Well written and interesting installment with an unusually strong visual sense, for instance the shot of Dennis Waterman in the back of a car toward the end is remarkable for the time. Well acted all around with a particularly touching performance from David Lodge. One of the best Sweeneys I've seen.
5 Reviews
Sweeney NEO NOIR and the Greatest Episode
TheFearmakers22 June 2021
Beginning with a rubbed water-glass rim creating a crystalline sound, there's a misleadingly mellow vibe as we cut from an orange car on the highway to an old rich couple's vehicle cruising a rural, wooded area followed by a blunt-bullying robbery, filmed in askew angles more like an art film than cop TV-show, THE SWEENEY episode title CHALK AND CHEESE means the two ski mask-wearing bandits are polar opposites... yet they have one thing in common...
Real life singer Paul Jones is a lowly boxer... his dad the owner of a grungy boxing gym... while Shane Bryant's a rich kid grown-up flaky and gambling-broke into his mid-twenties...
And there's a femme fatale between them; although the poor tough guy doesn't know everything as Lesley-Anne Down brought both money-hungry fellas together, but is only pretending to belong to him...
As the show will sometimes focus on either John Thaw's Regan or his younger partner Carter in Dennis Waterman, the latter gets the focal point here: Once a close childhood friend of the boxer, whose "Pop" was like a dad to both of them, enter the episode's most sympathetic character in David Lodge, the working-class gym-trainer who knows something's awry with his son...
So the conversations with a subtly investigating Carter ties this slowburn and sublime, unflinching and streamlined neo noir together: like a movie in itself.
Real life singer Paul Jones is a lowly boxer... his dad the owner of a grungy boxing gym... while Shane Bryant's a rich kid grown-up flaky and gambling-broke into his mid-twenties...
And there's a femme fatale between them; although the poor tough guy doesn't know everything as Lesley-Anne Down brought both money-hungry fellas together, but is only pretending to belong to him...
As the show will sometimes focus on either John Thaw's Regan or his younger partner Carter in Dennis Waterman, the latter gets the focal point here: Once a close childhood friend of the boxer, whose "Pop" was like a dad to both of them, enter the episode's most sympathetic character in David Lodge, the working-class gym-trainer who knows something's awry with his son...
So the conversations with a subtly investigating Carter ties this slowburn and sublime, unflinching and streamlined neo noir together: like a movie in itself.
Easily one gof the best.
ouzman-12 February 2023
Thes men and women could sure act. A powerful episode. Lodge and Waterman bring true grit and gravitas at the end of the denouement. Very moving Leslie Anne Down, perfect and yes the singer from Manfred Mann, puts in a strong shift. John Thaw at the very, very top of the list. Moving and toe curling -the victims have our sympathy but so does "Pop". One day we will wonder just why Waterman Thaw et al. Were not revered in the way some of the British greats have been? Maybe some snobbery was always about? This is a masterpiece of fast TV that we now miss. We miss Sir John and the amazingly talented Denis. David Lodge a top pro that brings out the best of the rest. Proper telly.
Chalk and Cheese
Prismark103 July 2020
It is the start of the second series of The Sweeney and it features some strong scenes of armed robberies.
The victims are well heeled elderly people who are stopped by two robbers on a remote country road.
The chalk and cheese of the title are two robbers. Working class Tommy Garret. He wants a get rich quick lifestyle to impress his posh girlfriend Caroline. She hooked him up with the upper crust Giles Nunn. He has gambling debts. Although Nunn looks androgynous he also has a fling with Caroline behind Garret's back.
Caroline bought them together and is tipping off the robbers about the likely victims to target. There is a clue that one of the robber's knew some boxing and a lighter with a name of one of the victim's.
Carter goes back to his old boxing club which is run by Garret's dad who is a down to earth honest man who worked on the docks for years.
Pop singer Paul Jones plays Tommy Garret who becomes uneasy with Nunn's gung ho attitude with guns. It is only a matter of time before someone gets killed with a shooter.
It was only a matter of time before the Sweeney get on to them and a messy ending is foreshadowed.
The victims are well heeled elderly people who are stopped by two robbers on a remote country road.
The chalk and cheese of the title are two robbers. Working class Tommy Garret. He wants a get rich quick lifestyle to impress his posh girlfriend Caroline. She hooked him up with the upper crust Giles Nunn. He has gambling debts. Although Nunn looks androgynous he also has a fling with Caroline behind Garret's back.
Caroline bought them together and is tipping off the robbers about the likely victims to target. There is a clue that one of the robber's knew some boxing and a lighter with a name of one of the victim's.
Carter goes back to his old boxing club which is run by Garret's dad who is a down to earth honest man who worked on the docks for years.
Pop singer Paul Jones plays Tommy Garret who becomes uneasy with Nunn's gung ho attitude with guns. It is only a matter of time before someone gets killed with a shooter.
It was only a matter of time before the Sweeney get on to them and a messy ending is foreshadowed.
Good start
Leofwine_draca3 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A fun SWEENEY episode and a solid start to the second series. It's great to see Hammer alumnus Shane Briant cast as one of the bad guys and this must have been made just before he jetted off to Australia for good. The story is fast moving and the violent robberies take place in country lanes which is novel.
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