My Critique of Special Branch
Special Branch excelled at procedural integrity, confining its intrigues to offices and chilly streets where policy confronts peril. Early black‑and‑white episodes, like Troika and Care of Her Majesty, adroitly tie bureaucratic oversight to espionage, making procedural nuance feel consequential.
Yet its studio‑bound formality and talk‑driven pacing can blunt momentum, while the 1973 overhaul’s harder Euston Films realism risks crowding out nuance with procedural muscle. Compared to contemporaries such as The Sweeney, it privileges statecraft over street‑level bravado, sharpening surveillance’s psychological toll.
For modern viewers, its measured portrayal of counter‑subversion, institutional accountability, and inter‑agency rivalry remains valuable, offering sober context for debates on policing secrecy and oversight.
Principal Characters & Performances
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Craven (George Sewell)
When George Sewell took over as the lead for the 1973 series, he fundamentally reshaped the show’s energy. His Detective Chief Inspector Alan Craven is the definitive Special Branch officer for many.
Craven is a pragmatic, world-weary professional operating in the grey areas between police work and espionage.
Sewell brought a granite-like physicality and a quiet, simmering intensity to the role. Craven is less a glamorous spy-hunter and more a senior detective burdened by bureaucracy and political oversight.
His integrity is constantly under scrutiny, both from external agencies like MI5 and from internal affairs.
This grounded portrayal, a man doing a difficult job within strict legal and political constraints, gave the series a new layer of realism. Sewell’s Craven is the anchor, the experienced hand who understands the rules of the shadowy game he is forced to play.
Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty (Patrick Mower)
Introduced in the third series as a foil to Craven, Patrick Mower’s Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty injected a potent dose of ambition and volatility. Where Craven is measured, Haggerty is impulsive; where Craven follows procedure, Haggerty often seeks to bend it.
Mower played Haggerty with a sharp, restless energy that created immediate dramatic friction. The professional rivalry and contrasting methodologies between the two lead detectives became a central dynamic of the later, filmed series.
Haggerty represented a newer, more aggressive style of policing, often clashing with Craven’s seasoned approach. This partnership, built on mutual respect underpinned by tension, was a key ingredient in the show’s successful revival and mirrored the more confrontational style of drama that was emerging in the 1970s.
Notable Support and Guest Stars
The earlier era of the show was defined by Derren Nesbitt’s original lead, Detective Chief Inspector Elliot Jordan. Nesbitt portrayed Jordan with a cool, detached efficiency, setting the initial tone for the series as a procedural focused on counter-espionage tradecraft.
His superiors, played by Wensley Pithey as Superintendent Eden and Fulton Mackay as Superintendent Inman, represented the chain of command and the political pressures from above. Morris Perry made the role of Moxon, the often unhelpful MI5 liaison, a recurring source of inter-agency tension.
The supporting team included Keith Washington as DC Morrissey and Jennifer Wilson as DS Helen Webb, providing the operational backbone. In the later series, Roger Rowland’s DS Bill North served as a loyal right-hand man to Craven.
Guest stars like Paul Eddington, appearing as the MI5 officer Strand, added further weight and authenticity to the show’s depiction of the security landscape.
Key Episodes & Defining Stories
Troika
The debut episode immediately establishes the series’ core concerns: Cold War espionage and institutional accountability. Detective Chief Inspector Jordan and Superintendent Eden face a Security Commission inquiry after a botched operation involving a Soviet defector.
The plot expertly introduces the recurring friction between Special Branch and the security services, embodied by Morris Perry’s Moxon. Guest actors like Sandra Bryant and a pre-regular Roger Rowland feature in this tightly wound story.
Fans remember “Troika” because it set the template. It’s not about car chases; it’s about careers in the balance and moral ambiguity in smoke-filled committee rooms.
It announced Special Branch as a thinking person’s police drama, more concerned with political fallout than straightforward action.
A Copper Called Craven
This episode rebooted the series. It introduces George Sewell’s Alan Craven, who is immediately plunged into a crisis when a smuggler accuses him of corruption and a mysterious bank deposit appears.
The story forces Craven to defend his integrity while under internal investigation.
Produced by Euston Films on film, the visual shift to location shooting is immediately apparent, giving the show a grittier, more contemporary feel. This episode matters because it marks the definitive turn towards a harder-edged realism.
It’s a key reason to watch as it showcases the show’s new direction: a focus on the personal cost of the job and a growing scepticism towards authority that would define 1970s television drama, paving the way for series like *The Sweeney*.
Round the Clock
This is the essential character piece of the later series. The plot is a masterclass in tension through procedure, following Craven and the newly arrived Tom Haggerty on a protracted, claustrophobic surveillance stakeout.
The episode is notable for formally introducing Patrick Mower’s Haggerty, allowing the contrasting styles of the two leads to spark and simmer in real time under pressure. It’s a bottle episode of sorts, confined to the rhythms of a watch.
Fans cherish “Round the Clock” for its psychological depth. It strips away spectacle to focus on professional rivalry and the grinding patience of real police work.
It perfectly crystallises the Craven-Haggerty dynamic that became the show’s driving force and exemplifies Euston Films’ commitment to authentic, location-driven storytelling.
The World of Special Branch
The series is set within the Metropolitan Police’s Special Branch, a unit concerned with national security, counter-espionage, and counter-terrorism. This isn’t the world of common burglary; it’s the realm of spies, anarchists, and political extremists operating in and around London.
The environment alternates between the functional, paperwork-strewn headquarters in Hammersmith and the streets of the capital used for surveillance and tailing operations. Locations like Ennismore Garden Mews became familiar backdrops.
Scenes in Whitehall offices and government buildings are frequent, highlighting the unit’s direct links to political power and other agencies like MI5. This world is defined by official secrecy, legal constraints, and the constant tension between police procedure and the demands of the secret state.
Origin Story
Special Branch first aired on ITV in September 1969. It was created under the guidance of writer George Markstein.
The first two series were produced by Thames Television using the era’s standard method: videotape for studio interiors and filmed inserts for location work.
After a break, the show was revived in 1973 for a third series, but in a transformed state. Production shifted to Thames’s subsidiary, Euston Films, which shot entirely on film on location.
This technical change, alongside a cast overhaul led by George Sewell, gave the series a new, gritty vitality. Euston Films’ work on Special Branch was its very first production.
Narrative Style & Tone
The early series employed a studio-based, procedural style familiar to 1960s television, focusing on dialogue, briefings, and the mechanics of investigation. The tone was serious and suspense-oriented, leaning into espionage themes.
The shift to film for the final two series was transformative. The style became location-driven, more kinetic, and visually realist, allowing for a harder-edged feel.
Throughout its run, the narrative maintained a focus on self-contained, case-driven stories.
The tone consistently emphasised the bureaucratic and political complexities of security policing, using tension with intelligence services as a key dramatic device, long before such themes became commonplace.
How is Special Branch remembered?
Special Branch is recalled as a foundational classic of British police drama, particularly the espionage and counter-terrorism subgenre. It is often cited as a direct forerunner to the tougher, more realistic crime series of the 1970s, most notably Euston Films’ own *The Sweeney*.
Its legacy is tied to that production company’s influential shift to all-film, location-based shooting. For fans, it represents a gritty, intelligent portrayal of a secretive world, balancing the perceived glamour of spy-hunting with the mundane reality of paperwork and political oversight.
While not laden with awards, its impact is clear; it topped ratings in its time and is held in high regard for its sophisticated approach to Cold War themes and its role in evolving the visual language of British television drama.
In Closing
Special Branch offers a compelling, intelligent journey into the shadowy intersection of policing and politics, a procedural with a secretive heart that helped define an era of television.