Review The Sandbaggers S01E04 The Most Suitable Person

[michaellevenson]

Burnside now has to find two replacement Sandbaggers after Denson and Landy getting killed.
The finishing school can only recommend Laura Dickens (Diane Keen) as ready for the job.
Reluctantly Burnside interviews her, but she turns out to be a cold person who tells Neil to his face that his department is silly boys playing at cowboys and Indians and that she'd rather be in an enemy country permanently working at a SIS "station" gathering data. Reluctantly she agrees to a temporary promotion to Sandbagger.

Dickens and Willie Caine are sent to discover why an SIS officer called Yardley is dead with a bullet wound , and dumped in a back street of Gibraltar. Caine goes to Gib, Dickens to Tangiers where Yardley was stationed. Caine gets a visit from a disgruntled MI5 officer moaning about jurisdiction.
Why did Yardley get on a plane to Gib? The MI5 guy is no help.

In Tangiers while working through Yardley's file looking for clues , Laura is offered dinner at the home of senior SIS man in the Tangier office, the head of station is his title.
He says "I have to go now, it's a long standing dinner arrangement. Would you like to come?"
Laura replies. " no you go I'll stay and work here, after all if Yardley gave up his life I should give up a dinner engagement"
The SIS man was quiet after that and stayed and helped her.

Meantime, big big trouble, Geoff Ross , London CIA man tells Burnside that one of his mission planners, Colin Groves, is seeing a Dr Sturdee, a shrink on Harley Street. CIA have a file on Sturdee documenting him as a recruiter for the KGB. Could Groves be passing secrets from under Burnsides' very nose ?

Back to previous episode
https://www.imdforums.com/threads/the-sandbaggers-s01e03-is-your-journey-really-necessary.4803/

On to the next episode;
https://www.imdforums.com/threads/s01e05-always-glad-to-help.4840/

 

[michaellevenson]

The side plot with Groves turns out to be the most interesting and important. Groves is seeing Sturdee ostensibly as an alcoholic in need of treatment, but Burnside knows that's crap, he must be passing on info about SIS.
Meanwhile the Tangier /Gibraltar link is a Ahmed Boutaleb, a Moroccan agitator recently released from ten years in jail and vowing revenge against the British government for putting him there. Yardley spotted Boutaleb going to Gib and followed him , where he was shot. Dickens, Caine and Burnside piece together the plot, and deduce the Gibraltar governor's plane , due to take off tomorrow could be hit by a portable rocket mortar. Caine and Michael Gomez (Stephen Greif) , Gib police chief, have to track Boutaleb down.

Ross and Burnside realise that if Groves has compromised even half of the SIS secrets he knows, the West will have to seriously alter their defence policy. It's that bad.
Groves is hauled into Burnside's office and accused. Groves just grins! A bad move in front of Burnside.
Groves is a member of a board war games club as is Sturdee, and all the members seem to be intelligence people. Groves realised that Sturdee was using the club to recruit for the KGB, so he pretended he was an alcoholic and would do anything to be cured even sell out. Groves hands proof of his story, names of those recruited etc, his reward? Burnside sacks him on the spot!
" I almost put this place under a microscope because of you. A plane load of people could be blown out of the sky at any moment. I couldn't concentrate on that, I was too worried about you. Why didn't you tell me what you were doing? Get Out of my directorate. Now"

The mortar attack on the plane is thwarted just in time.
Burnside shows his two faced character when he tells the deputy chief of SIS Matthew Peele that it's wonderful that an SIS officer discovered a spy ring under the noses of MI5, so if 5 want to gripe that SIS usurped their jurisdiction in Gibraltar, a British colony, they can keep their mouths shut as they owe SIS big time over Sturdee. There's no forgiveness however for Groves. 9/10