The WORST episodes of The Sandbaggers
Every episode of The Sandbaggers ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of The Sandbaggers!
"The Sandbaggers" was a taut British spy series comprising twenty 50-minute episodes produced by Yorkshire Television. The stories centered on the elite covert operations section of British Intelligence, nicknamed the Sandbaggers, and their boss, Neil Burnside (Roy Marsden), himself a former Sandbagger, but now having to battle more with British bureaucracy than enemy agents. It was set contemporaneously with its original broadcast in the late '70s and early '80s when the Cold War still dominated the Western intelligence agenda. Burnside's main operative is Willie Caine, his most experienced agent. Burnside's main opponents in the series are not his KGB adversaries but the bureaucrats and functionaries of his own government, often his own superiors. He he is constatly at odds his his Deputy Chief and occasinally with the head of the Secret Service codenamed "C".
#1 - Operation Kingmaker
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/3/1980
When there's talk of getting a new 'C', Burnside decides to back Peele for the job, believing him more malleable than the other most likely candidate, whom Burnside once clashed with.
#2 - Opposite Numbers
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 7/28/1980
Burnside is opposed to an East-West arms treaty being negotiated in Malta, so he and the Sandbaggers conspire to scuttle the talks by encouraging a Soviet double agent to defect.
#3 - First Principles
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1978
Neil Burnside, the Director of Operations for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, objects to sending his best agents, the Sandbaggers, on a mission into Russia for Norway's Secret Service.
#4 - Is Your Journey Really Necessary?
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/1978
Alan Denson threatens to quit the Sandbaggers after a rough, unauthorized mission near the Soviet border, so Burnside applies pressure to Denson's fiancee
#5 - Who Needs Enemies
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/14/1980
When a rival for Burnside's job gets hold of a CIA document that describes Burnside as a divisive influence, SIS upper management contrives to promote Burnside ``sideways'' to Madrid.
#6 - My Name Is Anna Wiseman
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/30/1980
Burnside tries to get approval to plant a woman in the Soviet Union as a long-term double agent, but he neglects to mention that her real mission is short-term human rights propaganda.
#7 - A Feasible Solution
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/23/1978
Caine and an agent fresh out of field school go to Cyprus on the trail of some missing rocket scientists while Neil lets his romantic guard down at home.
#8 - Enough of Ghosts
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/4/1980
Permanent Under-Secretary of State Sir Geoffrey Wellingham goes missing in Brussels and the Sandbaggers are dispatched to find him, for Burnside's sake as well as Wellingham's.
#9 - At All Costs
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/28/1980
The head of the Bulgarian Secret Service asks to meet with Sandbagger Tom Elliott in Sofia, but Burnside doesn't like it and intends to give Elliott backup whether his bosses approve or not.
#10 - It Couldn't Happen Here
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/25/1980
In the wake of the assassination of one U.S. senator, the Sandbaggers are assigned to bodyguard another, while Burnside gets wind of a traitor in the British cabinet.
#11 - Special Relationship
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1978
Laura Dickens is the most qualified agent for a risky mission in East Berlin and Burnside has to double-deal to make sure her presence there won't pose other security risks as well.
#12 - The Most Suitable Person
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/9/1978
Sandbagger One Willie Caine goes to Gibraltar to investigate the murder of an SIS agent, and potential new Sandbagger Laura Dickens goes to Morocco to get more clues in the case.
#13 - Always Glad to Help
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/16/1978
Dickens is assigned to find out where an Arab sheik's sympathies lie while Burnside clashes with Deputy Chief Matthew Peele and the Ministry of Defence over a covert scuba-diving operation.
#14 - A Proper Function of Government
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/25/1978
The Sandbaggers may be sent to Vienna to keep tabs on a possible defector, while Burnside tries to get official approval to assassinate an African dictator.
#15 - Sometimes We Play Dirty Too
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/7/1980
When a British intelligence source is killed in an accident in Prague, Caine is sent in to find out what really happened while Wallace and Burnside look for clues at home.
#16 - Unusual Approach
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/23/1980
'C' orders Burnside to go on a working holiday in Rhodes, and while he's gone, Ross asks Caine for some risky backup in the USSR, but as Acting D.Ops., Caine would have to send Wallace.
#17 - To Hell with Justice
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/16/1980
SIS Director of Intelligence Edward Tyler meets a suspicious woman while on holiday in Malta, so Burnside secretly sends the Sandbaggers to keep an eye on him.
#18 - All in a Good Cause
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/9/1980
CIA Head of London Station Jeff Ross asks for Burnside's help when Ross' marriage is in trouble, but then Burnside starts to suspect that the KGB and MI5 have an interest in that marriage as well.
#19 - Decision by Committee
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/11/1980
On an airline flight back from Sri Lanka, Caine and CIA covert-action agent Karen Milner run into trouble during their stop in Turkey, and Burnside runs into bureaucratic opposition when trying to help them.
#20 - A Question of Loyalty
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/18/1980
Sandbagger Mike Wallace runs afoul of the local SIS station while on a risky mission in Warsaw, and Burnside risks his own career to show him support by sending him on a subsequent mission to Stockholm.