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| Callan gets a little too close to an old adversary (Sarah Lawson). |
Air Date: May 17, 1972. Written by: Bill Craig. Directed by: Peter Duguid. Produced by: Reginald Collin.
THE PLOT:
After Richmond (T. P. McKenna)'s escape, The Section takes a two-pronged approach toward tracking him. Toby Meres supervises a surveillance van, intercepting the very short, staggered transmissions coming from Richmond's safe house and attempting to pinpoint its location. It's slow work, but each transmission narrows the potential target area.
Meanwhile, Callan goes to Flo Mayhew (Sarah Lawson), the KGB operative arrested and imprisoned after her failed attempt on his life. The Section knows that she is a former associate of Richmond's, and both Callan and Hunter believe that she could lead them to him. They know she won't talk; she is confident that the Soviets "always get (their) people back." Instead, they play on that belief, springing her from prison on the pretext that she's about to be exchanged.
Flo's status does not go unnoticed. Richmond's safe house is in a church run by two deep cover KGB operatives. When they learn that she is in the hands of The Section, it is enough for them to start pushing for drastic action - something Richmond is reluctant to do...
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| Richmond clashes with his allies over Flo's fate. |
CHARACTERS:
Callan: This episode reminds me of an observation Col. Hunter made all the way back in the pilot, when he acidly stated that Callan's empathy was a weakness. Here, that statement is proved true. Initially, seeing Flo merely as the enemy who tried to have him killed, Callan is fully on board with the deception. Then he starts getting to know her as a human being, and an operation he endorsed - even pushed for! - becomes every bit as distasteful as the ones the various Hunters have forced on him.
Hunter: It's almost certainly deliberate that the two most callous Hunters (Col. Hunter and the present Hunter) have been the series' two successful ones. William Squire's Hunter is utterly calm as he awaits the results from both Meres and Callan. When both results come in at once, revealing the danger Flo is in, he applauds Meres' discretion in not informing Callan. Even Meres is moved to comment at his coldness: "Don't applaud, sir. That way your left hand would know what your right hand was doing."
Meres: Spends the first half confined to the surveillance van, becoming increasingly (and amusingly) waspish about the failure of the technicians to trace Richmond's transmissions. Later, he finds Callan in an awkward position... a moment he savors with great satisfaction. Anthony Valentine makes the most of his brief screen time, though it seems like a lost opportunity that at no point is any mention made of Richmond's accusations of the previous episode; even if neither Hunter nor Callan believe the charges, they should at least be shown to be watchful.
Flo Mayhew: She has been serving her sentence, calmly waiting for exactly the sort of exchange Callan promises her. Her very confidence that the KGB always recovers its agents makes her vulnerable to The Section's ploy. She and Callan bond surprisingly quickly, given that their last encounter involved her attempt to murder him. As she says, despite being on different sides, they have more in common with each other than with the people around them - an observation that is very familiar to Callan after his recent conversations with Richmond. Sarah Lawson has good chemistry with Edward Woodward, and she's altogether better-used here than in her previous appearance.
Richmond: Call Me Enemy spent much of its running time contrasting the cool, aristocratic Richmond against emotional, working-class Callan, ultimately concluding that for all their differences, they were startlingly alike at their core. This episode puts Richmond in a familiar Callan dilemma. He wants to protect Flo, but his contacts are downright eager to brand her a traitor. He's left leaning on his rank to keep his own allies from forcing action he doesn't want to take; and the longer the situation drags on, the less cowed his contacts become.
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| Hunter and Bishop: Two men equally without compassion. |
THOUGHTS:
The second installment of the series-ending three-parter is nowhere near as good as Call Me Enemy. It's a little too slow-paced, even for a character-centric episode, and there are no surprises. By the twenty-minute mark, most viewers will know exactly where this story is going, and there are no particular twists or turns along the way.
That said, there are some fine character moments along the way. Though they share no screen time in this episode, the parallels between Callan and Richmond continue to be drawn. T. P. McKenna is again excellent, and Sarah Lawson is given far better material in this episode than she was in Call Me Sir!. The scenes between her and Callan are the best of the episode, and I appreciated Callan's comparison of his conversations with her to his recent talks with Richmond.
On the whole, it's an "in-between" episode. It's definitely better than the series' weakest entries, thanks to the fine character scenes. However, the slow pace and predictable story keep it equally as far from the series' better episodes. It's no trial to watch, and Meres' scenes provide some welcome comedy relief... but it still comes across as a bit of a placeholder. I'm left to wonder if The Richmond File wouldn't have been better served at two episodes instead of three.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
Previous Episode: The Richmond File - Call Me Enemy
Next Episode: The Richmond File - A Man Like Me
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