The Sweeney (TV Series) Stoppo Driver (1975) User Reviews

Driven by you...

[canndyman · 9/10 · 13 July 2022]

This is a cracking episode, and one of the highlights of an excellent first season.

It concerns squad driver Cooney (played by Billy Murray) who's standing in for Regan's regular driver Bill.

In the opening sequence, Regan urges Cooney to 'make a name for himself' as they go in hot pursuit of a Jag full of of blaggers, and the ensuing car chase is genuinely exciting, edge-of-the-seat stuff.

The driver of the Jag is fatally injured and his accomplices get away with the loot - but it seems Coomey's driving skills haven't gone unnoticed to a certain rather sinister third party...

This episode certainly delivers some thrills with the car chase sequences - many of which are what this show is often best remembered for.

There's some genuine shocks too, and some very gritty scenes that portray some real tragedy (without wanting to give too much of the plot away).

The gorgeous Nicola Paget is wonderful here as a bitchy and scheming gangster's daughter, and the whole set-up is clever and very watchable.

There's still room for some humour, as Regan and Carter conspire to get Haskins tipsy at Cooney's wedding reception! We also get the obligatory bottle of scotch being retrieved from the desk drawer as Regan & Carter enjoy a drink on the job.

All in all, an action-packed, tense and memorable episode that showcases everything that The Sweeney did so well.

Billy Murray shines

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 19 February 2021]

A good episode and much more action than the last few. I really like Billy Murray so it was great to see him here in a big guest role as a stunt driver leaned on by a gang of robbers. The car chases that bookend the episode are fun and there's a lot of menace and suspense in between.

The One With Boxes And Benny From Crossroads

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 1 March 2013]

One of the problems with watching a TV series from Yesteryear is one of casting .You're watching a piece of drama and then all of a sudden an actor you have no idea what their real name is but you instantly know their face and the character they played in a household institution makes an appearance and you're suddenly transported out of the on screen narrative. This happens with a vengeance in this episode of THE SWEENEY

Actually there's two unfortunate casting choices though one of them is minor . Billy Murray a well known face on British television playing basically the same type of rough diamond London geezer character makes an early appearance playing a rough diamond London geezer working for the Flying Squad as a car driver called Brian Cooney . The Sweeney are staking out info from a snout where some slags will be doing a blag . A man carrying a briefcase is set upon by desperate ruthless criminals led by ....Benny from CROSSROADS ! You remember Benny the retarded handyman with the regional accent who was a God send to 1970s TV impressionist . No TV impressionist show was complete without a Benny impression or a Jimmy Savile one but the less said about that the better

Some people think boxes suddenly and surreally appearing in 70s TV action series is an urban myth but this is contradicted but the pre-credits opening scene where the cops chase the villains through the streets of London in a car demolishing a stack of cardboard boxes that just happen to be implausibly lying around . The car chase ends when the villains car , a grey Jaguar which seems to be every robbers getaway car of choice in the 1970s , comes to an abrupt halt after bumping against a wall at about two MPH . Ending a high speed car chase against the rozzers obviously caused the getaway driver a lot of embarrassment because he commits suicide by diving through the windscreen

The plot proper is a very grim deadpan one where the wife of Cooney gets kidnapped by the villains and after being responsible for the death of the bad guys driver Cooney is a ready made replacement . It's a good idea but one that isn't fully developed . It also leads to a conclusion that while exciting - Benny and the bad boys get burned to death - has some incredibly bad dialogue as in

Haskins: So were you bent Brian ?

Cooney: No boss . They had my wife I couldn't let them away with with . I'm finished with the force aren't I sir ?

Haskins: yes son you are are

What puzzles me is that despite some duress he still took part in a robbery and accepted 10,000 grand and failed to report a crime . Perhaps Haskins didn't want to break the bad news that Cooney is almost certainly set for a long prison sentence

Stoppo Driver

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 31 January 2020]

With a title of Stoppo Driver. It starts off with a terrific chase sequence with Regan's new driver, Cooney going like Evel Knievel after the villains who are trying to get away in a Jaguar.

The villain crashes the car and the getaway driver dies but not before the rest of the gang escape.

Now the mid 1970s suffered from worldwide shortages and one of them were getaway drivers. The gang decide to kidnap Cooney's new bride, hold her hostage in order to coerce Cooney to drive for them on their next job. I'm sure it would had been easier to put a classified advert in Exchange & Mart.

Given that Cooney is a policeman he readily agrees to this instead of seeking help from his colleagues. However he does act erratically and leaves some clues behind. Eventually Regan suspects that Cooney might be a bent copper.

The episode has actor Paul Henry playing one of the villains. He will always be memorable as lovable Benny from Crossroads. A young Billy Murray plays the cocky driver Cooney.

An enjoyable episode, even though it is nonsense and will not stand up to any careful examination. It was nice to see that driving through cardboard boxes did not start with The Professionals. The villains ended up getting a good fry up at the end.

Gangsters and Drivers

[TheFearmakers · 7/10 · 3 March 2019]

Another action-packed opener that winds up in a den of thieves with loads of pulpy dialogue... and a titular STOPPO DRIVER in this first SWEENEY season, played by Billy Murray, drives like... as described by John Thaw's Inspector Regan... Evel Knievel in that rudimentary chase that winds up killing the crime family's own driver, and they want this whipper-snapper wheelman for their own, so far as kidnapping his just-married wife...

But story-wise the DRIVER winds up riding backseat to the likes of gambling-house moll Nicola Pagett, who, along with her crooked brothers and father (including a rowdy card playing Aubrey Morris), could have had a gritty gangster series of their own, which is what made THE SWEENEY often play out like a gritty criminal's anthology series with our mainstay SWEENEY partners Thaw with Dennis Waterman serving as their inevitable foil.