Callan (TV series)

The Section used a series of colour-coded files to indicate targets of different priorities (with much relevance for the title of the novel "Red File for Callan");

Callan has been retired from an anonymous government agency known as "The Section", run by Colonel Hunter (the name "Hunter" is used as a code name for the current Section Chief, similar to the C of SIS). The Section removes those who pose a danger to the public, using either persuasion, blackmail, extortion or death. David Callan had been the Section's top operative, but had become too curious about his targets and the rationale for their removal. The Section considered him vulnerable, volatile and dangerous, so had laid him off to a dead-end book-keeping job with an ungrateful employer.

The pilot was novelised by its scriptwriter, James Mitchell, who went on to write most of the TV series episodes. The book was published under the title Red File For Callan in the US, and as A Magnum for Schneider in the UK, the storyline being based around Callan's love for toy soldier war games, an interest shared by his target, Schneider, a Hampstead-based arms dealer.

The pilot, filmed in black-and-white, was later remade in colour as a feature film in 1974, two years after the television series ended.

ABC commissioned a first series of six episodes in 1967. In the first episode Callan rejoins the section in an unofficial capacity. The series was characterised by Callan's stand-off, barely-respectful, relationship with his boss, Hunter, who schemed to retain Callan on his side, and would play him off in little divide-and-rule scenarios with or against his fellow agents, in an effort to maintain his control. It was not always apparent that these ploys worked. Callan's underworld contact, Lonely (Russell Hunter), developed into an unofficial sidekick, whose shadowing qualities outshone his sense of personal hygiene, something Meres in particular took joy in pointing out. Lonely remained ignorant of Callan's real work and believed him to be something of a gangland villain.

By 1969, ABC Weekend Television had, due to an enforced merger with Rediffusion, become Thames Television. A second series of fifteen episodes, which had already been completed by ABC, was therefore transmitted under the name of the new company. This run ended with "Death of a Hunter", in which the Section chief meets his demise, and Callan is shot – perhaps fatally. It had not been decided whether the show would return for a third series, so this device was used to leave open either the possibility of more stories in the future, or a way of winding-up the show. Two endings were taped, in which Callan either lived or died. In the end, Thames decided to bring the programme back in 1970, this time in colour, for a series consisting of a further nine episodes.

The third series, the first in colour, saw Callan still recovering from having been shot and struggling to come to terms with his situation. Interviews with Snell (the Section's doctor) and poor shooting range results portrayed Callan as a barely-functioning human being, whose future with the Section looks to be in serious doubt. If Callan is to be of any use to Hunter, something has to spark him into life. In league with Meres' younger, brasher, edgier and unpredictable replacement, James Cross (played by Patrick Mower), the new Hunter concocts a scenario whereby Callan's energies are incited into real emotions that can be turned against the enemy. The remaining eight episodes see the revitalised yet ever-more world-weary assassin cover more ground, including one episode where love comes unexpectedly into his life, and which has the (expected) unexpected ending.

The final set of thirteen episodes was broadcast in 1972. This saw Callan develop further than before. An unsuccessful mission results in Callan being interrogated in a Russian prison, but he is exchanged by the Soviets for one of their agents. Now he is known to them, he has become a liability. What to do with the Section's top agent is solved by promoting him to the position of Hunter – a post he dislikes as much or even more than actually serving under a Hunter. However, this move by his masters has motives, and he is eventually relieved of his duties after an incident in which he re-enters the fray as an agent, which was against the rules. He is replaced as Hunter by his predecessor. The final three episodes form a trilogy based around the defecting Soviet agent Richmond (played by T. P. McKenna), which was sub-titled The Richmond Files.

The 1981 feature-length television story Wet Job, written by Mitchell and produced by ATV (without the original theme music or logo), rounded off the saga with a positive ending to the story of Callan and Lonely. Callan has become the proprietor of a military memorabilia shop when he is recruited by the new Hunter for one more job. Alas, he has to do this alone: Lonely has become a dapper gent, engaged to be married, and with enough self-confidence to defy Callan's request for help. In the end, Callan completes the task, survives, and even ends up with a girlfriend.

A Callan documentary entitled This Man Alone was released on DVD in November 2015. Narrated by Edward Woodward's son Peter Woodward, it includes contributions from Peter Mitchell, Reginald Collin, Mike Vardy, and James Goddard. Additionally the DVD includes a new transfer of A Magnum for Schneider and The Good Ones Are All Dead, a music-themed TV special The Edward Woodward Hour, and a documentary on James Mitchell, A World of My Own.[2]

The cinema film was an expanded re-working of James Mitchell's original 1967 TV pilot episode, A Magnum for Schneider. Taking much of its new material from Mitchell's own novelisation of that teleplay, it was based more on the novel than on the original television script. For legal reasons, no mention is made of the pilot teleplay or the TV series. The film's credits mention only the novel as its source, identifying it by the title – Red File for Callan – under which it had been published by Simon & Schuster in the United States in 1969, so as to avoid any reference to the title of the ABC television pilot.

In 1974 Dell reissued the novel in paperback, as Red File for Callan. But despite coinciding with the film's release this edition gave no hint of being a tie-in.

In the film, Callan's boss Hunter is played by Eric Porter, and Meres too is re-cast, this time played by Peter Egan (known at the time as a trendy gangster, from the controversial TV series Big Breadwinner Hog, but now better known for sitcoms such as the BBC's Ever Decreasing Circles). The only recurring actors from the TV series were Edward Woodward as Callan, Russell Hunter as Lonely, and Clifford Rose as Dr Snell (who appears in five of the television episodes from series two, three and four – although in the film, reflecting the screenplay's 1967 origin, it's stated that Callan has never met Snell before).

• A Magnum for Schneider by James Mitchell – also published as Red File for Callan and Callan – (1969), ISBN 0-750-53959-3
• Russian Roulette (1973) by James Mitchell, ISBN 1-909-61904-3
• Death and Bright Water (1974) by James Mitchell, ISBN 1-909-61911-6
• Smear Job (1975) by James Mitchell, ISBN 0-241-89306-2
• Bonfire Night (2002) by James Mitchell, ISBN 0-727-85878-5

There are two short story collections

• Callan Uncovered (2014) all by James Mitchell. Features 25 short stories (24 were written for the Sunday Express, and 1 for the TV Times), as well as a story treatment and the full script of an unfilmed episode, "Goodbye Mary Lee".
• Callan Uncovered 2 (2015) all by James Mitchell. Features 15 short stories (all were written for the Sunday Express), as well as the full script of a 'lost' episode, "Goodness Burns Too Bright".

On 7 December 2017, Big Finish Productions announced plans to release two box sets of Callan audio adventures based on the Sunday Express Short Stories written by James Mitchell. The tales have been adapted by Peter Mitchell, the series creator's son, and star Ben Miles in the title role, with Frank Skinner as Lonely, Nicholas Briggs as Hunter and Jane Slavin as Liz.[3] Volume One released July 2018. [4] On 29 July 2020, Big Finish announced that the second volume would release in September 2020.[5]

The Armchair Theatre play from 1967 exists as a 16mm film recording of the original 405-line black-and-white television broadcast.

The 21 episodes of series 1 and 2 were recorded on black-and-white videotape, with filmed inserts; but several of these episodes have been lost or wiped. The surviving episodes from Series 1 still exist as 405-line tapes, and those episodes featured on the 2015 DVD A Man Alone had proper electronic conversions to 625-line video, but the episodes have previously had poor quality optical conversions by merely pointing a 625-line electronic camera at a monitor displaying the original 405-line recording. The surviving Series 2 episodes also exist on 405-line videotapes, but for DVD these were electronically (as opposed to optically) converted. In the case of "The Worst Soldier I Ever Saw", Network's DVD cover blurb states that the episode only survives as an unedited studio block, which had to be edited into its proper sequence for the DVD release.

All of the colour episodes exist, and the 1970 series was released on DVD in the UK in 2001. The episodes were edited to remove captions which would have led into the commercial breaks in the original transmission. This resulted in some awkward visual and audio jump cuts. The subsequent British DVD releases all retain the commercial break captions. The 1974 feature film was released on DVD separately.

Both the 1970 and 1972 series have had Region 4 DVD releases by Umbrella Entertainment. The 1972 series DVD also includes the feature film.

The separate DVD release of the 1974 feature film includes an interview, recorded in 2000, with Edward Woodward.

Acorn Media released Callan - Set 1 on 7 July 2009 which includes all 9 episodes from series 3. On 26 January 2010, Callan - Set 2 was released featuring all 13 episodes from series 4. It has not been decided whether further series will be released to DVD in Region 1.[10]

Clear Vision Video released three DVDs subtitled "Series 1 Parts 1 – 3 of 3", also available in a box titled Callan – The Complete Series One, in 2001. In fact these DVDs comprise the nine episodes of Series 3 aired in 1970, the first colour series, although the back covers incorrectly claim that "This edition comes from the first series that was ever shown on Thames Television" (ABC had aired the complete first series before changing its name in the 1968 ITV franchise round; then, renamed Thames, it had shown the second series in 1969).

Prism Leisure released the cinema film as Callan – The Movie on Region 0 PAL in 2001. The DVD also includes an interview with Edward Woodward.

Network released Callan – The Monochrome Years in a DVD edition on 22 February 2010.[11] This four DVD set includes the Armchair Theatre pilot play, 'A Magnum For Schnieder', plus the surviving 2 episodes of the first series (out of the original 6), and the surviving 9 episodes of the second series (out of the original 15). Network also released Callan – The Colour Years in 2010. Callan – Wet Job was then released by Network in 2011. Network were due to release the complete series, containing all the surviving episodes, The Definitive Collection, the following year, but this did not happen; and eventually, in 2015, the special features announced for the set began to be released individually.[12] This suggests the collection has been abandoned.

Umbrella Entertainment released the third and fourth series on DVD in Australia in 2007.