by Hunter to retrieve the ring, Callan tells Hunter that Lonely must be recompensed for Meres’ treatment of him: Callan simply asserts to Hunter that the retrieval of the ring will ‘cost you… top rate [….] And make the cheque out to Lonely’. Series Two: ‘Red Knight, White Knight’ (Dir: Peter Duguid)  
The opening episode of the second series, ‘Red Knight, White Knight’ introduces a new Hunter (Michael Goodliffe). Meres is present to greet him. 'Why on earth he wants to start at the crack of dawn, God only knows', Meres tells Hunter's secretary, yawning. Meres and Callan soon discover that the new Hunter plans to introduce a new regime: 'My predecessor had his rules, I have mine', Hunter tells his secretary. Later, Hunter will observe that 'I don't quite know how this department's been running, but it seems to me it was all free and easy'. Callan appears to have been moved out of the section, and in the target range Meres has suggested that other operatives use a ten by eight photograph of Callan as target practice. However, when the new Hunter asks Meres about Callan, Meres seems intent on encouraging the new Hunter to re-enlist Callan. Hunter tells Meres that 'What I get out of the file is, he [Callan] is emotionally unstable, a one-time crook, he has a dubious circle of acquaintances, and he tends to take the law into his own hands'. 'He's very independent, yes, sir', Meres responds. 'We don't want heroes in the section; we're a team', Hunter asserts. When asked if he is pushing Callan on the new Hunter because he likes Callan, Meres replies, 'I detest him. But he knows the job. The only thing is, he likes to know why it has to be done'. The new Hunter meets with Callan. After waiting for Hunter, Callan tells Hunter over the intercom, 'Come on, Charlie, I haven't got all day'. ('He's a bit impetuous, sir', Meres dryly informs Hunter.) Commenting on Callan’s attitude, Hunter tells Callan, 'I believe you were in the army, Callan [….] Is that where you acquired your impudence? [….] The general opinion seems to be that you should come back into the section'. 'Well, no-one's asked me', Callan retorts. Hunter tells Callan that 'No-one will, Callan: you are told'. 'Not me, mate: I don't work with people I don't know', Callan assers. However, Hunter blackmails Callan into re-entering the section by threatening to have Callan put back 'inside'. (As Hunter notes to Callan, 'You know more of the workings of this department than is healthy for a man in need of money'.) Hunter aks Callan if 'the name Bunin rings a bell'. Callan was sent to kill Bunin, a Soviet agent, in Liepzig in 1963. Hunter tells Callan that he and Meres are meeting Bunin (Duncan Lamont), who is apparently defecting. Bunin is flying in from Moscow. 'Bunin's not a defector [….] [H]e's come to get somebody. It's probably you, sir', Callan tells Hunter. Later, in conversation with Meres, Callan asserts that 'That man's [Hunter] a nutcase. There's a new Hunter, right; so Bunin's coming over to find out who he is and get him, I know that'. Meres replies by stating that 'Sir [Hunter] says he’s defecting'. Callan matter-of-factly responds by telling Meres, '“Sir” doesn't know him'. Callan meets with Lonely, asking him to tail anyone who might be accompanying Bunin. Bunin meets with Meres, Callan and Hunter. Bunin tells Hunter that Callan ‘killed a colleague of mine; I killed one of his'. Bunin claims that he was persuaded to defect by a high-ranking Soviet agent named Miersky, who wants to defect but cannot. ('It's getting like a holiday camp', Callan dryly observes.) Bunin tells Hunter that 'Miersky will come out, but only if he can defect to your top man in Russia'; Miersky's defection will therefore necessitate the withdrawal of the foremost undercover British agent in Russia. In a meeting with Hanson (John Savident), a representative of the Foreign Office, Hunter is told that the Foreign Secretary is ready to support Bunin’s application for asylum; Hunter passes this information on to Bunin but asserts that Miersky’s suggestion is unlikely to go ahead. Meanwhile, Lonely tells Callan that Bunin was accompanied by a man named Goncharov (George Ghent); he and Bunin have entered a press conference. Callan passes this information on to Hunter. 'Someone's got to look after you if you won't do it yourself', Callan tells Hunter. 'It's not the way I like things done', Hunter tells Callan. 'It's the way I have to work, sir', Callan responds. Acting on Callan’s information, Hunter orders both Goncharov and Lonely to be picked up. Behind closed doors, Hanson tells Hunter that Bunin's claims appear to be false, a trap for the British agent in Russia. In the meantime, Bunin has managed to escape, and Hunter’s section must recapture him. The new Hunter, we are told, is a civil servant: he and Callan do not see eye to eye, but Callan is vindicated through his knowledge of Bunin and his experience in the field. Part way through the episode, Callan asks Meres in desperation, 'Where the hell did he come from?' 'Mr Hunter? I told you: he's a civil servant', Meres replies. 'Yeah, well he's never been out in the field, mate. That's for sure. He doesn't know how bloody cold it gets out there', Callan tells Meres. Just prior to Hunter’s meeting with Bunin, Callan reminds his commanding officer, 'If you get shot, the best that can happen to you is you get hurt'. Later, Callan finds himself having to prevent Hunter from stupidly opening the curtains in a room in which Hunter is clearly being targeted by Bunin’s associates: 'Don't do that, sir, please: it's asking for trouble', Callan deplores. Ultimately, Callan is forced to observe to Meres that 'I think he [Hunter] must have nine lives, mate. He's going to need them all'. 
A very strong episode, ‘Red Knight, White Knight’ is interesting for the interaction between Bunin and Callan. At one point, Hunter leaves Callan to guard Bunin, after Meres has suggested to Hunter that Callan and Bunin ‘are two of a kind, sir’. Whilst he and Callan are alone, Bunin tells Callan, 'You see, in this game most of us are pawns, like your friend Meres, You and I, who have learned a little more, we are the knights. Your man in Russia is also a very strong piece, a bishop at least. Hunter, oh I don't know, maybe a queen. Miersky is certainly a queen. One has to risk a great deal to take a queen, Callan, and Miersky knows it'. Bunin pointedly asserts to Callan that 'I'm perhaps a better liar than you, and a better politician; I doubt if I'm as callous. But then, one cannot be intelligent and callous'. To this, Callan responds by telling Bunin, 'If I'm right, mate, I'll kill you [….] Whether I like it or not is beside the point: I'll do it'. ‘The Most Promising Girl of Her Year’ (Dir: Peter Duguid)  
This episode, the second episode of this second series of Callan, opens in a laboratory at the Biological Research Centre. Two scientists, Joan Mather (Elizabeth Bell) and Dr Bradford (Raymond Young) are testing a substance on a lab rat. The rat is killed in seven seconds. 'Isn't that marvelous', Bradford observes before asserting that 'Instantaneous would have been better'. Joan appears to be suffering from personal problems but won't discuss them with her colleague. 'I want to leave', she tells Bradford, who reminds Joan that 'We're almost there. Six months and we'll have cracked it'. However, Joan declares that she has ethical problems with the potential uses for the substance 'as a potential weapon'. After hearing this, Bradford tries to reassure Joan: 'Oh, don't be silly. There are thousands of uses we can exploit. They're not interested in germ warfare [….] You know as well as I do that nobody can control the uses that are made of discoveries. But it doesn't stop us from making discoveries. That's what our work is. We're involved with science, Joan… life; not politics'. Meanwhile, Hunter and Meres are in conference. Hunter points Joan out to Meres, asserting that he is worried that she is deciding to leave and 'may be a security risk'. (Joan has a yellow file.) '[T]he real danger' is, according to Hunter, 'this astonishing memory of hers [….] It's not her loyalty that bothers me, it's her memory. Loyalty is expendable under stress'. Hunter proposes hypnotising Joan and seeing 'how good that photographic memory is'. However, under hypnosis, Joan reveals that she has memories almost every detail of the production of the substance. Hunter approaches Callan taunting Callan’s conscience by asserting that 'You'll like this one. This one hasn't done a thing'. When Callan discovers that the target is a woman, he says, 'No birds, Hunter'. Hunter asks Callan to give her 'help, your help'. Hunter asks Callan to 'establish her innocence', claiming that security at the Biological Research Centre think she's a risk but Hunter does not. After interviewing Bradford and asking Lonely to tail Joan, Callan discovers that in 1967 Bradford sent Joan to a conference in West Berlin. There, she met a boyfriend, Karl Donner (David Hargreaves). Donner told Joan that he is from West Germany, but Callan discovers that Donner is in fact from East Germany. Reporting back to Hunter, Callan asserts that Joan is ‘a clean-living girl, if you know what that means'. However, realising that Joan’s relationship with Donner makes her a security threat who may therefore need to be eliminated, Callan tells Hunter, ‘I don't want this one, sir'. 'Would you rather I gave her to Meres', Hunter replies, emotionally blackmailing Callan into accepting the potential ‘wet job’. Callan approaches Joan at a Vivaldi concert, befriending her in the hope of getting more information from her. Callan also discovers that Meres has been romancing Joan’s flatmate, Sonia Prescott (Joan Crane), in order to gain access to Joan’s life. Meres and Callan capture Horst (Peter Blythe), Donner’s associate, who has been delivering letters from Donner to Joan. Under interrogation (where he is dosed with both tranquilisers and hallucinogens), Horst reveals that Donner is in fact romancing Joan with the sole intention of gaining access to her knowledge of the new substance. When asked how Donner feels about Joan, Horst replies, 'How does a carpenter feel about a piece of wood?’ After the interrogation with Horst, Callan tells Joan that Donner 'has pulled this trick before' with a French-Canadian scientist. 'He squeezed her dry and she killed herself', Callan tells Joan. However, Joan refuses to believe that her sweetheart is solely interested in the details of her work at the laboratory. 
A powerful episode, ‘The Most Promising Girl of Her Year’ is memorable for Callan’s attempt to drag Joan into the reality of her relationship with Donner, which involves shattering her romantic illusions about life. After revealing his true identity to Joan, Callan tells her that Donner is 'an agent, Miss Naylor, a spy'. Joan is surprised, arguing that 'Karl doesn't give a damn about politics'. Joan kept quiet about Donner to 'stop people like you getting the wrong ideas'; she asserts that 'He's going to marry me'. Callan is forced to tell her, 'Yes, that is usually the bait [….] He doesn't want you, love: he wants what you've got in your head. And we can't let him have that'. Later, after Horst’s interrogation, Callan becomes exasperated with Joan, forcefully telling her, 'Listen, we're not at the pictures now, Joan. This is all very real. I mean, there are no bugles, there are no banners and there are no comrades in arms. It's very real and it's very, very nasty. All right? You're trapped in it, darling, and you can't get out'. An interesting and relevant exchange takes place between Lonely and Callan early in the episode, when after breaking into Joan’s flat Lonely tells Callan that the young woman has 'got a lot of books […] [and] a lot of gramophone records'; 'I don't think she's very nice, Mr Callan', Lonely observes. Callan reads through the list of items Lonely gives him: 'No, she's not very nice', he notes sarcastically: 'She's what you might call an “intellectual”'. Joan is a true innocent, and after reading one of the romantic letters sent to Joan by Donner, Callan observes, 'You poor little idiot. What are we doing with you?' The episode also features a bizarre sequence depicting Horst’s interrogation from Horst’s perspective (as Joan watches); the sequence makes memorable use of a fish-eye lens to convery Horst’s disorientation, in a similar manner to John Frankenheimer’s then-recent film Seconds (1966).
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‘The Little Bits and Pieces of Love’ (Dir: Peter Sasdy)  
Lonely and Callan break into the house of Dr Charles Rule (Laurence Hardy), a psychologist, and his wife Sofia (Paulin Jameson). Sofia is Polish by birth; interned at Dachau, Sofia became a refugee after the close of the Second World War. Her first husband was a Polish physicist named Andrei Brezhevski (Andy Devine) who, it is believed, was killed by the Nazis. During his work in a refugee camp, Charles Rule met Sofia and married her, bringing her back to England. However, the section know something that Sofia does not: Andrei Brezhevski is still alive. Hunter wants to capture Brezhevski because the Soviets have a hundred megaton nuclear bomb but not the fuel to use it. 'By the end of the year, Brezhevski will have the fuel', Hunter declares. Hunter wants to catch Brezhevski in order to delay the Soviets’ development of their bomb. Hunter is after Brezhevski but needs the co-operation of Sofia to capture him. Callan has been commanded to observe Sofia and enlist her help. Watching Sofia talking to a friend in a café, Callan overhears Sofia assert that the burglary of her home (committed by Callan and Lonely in the opening moments of the episode) was upsetting: 'You can't get it all back, the things you've bought together, made together [….] The worst thing is the feeling that someone's looked into your life [….] The things one wanted to keep a secret forever, even from one's friends. The little bits and pieces of love. To think that someone has had his grubby hands on all that'. Callan receives information from a Polish agent named Dicer (Vladek Shevbal); it seems that the Polish authorities are eager to have Brezhevski arrested too. Callan reminds Dicer that if he helps Callan, Dicer 'could be hurting the Russians'. Dicer declares that he knows something about Brezhevski: 'He's very powerful and very dangerous'. Brezhevski is trying to track down Sofia, and Hunter asks Callan to set a honey trap for Brezhevski by telling Sofia that her first husband is still alive and getting Sofia to write a letter to him, asking him to meet her. With Hunter’s plan in mind, Callan poses as an insurance assessor in order to make contact with Sofia. At a later date, in the cafe, he reveals to Sofia that her first husband is alive. However, Callan expresses severe concerns about the plan and its potential effects on Sofia’s wellbeing, fearing that the pan will lead to Sofia dredging up traumatic memories that she has fought to suppress. Callan tells Hunter that 'I should think that when this is all over, she'll finish up in a mental home'. However, under pressure from Hunter, Callan forces Sofia to write a letter to Brezhevski declaring that she is unhappy with Charles and wants to meet Brezhevski in Stockholm. Brezhevski travels to Stockholm with three KGB men, and Meres is sent to meet and capture him. However, Dicer reveals to Callan that the KGB are aware of the British interest in Sofia, and the KGB are now ‘looking for her also’. It seems that, out of concern for his wife – who seems to be cracking up under the pressure – Charles has made an arrangement with the KGB. 
Like ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’, ‘The Little Bits and Pieces of Love’ is a solemn story about the past and people’s inability to escape it. Sofia has tried to leave her life in Europe behind, suppressing her memories of the Holocaust and her relationship with Brezhevski. However, Sofia is doomed to revisit that traumatic portion of her life, and Callan’s conscience is pricked by his involvement in Hunter’s plan to dredge up Sofia’s past. Despite his good intentions, Callan is forced to involve himself in a plan which will ultimately destroy Sofia: at one point, after Callan has killed two KGB agents, Charles tells Callan, 'You're a particularly brutal man'. To this, Callan simply retorts, 'I live my life, mate'. ‘Let’s Kill Everybody’ (Dir: Robert Tronson)  
‘Let’s Kill Everybody’ opens with Meres and an associate, Gould (Henry Knowles), torturing/interrogating a German agent, Bremer (Peter Welch), in Hunter’s office. Bremer has earlier threatened that 'Someone's going to eliminate your section', and Meres aims to uncover the details of the enemy’s plan. Gould brutalises Bremer, and Meres asserts that 'He [Gould] does get carried away. But then again, drugs are worse, Bremer. Very upsetting, very upsetting and infallible, so it's only a question of time'. However, their interrogation is unsuccessful in extracting information from Bremer, and Meres tells Gould that 'We'll have to take him to the headshrinker'. On the way out of Hunter’s office, Bremer commits suicide by diving on Hunter’s letter spike. Hunter is angered: Bremer was the section’s only lead. Bremer was a former member of the SS who worked for the OFF (Organisation fur Freiheit), who according to Hunter 'make the fascists look like outside lefts. What makes them nasty is they cream off ex-colonial and ex-Nazi intelligence staff, the dedicated boyos. They're sort of freelance Mensa mercenaries. Now, they don't blow up pillarboxes; they blow up national security sections. They're all bright, ruthless and right round the bend'. Meanwhile, Callan is on sick leave; he has begun a romantic relationship with Jenny Lawler (Hilary Dwyer), a nurse at the clinic where Callan was sent for treatment. Jenny has recently resigned from her position as a nurse and has begun a university course in history, with the German visiting lecturer Dr Paula Goodman (Heather Canning) as her tutor. Jenny arrives at Callan’s flat and complains that Callan doesn't tell her what he does for a living; Callan simply replies that 'It's a bore'. Whilst Jenny and Callan spend some time together, Hunter telephones and demands that Callan join him immediately. Callan makes his excuses and leaves Jenny. On his way to the section headquarters, Callan realises that he is being followed; his tail is revealed to be Gould. As a means of increasing security, Hunter has ordered all of the agents in the section to shadow another agent; Callan is ordered to shadow Meres. Hunter suspects that the East German agents may choose to bomb the section headquarters and, as Callan notes, 'if they can pick out the section, it must be an inside job'. Hunter also seems to display an interest in Jenny, clearly suspecting that she may be the source of the leak. Hunter relays his suspicions about Jenny to Callan, telling Callan that 'She's a student now, I gather. Intellectuals can be dangerous, Callan, and certainly vulnerable'. Hunter's comments cause Callan to doubt Jenny, and returning to his flat Callan questions Jenny. Jenny asks Callan, 'Don't you trust me [.…] with a key. I mean, I won't peep in drawers'. Callan asks her 'Why should you want to? [….] I don't know you'. To this, Jenny retorts, 'I don't know you, but I love you'. However, Callan refuses to reciprocate and simply asserts, 'That's a very big word'. Callan's doubts about Jenny cause a disagreement between the two lovers. During her next appointment with Dr Goodman, Jenny arrives early at her tutor's flat and discovers that Goodman discussing Gould and Callan over the telephone. Later that day, Jenny tells Callan but Callan doesn't believe her. He grabs her wrist and tells her, 'What's going on behind those big blue eyes of yours. I mean, who are you trying to kid'. 'You're hurting me', cries Jenny. When Gould is gassed in a telephone box by Goodman, Jenny takes it upon herself to investigate her tutor. However, Jenny’s attempts to uncover her tutor’s secret have a tragic resolution. 
In ‘Let’s Kill Everybody’, Callan is offered a glimpse of happiness through his relationship with Jenny, but his distrust and the paranoia engendered by his work for the section simply alienate him from her. Meanwhile, as in ‘The Most Promising Girl of Her Year’, another innocent (Jenny) finds her idealism questioned and ultimately becomes a sacrificial pawn. Goodman’s status as the enemy agent is apparent almost from the outset of the episode; the suspense in this episode comes through Goodman’s interactions with Jenny. ‘Heir Apparent’ (Dir: Peter Duguid)  
At the funeral of the previous Hunter, Callan and Meres are approached by Hunter’s secretary (Lisa Langdon); Hunter’s secretary informs Callan and Meres that Sir Michael Harvey (John Wentworth), the Deputy Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office, wishes to meet with them both. As Meres observes to Callan, ‘Hunters come and go, old boy, but we go on’. Callan reflects on Hunter’s death and the widow and son he left behind. Meres attempts to console Callan, reminding him that, ‘Well, it’s par for the course, old boy’. Callan responds angrily, telling Meres, ‘Par for the course? You know, sometimes Toby, your stupid plenitudes really make me sick. “Par for the course”. I mean, that could have been either of us [….] I didn’t even know his real name until this morning’. Callan suggests that although he questioned Hunter’s methods, he had a grudging respect for his superior. When Meres asks Callan, ‘What is all the fuss about? You thought he was an idiot anyway’, Callan replies by telling Meres, ‘All right, he was an unorthodox. Doesn’t make him an idiot, does it; doesn’t give anybody the right to make his wife a widow either’. Sir Michael Harvey informs Callan and Meres that the section will have to wait for a new Hunter. In the meantime, they will have a temporary Hunter, a former associate of Callan named John Ramsay (Derek Bond). Ramsay is in East Germany; Callan and Meres are to meet him and bring him back. Callan reminds Harvey that ‘every move we make is noted. If we go into Europe, we’re asking for trouble’. Harvey informs Callan and Meres that Ramsay, who is undercover, will be traveling on a train to Liepzig. Callan and Meres will have to negotiate a minefield to retrieve Ramsay, and to this end they will receive information from a representative of the War Office, Jenkins (Peter Cellier). At section headquarters, Jenkins discusses the minefield with Meres. When Callan arrives, Meres sarcastically comments on Jenkins’ information, telling Callan, ‘Well, apparently there’s nothing to it, old boy: we just, er, stroll across, making allowances here and there for marginal deviation. There’s nothing to worry about: they’re all harmless anyway’. After Jenkins has left, Callan and Meres share a drink. Callan knows Ramsay, and reflects on the qualities of the new Hunter. Callan tells Meres, ‘I’ll tell you one thing, mate: when Harvey said about him [Ramsay] and me training together, what he really meant was that John “Public School” Ramsay followed me around for about six months so he could get some knowledge of the field, you know. Not that he really needed it: I mean, he knew one day he was going to get the plum job anyway. [He] Thought it might be “rather fun”’. Meres and Callan make the voyage to Germany with the aim of bringing Ramsay back to Britain. However, Meres and Callan find that once they are in Germany, their operation does not go as planned. 
‘Heir Apparent’ is a good change of pace from the claustrophobic studio-bound episodes that have gone before it: the use of locations helps to open up the narrative, and the scenes set in East Germany are genuinely suspenseful. The episode foregrounds the relationship between Meres and Callan, who in this episode are shown to have developed a grudging respect for one another. ‘Death of a Friend’ (Dir: Peter Duguid)  
A car speeds through the countryside, a French pop song on the radio. The car crashes, killing its occupant, Jean Coquet (Geoff Cheshire). Hunter tells Callan about Jean Coquet’s death. Coquet was apparently a friend of Callan’s. He had a cover as a financial correspondent but was an agent for French counterintelligence. It seems that Coquet was heading for London when his car crashed on the Dover Road. Callan confesses to Hunter that he doesn’t trust Jean’s wife Francine (Ann Lynn): ‘She’s too dedicated […] to everything except her husband’. Hunter questions a member of the French intelligence service. Coquet’s section leader suggests that Coquet was an expert in industrial and financial counterintelligence. Coquet had been involved in an investigation into an organisation known as the OAS; the French authorities, and Hunter, believe that it may have been revenge for this investigation that led to Coquet’s death. Francine Coquet is in Dover, and Hunter orders Callan to travel to Dover and make contact with Francine. In Dover, Francine tells Callan that Jean was an idealist when Francine first met him. For Jean, ‘Everybody stained with OAS [….] had to be tracked down wherever they were’. Jean’s commitment to his work eventually alienated him from his wife, and the two were separated. According to Francine, when she visited Jean she found in his home ‘a photograph of a man where a wedding photograph should be’. Meanwhile, back in London, Lonely is taking care of Callan’s flat when a Frenchman breaks into it. The Frenchman desperately wants to speak to Callan and offers to wait for Callan to return. The man claims to be Marcel Latour (David Leland), ‘the wife of Jean Coquet’. In Callan’s absence, Lonely contacts Meres. Meres arrives at Callan’s flat and meets with Latour. He describes Latour to Hunter as ‘very pretty’ but ‘rather soft in the middle, sir’. In Dover, Callan is attacked in the hotel room where he is holding Francine; it appears that Francine may be working with the attackers. Likewise, in London Latour is seized by an unkown group and hospitalised. After returning to London, Callan must solve the mystery of Latour, Francine and the death of Callan’s friend Jean. 
A methodically-paced episode, ‘Death of a Friend’ differs from many of the episodes that surround it through its focus on Callan’s attempts to solve the death of his friend Jean. Quite boldly for a television series of this vintage, in this episode Callan offers a progressive depiction of Jean’s homosexual relationship with Latour, with Jean’s wife Francine acting as a femme fatale of sorts. ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’ (Dir: Robert Tronson)  
Hunter meets with Colonel Leslie (Ronald Radd), who has been acting as an advisor in the Middle East. Leslie tells Hunter that the situation in the Middle East is worsening, thanks to Russian involvement in those territories. Brigadier Pringle (Allan Cuthbertson) has been approached to turn traitor and train some of the enemy in the Middle East; Pringle is issued with a red file as he ‘must be stopped’. Undercover as a homeless ex-soldier, Callan approaches Pringle’s daughter Sarah (Tessa Wyatt), who works at a soup kitchen. Callan and Pringle know each other from Callan’s time in the military, where Pringle was Callan’s commanding officer; however, Pringle is not aware of Callan’s current work for the government. Callan tells Sarah that her father caused him to lose his job Pringle therefore owes Callan a job. After meeting with Callan, Pringle offers Callan a job ‘looking after my house, serving a table, cleaning up’. Behind closed doors, Pringle tells Sarah that Callan was ‘Brave enough, certainly, but far too much of an individualist for the army. He always questioned orders, went his own way [….] But as a killer, Callan was unequalled’. Eventually, Pringle offers Callan ‘something a little more exciting [….] doing something you’re very good at, soldiering’. It seems that Pringle is seriously considering accepting the proposition to train the enemy in the Middle East. Pringle consults his daughter about the proposition that has been presented to him. He becomes angry with Sarah, telling her that ‘those drunken, idle good for nothings [the homeless men at the soup kitchen] mean more to you than I do’, and he informs her that the Sultan has offered him twenty thousand pounds a year, an estate and a palace. Pringle claims Sarah will be ‘a princess’. She responds by reminding him that ‘I don’t belong in the Arabian Nights, daddy’. Pringle receives a call from a colleague, General Klinger (Larry Cross). Later, Dr Megali (Saeed Jaffrey), a spy masquerading as Pringle’s doctor, tells Pringle that ‘Klinger knows, very well, the American plans for the Middle East. Those plans would be of great value’. Megali suggests that Pringle should get Klinger drunk and pump him for information. Pringle tells Megali, ‘I thought you chaps believed that a guest was sacred’. Megali reminds Pringle that ‘We did, in our primitive days. But since then, Europe has taught us so much’. Eventually, Pringle accepts the Sultan’s offer and asks Callan to accompany him, to help him ‘kill the enemy, or teach other chaps how to do it’. With the knowledge that Pringle has been manipulated by Megali into accepting the Sultan’s proposal, Callan must find a way to retrieve the sensitive documents that are in Pringle’s possession. 
‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’ foregrounds Callan’s attitude towards his former commanding officer, again highlighting one of the overarching themes of the series – the impossibility of escaping our past. At one point, Callan pointedly reminds Pringle that ‘You bloody taught me how to kill, and when I got too rough, mate, you didn’t like it, did you?’ The episode also contains a wonderful moment when Meres dryly tells Callan, ‘There’s no need to speak to him [Pringle] nicely: he’s in a red file’. The exploration of Pringle’s relationship with his daughter Sarah also offers an interesting outside perspective on the main narrative: Pringle tries to persuade Sarah to accept that his working relationship with the Sultan is for both of their benefit, but Sarah is an independent woman and prefers to carry on with her charity work: she is disengaged from politics and her father’s military background, also shrugging off the promises of wealth and luxury that her father offers to her. ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’ exists in the archives as raw, unedited studio footage. This release contains a new reconstruction of the episode. 'Nice People Die At Home' (Dir: Peter Duguid)  
Opening on a market street in Shepherd’s Bush, ‘Nice People Die At Home’ quickly establishes its focus on a pet shop owned by Eric Marshall (Harry Towb) and his daughter Nadia (Angela Morant). Marshall and Nadia are from Beirut and have been resident in Britain for nine years. Callan arrives to see Hunter (Ronald Dadd). Hunter informs Callan that his target is Eric Marshall. The Marshalls’ pet shop has been used as a dead drop by enemy agents, and as Hunter observes Eric and Nadia are ‘little more than clerks, transmitting, reducing stuff to microdots and delivering to dead letter boxes around London'. Meres interrogates a prisoner who has been tied to a chair on a shooting range. Meres shoots at the man, Roskovitch (Roger Bizley), terrorising him. Roskovitch is an enemy agent who has adopted the Anglicised name ‘Ross’. Roskovitch protests to Meres, 'This is a nightmare [….] I never thought it would happen in this country'. Meres replies by asserting that, 'Well, it's frightfully bad taste to welcome you like this, I agree; but we do need a spot of information from you rather urgently'. Later, Roskovitch tells Hunter that Meres ‘takes an unhealthy pleasure in his work'. Hunter reveals that the section is really after Belukov (Frederick Jaeger), another enemy agent who, six years prior, killed Callan's sweetheart. Belukov is working as the enemies’ head of section and is known to his operatives as ‘the Ringmaster’. Hunter is insistent on reminding Callan about Belukov's murder of his sweetheart. Callan responds by telling Hunter, 'You know, ever since you left this has just been an ordinary job for me. But no, that's not good enough for you, mate: you've really got to get me going'. Hunter reminds Callan that 'you always work much better that way, Callan'. Marshall and his daughter are concerned about Roskovitch's whereabouts; undercover as Roskovitch, who the Marshall’s have never met, Callan approaches Eric and Nadia. Callan earns Eric’s trust, and soon Eric tells Callan that 'I don't like spying anymore'. Hunter orders Callan to get a message to the Ringmaster, Belukov, that the Marshalls are planning to defect. This should get Belukov 'out of the woodwork, to eliminate them'. When Belukov becomes aware of Eric’s plans to retire from his position, he conspires to offer the Marshalls a place on holiday and then have them killed en route, in an apparent accident. Callan’s conscience is troubled by the involvement of Eric, who appears to be seriously ill, and Nadia. As Callan notes, 'These people are too damn nice. Makes you forget what business they're in'. Later, Callan confronts Hunter, declaring angrily that 'I wouldn't have gone within a mile of that place if I'd known. Trust you to use a man with only a few months to live [….] There's always another time [….] They're tiddlers, they're postal clerks. You said so yourself [….] What do you need them for anyway? Part of your annual drive; make you up to brigadier, will they?' Hunter responds by telling Callan, 'I'm beginning to doubt your loyalty, Callan'. 'If you mean my loyalty to you, mate, you're dead right', Callan retorts. Belukov appears to receive information telling him that the man claiming to be Roskovitch is in fact Callan; Belukov sets in motion a plan to have Callan, Eric and Nadia killed. 
A touching and solemn episode, ‘Nice People Die At Home’ has – in common with ‘Let’s Kill Everybody’ and ‘The Little Bits and Pieces of Love’ – a focus on the harm that befalls innocents, in this case Eric and Nadia. Erica and Nadia are used as pawns by both sides, with only Callan to defend them. ‘Nice People Die At Home’ was recorded during production of the first series, but its transmission was delayed until the second series. (Some footage was reshot for this episode prior to its transmission.) 'Death of a Hunter' (Dir: Reginald Collin)  
As the episode opens, Callan is under surveillance as he searches for a man named Striker (John Flanagan). Striker is a radio operator for the opposition who has a connection to a traitor in Callan’s section. Striker's associates are ordered to kill Hunter (this time played by Derek Bond). However, with the Soviet President due to arrive in Britain within a couple of days, Hunter is short staffed and orders Callan to provide twenty-four hour surveillance on Striker. Callan is unaware that his flat has been bugged by Striker’s people. Callan employs Lonely to break into the flat in which Striker and his people are hiding. Lonely is to 'see anything that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the flat'. However, whilst burgling the flat Lonely finds Striker’s corpse: 'He can't see nobody. He's a stiff, he is', Lonely tells Callan. Meanwhile, Meres receives a telephone call from Hunter telling him to attend a meeting with Section 3. Meres and other members of Section 3 burst in on Callan and arrest him for espionage. Callan is taken in for interrogation, and Meres is ordered to collect Snell, who Meres describes as 'a headshrinker who's good at getting questions answered'. Meres clearly has doubts about the situation, but he carries out his orders regardless. Eventually, Meres realises that he has been sent on a wild good chase: Snell is unreachable, in America. Meres makes contact with Hunter, Hunter tells Meres that he knows nothing about the orders that Meres has been issued to arrest Callan and work with Section 3. It appears that Meres has unwittingly helped the enemy to seize Callan. Meanwhile, in a warehouse Callan is interrogated by Haynes (Derek Waring), an enemy agent. Haynes appears to be what Meres and Callan would call a 'headshrinker'. Callan is drugged and manipulated into revealing information about his orders. Over a period of time, Haynes and his associates convince Callan that Hunter is the leak within the section and part of a plot to assassinate the Soviet president. It seems that the enemy plan to use the reprogrammed Callan to assassinate Hunter. 
‘Death of a Hunter’ is an exciting episode, more action-oriented than most. At the time of its production, ‘Death of a Hunter’ was believed to be the final episode of Callan and two endings were reputedly shot, including one in which Callan died. (However, the series returned in 1970 with its third series, shot for the first time in colour.) Video Predominantly studio-bound and shot on videotape, these episodes exhibit plenty of wear but are much sharper than the recordings that have circulated amongst fans for years. Some episodes are in worse shape than others, but the episodes are never less than watchable. Ghosting is present in some of the episodes, and tape wear is particularly noticeable in ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’ and ‘The Most Promising Girl of Her Year’. However, considering the rarity of these episodes and their complete absence from home video until this release, the inclusion of (completely natural) wear and tear to the source tapes shouldn’t deter any Callan fans from purchasing this set. The original break bumpers are present, and the episodes are presented in their original broadcast screen ratio of 4:3. The episodes appear to be uncut; ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’ is presented here in a new edit. The original studio tapes still exist for this episode, and Network have delivered a new cut of the episode that eliminates the retakes found on the studio VT recordings.
Audio
Audio is presented via a two-channel mono track. Dialogue is a little quiet at times, and in a couple of episodes the audio track suffers from audible hissing. However, this is all to be expected considering the age and rarity of the episodes; there is nothing too distracting. The DVDs contain no subtitles.
Extras
Sadly, there is no contextual material – unless you count ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. It’s a real shame that Network elected not to include the outtakes/retake footage from ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’ – or even a complete representation of the raw studio footage from this episode. Perhaps rights issues prevented its inclusion in this set.
Overall
Callan is a fantastic, thought-provoking drama that never patronises its audience. The series is held together by a perfect performance from Woodward, who nails the character of Callan from ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ onwards: Woodward really inhabits Callan, who is conflicted, laconic, insolent and introspective. Callan’s conflicts with his superior, Hunter, and his colleague Meres are a delight; where Woodward’s performance is rightly praised, Anthony Valentine’s depiction of the brutal, slimy but sympathetic Meres is often overlooked. Put simply, Callan is one of the best television dramas ever produced, and this DVD release of the remaining episodes from the first two series of the show is a milestone: these episodes have never been available on commercial home video, and have not been seen on television since their repeats in the early 1970s. Whilst the episodes exhibit quite a bit of damage, with some episodes faring better than others, this set is not to be missed. Network should be commended on their ability to overcome the legal issues surrounding the production of this release, caused by the dispersal of the ownership of the remaining monochrome episodes of Callan amongst several different organisations. Truly, for any aficionado of quality television drama, this DVD release is – despite the absence of any contextual material – arguably the most important DVD release of the year. References Clarke, Anthony, 2003: ‘Callan’. ScreenOnline. [Online.] http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/550887/ Jones, Peter, 1975: ‘Settlement is Reached in Copyright Action by Mood’. Billboard (15th November, 1975): 65 White, Leonard, 2003: Armchair Theatre: The Lost Years. Kelly Publications Wesley Alan Britton, 2004: Spy Television. Greenwood Publishing Group For more information, please visit Network DVD.
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