Don Sharp directs Edward Woodward, Russell Hunter and Eric Porter in this big screen adaptation of the pilot episode of the downbeat British 60s spy show.

A reluctant assassin delays and further delays killing the gunrunner who works next door to him. That’s about it. Good London location work, rare bursts of action, Woodward is enjoyably capable. Russell Hunter’s miserable thief makes for a downtrodden sidekick… a self-loathing mixture of E.B. from Deadwood and Grandad in Only Fools and Horses. You don’t usually see such petty misery at the cinema, it almost exclusively exists at Wetherspoons and William Hills. But my good bloody God, this is 90% chaff! For fans of dubbed David Prowse only.

3