The Sandbaggers

The Sandbaggers is a British television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage game on the personal and professional lives of British and American intelligence specialists.

Related Topics:
British - Cold War - ITV - 1978 - 1980 - Espionage - Intelligence

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The main protagonist is Neil Burnside (played by Roy Marsden), Director of Operations in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6, although the name "MI6" is never uttered in the series). Burnside oversees a small, elite group of British intelligence officers: the Special Operations Section, nicknamed the "Sandbaggers"—highly trained officers whose remit includes dangerous missions which tend to be politically sensitive or especially vital, such as escorting defectors across borders, carrying out assassinations or rescuing other operatives who are in trouble behind the Iron Curtain. (The nickname "Sandbaggers" is not explained in the series itself, but may have to do with the multiple meanings of sandbag—as a defence or, colloquially, referring to coercion or deception.)

Related Topics:
Roy Marsden - Secret Intelligence Service - MI6 - Defector - Assassinations - Iron Curtain - Sandbag

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In the series, the United States Central Intelligence Agency and SIS have a cooperative agreement to share intelligence.The Sandbaggers depicts SIS as so under-funded that it has become dependent on the CIA. Burnside consequently goes to great lengths to preserve the "special relationship," most notably in the episode of the same name. The personal price he pays in that episode sparks an obsession with the safety of his Sandbaggers and the survival of the Special Section in subsequent episodes, contributing to Burnside's gradual psychological unraveling and the series' unresolved cliffhanger ending.

Related Topics:
United States - Central Intelligence Agency - Cliffhanger

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