The first of four TV movies starring Dennis Waterman as John Neil, an ex SAS man and Falklands veteran pressurised into work for the security services.
His first task is to infiltrate an IRA gang led by Godfather figure Liam McAuley (Peter Vaughan). Unbeknown to Neil it is the same man responsible for the murder of his wife and child in a terrorist bombing at a circus near an army camp in Germany.
Some good direction and performances and intelligent characterisation and plotting though, perhaps inevitably, that old chestnut of the gang member who takes a dislike to the hero and is suspicious of him, is not avoided. Just as reliable is the smooth-talking devious 'controller' he is responsible to (Derek Jacobi). And Waterman has not quite developed Neil into the distinctive character he would later become. So not a bad start but a couple of the others to follow are better, one considerably so.
His first task is to infiltrate an IRA gang led by Godfather figure Liam McAuley (Peter Vaughan). Unbeknown to Neil it is the same man responsible for the murder of his wife and child in a terrorist bombing at a circus near an army camp in Germany.
Some good direction and performances and intelligent characterisation and plotting though, perhaps inevitably, that old chestnut of the gang member who takes a dislike to the hero and is suspicious of him, is not avoided. Just as reliable is the smooth-talking devious 'controller' he is responsible to (Derek Jacobi). And Waterman has not quite developed Neil into the distinctive character he would later become. So not a bad start but a couple of the others to follow are better, one considerably so.