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The Sandbaggers is a British spy drama television series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of espionage on the personal and professional lives of British and American intelligence specialists. All but three of the 20 episodes of the three series were written by its creator, Ian Mackintosh, who died during the recording of series three. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television, based in Leeds. Premise Neil D. Burnside (Roy Marsden) is Director of Operations in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (abbreviated 'SIS'), a.k.a. MI6, although that name is never used in the series. The series follows Burnside as he oversees a small, elite group of intelligence officers, the Special Operations Section, nicknamed "Sandbaggers", composed of highly trained officers whose missions tend to be politically sensitive or especially vital, such as escorting defectors across borders (or preventing defections from the UK), carrying out assassinations, or rescuing operatives from behind the Iron Curtain. The series depicts Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and SIS having a co-operative agreement to share intelligence; a regular theme shows SIS as so underfunded that it has become dependent on the CIA. Burnside consequently goes to great lengths to preserve the "Special Relationship" between the CIA and SIS, most notably in the episode of the same name. Episodes frequently revolve around Burnside's frustration at trying to operate his directorate in the face of what he believes to be unwarranted bureaucratic and governmental interference, in particular from his Deputy Chief, Matthew Peele. Series creator The Sandbaggers was created by Ian Mackintosh, a Scottish former naval officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed BBC television series Warship. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series of The Sandbaggers, but in July 1979, during the shooting of the third series, he and his girlfriend—a British Airways stewardess—were declared lost at sea after their single-engined aircraft went missing over the Pacific Ocean near Alaska, following a radioed call for help. Some of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either U.S. or Soviet radar. Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the scripts for the third series, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven. The Sandbaggers ends on an unresolved cliffhanger because the producers decided that no one else could write the series as well as Mackintosh had and chose not to continue it in his absence. Ray Lonnen, who played Sandbagger Willie Caine, indicated in correspondence with fans that there were plans for a follow-up season in which his character, using a wheelchair, had taken over Burnside's role as Director of Special Operations. Because of the atmosphere of authenticity that the scripts evoked and the liberal use of "spook" jargon, there has been speculation that Mackintosh might have been a former operative of SIS or had, at least, contact with the espionage community. This has extended to speculation that his disappearance was no accident or had to do with a secret mission he was undertaking. There is a possibility that Mackintosh may have been involved in intelligence operations during his time in the Royal Navy, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced. When asked, Mackintosh himself was always coy about whether he had been a spy. Whether or not Mackintosh had any experience in the world of espionage, the organisational structure of SIS depicted in The Sandbaggers is probably closer to that of the CIA than that of the SIS. There is no formal section of the SIS known as the Special Operations Section, as far as is publicly known, and there is no intelligence unit known as the Sandbaggers. However, the departures from accuracy in the show may have been deliberate, in order to avoid problems with the SIS under the Official Secrets Act. Ray Lonnen mentioned in an interview that one episode in the second series was vetoed because it dealt with sensitive information, which explains why the second series has only six episodes. Production and story style Most exterior filming was done in the city of Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire countryside. Additional exterior scenes were filmed in London, Belgium and Malta. Interior studio scenes were shot on videotape. The series is grim, though laced with black humour, depicting the high emotional toll taken on espionage professionals who operate in a world of moral ambiguity. The Sandbaggers undercuts many of the accepted conventions of the spy thriller genre: in direct contrast to the "girls, guns, and gadgets" motif established by the James Bond films of the 1960s and 70s, The Sandbaggers features ordinary people in an extraordinary line of work. There are very few action sequences, and the equipment available to the operatives is standard and often outdated. Neil Burnside is a harried spymaster who doesn't drink; Willie Caine is a secret agent who abhors guns and violence, and is paid a basic civil servant's salary. On a number of occasions, the characters explicitly disparage the fictitious world of James Bond and the romanticized view of intelligence work shared by amateurs and outsiders. The plots are complex, multi-layered, and unpredictable: regular characters are killed off abruptly, and surprise twists abound. The dialogue is intelligent and frequently witty. The Sandbaggers consists mostly of conversation: in a typical episode, Burnside moves from office to office speaking (and arguing) with his colleagues in Whitehall and in the intelligence community. These are interspersed with scenes of the Sandbaggers operating in the field, or of the "Ops Room", where missions are coordinated and controlled. Theme music The title theme music, composed by jazz pianist Roy Budd, establishes its rhythmic undertone with the cimbalom, an instrument often associated with spy thrillers (John Barry, for example, used the cimbalom in his scores for The Ipcress File and The Quiller Memorandum). From series 2 onwards, the theme contains an additional organ playing the same melody line. This version (or 'mix') was also used in the opening titles of episode 2 and episode 7 of series 1). Unusually for an episodic drama, The Sandbaggers is almost entirely devoid of incidental music. One notable exception is the last episode of series 1 (episode 7) where Burnside's feelings get the better of him for reasons the audience (by then) fully understand. Filming locations and sets 25 Savile Row in London was used for the exterior shots of SIS Headquarters, the location .... Discover the Carol Burnside popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Carol Burnside books.