The Sweeney - Film Adaptations

Film Adaptations

Like many successful British TV series of the time, such as Porridge and Rising Damp, cinema versions of The Sweeney were made, featuring the same actors and characters. The two films were far more raw than the TV series, featuring levels of violence, sex and nudity that would not have been possible on television at the time.

In Sweeney! (1977), Regan and Carter get involved in a plot based on the Profumo Affair. British actor Barry Foster guest-stars as an Americanised, and more deadly, version of Stephen Ward. Made in 1976, the film appears to be set in the then near-future, indicated by the line "The same damned speech you made in 1978."; also visible on a wall in the scene where the OPEC delegates meet is a logo displaying "1979".

In Sweeney 2 (1978), George & Jack eventually find themselves going to the island of Malta in order to track down a group of particularly violent armed robbers who have been committing bank and payroll robberies all over London and kill anybody that gets in their way, even members of their own gang, Jack & George were assigned the case by their recently convicted Chief Inspector as his last order, as he is about to be charged with corruption.

A film based on the television series, starring Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben Drew as Carter, was released in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2012, with the setting moved to the present day. The film's reviews were mixed to positive and it currently scores 62% on Rotten Tomatoes.