Review S01E05- Always Glad To Help

[michaellevenson]

Burnside has a meeting with the Chief of the Admiralty who wants him to use The Special Projects Team (SPT) to check on a Russian ship, The Karaganda, at port in Brest, to see if it has an underwater hatch that might be used by divers on espionage missions.. The SPT are not agents as such , but are used to do things in enemy countries like start riots or blow up bridges or check ships.
Burnside refuses the request as there is insufficient evidence.
Meanwhile Wellingham has lunched with a rich sheikh, Hamed, who fancies a coup to topple his Dad, the ruler of Al Jaladah. Hamed (Peter Miles) wants the SIS to organise it, with SAS involvement , and Wellingham can see the good it can do Britain to remove the Russian loving Ruler. Hamed promises if successfully installed as ruler he'll turn the Kingdom pro West.
Burnside thinks the whole scheme is madness, but Wellingham, the chief of SIS, 'C' and the deputy chief all see knighthoods in the future for themselves if this works. Burnside wants rigorous checks to find out if Hamed is on the level, he could promise to be pro West but once installed could turn pro China, or whatever else he fancies.
Deputy chief says "what does it matter if he reneges on the deal, there's an anti West regime in there now?"
Burnside " yes, but we would have engineered a coup, look stupid, and turn our allies against us"
Burnside must stop this foolhardiness.

Back to the previous episode;
https://www.imdforums.com/threads/the-sandbaggers-s01e04-the-most-suitable-person.4813/

On to the next episode
https://www.imdforums.com/threads/s01e06-a-feasible-solution.4854/

 

[michaellevenson]

Burnside is given just a few days to check Hamed out by 'C' under pressure from the government. Laura Dickens is ordered to get close and personal with Hamed to find out what she can.
Laura overturns her speeding car right in front of Hamed's Rolls Royce, nice driving by the stunt driver for the show, and thus Laura becomes a damsel in distress. What follows over the next days are a 'romance ' that Laura is engineering for SIS ends.
Meanwhile deputy chief Peele (Jerome Willis) meets the Navy and RAF chiefs to plot the potential coup. But the Navy won't play ball, their own back for Burnside refusing the Karaganda job. Peele is shocked, Burnside of course never told him about it.
Peele " Burnside thinks he runs SIS , but I control him" yeah sure! Burnside and Peele have a full on shouting match, with Burnside ordered to write a draft letter approving of the Karaganda job and sign it, which he reluctantly does.
Peele bends the rules himself, and instructs his secretary to add to the letter when typing out the copy that will go to the Foreign Office, phrases as, "urgently needed approval required" and " vital for security". Investigations into Hamed are troubled, the evidence from intelligence sources are contradictory. Reports indicate he loves his father, others say he doesn't, the people of Al Jalada would back him, but another report says they wouldn't even recognise him. Laura reveals that Hamed has fallen for her, proposes and wants to live outside the country in the West.
So why does he want a coup?. But Laura has discovered he is fanatically pro Arab.
Burnside peaces it together, knows what Hamed's game is.
Hamed's father has the country so pro Russian it has angered the Arab world, if Hamed gets the dumb British to come into the country, he can ambush them and drive them out, knowing in advance when and where they'll be obviously having pretended to work on the coup with the British , also Hamed will use neighbouring Arab states to repel the Brits. His grateful father slinks back to the Arab fold, reverses his pro Moscow alliance and as a bonus the British are humiliated. Luckily when Burnside tells this to Wellingham, the coup is cancelled. The Karaganda job is done and the ship does indeed have a hatch for secret divers..Wellingham tells Burnside how he chuckled at the SIS letter to the F.O., " phrases like 'of vital importance ' how immodest of you Neil" Burnside realises what Peele did to the letter.
Peele and Burnside meet leaving HQ on the way home.
Peele " you were right on the coup, I was right on the Karaganda, one all"
Burnside " I was lucky, you were very lucky, don't try that again"
" perhaps in the morning you'll be more amenable and polite"
" don't count on it sir"
An interesting story, showing the men in power both in SIS, and the government were prepared to start a coup, and kill to get Hamed in power, for personal career gains.
8/10