If you have any suggestions or corrections to make -- I know someone
out there mentioned having the "Contemporary Authors" piece on
Mackintosh, but forgive me, I can't remember who -- send them along.
-Micky
P.S. If you were on the mini-list, this is basically the same info.
==================================================
Material that should be covered in separate files:
1) Series episode guide. Available from me directly and at least
one ftp site that I know of (Dave Chapman's tardis archive). I think
Arthur's going to put it in a SB ftp site at skylee.
2) Regular actors' agents' addresses. Also now in Arthur's hands.
3) Other credits of the regular actors. Margaret Riley had compiled
the most complete list of these credits last I heard, but she's on
vacation.
I thought about shunting Mackintosh's other credits off to join the list
of the actors' other credits, but the mystery surrounding his life and
death do tend to make his activities the subject of frequently asked
questions, so in the end I decided to include them in the FAQ.
This FAQ list addresses the following questions:
1) What is THE SANDBAGGERS (abbr. SB)?
2) What is its broadcast history and current availability?
3) Is/was the series popular?
4) Who was series creator Ian Mackintosh, and what became of him?
5) Were any more episodes planned, and if so, what direction would they
have taken?
6) Is there any chance of a revival?
7) Have there been any SB books?
8) What else has Mackintosh done?
9) Are there any professional interviews re SB available?
10) Are there any fan clubs or fanzines available?
11) Are there any SB conventions?
12) Is there any SB merchandise available?
13) Is the Burnside character on the British series "The Bill" any
relation?
1) What is THE SANDBAGGERS?
THE SANDBAGGERS was a taut British spy series comprising twenty 50-
minute episodes produced by Yorkshire Television, an ITV franchise
(i.e., a commercial regional British television franchise). The stories
centered on the elite covert operations section of British Intelligence,
nicknamed the Sandbaggers, and their boss, Neil Burnside, himself a
former Sandbagger, but now having to battle more with British
bureaucracy than enemy agents. It was set contemporaneously with its
original broadcast in the late '70s and early '80s when the Cold War
still dominated the Western intelligence agenda.
2) What is its broadcast history and current availability?
United Kingdom:
It ran nationally in Britain on ITV over 1978 and 1980. It was repeated
once in Britain during daytime in 1982 [?]. It has not been transmitted
in Britain since. Two commercial PAL videotapes, comprising episodes 1,
6, 8, and 12, were released in Britain in 1983 or 1984. They did not
stay in print long, however, and are currently unavailable.
Informal author's note: I have no inside knowledge, but on a hunch, as
of this writing, if SB were to show up on U.K. TV again in the near
future, it is my humble opinion that it would be most likely to show up
on the Bravo (U.K./Europe only) satellite/cable channel. The reason why
is that during my stay in London in 1993, I noticed several '70s
Yorkshire TV series showing up on that channel (e.g., HADLEIGH, JUSTICE,
SOUTH RIDING), so at least they've been snooping around in the right
bins.
United States:
Sometime in the late '80s, certain local PBS stations in the U.S.
started showing it in typical station-by-station fashion, a practice
that continues to the present. As of this writing, the first six
episodes have been made available in NTSC home video. The vendor I
heard about was called The Video Catalog, selling them at one episode
per tape, $24.95 per tape, or all six for $129.95. [Can someone supply
me with a contact address? And if anyone knows of another source,
please send me the info so I can add it.]
Other countries:
[Unknown. Write in with your additions.]
3) Is/was the series popular?
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but the harsh reality is no.
Most Britons that I met when I lived in London in 1993 (as an ex-pat
American) had never even heard of the series. Ray Lonnen has reported
that they never made a big splash even during the original run: "I think
we made number 20 in the charts one week up in Scotland. That was our
big ratings success." Critical response was mixed. The regular TIMES
reviewer during the original run devoted only one paragraph to it when
it ended, and most of that was just a disparaging remark about Marsden's
hairpiece. However, the reviewer for the TIMES weekly entertainment
guide in 1982 called it the second best espionage series ever (the best
being "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy") when it reran during the
afternoons in 1982.
SB popularity in the U.S. has very likely increased in the last couple
of years, but that's still only a relative measure. I doubt that even
now SB has been shown by a simple majority of PBS stations in the
country. I'd be very much surprised if as many as 1 in a 1000 Americans
have even heard of it.
4) Who was series creator Ian Mackintosh, and what became of him?
[I'd like to quote the "Contemporary Authors" bit on him here, but I
don't have it over here with me. I'm winging most of this from memory
and the details could well be wrong.]
Ian Mackintosh was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1940, the son of a
naval officer and a governess. He attended the Royal Naval Academy and
served in the Royal Navy from [I don't remember] to [I don't remember],
officially leaving the service with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
His first professional writing efforts were men's adventure novels in
the late '60s and early '70s. He broke into television in 1973, co-
creating the BBC drama series "Warship," about a naval vessel during
peacetime. In [1976?] he was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the
British Empire) honor, with no official reason given. Since this is
often the pattern for those who are honored for secret government work,
it has fed the fannish rumor mill.
On July [10?], 1979, Ian Mackintosh, his girlfriend, Miss Susan Insole,
and their pilot sent a distress call while flying over the Gulf of
Alaska in a light aircraft, reportedly scouting locations for a new
series. The United States Coast Guard searched their last reported
location, but no trace was ever found.
A more detailed account plus a photograph of Mackintosh can be obtained
from the July 12, 1979 London DAILY TELEGRAPH p.3 obituary for the three
people in the plane. (Even if your library claims not to carry back
issues of the DAILY TELEGRAPH, this particular issue can often be found
at such libraries anyway by asking for the same day's issue of the
London TIMES, because the TIMES was suffering from a strike at the time,
so microfilm of the TELEGRAPH is routinely supplied in place of the
missing issues of the TIMES in order to provide continuity.)
5) Were any more episodes planned, and if so, what direction would they
have taken?
The reports were that there was going to be another series. One rumor
has it that Willie Caine would have returned, but in a wheelchair. One
version even took it so far as to have him switch jobs with Burnside.
Ray Lonnen has reported that there wasn't a high level of satisfaction
with the scripts by the other writers brought in to pad out the last
series after Mackintosh's disappearance, though, so the producers didn't
pursue the idea of another series.
6) Is there any chance of a revival?
** The following is all hearsay. Nevertheless, I realize that fans are
always hungry for more hearsay, so I present it anyway. You are advised
to take it all with a spoonful of salt. **
Reportedly, Roy Marsden now owns some of the rights to the series and is
interested in a revival project, something that Ray Lonnen, Bob Sherman,
and Jerome Willis would be interested in participating in as well.
Sherman is supposed to have done a spec script for such a project.
Despite all this, the word is that Marsden has been singularly
unsuccessful in getting any backing for the project. Rumor has it that
he has a reputation in the business for being difficult to work with.
7) Have there been any SB books?
1) "The Sandbaggers," a novelization of episodes 4, 5, and 6, by
Ian Mackintosh. It appeared originally in paperback, then was
later reissued as a hardback. Both editions were only issued in
the U.K. and are now out of print. Here are the listings from
old editions of "Whitaker's Books in Print":
The Sandbaggers. (Corgi Bk) 157p pa 0.80 pounds 1978
Transworld ISBN 0-552-10936-3.
The Sandbaggers. IC8.160 new edition 5.95 pounds Severn
Ho. Publrs. (pub. April, 1979) 0 7278 0462 6.
2) "The Sandbaggers: Think of a Number," a knock-off by William
Marshall writing under the pseudonym of Donald Lancaster. It
pays scant attention to series continuity and series
characterization, but it's OK on its own as a potboiler. It was
also a Corgi paperback, and copyright 1980. Also out of print.
8) What else has Mackintosh done?
IAN MACKINTOSH
Other Videography
Warship (BBC; mid-70s drama about the Royal Navy)
Wilde Alliance (Yorkshire; 1978 comedy/thriller)
Thundercloud (Yorkshire; 1979 naval comedy)
Other Bibliography
Note: All of Mackintosh's books are out of print. The following
listings are composites from the Cumulative Book Index, English
language, and the Library of Congress National Union Catalog. I
have included Library of Congress numbers (LC) where possible:
Fiction
A Slaying in September. 192p 15s 1967 Hale, R.;
Can $3.25 Allen, T. LC PZ4.M1118S1
Count Not the Cost. 192p 15s 1967 Hale, R.
LC PZ4.M1586Co
A Drug Called Power. 191p 16s 1968 Hale, R.
The Man from Destiny. 191p 18s 1969 Hale, R.
SBN 7091-0862-1.
The Brave Cannot Yield. 189p 21s 1970 Hale, R.
SBN 7091-1728-0
Warship. 192p 1.75 pounds 1973 Hutchinson
ISBN 0-09-117800-2 ["from the BBC television
series devised by Ian MacKintosh and Anthony
Coburn. London, Arrow Books. 0.35 pounds
ISBN 0-09-907740-X, LC PZ4.M1580 War."
Presumably the paperback.]
HMS Hero. 158p 3.25 pounds 1976 Barker
ISBN 0-213-16588-0.
Holt RN. 142p 3.65 pounds 1977 Barker
ISBN 0-213-16630-5. Based on the BBC TV series,
Warship.
Wilde Alliance. 119p 3.50 pounds 1978 Severn
House; for sale by Hutchinson Pub. Group
ISBN 0-7278-0359-X (Severn). LC PZ4.M1586Wi.
Based on the Yorkshire Television series.
Wilde Alliance. 127p pa 0.75 pounds 1978 Sphere Bks.
ISBN 0-7221-5690-1.
Nonfiction
[I don't have the bibliographic minutia for these.]
Encyclopedia of Airline Colour Schemes, v.1, North America
What Plane; Beginner's Guide to Airliners
Douglas DC-6: Pictorial & Production
Stratocruiser and C-97
9) Are there any professional interviews re SB available?
[My "Anglofile" information is old. I understand they've had to regroup
as a smaller, less slick publication, so I'm not certain they still make
this offer.]
"Anglofile" magazine did an interview of Roy Marsden in the December
1991 issue, which is Vol.4 No.1 (although by now it's probably
inventoried as back issue #19) for $2 from:
Anglofile Back Issues
P.O. Box 33515
Decatur, GA 30033
USA
Among other things and other roles, he discussed THE SANDBAGGERS and Ian
Mackintosh.
TV critic Marvin Kitman has been a Roy Marsden fan for many years, and
has done both articles and interviews of Marsden. At one time you could
write Kitman in care of "Newsday" and request photocopies of all his
Marsden pieces and his assistant would oblige you for nothing. Again,
this information is a few years old now, but for what it's worth:
The Marvin Kitman Show
c/o Newsday
Long Island, NY 11747
I believe that all one needs to do is write saying you're a Roy Marsden
fan, that you understand that Mr. Kitman has done several articles
pertaining to Mr. Marsden and his work, and would it be possible to get
photocopies of those articles?
Marsden was in New York during one of the WLIW (PBS Long Island) pledge
drives several years ago and supposedly did an on-air spot during one of
the SB pledge breaks. Reportedly, he also did a short interview on a
local New York commercial station during the same trip, and he was said
to have mildly disparaged the fan attitude at that time. No one we've
talked to so far has admitted to having tapes of these appearances,
though.
10) Are there any fan clubs or fanzines available?
Two fiction fanzines are known to have been published, "First
Principles" (three issues) and "It Couldn't Happen Then, It Couldn't
Happen Now" (one issue). "First Principles" still sells back issues and
is looking for material for a fourth issue. ICHT,ICHN is no longer
publishing, but back issues are available.
One fan club is known to exist, the Sandbagger Information Society
(S.I.S.), which has put out at least three newsletters so far. The
first newsletter contained interviews of Ray Lonnen and William
Marshall. Inquiries are being made as to the contents of the other
issues.
Both "First Principles" and the S.I.S. newsletters are available from:
Michael Macomber
#223 Linden Hill Apts.
Lindenwold, NJ 08021
USA
Back issues of "It Couldn't Happen Then, It Couldn't Happen Now" are
$20 U.S. mailed out first class (domestic) and are available from:
Sherri Fillingham
418 Girard St. #301
Gaithersburg, MD 20877.
USA
A group discussion newsletter called "A Sense of Occasion" was run for a
while, first in what is known as "apa" format, then later in
"letterzine" format. It is now defunct. Inquiries are now being made
as to back issue or (hopefully) electronic availability.
A fan club specifically for Roy Marsden (i.e., not more generally for
THE SANDBAGGERS) called The Vested Interests is known to have been based
in New York City. Be advised that some members have been less than
satisfied with this group. That said, the last known contact address
was:
The Vested Interests
c/o Byrne Balton, D-Ops
Murray Hill Station
P.O. Box 1389
New York, NY 10156
USA
The yearly dues as of a few years ago were $6 U.S. for an unspecified
number of newsletters when Ms. Balton deemed it appropriate. You have
been warned.
11) Are there any SB conventions?
Sandbagger One, presumed to be the first and so far the only SANDBAGGERS
convention, was held in Bellmawr, New Jersey on August 8 and 9, 1992.
It was organized by Michael Macomber and Caryn Dunkel. The guest of
honor was Ray Lonnen. William Marshall was invited but had a schedule
conflict and did not show. Attendance was light by the standards of SF
media conventions [roughly 60?], but Mr. Lonnen expressed amazement that
there was even that level of interest in the series so long after it
first aired, and professed to have enjoyed himself immensely.
A second convention, Sandbagger Two, was once planned by the same
people, but it is rumored that they have since had personal problems to
deal with, and that plans for a second convention have either been
suspended or dropped altogether.
12) Is there any SB merchandise available?
No professional merchandise is known to have existed, apart from the two
SB books. Fan Jeanne DeVore sells SB logo t-shirts and sweatshirts and
at least used to sell a SB music video tape. Her email address is:
J.Devore2@genie.geis.com
13) Is the Burnside character on the British series "The Bill" any
relation?
None. The similarity in names is pure coincidence.