Goodness, I hate to be the only one a-posting, but I have
a question for the *experts* out there: how old are the
Sandbaggers? I think SB is a division of MI6 (foreign), but
is/was it something fairly new? Was Neil the first Sandbagger?
Do they ever give a brief history of the organization in the
televised series?
We know it's not a division of MI5 or MI6; the principals talk about
those organizations as if they were someone else.
It's remotely possible that it's some other part of the Ministry of
Defence, because when Neil called the Aide-de-Camp of the Governor
of Gibraltar, he told him he was in MoD. But that might just have
been a ruse. Neil also got into a fight with the MoD over sending
divers down to check out a Soviet freighter in a French port, which
is evidence against.
We're fairly sure it's not part of the Foreign Office; Neil keeps
going over there to get signatures, but definitely refers to it
as if it were something "other." It is interesting that Neil complains
in the first episode that they keep being lumped with diplomats as
"C", which suggests a strong Foreign Office connection.
I'm a little confused about "FCO" -- does this mean "Foreign and
Commonwealth Office"? It seems to be synonymous with the "Foreign
Office." Wellingham is referred to as the "PUS of the FCO" frequently.