“Yes, Mr Callan…”

(Psst, someone tell William Squire he's done his cardy up wrong...)

“Yes, Mr Callan…”

We like to try to vary the series we talk about for ‘Round The Archives'.

Episode Three is a good example of this as I don’t think a government approved killer and a camp hare have anything much in common. Unless Hartley has a secret life he hides very well?

It took us a while to get around to watching ‘Callan’; Warren had kindly bought us the colour episodes one Christmas and they had sat on the pile for a considerable time.  So when I decided we should start watching I immediately bought the black and white episodes, the documentary and the sequel from 1981 (‘Wet Job’). Well, I am a 'Doctor Who' fan and must watch things in the correct order.

The only thing I really knew about Callan was that Russell Hunter was in it as ‘Lonely’ or as my mum referred to him ‘Smelly’.

And indeed the relationship between him and Callan is one of the highlights of the series

For our article we chose ‘The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw’, partially because it was a reconstructed episode.

Network had remade it from the studio tapes, hence the sound effect when a safe is blown up is not there and all you get is the muffled bang on set.  You can also see Edward Woodward is sweating like crazy as he puts his all into the part.  It also features a lovely scene when after he has blown the safe, Lonely says goodbye to the householder and then leaves in a hurry.

I only wish we’d know more about ‘Callan’ when we saw Russell Hunter at a ‘Doctor Who’ Convention in the 90’s, as I would have loved to ask him a question about it.

But if you like gritty spy stories or indeed Edward Woodward or Russell Hunter then I’d recommend ‘Callan’, and of course it’s available from Network…

(By Lisa Parker)