Hazell (TV Series) Hazell and the Public Enemy (1979) User Reviews

Hazell and the Public Enemy

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 2 May 2020]

Hazell needs some wheels even though he bought a car in the previous episode.

Maybe the episodes were swapped around. This one is a better finale.

An old friend, Ned Barrow who became a bank robber has escaped from jail. A female reporter is helping him to clear his name for one offence he did not do.

Ned has showed up in Hazell's flat. The reporter hires Hazell to look into the matter. However his snooping as aroused the suspicion of gangster Jack Horner.

He is the one who framed Ned and wants to bump him off.

This is a tough one for Hazell, he has Choc Minty breathing down his neck. Horner and his henchman prepared to beat him up badly. Not counting Hazell slept with a woman before he found she was Horner's flame.

This is very much a crime noir with an exciting shootout at the end. He is also not best pleased with the reporter who was only after a good story.

Sadly there was no third series of Hazell. Maybe star Nicholas Ball got too big for his boots, his career never reached the heights again.

The show ends in style.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 28 December 2022]

Hazell is caught up in a fallout between two criminals, Ned Barrow, who's being helped by a journalist, and Ned Barrow.

A shame this show came to an end here, this final episode of the show, is arguably the best of the lot. This final episode is dramatic, exciting, cohesive, and for me the first time an episode has felt like a thriller.

The music, tone, the dramatic ending, this is the kind of episode I was hoping for, it's been a very watchable series, amusing and cheeky at times, but this is what I'd hoped for.

Cars have definite been a theme throughout this second series, The Jaguar definitely suited him, The Fiat 500, perhaps not so, I get the impression that they juggled around the running order of episodes.

Was the show axed, is did Nicholas Ball decide he'd had enough, was a shame, this was good.

8/10.

A fitting end to an excellent series

[brian-85466 · 7/10 · 18 November 2020]

An interesting ending to an excellent series, sad it didn't get a third series, as we were entering the period of Thatchers Britain, this episode alone showed the rise of the media manipulating the narrative to sell papers, and the previous episode featured a particularly disgusting far right organisation, both of which Thatcher approved of.

Ironically, John Bindon who is in this episode, was the preferred choice of Terry Venable's to play James Hazell, but Thames Executives had other thoughts. Personally I never saw the appeal of Mr Bindon, he wasn't even a 'mediocre actor'.

It's also a shame that Nick Ball's career stalled after this, as he definitely had star quality. Maybe he didn't want it, preferring the variety of a jobbing, character actor, rather than tied down to a long running series.