The Sweeney

Hello.

— Jack? — Yeah.

It's me, Joey.

Listen.

Tomorrow morning, six-thirty,

Jock's Transport Cafe,

a lorry load of fags, are you interested?

What's the deal?

A oner from you

and the usual 10 percent from the insurance, okay?

- One condition, Joey, you take no big part in the robbery.

- Don't worry, I'm only the lookout man.

Are you on?

Yeah.

Okay, now,

we'll be in a Jag and a Bedford van.

Minute the driver comes from his tea,

we jump him, get the keys and away.

Now my escape, it's got to be realistic or I'm dead.

I might have to hurt you a bit but...

if I fire at you, it'll be blanks.

Well, make bloody sure you shoot straight,

even so those blanks can be lethal at short range.

Jack, trust me,

you know you can.

Here he comes.

Stand by.

Hey!

Uh!

_ Let's go!

~ Uh!

~ Ah!

~ Uh!

Stickley.

Uh!

- Are you alright, Guv? - Did you get the others?

- Yeah, don't worry about them, they're all taken care of,

all except that bastard who got you.

The Post Office Gang seems to have begun operating again.

Come!

Sir.

Good morning, Jack Regan?

Stephen Quirk.

I'm taking over from Haskins, whilst he's...

I'm taking over from Haskins, whilst he's in Toronto,

I'm afraid I didn't get much notice so I've...

I've not completely genned myself up on everything yet.

You've got a good record, Regan.

That last lorry hijacking, quite successful,

I see you got the whole gang,

except for the one who got away.

You got injured, eh. Commended for bravery.

Any ideas on the one who got away, who injured you?

- Yeah, yeah, we think it was a nasty little creep

called Stickley, Sir.

Joey Stickley?

- Yeah, yeah, we pulled him in, but we couldn't hold him,

he had a perfect alibi.

I've been trying to nail him for years.

Joey Stickley, I remember him,

gave him his first conviction, three years,

black market petrol at the time of Suez,

he had a perfect alibi that time too,

it didn't do him much good.

- Well, neither did that helping of porridge,

he's been sick ever since.

Hm.

That gang that did the break-ins at the small Post Offices

last summer, what do you know about them?

What Post Office Gang, Sir?

- Last summer, a spate of armed robberies

at small Post Offices.

- Well, that wasn't one gang, that was several.

- They were identical patterns, four men, broad daylight,

shot the legs off the first person that moved,

grabbed only what was in the tills.

- That was a fiction of the media, Guv'nor.

The Post Office Gang, well, it looked good,

scared a few old women from getting their pensions.

- Another Post Office was raided a few weeks ago,

that gang has begun operating again,

I want to make it one of our top targets.

You've got no style, Jack,

but you're a great scorer of goals,

I'm glad you're on my team.

Mise en bouteille comme le HP sauce.

- Shove that under the hot tap for a bit.

Jack, this bloke, Quirk,

do you think he's alright in the head?

I think he's diddlo.

Mind out.

What are you doing?

- Well, when it sticks to the wall, it's ready.

Who told you that?

Oh, a bloke called BJ.

- Oh, yeah? - Hm.

Yeah, trouble was he never took the old bits down,

so the wall by his cooker was covered,

so every time he went to throw a new bit on

and he was a bit smashed,

he'd sort of stand there, sort of lean and peer

at this great mass of spaghetti on the wall

trying to find the new bit that was steaming up there as well.

- Should've looked at the floor first.

- Ah, well, he wasn't a detective, George, he was a genius.

Hey, hold up, look at that plonk, it's gonna evaporate.

Aah, one of 'em's up, I think we're on here, George.

Nah, Quirk's been a nobody all his life,

now all of a sudden he finds himself in the famous Sweeney,

That's the wrong way round.

Guv!...wrong way round.

Ah, cheers.

Yeah, he thinks to himself,

if I can get a good conviction with the right publicity.

- Yeah, he'll go upstairs for a year in a blaze of glory.

Can I have a light?

Yeah.

Yeah, and he gets a bigger pension.

- All he can think about is this mythical Post Office Gang,

which you know and I know don't exist.

- Yeah, well, he's an old hunter, ain't he.

Been after buffalo all his life,

now he comes across a big, white one, the king of 'em all.

Moby Dick was a whale.

Whales, buffalos, El Dorado,

they're all dreams,

like a happy marriage.

Ah, you've got to enjoy the good life down here

on Earth.

- Those two birds still live upstairs?

No.

Oh.

# Sweet Mary Lou a'

# All your loving, Sweet Mary Lou #

# All your kisses, Sweet Mary Lou #

J“ Don't wanna be missing a single day with you I“

# Sweet Mary Lou a'

# Baby, don't leave me, Sweet Mary Lou #

# Baby, believe me, I love you forever right now #

# Hello, Mary Lou #

# I'll give you the stars #

Here's your information fee for that lorry hijacking.

Thanks, Jack, thanks very much.

— Put your nomme de plume clawmark on that, will you?

Yeah.

- We're having a bit of trouble with the insurance company

about your reward. - Oh, yeah?

- Yeah, the usual, they'll fork up eventually.

I'm entitled to that reward.

- Well, ten percent of 120 grand's a lot of cash.

Misers.

- Still, four grand a piece for putting away three of your mates,

it's pretty cheap, innit?

That firm had better pay up,

I'm not putting decent villains inside

for a measly oner from the Police Fund.

It'll only cost you another 100 grand

to look after that lot for eight years,

tax payers' money.

- That er, Post Office raid a few weeks back,

you know anything about that?

Nah.

- It wasn't the same firm that was doing them last summer, was it?

Jack, trust me,

if I knew anything, I'd tell you.

You're not still chasing them, are you?

No.

Okay.

Hm.

How can you have heard nothing, nothing at all,

not one single thing, not one iota?

What are you doing, Jack?

You're losing your grip of the game.

All you have to do is to find something out,

where are your eyes and your ears?

- Sir, we've spent the last few days systematically

going through all known sources of information.

- But you haven't received any information!

Well, I have.

The gang are no longer working for themselves,

they've been contracted out for a fee,

they're not going to be robbing tills for cash.

What exactly does that mean, Sir?

— Someone's hired them to do a specialised job,

someone big.

' Who?

That's all I know at the moment,

I'm hoping for names later.

It should at least give you something to go on.

Right, Guv.

Well played.

- We must keep up the teamwork on this one, Jack,

all support each other.

We're now full steam ahead for the great white whale.

At least it's no longer four invisible men,

now we know it's a whale.

- Yeah well, we might as well follow it up.

How shall we go?

Get onto C11.

Make a check on drugs, pictures, jewelry