4-11. The Richmond File: Call Me Enemy.

Soviet spy Richmond's observations about
Callan hit a little too close to home...

Air Date: May 10, 1972. Written by: George Markstein. Directed by: Bill Bain. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

Richmond (T. P. McKenna), the top Soviet agent who was once exchanged for Callan, has returned. After popping back up in London, complete with his old code name, Richmond turned himself in. Hunter has assigned Callan to debrief the enemy agent in an isolated safe house far from London, to learn what he knows and what he wants.

Richmond insists that he has no desire to betray his country. He has simply grown weary of the job, and he has no safe Soviet retirement option. As he tells Callan: "For people like you and me, safety can only be found amongst our enemies. It's our friends who will kill us." To buy his Western retirement, he has come with a piece of information.

There is a traitor inside The Section: None other than Callan's long-time rival/partner, Toby Meres!

Richmond accuses Meres of being a traitor;
Meres doesn't exactly make himself look innocent.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: The heart of this episode lies in the interactions between Callan and Richmond. Richmond, the faithful Communist, reminds Callan of the exact type of upper-class officer he despises. After it's revealed that Richmond was a colonel in the Soviet military, Callan begins snapping an angry but military-crisp "colonel, sir!" at him. Callan tries to get under Richmond's skin, using a photograph of the man's wife to rattle him at one point... but Callan is himself shaken by some of the other man's all too true observations about how trapped they are in their lives. While he doesn't believe Richmond's accusation against Meres, he also doesn't seem 100% certain that the other man is lying.

Hunter: When Callan reaches the safe house with Richmond with no problems, he is surprised, and a little unsettled, at the absence of any sign of pursuit. He spends most of the episode listening in on Callan and Richmond, reacting with annoyance when Richmond bids his listeners a good morning. Though he monitors the situation closely, it's clear that he can do nothing to affect the outcome; if the house is attacked, then he and his agents are simply too far away to do anything about it.

Meres: Only enters the episode in its final Act, after Richmond has fingered him as the traitor. His aloof manner and general callousness are well-established traits. In this new context, however, they make him into a sinister figure, and Callan cannot help but regard him with suspicion even while loudly insisting that he doesn't believe a word that Richmond is saying.

Richmond: Richmond is very much Callan's opposite. Callan is working class, while Richmond affects the mannerisms of the upper class. Callan is emotional and prone to anger, while Richmond is almost continuously unflappable, seeming to find his situation amusing even when Callan threatens him. His calm is so absolute that it makes the rare moments in which it breaks all the more effective... and McKenna keeps those breaks brief and subtle for the most part, minor twitches that belie an otherwise perfectly placid mask.

The enigmatic Richmond (T. P. McKenna):
What does he know, and what does he want?

THOUGHTS:

The series' final arc begins with this excellent first installment. It would not be difficult to adapt this script into a two-hander. The bulk of it consists of conversations between Callan and Richmond, the story boiling down to a battle of wills and wits between two smart, experienced, and stubborn men.

Edward Woodward and T. P. McKenna are tasked with carrying the hour, and they play off each other splendidly. George Markstein's script gives both actors good material, too, zeroing in on the two spies as characters. Callan is theoretically in the more powerful position, as Richmond is in his custody. Nevertheless, Richmond's statements increasingly hit home for him. The ending sees each man taking a moment to size up the other. Both men's observations seem entirely accurate... but Richmond's assessment of Callan seems to strike closer to the core than Callan's does of Richmond, leaving our anti-hero to mull a few unpleasant truths in the final moments.

Though this episode features all the current regulars (even Bishop returns after a few episodes away), most of them have little to do here. Lonely is disgruntled by the long drive; Liz is clearly worried at a situation that's beyond immediate Section control; Bishop fumes about the risk to Callan; and Hunter has some amusing interactions with the surveillance man (an entertaining Brian Croucher) who dresses a bit too casually for the older man's liking but who shows a sharp mind, catching on quickly to the ramifications of the situation.

The episode is a gold mine for continuity lovers. References are made to events from earlier this season: Callan's imprisonment in Russia and his brief stint as Hunter receive mentions. Richmond also tries to enhance his accusations against Meres by reminding Callan (and us) that Meres once shot him, almost fatally, while playing on Callan's resentment against the Section by noting that they keep him in line through blackmail. All of these continuity points tie in well with the current situation. They also create the sense of the series being bound together just in time for its ending.

Several loose ends are left to bring us into the next episode. Callan, Hunter, and Bishop all agree that Richmond came back to the UK with good reason, leaving the enemy agent's agenda still unknown. Then there is the question of the traitor. While I don't believe Richmond's claims about Meres (among other things, the sadistic Meres being a villain is too easy for a series that rarely opts for "easy"), it is nevertheless clear that he has a lot of information about The Section - enough that it seems probable that there's a leak at least connected to the team.

In any event, on its own terms, Call Me Enemy is a splendid opening episode to this arc: well-plotted, sharply-scripted, and impeccably performed. I'd rank it as one of the best of a very good final season.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: The Contract
Next Episode: The Richmond File - Do You Recognize the Woman?

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4-06. None of Your Business.

Callan is caught at a disadvantage.

Air Date: Apr. 5, 1972. Written by: Trevor Preston. Directed by: Voytek. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

Callan has been relieved of his duties as Hunter. Bishop places him on "special leave" (aka, suspension), and strongly hints that Callan's days with The Section are numbered.

Callan decides to go on holiday abroad, requesting his passport for a trip to Spain. When his request is denied, he leans on Lonely to help him acquire a fake passport. This leads him to Lucas (Tony Selby), a small-time crook with a sideline in forged passports.

Lucas's passports are good... too good for such a minor operator. His "silent partners," who work out of an art gallery, have ended up on The Section's radar, after similar forged documents were found on a KGB assassin who died in a car accident. Meres is investigating the forgery operation, with the somewhat befuddled backing of Bishop, who is acting as Hunter during the transition.

Inevitably, Callan's pursuit of a passport leads him right into the middle of Meres's investigation - and leads both of them to the true mastermind of the operation!

Meres has to walk Bishop through
the latest developments in his investigation.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: Callan's neither naive nor an idiot: He fully comprehends that he's not going to be allowed to leave the country immediately after being removed as the head of an intelligence division. However, he still feels the need to push, in part to test his freedom and in part to rebel against the very authority that coerced him into taking the job of Hunter in the first place. Add paranoia to the mix particularly after Bishop behaves too high-handedly in his dismissal. If he is no longer with The Section, then he'll have no protection... not to mention the potential danger from The Section itself. Another fine performance by Edward Woodward, who thus far is doing his best acting of the series this season. Note a scene in which he loses his temper and strikes Lonely: You can see the rage that drives him to it, followed an instant later by clear regret in both his face and posture.

Bishop: During his brief stint in the big chair, he proves to be at least as poor a Hunter as Callan. Meres has to patiently explain why the death of the KGB spy isn't simply "a lucky break" and "case closed" - an explanation none of the previous Hunters would have required. One might at least think that, unlike Callan, Bishop has the right temperament for the job... except his aloofness is less a lack of emotion than an egotistical attitude of being above it all. When Callan shows disrespect for him, Bishop becomes annoyed, snaps that he finds Callan's attitude offensive, and then indicates (falsely) that Callan's days with The Section are numbered. This annoys the previous Hunter when he learns of it, and with good reason: Bishop's own attitude unnecessarily sets off Callan's paranoia.

Hunter: Checks in with Callan after he is put on "special leave." Attempts to be friendly, but he stands firm on the issue of the passport, warning him not to attempt to leave the country. Later, he fills in for Bishop when the administrator comes down with a convenient case of food poisoning. I can't help but wonder if that food poisoning was arranged, given that it occurs after Hunter learned of Bishop's professional lapse. When Hunter returns to the office, he shows how perfectly suited he is to the job, instantly ready to defuse internal tensions and issue orders. The correct orders, at that.

Meres: He returned to The Section because he saw an opportunity to become Hunter. Now the position is vacant, and he's eagerly taking the leadership role upon himself. Truthfully, he seems like he'd be a decent fit. He's intelligent, not emotional, and understands the job. He sees himself as the logical next in line... and when the previous Hunter returns to "fill in" for Bishop, the way Meres' face freezes is perfect. In an instant, he recognizes that if the previous Hunter is filling in, then he is himself not seen as a replacement, whether Hunter's return ends up being temporary or not. Great nonverbal acting from Anthony Valentine, in a beat that director Voytek wisely lingers on before moving on with the scene.

Liz: Is clearly distraught in the wake of Cross's death. She was unable to make herself go to the funeral, and she is on the verge of tears even at the office. When Callan asks why she doesn't just take a few days off, she replies that she wouldn't know what to do with herself. As A Village Called 'G' made clear, The Section is her life.

Hunter (William Squire) comes to Callan as a friend
- but also warns him not to leave the country.

THOUGHTS:

None of Your Business is a transitional entry, tasked with cleaning up after the mess left by the previous episode.  A sense of uncertainty hangs over much of the action: Callan is suspended and left to wonder what his future may be; Meres believes he knows what his future is; and The Section itself is in turmoil. Cross also gets a mention, and we see that his death had a genuine impact on Liz and Callan, at least.

The character material is excellent. Callan's anger and paranoia push him to be harsh first with Lonely, then with Hunter, and even (to a much lesser degree) with Liz... the very people who are on his side. We also see both sides of Callan's dynamic with Meres. First we see the rivalry, as Meres emerges from Hunter's office - acting in all but name as the new boss - to ask why Callan is late. Then we see their partnership, with them falling fully and wordlessly into sync during the final operation. No one has to say anything about how perfectly the two work together - It's clear. Callan can trust Meres to make good decisions in the moment and to have his back... unlike Cross, whose lapses tended to complicate missions.

There isn't much dead space, with both the Callan and Meres plots moving along briskly. The major guest characters are well-written and well-played. Tony Selby is appropriately smarmy as the small-time criminal who doesn't realize just how far over his head he is, both with Callan and his "associates." There's also a good turn by the actor playing the real villain, who is physically unassuming - right up until he decides to act.

There's so much that's good in None of Your Business that it's all the more aggravating that the merging plotlines hang on an implausibly big coincidence. Callan is seeking a forged passport... and he just so happens to hit up the very forgery ring that Meres is investigating. Not to put too fine a point on it, but London is a very large city, to put it mildly, and it seems unlikely that Lonely would just happen to take Callan to the exact same forger.

There were ways around this. Had Meres's investigation progressed to the point of linking Lucas to the gallery, then you could have Callan secretly working under orders to try to get into the ring as a customer.  Alternatively, Lonely could have been given orders to steer Callan in that direction; after all, warning Callan not to get a passport amounts to the same thing as asking him to please get one, something Hunter at least would realize, so Callan's next move would have been obvious. But no; Callan going to the same forger Meres was investigating actually is just a giant coincidence, and that harms the episode's internal credibility.

The episode is still entertaining, and it's boosted by good performances and some fine character moments. But it comes so close to being very good that it's annoying that it settles for being merely decent.


Overall Rating: 6/10. Almost a "7," but that central coincidence is just a little too much for me.

Previous Episode: If He Can, So Could I
Next Episode: Charlie Says It's Goodbye

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4-05. If He Can, So Could I.

Cross goes back on active duty - but is he up to it?

Air Date: Mar. 29, 1972. Written by: Ray Jenkins. Directed by: Peter Duguid. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

Cross is on medical leave following his injuring of a defector's daughter during his last assignment. Though he's physically sharp and gives all the right answers when interviewed, Snell (Clifford Rose) is certain that something is wrong.

The Section has a new mission, however. Bishop has reason to believe that Vadim (Morris Perry), a Russian tractor salesman, is actually a notorious Soviet assassin named Burov. It doesn't take long to identify his likely target: Trofimchuk (Peter Blythe), a dissident poet preparing to publish. Callan assigns Meres to follow Burov - and, against Snell's advice, calls Cross back to active duty to protect Trofimchuk.

Cross seems ready for the job. He watches over his ward, keeps him away from the windows, and even tasted his food before allowing him to eat it. But when Burov evades Meres to go after his target, Cross finds himself put to the test - and if Snell is right, he might not be up to the challenge...

Callan gets drunk, much to Lonely's discomfort.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: He overidentifies with Cross, seeing himself in the younger agent. He recalls Snell's dismissal of him not long ago - either forgetting or unaware that Snell allowed for the possibility that Callan could again be his old self, an allowance he isn't making for Cross. When a crisis hits, Callan cannot restrain himself from leaving the office against protocol (the very mistake that got the second Hunter killed).  Callan's instinct is to be where the action is when things go wrong, even though that is no longer his job. Of course, this is also where he's at his best: Once out of the office, he deals effectively with Trofimchuk and eventually with Burov, displaying a confidence that just isn't there when he's behind a desk. 

Cross: Though he insists he's fine, he continues to check up on the girl he injured. This is something remarked on by both Meres and Snell, and he never provides a good answer to reconcile his claims of remorselessness with his actions. He's clearly eager to get back to work, and he blames Callan for his extended furlough - not realizing that Callan is actually the one defending him. He tries to be all business while protecting Trofimchuk, but as the time passes, it becomes clear that he's not unaffected by the poet's various musings.

Meres: "No such thing (as accidents), old son, not in our trade." When Meres checks on Cross at the start of the episode, he is smugness personified. Even so, in his own way, I think he's trying to help. He's clear-eyed about Cross's predicament, in a way neither Cross nor Callan can be, correctly diagnosing that it's actually harder for Cross that the girl is alive but injured than if she had died. This is Meres, of course, so his "therapy session" involves pointing an unloaded gun at Cross and pulling the trigger. I'd comment on the bad gun safety protocol - but Meres likely wouldn't have been bothered if a round had ended up being in the chamber.

Lonely: Is only in a single scene, one in which he barely speaks. Once the operation is over, Callan indulges in some heavy drinking back at his flat, with Lonely for company. A lesser actor might have come across as a prop here, someone whose presence allowed for the main character to rant. Russell Hunter, however, reacts to every one of Callan's movements, his eyes and body language showing bewilderment, compassion, discomfort, and more than a hint of terror.

Professional vultures: Snell and Bishop.

THOUGHTS:

An interesting aspect of Callan's fourth season is the way in which events from one episode keep feeding future ones. This is very true of If He Can, So Could I. The episode's story is centered around Cross's return to duty, with both that fact and Cross's questionable mental state a direct result of the events of The Rules of the Game.

Multiple additional continuity points are raised, and to good dramatic effect. This is particularly true of an early scene between Cross and Snell. As Cross emotionlessly recites what he believes are the correct answers, Snell hammers away, using every one of Cross's "accidents" and misjudgments of the past season and a half: The bystander Cross knocked in front of a train; the young woman who killed herself; the affair with Liz; and several other examples. Frankly, by the end of Snell's assault, my question wasn't whether Cross was fit for duty: It was how he had ever been considered fit.

The focus of the episode is not just on Cross, but also on Callan's insistence on identifying so strongly with him. The two men are very different, as has been clear from the start. Late in the episode, Bishop observes that Callan has never killed an unauthorized target; in a relatively brief span, Cross has killed one unauthorized target and one bystander, and also injured a young girl. Cross has consistently been reckless, not stopping to think or even to properly observe a situation before acting. Callan has observed these very traits in the past... but now, feeling trapped in a job that doesn't suit him and burdened by a bit too much empathy for the young man, he cannot make himself be objective.

By the end, both Cross's issues as an agent and Callan's as a Hunter have been brought to a crisis point. The supporting cast is not forgotten either. Meres' early scene with Cross is terrific, showing the cold intelligence that sits side by side with his ruthlessness. Liz is in a mostly reactive role, but Lisa Langdon once again shows her ability to do a lot with a little, from her facial reactions as she listens to a phone call to her frantic searches through files, keeping herself busy to avoid her own emotions.

Snell and Bishop also make strong impressions. One of the episode's last shots is of the two of them, standing side-by-side, as they review the operation. Both are so clinical that they come across as inhuman - more callous and unfeeling than Meres on his worst day. Callan could certainly never match that callousness, and he is left speechless in the face of it.


Overall Rating: 10/10. One of the series' best.

Previous Episode: Rules of the Game
Next Episode: None of Your Business

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4-03. First Refusal.

Toby Meres (Anthony Valentine) returns to The Section.

Air Date: Mar. 15, 1972. Written by: Bill Craig. Directed by: Jim Goddard. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

Kitzlinger (Martin Wyldeck) is a very special kind of broker. His trade is secrets; any government is fair game, and any government is a potential client.

Kitzlinger's current client is selling a list: the names of ten highly placed agents in Eastern Europe. The British government is allowed first refusal, but at a particularly steep price: £100,000. An additional agent, Bristac (Christopher Owen), is used as a demonstration that the goods are genuine, leaving Bristac lucky to escape with his life.

If the British don't pay by the end of the week, then Kitzlinger will go to the Russians. Bishop (Geoffrey Chater), Callan's superior, thinks they have no choice but to make the deal. Callan is more concerned with how this information leaked in the first place. Normally, he would hit the streets, pushing the right people until he found the answer. Stuck in the deskbound Hunter's job, however, he must rely on his agents to do that for him.

With Cross proving ever more unreliable, Callan turns to a previous Section operative. The only other agent he's ever actually respected: Toby Meres (Anthony Valentine). The man who, the last time they crossed paths, very nearly killed him...

Lonely becomes a driver for The Section.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: "You know, you really are a very bad Hunter!" Bishop thunders this at Callan near the end - and he isn't wrong. It's not so much Callan's actual decisions, most of which are reasonable given the information he possesses. It's his manner. Look at all four previous Hunters. Even Hunter #2, who all but specialized in overcomplicating situations to their detriment, always presented himself as calm and in control. None of the previous Hunters tended to let their emotions show. By contrast, Callan is constantly showing his reactions, something even Kitzlinger picks up on.  As a result, he never seems as in-control as his predecessors.

Meres: I didn't realize just how much I missed Meres. I've never hated Cross, who is a pretty decent character in his own right (at least, when he's not written as a Meres replacement). However, Cross lacks the experience and competence to be a genuine rival for Callan. Meres fits that role perfectly. He's all the things Callan isn't: Upper-class, polished, unemotional, and sadistic. He reveals that he sought a transfer back to The Section when Callan was made Hunter. Not for sentimental reasons, but because he doesn't believe Callan will last in the job, and he sees himself as the obvious replacement.

Lonely: Callan comes up with a brilliant solution to the problem of Lonely's red file: He hires the thief to be a driver for The Section's new "Mobile Communications Facility" (translation: radio taxi cab). Lonely's knowledge of Callan and The Section won't be a problem if he's actually working for them. Lonely almost balks when reading the penalties if he breaches the Official Secrets Act. Callan, knowing that the alternative might be killing Lonely, immediately and harshly quashes that.

Kitzlinger, with an uneasy associate (Coral Atkins).

THOUGHTS:

There's a lot goign on in First Refusal. The episode follows up on two threads from Call Me Sir!: Callan's unwanted promotion to Hunter, and the complications created by Lonely knowing enough to be considered a danger to The Section. It also reintroduces Toby Meres - and since it's been some time since his last appearance, it has to re-establish his character and relationship with Callan in a way that will work for viewers old and new. And all that has to be fitted around the standalone story, which is a reasonably involved one.

In short, this easily could have fallen into the same trap as Call Me Sir!, which felt awkwardly paced, with multiple subplots that didn't seem to entirely fit together. Thankfully, this is a much better script. Aside from a little bit of choppy editing near the start, First Refusal does a good job of fusing all its threads together into a cohesive whole.

Every subplot is woven into the main story. Lonely's first task as driver is to take Bishop and Callan to meet Kitzlinger. Later, Lonely is used to delay the broker while surveillance is set up at his destination. Meres first appears as Kitzlinger's newest contact before we see him reporting to Callan. Meanwhile, the story as a whole furthers the Callan-as-Hunter arc, with the entire episode showing all the ways in which Callan is not suited to his desk job.

The story is well paced throughout, with several good scenes that showcase the characters without sacrificing plot progression. I did guess the ending... but in fairness to the episode, I only guessed it a few scenes beforehand, despite everything seeming obvious in retrospect.

All told, a fine episode, both on its own terms and in its implications for the rest of the season.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Call Me Sir!
Next Episode: Rules of the Game

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4-02. Call Me Sir!

Callan gets an unexpected promotion..

Air Date: Mar. 8, 1972. Written by: Bill Craig. Directed by: Mike Vardy. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

Callan is fit to return to work... except that he doesn't want to. His time in Russia has left him badly shaken, and he demands to be transferred to a non-operational position. Anything, he says, as long as it doesn't involve "getting killed."

As it happens, Hunter and his superior, Bishop (Geoffrey Chater), have plans of their own for Callan. Given the importance of the Soviet agent they traded, the enemy now regards Callan as somebody important. Fortunately, there's a perfect way to grant Callan's request to be non-operational while also managing the perceptions of the Opposition - promotion.

Specifically, they will give Callan the one job that's worse than his current one. He's to be made the newest Hunter!

Lonely sits for amateur artist Flo Mayhew (Sarah Lawson)

CHARACTERS:

Callan: Is apoplectic when Hunter and Bishop reveal their plans. "(Hunter's) desk has dominted my life!" he protests. "Do you know what that bit of furniture means to me? That's orders that turn my stomach. Lying, cheating, double-dealing, dying!" When Hunter points out the job also means safety, Callan retorts that he remembers a couple of Hunters who didn't end up being so safe. He quickly finds himself trapped by the job; as Hunter points out, he's free to make his own decisions, but he needs to be prepared to defend his choices with logic and reason, and without emotion.

Hunter: By the end of Series Three, it was becoming clear that Hunter respected and possibly even secretly liked Callan. He offered praise for Callan's judgement in handling a crisis with Liz, and spoke to him almost as an equal at the end of Breakout. He adopts the role of mentor, helping Callan to understand the limits of his new position. When he leaves the office for the last time, he announces that this departure comes "without a particle of regret."

Lonely: We first see Lonely in an unusual situation: Sitting as a model for amateur artist Flo Mayhew (Sarah Lawson). She later explains that she was taken by Lonely's face, which she describes as "grotty" but "interesting... full of peculiar angles and unexpected bumps." For all of Lonely's semi-comic mannerisms, he isn't actually stupid. With Callan away for eight months, he's had time to think and has put several pieces together. Being Lonely, he reaches the exact wrong conclusion, but all of his reasoning is sound. For the second episode in a row, he shows courage in a stressful situation, this time directly confronting Callan about the mysterious disappearances, the odd jobs he's given him, and most particularly the breakout of the Soviet spy. Callan is left nonplussed, likely realizing how badly he's underestimated him.

Cross: Initially treats Callan's promotion as a joke, even quipping to him about how false funerals are an unreliable disposal method since Callan managed to come back from his. The smile vanishes when Callan firmly and evenly tells him: "Sir. Call me sir." From that moment, Cross tries to undermine Callan, using his friendship with Lonely as a weapon against him. The episode ends with him and Callan swapping barbs. Callan tells him that taking care of an enemy assassin is his problem; after Cross, um, solves it, he then swipes back that the loose-lipped Lonely is Callan's problem, and seems smug that his new boss has no answer to that.

Liz: Gets a substantial role, acting as Callan's one true ally. When Cross goes on the hunt for Lonely, she conspires with Callan to keep him safe. A dangerous moment happens when Cross walks right to the room where she is hiding with Lonely... and she thinks fast to come up with a solution that explains every discrepancy and leaves Cross slack-jawed in shock. With a little training, she would make a rather good agent herself... though as was showcased in last season's A Village Called "G", she's far more valuable in her current role, as likely The Section's only indispensable member.

Cross resents Callan's new position.

THOUGHTS:

It's difficult to properly review Call Me Sir! It's an almost entirely a transitional episode, moving the characters from the events of the premiere to the setup that will dominate much of this season. As such, it is more interesting as a building block than as a story in its own right.

There are two threads: Callan being manipulated into his new position, and the issues involving Lonely. They barely connect at all for the first half of the show, and for the first thirty minutes the Lonely subplot starts and stops around the more prominent Callan promotion thread. This results in pacing problems for the first half.  Not just  slow pace, but an awkward one, with the Callan and Lonely scenes interfering with each other rather than enhancing each other.

Once Callan has reluctantly accepted his new post, the episode improves significantly. The two threads finally converge, so that everything feels like part of the same story, and there are some fun scenes in which Callan and Liz work to keep Lonely safe while misdirecting the other agents. The reactions of Cross and Hunter to one particular moment are genuinely funny, with Hunter actually left speechless.

It ends with a final twist that most viewers will see coming almost from the episode's start. Still, the closing scenes are well-done, cutting between a calm conversation in a car and the house it's parked outside of, in which gunfire is being exchanged. As is often the case in this show, the conversation is more interesting than the shooting.

So overall... It's an episode of two halves. Even the first half isn't actually bad, with excellent character material and typically strong performances by the regular cast. When the subplots finally come together, it even becomes enjoyable... but the awkward pacing and ill fit of the two threads makes the first half unusually unengaging, lowering my final score a bit.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: That'll Be the Day
Next Episode: First Refusal

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4-01. That'll Be the Day.

A funeral for Callan.

Air Date: Mar. 1, 1972. Written by: James Mitchell. Directed by: Mike Vardy. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

David Callan is dead.

No, really. There's a funeral and everything. Lonely, however, is shocked when the parson talks about the departed as a quiet, gentle soul, and he becomes convinced that they "buried the wrong geezer."

He turns out to be entirely correct. Callan was picked up by the KGB during an operation in East Germany and is now undergoing drug-induced questioning by a thoroughly professional Soviet interrogator (Julian Glover). The funeral is a precaution by Hunter, to fend off any enemy attempts to use Callan for propaganda purposes.

Hunter orders Cross to frighten Lonely into silence. But first there's a more pressing task. His superior, Bishop (Geoffrey Chater) has ordered the immediate arrest of Richmond (T. P. McKenna), a top-level Soviet agent. Hunter hopes to break Richmond, to force him to divulge critical information. Bishop, however, has another plan, one Hunter strongly opposes: To exchange Richmond for Callan!

Just making sure?  "Colonel Hunter" (Ronald Radd),
Callan's original handler, attends his funeral.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: In a hopeless situation, Callan firmly refuses to tell his captors anything. The KGB interrogator asks why he resists, given that they both know the end result is inevitable. Callan replies that he has to. It's not blind patriotism; he just, by nature, needs to fight. When he returns to England, he can't stop himself from visiting his own grave. The title - "That'll be the day" - is his retort to two words on the headstone: "At rest."

Hunter: Though we have seen how much he values Callan, he does not want to exchange Richmond for him. He's done the cold calculations, and he regards Richmond as more valuable. When Bishop overrules him, he issues a formal protest. After that, however, he follows his orders, and is firm in making sure Cross does the same.

Col. Hunter: Ronald Radd's "Colonel Hunter" makes his final appearance, as one of the mourners at Callan's funeral. Since we are explicitly told that only Bishop and the current Hunter are aware that Callan is alive, this indicates that it was his decision to go, I suspect to show genuine respect. The Callan/Colonel relationship was a lot more complicated than is sometimes remembered: Callan despised the colonel, but at the same time respected him (note how appalled he was when the colonel was replaced in Series Two); and the colonel never showed any real dislike for Callan and unquestionably respected him... Though given that Callan threatened his life before the opening credits of the first regular episode, it's possible that he went just to make sure.  In any event, Radd's brief appearance is a welcome nod to the series' origins.

Lonely: Loyal to Callan despite his protector's absence. He is so certain that Callan is alive that he even considers going to the police. His aunt quashes the idea, but word gets back to Hunter, who is alarmed enough to unleash Cross. Lonely may be a coward, but when Cross tries to boast that he killed Callan, he overcomes his terror to call out the lie: "You ain't up to it," he declares, fully meeting Cross's gaze despite having a gun pressed against his chin.

Cross: The latter part of Series Three saw Cross develop into more than just a Meres replacement. Cross was a True Believer, absolute in his conviction that The Section was serving a greater good. He had no problem using violence, but never showed any of Meres's sadistic tendencies, and even reacted with distress when an innocent woman was hurt as a result of an operation. I mention all this previous character development, because... Well, this episode throws it all away. The scene in which he frightens Lonely, forcing him to play a game of Russian Roulette, is probably the episode's most dramatic moment.  It's an excellent scene for Lonely... but it reduces Cross to nothing more than a cut-rate Meres, drawing pleasure from his victim's terror.

Karsky: Julian Glover is typically excellent as Callan's soft-spoken KGB interrogator. He is entirely amiable, even friendly, as he urges Callan to give up his information voluntarily before the drugs destroy him. He is the only one of his captors Callan shows any respect - though when he returns to The Section, he describes him as a man "who could be (Section interrogator) Snell's brother."

Richmond: The KGB's top man in England, basically Callan's equal-but-opposite. Actor T. P. McKenna does well with what he's given, though his role here is likely just planting the character for the series-ending Richmond File 3-parter. The episode parallels the two spies: Both are captured, both are questioned by similar interrogators, and finally they are exchanged for each other. During the exchange, both Callan and Richmond are seen drinking in their rooms, offering their surly watchers a drink. When they come face-to-face, they chat briefly but amicably, observing that they now know exactly how much their respective employers value them.

"You ain't up to it."  A terrified Lonely
refuses to believe that Cross killed Callan.

THOUGHTS:

Like many Callan episodes, That'll Be the Day's story is both simple and well-worn. Also like many Callan episodes, it succeeds by spotlighting interesting characters and creating effective atmosphere.

This is a surprisingly modern season premiere, setting up elements to be used later in the season. Bishop and Hunter discuss how Callan's role could be more important than it currently is. Karsky asks Callan specific questions about Toby Meres. Richmond is introduced. All the major threads of Series Four are established here.

Given that Callan spends most of the story imprisoned, it is critical that the episode actually demonstrates for new viewers that he is as good an agent as Hunter and Bishop say.  The final ten minutes see him at full alert. Practically the instant he is free, he demands a gun, paranoid that the KGB might try something now that they've recovered Richmond. When Cross scoffs that the Opposition always plays fair with exchanges, Callan retorts: "There is always a first time, lad, I do not want it to be me, so shut up and give a gun!" He also spots a KGB tail before Cross, and finds the tracking device that has been planted on him - a device Cross would never have found, given that he mocked Callan for even believing one was planted.

I mentioned throughout my Series Three reviews how cheap the season looked, far more so than the 1960s black-and-white episodes did. That'll Be the Day shows improved production values across the board. Hunter's office looks more like a real office and less like a studio set whose walls might fall down at any moment; exterior scenes are better shot; and even the recycled prison set used for Callan's interrogation doesn't look half-bad. Much of Series Three overcame its cheap look through good scripts and performances. Even so, the cheapness created a barrier, particularly when a given script failed to hit the mark. It's a tremendous relief to have that barrier removed, and to see the show looking decent again.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Amos Green Must Live
Next Episode: Call Me Sir!

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3-03. The Same Trick Twice.

Surtees (Richard Hurndall): enemy agent or outraged citizen?

Air Date: Apr. 22, 1970. Written by: Bill Craig. Directed by: Peter Duguid. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

A prisoner exchange at the border between East and West Germany yields two British citizens who have been detained for five years. Mallory (Patrick O'Connell) is an agent whose network was uncovered after the arrest of the other man: Surtees (Richard Hurndall). British Intelligence has spent the last five years insisting that Surtees is not an agent, which nobody believes.

Now that he's returned home, Surtees plans to publish his story. He alleges that a British agent calling himself "Hunter" blackmailed him into espionage activities, including assisting in the assassination of a CIA agent. Mallory and civil servant Bishop (Geoffrey Chater) theorize that he might actually be working for the Russians, acting to discredit British Intelligence. Whatever the case, Hunter cannot allow Surtees to publish - even if that means ordering the man's death!

Callan intimidates Lonely.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: Initially reacts to Surtees' allegations with a hint of smugness, noting that The Section's various dirty deeds were bound to come back to haunt them eventually. He clearly doesn't believe that Surtees is a Russian asset, and he resists the idea of eliminating him... though he is prepared to do so if no other alternative presents itself.

Hunter: Like Callan, he doesn't particularly think that Surtees is KGB. However, he also doesn't particularly care. "The theory doesn't have to be right," he observes; it's sufficient for him that it's possible. An interesting note is his reaction to Bishop's involvement in the operation. He entirely supports Bishop in front of Callan; but once Callan leaves, he curtly says that he resents meddling with his Section. We also see that he is more than just a bureaucrat, as it's his ability to connect observations with reality that enables The Section to determine exactly who's behind this mess.

Lonely: Lonely's brief role makes me wonder if this episode was originally envisioned as the second of the season. Callan has to search for him, and finds him working a legitimate job as a "hygiene operative" (bathroom attendant) - clearly needing an honest job for the sake of his parole. If this episode was intended to come before Summoned to Appear, it would make a lot more sense of his reluctance to work with Callan and his statement that menial honest labor is "better than the nick." It's worth noting that there are alternate viewing orders for Series Three, whose transmission was disrupted; the Callan: This Man Alone DVD set .pdfs include a Feb. 1970 transmission schedule that's quite different from the way the episodes actually aired. Still, every version of the "intended sequence" for the season has the first three episodes in the same order, which makes this continuity hiccup perplexing.

Surtees: Richard Hurndall strikes a perfect tone as Surtees. His story is believable enough to convince Cross, and his posture and tone are just indignant enough to fit what he claims happened to him. However, he is possessed of a certain arrogance, taking genuine pleasure from his plan to disgrace his home country's intelligence agencies - an attitude that fits equally well whether he's an innocent man wanting revenge or an enemy operative striking a blow against the other side.

Hunter looks over Surtees' article, which
is even more damning than he'd feared.

THOUGHTS:

The Same Trick Twice is a difficult episode to judge. The plot holds together well enough, and there are some good scenes. Callan's intimidation of the sleazy photographer (Harold Innocent) who set up Surtees' blackmail is a darkly amusing bit, and an off-the-record conversation between Callan and Hunter is sharply scripted and wonderfully acted by Edward Woodward and William Squire.

The problem is... It's really not very involving. Much of the story is depressingly predictable. By twenty minutes in, I was pretty sure of the villain's identity, leaving me to spend the remaining half hour waiting for Callan to catch up. The episode's first half is slow-paced and dry, and I felt at a remove from the events I was watching.

The second half does improve significantly. There are some interesting complications involving the photographer and Jean (Trisha Noble), his old model who has now moved up to a successful marriage and who doesn't want to revisit her sordid past. It builds to a good scene between Callan, Jean, and Surtees... Though even that scene depends on Callan being uncharacteristically un-curious about a mysterious phone call, presumably so that the (predictable) ending can happen.

Overall, I would rank this as the weakest existing Callan episode since The Little Bits and Pieces of Love. It's not bad in any way - but it's a bit too slow and a bit too predictable for me to qualify it as good.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Summoned to Appear
Next Episode: A Village Called 'G'



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Callan: Series Four

Callan (Edward Woodward)

Series Four (1972):

4-01. That'll Be the Day

Original Air Date: Mar. 1, 1972

4-02. Call Me Sir!

Original Air Date: Mar. 8, 1972

4-03. First Refusal

Original Air Date: Mar. 15, 1972

4-04. Rules of the Game

Original Air Date: Mar. 22, 1972

4-05. If He Can, So Could I

Original Air Date: Mar. 29, 1972

4-06. None of Your Business

Original Air Date: Apr. 5, 1972

4-07. Charlie Says It's Goodbye

Original Air Date: Apr. 12, 1972

4-08. I Never Wanted the Job

Original Air Date: Apr. 19, 1972

4-09. The Carrier

Original Air Date: Apr. 26, 1972

4-10. The Contract

Original Air Date: May 3, 1972

4-11. The Richmond File: Call Me Enemy

Original Air Date: May 10, 1972

4-12. The Richmond File: Do You Recognise the Woman?

Original Air Date: May 17, 1972

4-13. The Richmond File: A Man Like Me

Original Air Date: May 24, 1972

Previous: Series Three

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