History Series / TheSandbaggers

* CutShort - Mackintosh's disappearance ended the series on a cliffhanger, with [[spoiler:Willie Caine mortally wounded.]] Rumours suggest [[spoiler:Caine would have returned as a wheelchair-bound D. Ops]] in Series Four, presumably with Neil [[spoiler: similarly promoted]].

* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent - {{Defied}}; [[spoiler:Tyler says he considered becoming a triple agent after the KGB turned him, but decided it wouldn't help his situation any - he reflects sadly that at least ''someone'' trusts a double agent, but ''nobody'' trusts a triple.]]

* OneLetterName / EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep - The head of SIS is always referred to only as "C"; it takes an entire season to learn his real name and even after that nobody uses it.

See also Creator/GregRucka's spy series ''Comicbook/QueenAndCountry'', which was [[SpiritualLicensee heavily inspired by this series.]]

See also Creator/GregRucka's spy series ''Comicbook/QueenAndCountry'', which was [[NextGenFic heavily inspired by this series.]]

See also Creator/GregRucka's spy series ''Comicbook/QueenAndCountry'', which was [[NextGenerationFic heavily inspired by this series.]]

British spy series that ran three series on {{ITV}}, from 1978 to 1980. Neil Burnside is the Director of the Operations division of the Secret Intelligence Service (aka [=MI6=]) during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. Under his supervision is the Special Section, three agents nicknamed "Sandbaggers", led by Willie Caine.

[[caption-width-right:350:Willie Caine and Neil Burnside]]

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* CIAEvilFBIGood: Inverted. The CIA are generally portrayed as helpful, and in particular Burnside has a very close working relationship with the CIA's London section chief, Jeff Ross. The show has a ConspiracyTheorist view of American domestic politics that looks peculiar to American eyes, and the FBI is part of it. According to Ross (and apparently, this was really [[AuthorOnBoard according to Mackintosh]]), the FBI was behind the Kennedy and King assassinations.

* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent - {{Defied}}; [[spoiler:Tyler says he considered becoming a triple agent after the KGB turned him, but decided it wouldn't help his situation any.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: A few, usually played for maximum DownerEnding. In the third episode, Burnside decides to [[spoiler: wreck Alan Denson's relationship so he won't get married and leave the service, as he was recently forced to shoot Sandbagger 3 to prevent his capture on enemy soil, leaving only two agents.]] When a background search on [[spoiler: Denson's girlfriend Sally turns up nothing he can use, Burnside personally threatens to have her kidnapped, stripped, drugged and photographed if she doesn't break off her engagement herself.]] Later that night, [[spoiler: Alan calls Sally to say he's reconsidered leaving and wants to push back the marriage, so she assumes Neil convinced Alan instead and commits suicide with alcohol and pills... and then Alan is struck by a car and killed outside his front door, leaving Burnside with only one Sandbagger and two needless deaths on his conscience ''anyway''.]]

* CIAEvilFBIGood: Inverted. The CIA are generally portrayed as helpful, and in particular Burnside has a very close working relationship with the CIA's London section chief, Jeff Ross. The show has a ConspiracyTheorist view of American domestic politics that looks peculiar to American eyes, and the FBI is part of it. According to Ross, the FBI was behind the Kennedy and King assassinations.

* TakeAThirdOption: Burnside is handed a SadisticChoice in "Special Relationship": [[spoiler: leave Laura Dickens imprisoned by the East Germans, who will break her in interrogation, or buy her freedom through a deal with the French, which will destroy the Special Relationship with the CIA.]] Burnside comes up with a nasty alternative: [[spoiler: he deals with the French for Laura's release via a prisoner exchange, then has her killed during the exchange so he doesn't have to follow through on his end of the bargain.]]

* CutShort - Mackintosh's disappearance ended the series on a cliffhanger, with [[spoiler:Willie Caine mortally wounded.]] Rumors suggest [[spoiler:Caine would have returned as a wheelchair-bound D. Ops]] in Series Four.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat - Compared to Burnside, describes virtually everybody, but Deputy Chief Peele most often fills the role.

* PrisonerExchange - Subverted [[spoiler: when Burnside orders her shot halfway across]]

* IncrediblyObviousTail - Played straight (but justified) in the ''first ten minutes'' of the series: Burnside and Caine easily spot tails on their way to the office, but it turns out they're [[spoiler:being followed by green Norweigan agents on a training exercise.]]

British spy series that ran three series on {{ITV}}, from 1978 to 1980. Neil Burnside is the Director of the Operations division of the Secret Intelligence Service (aka [=MI6=]) during the ColdWar. Under his supervision is the Special Section, three agents nicknamed "Sandbaggers", led by Willie Caine.

* AuthorExistenceFailure - Series creator and head writer Ian Mackintosh vanished in a small airplane flight near Alaska, while series three was being shot. Three [[FanonDiscontinuity poorly regarded]] episodes were written to fill out the series, but the producers decided to end the show rather than turn it into a FranchiseZombie.

* TheTeetotaler - Burnside doesn't drink.

->''Special Operations doesn't mean going in with all guns blazing. It means special planning, special care, fully briefed agents in possession of all possible alternatives. If you want JamesBond, [[TakeThat go to your library]]. But if you want a successful operation, sit at your desk and think, and then think again. Our battles aren't fought at the end of a parachute. They're won and lost in drab, dreary corridors in Westminster, and hopefully in Oslo.''
-->'''Neil Burnside''', nominally to his Norwegian counterpart but [[CharacterFilibuster actually to the audience]]

Once described as "men in cheap suits dying badly in Prague," it clearly falls on the cynical side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, and is about as far from JamesBond as you can get (which [[LampshadeHanging the characters themselves are apt to point out]].) Most of the plots revolve around Burnside wrestling with bureaucracy within and without, whether it's his superiors at SIS, his domestic counterparts at MI5, or the British government.

* SpiritualSuccessor - GregRucka's love of the series led to his homage/reworking, ''ComicBook/QueenAndCountry''.