WHAT are some of these reviewers on? This is a cracking film, full of wonderful set pieces, dialogue and memorable as ever acting. This is simply the best ever TV show ever and this is a brilliant example of John Thaw playing one of the best characters ever written in a longer script. I must have seen some of the scenes hundreds of times ( the flashback sequence),the long camera shot outside the court showing Regan's bosses' illustration of being isolated and the great climax where the sheer enjoyment of a night out is shown. Even the scene where the dead girls father challenges Regan shows his shame and is a great example of his acting versatility.A wonderful example of the Sweeney in so so many ways...vastly under-rated.

With 'Sweeney!' proving both a financial and critical triumph, the inevitable sequel - 'Sweeney 2' - appeared the following year. Troy Kennedy-Martin ( brother of the show's creator Ian ) wrote the script. His track record in movies includes 'The Italian Job' and 'Kelly's Heroes' ( both favourites of mine ). The director, Tom Clegg, was, like David Wickes before him, a graduate of the series, and also responsible for 'MacVicar' starring Roger Daltrey.'They're back! Tougher than ever!' screamed the posters. Well, they got it half-right. Regan and Carter were certainly back, this time on the trail of a bunch of bank robbers who use gold-coloured Purdey shotguns and have a curious habit of leaving money behind in their getaway cars. The crooks are based in Malta, in a communal villa where their girlfriends/wives float about all day in bikinis. They are of the view that England is 'finished', which I suppose makes them Thatcherite, though the political aspects of the plot are not dwelt upon.Ranald Graham's screenplay for 'Sweeney!' was both action-packed and tightly plotted, whereas 'Sweeney 2' resembles an episode of 'Life On Mars' on Prozac. It has some decent action sequences - the police car smashing through a window, for instance - but not nearly enough. Most of the time it is talk. Regan and Carter fly out to Malta at one point, but don't get far with their investigation, and you wonder why the sequence was included at all, other than to give the stars a free holiday. There's also a bomb disposal sequence in a hotel which seems to have been written in purely to extend the running time.Anna Nygh ( 'Desiree' from John Sullivan's 'Citizen Smith' ) does an alluring striptease as Nazi-worshipping 'Shirley Hicks', and Diana Weston and Georgina Hale provide glamour, but there's little else in the movie of note. Particularly annoying is the waste of actors of the calibre of Nigel Hawthorne, Roddy Macmillan, and Denholm Eliott ( cast as Regan's ex-boss, currently holed up in Wormwood Scrubs on corruption charges ).Other than the inclusion of the 'f' word, the script could have been done on television. The Flying Squad are augmented by familiar faces including John Flanagan, Derrick O'Connor, James Warrior, John Alkin and they go some way towards bringing the movie to life, but overall this is a hugely disappointing production. Unsurprisingly, there was no 'Sweeney 3'.( UPDATE In his newly published book 'Shut It!' Pat Gilbert claims the crooks' decision to abandon Britain shows what a bad state it was in. Why would crooks leaving the country in droves be a bad thing? )

When British cinema of the 70s is discussed, "Sweeney 2" rarely gets a mention. Yet it illustrates the changing times as vividly as many better-known films. The blazing action of "Sweeney!" is replaced by a thoughtful film that, although more low-key, is perhaps a more accurate reflection of the television series.Regan and Carter are on the trail of a gang of bank-robbers who, from their idyllic base on Malta, occasionally return to Britain (a country they believe to be "finished") to carry out violent and well-planned raids. The men lead a luxurious communal lifestyle with their wives and children yet it is one financed by thrusting sawn-off shotguns into the faces of terrified bank cashiers and taking hostages (one of whom, a young woman, is killed in the raid that opens the film). They seem to symbolise the souring of the 60s dream.Other details are equally telling. A young schoolteacher tells George Carter that she "doesn't like policemen". No longer does the force command widespread public respect. Regan's boss (the excellent Denholm Elliott) is facing imprisonment on corruption charges, reflecting the corruption trials that so stained the image of the Metropolitan Police in the 70s.On their abortive trip to Malta to try to interview the men, Regan and Carter are plainly jealous and angry when they witness the lifestyle of their targets - a far cry from their grimy world of bacon sandwiches from burger vans and knees-ups down the local. But by the end of "Sweeney 2" and a year before Margaret Thatcher won power in Britain, it is the defiantly working-class coppers who have the last laugh, joined by their girlfriends for a boozy celebration - while the wives of the bank robbers prove less reliable.Euston Films had a track record of producing high-quality television and (in this case) film. "Sweeney 2" fully confirms this. There are good supporting performances from Nigel Hawthorne, Lewis Fiander and Derrick O'Connor plus an exciting score by Tony Hatch. The action scenes, although lesser in number than in the first film, are superbly handled by one of the TV show's action specialists, director Tom Clegg.Recommended.

A slightly rougher and (in the last 15 minutes or so) more violent & gory spin-off from the TV series but with no DCI Haskins. Instead we suddenly have some bloke who looks like Sir Humphrey off `Yes Minister' playing Regan's & Carter's boss. The plot is a bit disjointed in places. Basically it's about a gang of `armed blaggers' toting gold sawn-offs and alarming '70s hairdos who jet in from Malta every so often to turn over some London bank. But then halfway through, the focus suddenly switches to some French-speaking `geezer' from Beirut in a hotel disarming a bomb in his room. He has absolutely nothing to do with the armed blaggers, but we stay with him for a good 20 minutes as George Carter dresses up as room service, takes him a large Scotch and ends up helping him disarm the bomb while all the other coppers have an impromptu booze-up downstairs in the hotel bar. No explanation as to who he is, where the bomb came from and what he's doing there, except for later on when Regan tells Carter `by the way' that `the geezer with the bomb' was with the CIA. And that's it!!! We're left to fill in the many blanks ourselves as the plot goes back to the expat blaggers living it up on Malta and planning their next `job'. We learn that they steal the exact equivalent of $100,000 in every raid - no more and no less. But again, absolutely no explanation is given as to the rationale behind this. Then there's Denholm Elliot's crooked Detective Superintendent who gets `sent down' for corruption. Early on we're told that he was Regan's ex-boss and that the two had been working closely for years, but I don't recall ever seeing or even hearing of the character in the TV series (although I can't claim to have seen every episode and it's been some years since I saw the programme so maybe I've missed something). Like its parent TV series and similar shows of the era (such as `The Professionals'), Sweeney 2 sticks two fingers firmly up at the PC brigade, and that's still very refreshing to see in this day and age, when programme-makers seem to be obsessed with tokenism, `inclusiveness' and not `offending' anyone. Despite its shortcomings and plot vagaries, this is an enjoyable movie for those with fond memories of a golden age in British television and '70s nostalgics in general. A bit of a mixed bag to be sure, but worth a look.