The Sweeney (TV Series) Big Brother (1975) User Reviews

Where The Regan Ends

[TheFearmakers · 7/10 · 26 June 2021]

Like the film noir WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, as an otherwise brutal cop looks extremely guilty of murder when he's innocent... THE SWEENEY episode BIG BROTHER puts John Thaw's Regan in a similar circumstance...

Only he doesn't punch a guy to accidentally kill him like Dana Andrews... instead, after a bit of manhandling in front of partner Dennis Waterman's Carter, alone in the interrogation room with the smug younger brother of a criminal kingpin, the kid suddenly, mysteriously, falls to the floor, with Regan now the suspect...

As the episode juggles several genre elements: from gangster-revenge, bad cop, wrong man to blaxploitation... particularly intriguing when A CLOCKWORK ORANGE goading stage actor John Clive... always with a weaselly trick up his sleeve... plays a liberal journalist dying to turn the infamous cop into a killer...

Meanwhile Maurice Roëves looks dapper and partially menacing as the title character, who hires a wild card torpedo to off Regan, yet neither story-line comes to anything, really... leaving a foot chase with Regan and Carter after a black pimp backed by a funky score to close a really good episode that's almost downright incredible.

Big Brother

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 14 October 2020]

Andy Deacon (David Dixon) has been picked up for wages van raid. Regan goes hard at him during questioning and Any collapses and has to be rushed into hospital.

Regan's reputation means that people are finding hard to believe that he never touched Andy. A muckraking journalist has got his claws in Regan.

Andy's older brother Phil (Maurice Roëves) is a hardened gangster and gets a hitman down from Scotland to sort out Regan.

Regan and Carter need to find out if Andy got injured before he was arrested. Andy's girlfriend might just be the lead they need.

Written by Trevor Preston, this is a hard edged episode with Regan potentially paying a high price. It does suddenly turn into a blaxploitation drama complete with accompanying music.

I did think Roëves was wasted saddled with a bat like bow tie. I expected him to go for Regan personally.

Murky

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 7 March 2021]

A murky plotline in this one and little to make it stand out from the crowd. Our protagonists don't do anything particularly praiseworthy while some of the stylistics feel badly dated. Very much a forgettable episode missing the elements that made this famous.