SHUT IT! Sweeney movie coming

When I was a lad watching telly, I understood that whenever people were talking like President Reagan it was exciting, but when people were taking like Maggie Thatcher (or even Uncle Andy) it was boring. My point is that by comparison US TV was brilliant but UK TV was boring. I crept down the stairs late at night peeking through the open door to watch William Shatner take down another "Scuzzball" in T.J. Hooker. If I did the same thing while John Thaw was doing something similar on The Sweeney I'd have been either frightened or would have fallen asleep.

Things change when you get older and you learn to appreciate the fact that Hooker was childish nonescence compared with the raw grittiness of The Sweeney, a series way ahead of it's time. In it's day, far tougher and grittier than something like The Shield now. Jack Regan (John Inspector Morse Thaw) and the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad (named as their high speed pursuit vehicles were post-war RAF cars) tackled the worst and most mobile organised crime across London with no compunction about whose toes they step on while doing so.

While we're not going to get an updated television series of The Sweeney, I can say that currently in production is a movie remake, starring Ray The Departed Winstone (who actually had a guest role in the original series) as Jack Regan and directed by Nick Outlaw Love and written by Ian Kennedy Martin actually one of the original series creators!

I'd take this over a T.J. Hooker movie any day!