Sandbaggers Redux

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Thursday, October 02, 2008
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Not that I missed the point of John Le Carre's "The Madness of Spies" in last week's New Yorker or anything. Not that I don't have a dog-eared copy of The Second Oldest Profession. But I confess I have a thing for the bureaucratic side of cloak-and-dagger for which there is no better fix than a dose of Neil Burnside. I plugged it last August, and I'll do it again -- my favorite spies, The Sandbaggers.



The only thing better than discovering an old series like this just waiting to be enjoyed is stumbling over an unfamiliar author with a long backlist. Unfortunately, I'll never be able to watch The Sandbaggers for the first time again, and everything I've hoped would give me the same thrill has failed. I had high hopes for The Sweeney, for example, especially given my appreciation for Life on Mars, but I just couldn't get into it in the same way. So the hunt continues. Are there any 'serious' 70s or 80s spy shows out there waiting to be discovered?