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The Sweeney (view source)

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Detective work was mainly a matter of asking informants, many of whom lived in fear, or of following people, or simply "knowing the manor" so well that the heroes could just ''guess'' who was the most likely suspect. Not much ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' or ''Hercule [[Poirot]]'' stuff happened, but it was often quite close to ''[[Truth in Television|real]]'' police work.
 
Blatantly parodied in ''[[The Invisibles]]'', where Jack and George of Division X are Carter and Regan to the life. [[Lampshade Hanging|Explained]] by saying that the invisibles created their cover identities from old '70s cop shows. Their boss Mr Crowley is a [[Shout -Out]] to George Cowley of ''[[The Professionals]]'', another British police drama of the time. (Their fellow agent Mister Six, meanwhile, is a [[Shout -Out]] to Jason King of ''[[Department S]]''.)
 
Gene Hunt of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' is a fairly obvious [[Shout -Out]] to Jack Regan and his ilk. (One is tempted to call him an [[Affectionate Parody]], but he'd call one a poof for saying so. He'd call one a poof for saying "one" instead of "him" anyway.) Gerry Standing, Dennis Waterman's character in ''[[New Tricks]]'', is another [[Affectionate Parody]] of what the characters from ''[[The Sweeney]]'' (George in particular) might look like thirty-odd years down the track.
 
The show was recorded entirely with film, and the production had a heavy reliance on location shooting, both of which were very unusual features at the time. Although it was extremely popular, a combination of high production costs and creator burnout meant that it only lasted for four series. Nonetheless it was very influential, directly inspiring ITV's successful ''[[The Professionals]]'' and the BBC's relatively unpopular ''[[Target]]''.
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* [[Da Chief]]: D.S. Haskins, and above him, "The Commander".
* [[Fingertip Drug Analysis]]
* [[Good Cop, Bad Cop]]: degenerating into Bad Cop, Worse Cop and even Bad Cop, Rabid Cop.
* [[Hey Its That Guy/Retroactive Recognition|Retroactive Recognition]]: frequently.
** The aforementioned Brian Blessed.
** Viewers of ''[[The Bill]]'' will say this when they see Christopher Ellison (aka DI Frank Burnside) and Andrew Paul (PC Dave Quinnan) pop up.
** [[Blake's Seven (TV)|Steven Pacey]] appears in one episode. Briefly.
** John Hurt and [[Minder|George Cole]] appear together in one episode.
** Lynda Bellingham (now of ''Loose Women'') is another famous guest star who appeared in an episode.
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[[Category:Cop Show]]
[[Category:The Sweeney]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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