Fri 13 Oct 2023
A British TV Mystery Episode Review: CALLAN “Breakout†(1970).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Espionage & Spies[5] Comments
CALLAN “Breakout.†Thames TV, UK, 10 June 1970 (Season 3, Episode 8). Edward Woodward (Callan), William Squire, Patrick Mower. Guest stars: Russell Hunter. Garfield Morgan. Teleplay by James Mitchell based on his own characters. Directed by Reginald Collin. Currently available on DVD and YouTube (see below).
When a KGB agent named Lupin turns himself in to the police, it means that the men in the super secretive “Section,†who have been keeping tabs on him, cannot use their usual means of interrogation on him, which was the whole idea. The solution to the problem? Break him out of jail, posing as Russians, so he will go along with them.
Complicating matters, and adding to their urgency, is the fact that Lupin has a list of all of Britain’s agents and aliases, and David Callan’s name is on it.
And of course, as with most heist capers, things do not go smoothly.
I chose this fast-paced episode to watch more or less random, but if it’s representative of the entire series, I may have made a mistake. It’s excellent, and I probably should have started at the beginning and worked my way through. (It ran for four seasons, and most of the episodes appear to be available on YouTube.)
And in fact, I may just do that. The action scenes were often filmed without dialogue, so that was fine, but watching a British program without captioning and an indifferent soundtrack meant missing important incidental things, such as who was who and why. Some of the humorous bits were also of some difficulty to pick up on. I do indeed need to watch more.
Of special note, if you watch this on your own, note how young and spry Edward Woodward was when he made this. I almost didn’t recognize him.
October 14th, 2023 at 2:08 am
The series is excellent all around, Callan is a somewhat tougher and deadlier version of Deighton’s anonymous spy hero, with it unclear in any given episode if Callan will kill his boss or be ordered killed by him rather than the bad guys.
Woodward plays Callan as more of a survivor than a hero.
The books Mitchell did based on the character are worth reading even if you have watched the episodes and an interesting contrast to his James Munro books (THE MAN WHO SOLD DEATH, THE MONEY THAT MONEY CAN’T BUY) about John Craig a somewhat smoother and more Bond like creation though as tough and dangerous as Callan though out of the middle class and not the lower class like Callan.
Quite a few familiar faces pass through the series and they are almost uniformly well written and tough minded. I do admit if you watch too many together some of the running bits like Lonely smelling bad start to run a bit thin, but then it wasn’t meant to be watched that way.
There is a fine balance kept where the viewer is never quite sure if Callan would really like to give up the dirty business, or if, as his superiors insist, he really does enjoy the killing. Woodward never exactly lets us know, but if Callan is involved someone is usually going to get killed.
The early seasons are done on a fairly tight budget, but as many British series did then they make a bonus of it because the seedy surroundings feel real.
October 14th, 2023 at 12:57 pm
Thanks, David, for providing a lot more insight on the series than I could. Between what I saw and what you say, CALLAN is definitely a series that well worth watching all of, or as much as is online. I also see I was wrong is putting the actor who played the fellow called Lonely in the short Guest Cast listing. The part he played in this one makes a bit more sense if he was a recurring character the audience was already familiar with, which of course I wasn’t.
October 14th, 2023 at 11:50 am
Those Brits sure do love sideburns on their menfolk
October 14th, 2023 at 1:00 pm
No more, I’d say, than right here in the USA. You should have seen me, back in the day, the early 70s.
October 14th, 2023 at 5:53 pm
From a Benny Hill Show of this period:
Henry McGee:
“Who would be your choice as best television actor?”
Fred Scuttle (rapidly):
“Edward Woodward would …
… I can say it, I just don’t know when to stop!”
When Benny Hill made his first public appearance in New York City, Edward Woodward served as his straight man …