Callan

1 9 6 7 - 1 9 7 2 (UK)
44 x 60 minute episodes
1 x special

David Callan was an agent who worked for British Secret Intelligence. Callan was a killer, but a reluctant one. He has been prematurely retired at the age of 35 to become a clerk, because of a tendency to question orders and to show clemency to the targets assigned him.

Played by the tough and rugged Edward Woodward, Callan was a far cry from the glamorous tongue-in-cheek James Bond. This was a violent, bleak world where you killed first or were killed.

Callan was an outsider and often in direct conflict with his superior, Hunter, a codename given to all Section Heads. But then again, these were the anti-establishment days of the late sixties. The character was first seen in a one-off Armchair Theatre play on TV called A Magnum for Schneider where a disgraced former top agent was given a chance to redeem himself with one last liquidation. The hit man proved so successful that a series was commissioned.

Russell Hunter became a star as Callan's sniveling, smelly accomplice, a petty thief called Lonely.  Other notable characters were fellow agents and rivals, Meres and Cross. Standout episodes were Goodbye Nobby Clarke (with Michael Robbins from On The Buses as a former mentor turned mercenary), The Death of Robert Lee, The Running Dog (about a Neo-Fascist party), and Death of a Hunter.

During the course of his "come-back", Callan was involved in a number of different scenarios, many of them fairly typical spy fare. Some of his duties included: Handing an ex-SS officer over to the Israelis, stopping mercenaries, assisting the CIA in assassination plots, protecting defectors from the KGB and rescuing scientists from Communist East Germany.

As one could expect for the era, many of Callan's activities were against the KGB, The Russians in general or Communists from Eastern-Bloc Europe. Callan was certainly a product of the Cold War (In Breakout Callan and Cross have to break a Russian spy out of  jail in order to kill him). And yet David Callan often showed signs of respecting (or heaven forbid, even liking) his Soviet counterparts.

Woodward and Hunter reprised their roles for the feature film Callan (1973) based on the pilot episode, A Magnum for Schneider. Another one-off episode was released in 1981, called Wet Job, where Callan is running a militaria shop when he is forced back to work once again. Lonely, meanwhile, is running a company called 'Fresh and Fragrant Bathroom Installations', which was about as likely as Cilla Black running elocution classes . . .

Edward Woodward subsequently starred as an ex-secret agent in the New York based The Equalizer (1985 - 1989).

TRIVIA NOTE
Due to events including a late Peter Osgood equalizer in the 1970 Cup Final replay and the General Election, the last six episodes of the third season were subject to numerous changes of broadcast date. The intended order was Act of Kindness, Suddenly - At Home, A Village Called "G", Amos Green Must Live, God Help Your Friends, Breakout.

EPISODES

A Magnum for Schneider (Pilot) The Good Ones Are All Dead Goodbye Nobby Clarke  The Death of Robert E. Lee Goodness Burns Too Bright  But He's a Lord, Mr Callan  You Should Have Got Here Sooner  Red Knight, White Knight  The Most Promising Girl of Her Year You're Under Starter's Orders  The Little Bits and Pieces of Love  Let's Kill Everybody   Heir Apparent  Land of Light and Peace Blackmailers Should be Discouraged  Death of a Friend   Jack-on-Top   Once a Big Man, Always a Big Man The Running Dog  The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw  Nice People Die at Home   Death of a Hunter Where Else Could I Go?

Summoned to Appear  The Same Trick Twice  A Village Called "G"  Suddenly - At Home  Act of Kindness  God Help Your Friends  Breakout   Amos Green Must Live That'll Be the Day  Call Me Sir!   First Refusal  Rules of the Game  If He Can, So Could I  None of Your Business Charlie Says It's Goodbye  I Never Wanted the Job  The Carrier  The Contract  The Richmond File: Call Me Enemy  The Richmond File: Do You Recognise the Woman?  The Richmond File: A Man Like Me  Callan (1974 movie)   Wet Job (1981 movie)