The Sweeney: In From The Cold (ITV 13 Sep 1976, with Anthony Heaton)

In In From The Cold, Regan and Carter spot one of the gunmen, Medhurst, who took part in a bank robbery that left one of the Sweeney’s men, Eddie Jackson, in a wheelchair. The boys pull him and determine to put him away. Medhurst was not the one who fired the shot that left Jackson paralysed and Regan wants to offer him a deal (and then welch on it) to give up the names of the other men involved.

Before the deal can be made Medhurst is sprung on his way to court. It soon becomes clear that Medhurst was sprung to be killed off because word had gotten out about the potential deal. A body then turns up (minus head and hands), Medhurst’s wife confirms it’s him but we (unlike The Sweeney) very quickly learn that it’s not in fact Medhurst and he is already back with the firm planning another job.

Medhurst, along with two fellow villains, steal an articulated lorry full of frozen meat. Matters get complicated when the driver at the pick up point fails to show and Medhurst leaves the other gang members in the back of the (freezing) truck. The key to track them down lies in Medhurst’s crooked lawyer Ashby-Jones whose brother-in-law is “big in the meat trade”.

Regan has a bad case of the guilts throughout the episode, he had more or less put Jackson in the line of fire during the original bank raid and blames himself for the invalid cop’s current state. Although the episode ends with Medhurst caught and his two colleagues either dead or near dead in the back of the freezer truck Haskins rubs salt into the wound for Regan by telling him that he still hasn’t caught the man who shot Jackson.

production details
UK / ITV – Thames / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast Monday 13 September 1976 at 9.00pm

Writer: Tony Hoare / Director: Terry Green

Series: The Sweeney Season 3 Episode 2

cast
John Thaw as Regan
Dennis Waterman as Carter
Garfield Morgan as Haskins
Anthony Heaton as Medhurst
Maureen Sweeney as Mrs Medhurst
Lewis Fiander as Ashby-Jones
John Alkin as Daniels
Martin Fisk as Jackson
Johnny Shannon as Mason
James Beckett as Stan
Paul Kember as Mickey
Peter Clapham as Local Inspector
Miranda Bell as Mrs Jackson