Superb television. I saw it when it was broadcast. Never seen it anywhere since. Not repeated. Not on streaming services. Liked and subscribed. Made Clannad superstars.
This just sorta popped up in my feed, so I started watching and boy the fast action drew me right in. This is a really good show I haven't heard of before. Worth watching that's for sure.
Wow I just got this as a recommendation from you tube. I was about 10 years old when this first came out but I remember my wee da watching this and he has passed away now so thanks for the memories ❤
Watched it again having heard the theme as a question on Ken Bruce's Popmaster .! Very moving indeed and still as good when I first watched it back in 82 .!
Derek Thompson in this is brilliant, As is Tony Rohr, Sean Caffrey, Linda Robson, Maggie Shellvin and Benjamin Whitrow. Todays tv is rubbish i haven't had a licence for 32 years.
Thank you for posting this . Should not show my age . May have been six at the time but remember very well when this showed though cannot remember if it was BBC1 or ITV or Channel 4 cannot remember what happened forty two seconds ago let alone forty two years ago . What a beautiful series , excellent cast all favorites one of the best ever made .
Excellent, but gritty production. Interesting to see that British commercial telly had it's first ads at a natural break at 23 min, if that were Australian commercial TV, the first ad break would be at 7 min, then every 6 mins, thus destroying all of the flow, tension and drama for the sake of selling future landfill.
If that were ITV today - not that I've watched UK TV since 2009 - it would probably have the same ad breaks. Certainly when I last watched the first ad break in an hour long programme would come before a quarter of an hour had passed.
Excellent film. I should add that there was a sort of sequel book called 'Field of Blood' also about Northern Ireland. The only character who returns is Inspector Rennie, now played by Timothy Dalton. A film was made of 'Field of Blood' but re-titled 'The IRA Informant.' It is available on DVD.
Crikey l spent years looking for this !! missed it the first time around ! Parents weren't interested !! l got so fed up with not finding it l purchased it on DVD about 3 years ago !
One of few novels that is exactly as you would imagine it on the screen. I can pay it no higher compliment - just superb with one of the most shocking endings that I have ever seen in a TV series. Just brilliant.
He was pretending to be merchant seaman, they had this type too. In a way it was a good ploy. Any of the IRA know it was a British issue suit case and anyone using one couldn't be a British agent, as they knew the score, and would know a agent wouldnt use one.Where as a supposedly returning seaman wouldn't bat an eyelid.
I've never seem this anywhere in N.America on the 80s when I was a teenager - neither PBS or TVO [Ontario public TV] re-broadcast it. This is phenomenal television if you understand the times being depicted.
I served two tours on Op Banner in Londonderry. This depiction is very realistic - that 1 ton Humber armoured ‘pig’ - what a beast. We never did manage to kill McGuinness.
@@lordeden2732 I never bought into that stuff. McGuinness certainly had blood on his hands from direct involvement in murders of some RUC men and others including at least one officer in the UDR. He was a degenerate cowardly little man.
I actually read the book ...this is superb...shame that the tv series didn't last..( maggie reilly / mike oldfield) moonlight shadow, This along with the drama threads...outstanding
2 Years after The Long Good Friday where Derek Thompson played Jeff alongside Harry or Harold played by the late great Bob Hoskins. Also played Charlie in casualty for 38 years?
Brilliant. I watched it when it was first screened and managed to get a copy on Disc off ebay many years later which I still have. I have been past that BBC Building so many times. They opened a Weatherspoons right next to it, my missus is a Belfast Girl.
Not difficult to see how controversial this series was, featuring the murder a Government minister in broad daylight. It was only months before when Airey Neave and Lord Mountbatten had been murdered. You can understand why the authorities might have been anxious about this story line.
Colonel Frost should know that you never salute an officer who`s not wearing a cap. But gripping TV all the same for us who remember it from 1st time around.
This suddenly popped into my mind, watching this quality drama from Yorkshire Television. (My grandfather was a heating engineer for them). I seem to remember (unsure of date) when the IRA let off a grenade or something similar it was fired into the backyard of No.10 Downing Street, that certainly got the journalists typing like fury.
When did the decent stuff stop on TV ? It's something when you have to watch re-runs on RU-vid, but it speaks to the quality of these old dramas. I recognized the guy from 'The Long Good Friday' amongst others. These actors were very underappreciated, I think.
I wonder if that Harry who has run away to the US will think it's about him!😂 Like when the audience were applauding the orchestra, he kept bowing, thinking it was for him and her!!! I hope everyone has seen this priceless footage! 🤣When I feel down, I watch this video of them looking around and up, to the gallery, waving to everyone as an acknowledgement of the ovation. I wonder, if these inconsequential pair were told, it wasn't for them?🤣
I worked in a factory in Liverpool,in the mid 80’s,one of my best mates there said there was an I.R.A bag man living next to him,he had no clue untill the bizzies said “Didn’t any of your family notice he left with one bag and came back with two”😳😳😳Scary times them.
@@andrewhoward7200 Police,and if you go for a weekend away you come back with the same ammount of bags/luggage usually.Are you really that slow,or just get up early and practice?
The superb actor Ray Lonnen , would have made a great james Bond I reckon , if you like Harrys game look out for another T.V series from the same time staring Ray Lonnen as well its called the `Sand baggers` about the British Intelligence service ,just brilliant
This is really good and I am enjoying it, it is just a pity that the picture isn't to good that spoils it. Never the less, I am enjoying it and thank you for making it available.
THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST SERIES EVER AND THE THEME SONG TOO THIS JUST GOES TO SHOW HOW OUT OF TOUCH THE FEKIN SUITS ARE AND WHAT A DISASTER THE WHOLE IRISH CONFLICT WAS CAUSED BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT AS PER USUAL THE YANKS HAD VIETNAM THE UK NORTHERN IRELAND AS SOON AS POLITICIANS GET INVOLVED YOU KNOW THERE WILL BE AN ALMIGHTY FUCK UP AND NOW IN 2024 ITS STILL THE SAME THERE IS A QUIET STIRRING ACROSS THE IRISH SEA THE CONFLICT IS FAR FROM OVER THANKYOU FOR POSTING THIS I WAS 14 WHEN IT FIRST CAME AROUND AND I WATCHED IT BACK THEN TOO VERY DARK AND HARD HITTING BRILLIANTLY MADE CHEERS 🙏🌈♥️🇮🇹
I visited with my mum and stepdad in 1984, it was grim as hell there. All I really remember about the city was a giant wall dozens of feet high, and my stepdad said it was a police station (no idea if that was true). Another thing I recall is that my mum had been nagging my stepdad to get our living room ceiling artexed. He was a builder, and told her that he wasn't going to artex it because it will crack eventually. Anyway, we get to our bed and breakfast in Belfast, and the ceiling is artexed, with absolutely gigantic cracks all across it. My mum says 'I see what you mean about artex cracking, I guess we won't bother'. My stepdad nodded sagely, but didn't tell her until much later that those particular cracks were from the building next door getting blown up some time previously. Also, when we travelled across the border into Republic of Ireland, it was night-time out in the country. We got to the checkpoint, and there was a sign saying something like 'when light is red, turn off headlights and engine. When green, approach slowly'. The light was red, so my stepdad turned off the lights and engine, and we sat there waiting. Eventually the light turned green, so he started the car up, turned the lights on, and started advancing slowly. The checkpoint was about 100m away, and by the time we crawled there, the whole place went mental. We could see a soldier manning a machine gun atop this makeshift post, pointing it right at us, and 2 soldiers ran right up to the car windows with their rifles levelled at us, screaming to put our hands up, and another soldier manning a spotlight was pointing it right at us. One soldier is screaming at my stepdad, demanding to know why he put the headlights on, and he told them that's what he normally does and the sign didn't say anything about not putting the lights back on. Anyway, the soldiers realised we were not a threat and chilled out. We sat there for a while chatting to them, and 2 of them were from my home city. One of them peered into the back of the car where I was sitting and asked 'are you alright son'?, and I replied 'I think I lost my b-b-b-ottle', I was terrified lol. They also explained that the evening before a French tourist had done the exact same thing but had not stopped, and his brand new Renault got lit up. Thankfully he wasn't injured. It's mental to think that ppl lived with this every day not so long ago.
How things have changed ! These days they can't even catch terrorists on the British main land ! To be honest I think it's sad ! Great historical archive !
Does anyone have The Price? Channel 4 1985/6 starring Derek Thompson (Charley from Casually again) and Harriet Walter about an IRA kidnap plot. I remember it from the time being excellent. Love to see it again.
Watched this on tour in L/Derry Waterside when it was broadcast, and didn't realise how bad it is. At 38:26 he's carrying an army suitcase and then gets into a Black Taxi. Incredibly stupid error by the programme makers, and the first thing the boys and girls mentioned next day. And at 38:57, we weren't that unprofessional at checkpoints. Not a bad TV effort, close but no cigar.
