Callan was a brilliant, noir spy series. Edward Woodward
played Callan a hitman who worked for the government, but had
a conscience and needed to be convinced that the person
deserved to be killed. His boss, Hunter, would order and
cajole Callan until the job was done - often Hunter would
double-cross Callan, which added to the tension. Callan took
out all his frustration on his stool pigeon, Lonely - Callan
would degrade and belittle him, telling Lonely how much he
smelt (it was a medical condition that no soap could
cure).
The series went on for several years, and ended with Callan
going to jail for murder (after being double-crossed by
Hunter yet again). A couple of years later, a new series
started, and began with Callan getting out of jail. I saw
most of these episodes when they were repeated on Channel 4
in the UK and they hold up very, very well - much better than
Woodward's American series The Equalizer and the most recent
one, whatever it's called.
Many years after the series ended, James Mitchell, who
created the series and wrote many episodes, wrote a one-off
TV film called The Wet Job, and it was just as good as the
series.
Mitchell wrote a Callan novel called A Magnum For Schneider,
which was made into a couple of TV episodes, and was then
re-made as a film. This novel has been reprinted as Red File
For Callan and simply Callan. Mitchell wrote at least one
more Callan novel, which I have but not to hand. Mitchell
wrote a crime novel called One Away, about a man escaping
from jail, which is good.
In the 80s Mitchell created the TV series When The Boat Comes
In, and novelised it. Most of his subsequent output has not
been hardboiled.
- paul
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