Ian Kennedy Martin, the television writer who created the groundbreaking 1970s police drama The Sweeney, has died of pancreatic cancer aged 90. His series, shot on the streets of London, featured screeching tyres, punch-ups, and officers as violent as the criminals, with iconic lines such as “Get yer trousers on – you’re nicked!”
The Sweeney and its origins
The series began as Regan, a 1974 story in the ITV Armchair Cinema series, starring John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as Detective Sergeant George Carter. They were members of the Flying Squad, known in cockney rhyming slang as Sweeney Todd, a Metropolitan police unit tackling armed robbers.
Martin’s elder brother, Troy Kennedy Martin, had created Z Cars a decade earlier, moving television’s depiction of police beyond the homely image of Dixon of Dock Green. But those portrayals of flawed officers seemed tame by the time Martin formulated a programme where knuckles crack and gunshots blast. He said of Softly Softly: Task Force: “It was like a soap. It just didn’t reflect what was going on in the police. At that time, drugs were becoming a big issue and armed robbery was the major crime in London. None of this was seen. It was all internecine rows at HQ and people talking about budgets. We needed two cops running on the streets.”
Production conflicts and legacy
Martin devised the part of Regan for his drinking buddy Thaw, having worked with him on the military police drama Redcap (1964-66). However, he quit after the pilot due to creative differences with producer Ted Childs and Euston Films, who wanted location shooting on 16mm film for a gritty look. Childs recalled: “It was all about interpretation of the script, and it eventually came down to, ‘It’s me or him.’” The Sweeney ran for four series from 1975 to 1978, with two feature-film spin-offs, despite complaints about violence, bad language, and rule-bending cops.
Martin later created Juliet Bravo (1980-85) for the BBC, featuring a female officer in the starring role, Inspector Jean Darblay, played by Stephanie Turner. The character was based on Superintendent Wynne Darwin, a real-life uniformed detective. His third significant police drama, The Chinese Detective (1981-82), starred David Yip as Detective Sergeant Johnny Ho, addressing racism within the force.
Other contributions and personal life
Martin also left a legacy to film by dreaming up the initial idea for The Italian Job (1969). He scripted a play for the BBC about a robbery involving a new computerised traffic system, but it was never produced. His brother Troy bought the story and reworked it set in Italy.
Born in London to Scottish parents of Irish ancestry, Martin studied history and political science at Trinity College, Dublin, but was “kicked out” after immersing himself in theatres and spending time with writers such as JP Donleavy and Brendan Behan. He joined the BBC’s writers’ pool in 1962, later working on series including The Troubleshooters, Colditz, and Bergerac. His stage play The Berlin Hanover Express premiered at Hampstead theatre in 2009, and he wrote more than half a dozen novels.
Martin died of pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife Barbara, whom he married in 1970, their daughter Lucy and son Daniel, two grandsons, and his sister Mo.
