Re: Hello!

Philip H. J. Davies (P.H.J.Davies@reading.ac.uk)
Thu, 2 Oct 1997 22:48:24 +0100 (BST)

Hmmmm. With respect, Callan plays too much to the romance of the
singleton, i.e. the solo agent playing a lone hand, which is too far from
live intelligence work for me too give the stories much credence. The
Sandbaggers is closer to the way things really work, and that credibility
makes a crucial difference to my mind. Most authors find working within
the confines of 'drab dreary corridors in Whitehall' too far from
conventional literary approaches. Personally, I'd rate Macintosh's work
the real masterpiece.

He makes very little up....

On Thu, 2 Oct 1997 paynem@sky2.bskyb.com wrote:

> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 23:14:21 +0000
> From: paynem@sky2.bskyb.com
> To: Doody@compuserve.com
> Cc: sandbaggers@skylee.com
> Subject: Re: Hello!
>
> Honestly, CALLAN is better than THE SANDBAGGERS...heresy to many of you, I'm
> sure...but I think many people would agree. THE SANDBAGGERS is excellent,
> whereas CALLAN is a masterpiece..I really do urge all of you to track it
> down: I promise you you won't be disappointed.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Marcus.
> ----------
> From: Doody@compuserve.com
> To: Payne, Marcus
> Subject: Re: Hello!
> Date: 26 September 1997 03:16
>
> I think Marsden was only beginning to lose his hair back then; I don't
> believe it was a wig we saw but am pretty sure his hair was thinning on top
> and am certain that he had more than the average quota of forehead!
>
> I'd be delighted to see a suspense series BETTER than Sandbaggers but have
> a hard time imagining a tighter, more dramatic use of suspense and an even
> harder time imagining such a superb collection of actors.
>
> Golly! The man who played Sir Geoffrey Wellingham was SO good! So, for
> that matter, was the first C. Both P.A.s to Burnside were superb. Willy
> (Ray Lonnen) was extremely well done. As much as we were intended to
> dislike the character, the actor who played Peel did a marvellous job ...
> and the writers even teased us a little when he went to investigate a
> Station staff who had complained about a Sandbagger, appeared to be
> suborned by them, and came back with a report which, to Neil's
> astonishment, condemned Peel's drinking buddies and exonherated the
> Sandbagger.
>
> Great stuff!
>
>

_____________________________________________________________________________
*
*Zhaodao hao laoshi bu yi -- zhaodao hao xuesheng geng nan.*
It is hard to find a good teacher but even harder to find a good student.
*
(Kuntao Macan) http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/lw/kt/home.htm
(Security & Intelligence Studies) http:// www.rdg.ac.uk/SecInt/
*
______________________________________________________________________________