A fast-paced, complicated episode that really needs watching a few times to try to make sense of what is happening! The ep is also high on well-choreographed action sequences. In fact the chase scenes involving the RS2000 are fantastic! Much of the dialogue is clipped and snappy, too. However the ep as broadast has a number of problems...

The plot concerns a crime/terror group with certain political aims that is currently enjoying a period of peaceful negotations between its head, Mr Albie, and the authorities. However two of its members, Duffy (Michael Kitchen) and Glover (James Cosmo), are vehemently opposed to the talks and want to get the Organisation "active" again. They decide to frame Albie for raids on a gun shop and a casino and, ultimately, a bomb planted outside some Government buildings. The two villains carry out these acts themselves but precede each with an anonymous tipoff to CI5 with a codeword usually used by the Organisation. As anticipated, Cowley's mob and the Organisation are soon at each other's throats, the latter protesting its innocence, though Albie correctly suspects Duffy and Glover have set him up. Duffy, however, has an additional agenda: he also wants to hit back at Doyle in revenge for the shooting of his brother a few years previously...

All this sounds rather good but there are too many little elements that just don't figure or connect...

In fact I'm going to have to use spoilers here to try to explain the plot, so if you'd rather not know what happens, look away!

Although the sequence where Bodie is almost "knee-capped" is great to watch, it doesn't make sense in the context of the story: Albie says he wants revenge for the detention of one of his henchmen but doesn't want to start a "war" with CI5. Huh?

Sylvie's motives and involvement with proceedings are rather confused. Although the audience knows that Duffy feeds her the information about The Organisation being active and the planned casino robbery as a further ploy to frame the group, surely both she and, especially, Morgan should have been surprised that she, a humble barmaid after all, would be freely given such information!

Later we see a photo of Duffy and Morgan talking together but it's not explained how or why they would associate with each other. And when Morgan later tells Doyle he has some information somebody gave him, what exactly is this and from whom did he get it? And who is he referring to when he says he wants to "see somebody who deserves to be pushed aside get what's coming."?

My take on this is that Duffy discovered from Sylvie that Morgan was Doyle's contact. So he approached Morgan to feed him more "dirt" about Albie in the full knowledge that he would run to Doyle with it, thus bringing Doyle out into the open. But the ambush goes wrong and Morgan gets hit instead...

So why doesn't Doyle offer his condolences to Morgan's ex-wife, Alice, when he meets her a little later? He acts as though nothing has happened.

Even if you have an unedited version of the story, you could be forgiven for thinking that some vital bits had been lost! In fact I do wonder if Michael Feeney Callan's script was going to overrun the fifty minutes and ended up being badly (hurriedly) trimmed at the script editing stage. There's also poor continuity when Doyle first meets Sylvie at Morgan's flat: Doyle asks Bodie to check her out at the club but later on, when the lads are examining the surveillance photos of Morgan, D has to tell B who she is!?!

Reading the novelisation doesn't really help, either.

The ending is rather unbelievable. A bomb is planted somewhere in a large car park, yet Bodie and Doyle miraculously discover it in a matter of seconds!?!

In all, it's a shame Mark 1 didn't iron out these problems as there are the makings of a great little story here. This could have been one of the best episodes of the series. I agree with Sharon's suggestion below: this should have been a two-parter.

Duffy, on the condemned apartment block where he is hiding out: "Apologies for the regal splendour - the butler's on holiday!"

Further, for non-UKers the "Organization" means nothing. (See the BTW section below -Dave) After a few viewings I figured out it was "organized" crime, but, hey. A little info would have saved a lot of "huh?"

Morgan's character, his ex-wife, Sylvie and Doyle's connection with the first two are all murkily defined. When I show it to newbies I just tell them to watch The Lads and forget the plot.

That said:

It's nice to see Bodie snarling at Cowley (again, there must have been something in the past to make Bodie so touchy here). And Cowley snarls right back to the point of humiliating Bodie in front of others, notably Doyle, who seems quite appalled at the put-down and does his best (the wink) to make Bodie feel better as soon as he can. Bodie is clearly hurt and pouting. Nice, matey stuff there.

Bodie at work causing mayhem with the sunglasses and the attitude is fun to watch. Doyle plays a good counterpart to him in this episode. And the finale with the bomb and the two of them less than a second from death, then giggling in relief, is marvelous.

We get to see a bit more Bodie-skin (a rare and choice treat) when Doyle wakes him up in a girlfriend's flat. Since her keys were still in the door, according to Ray, Bodie must have been very preoccupied the evening before to have been so careless. <G> The dialogue here indicates how close the two men are in matters outside the job, IMO.

Fun to watch: the entire scene where Bodie is nearly shot in the knee. They run and scramble so nicely. Bodie in the betting shop, being brutal. The girlfriend's bedroom scene: are there handcuffs on the bedside table? The bomb defusing. Bodie pouting and Doyle winking. Both Lads walking and talking right after leaving a pub. Doyle from the waist down right after Sylvie shoots Duffy – another grand slo-mo moment.

Good viewing, all in all. But ignore the attempt at a complex plot. It doesn't work.

The guns were dumped in the small lake in Black Park, Iver - close to Pinewood Studios. (Thanks to Tony Mackay.)

Bryn Dyer came up wih the following suggestions: The playground where Doyle talks to Alice is at Alexandra Palace. The casino shoot-out happened behind the Green Man pub on Muswell Hill Broadway - the club itself used to be called Manhatten Lights. The scenes where Doyle speaks to Sylvie at the bus stop and is seen flying along the road took place at Crouch Hill near the junction of Ashley Road.

A few bloopers related to clothing here: firstly Doyle's sunglasses keep disappearing when he and Bodie are ambushed. The same happens to Bodie when he raids the betting shop. And when Doyle is chasing Glover after the casino robbery, his jacket changes! Actually, it's clear from the changes in the weather that the sequence was filmed over two different days.

As mentioned above, when the lads are going through the surveillance photos, Bodie isn't sure who Syvlvie is, despite the fact he had been checking her out in the club a little while earlier!

In the final scene, keep an eye on the Capri's headlights. (Thanks to "Colin").

In the episode's original script, when the lads try to make the car park bomb safe, they discover that Glover has forgotten to wire up the detonator, rendering the bomb useless. Perhaps Glover simply didn't have the stomach to go through with the bombing? We'll never know.

Michael Kitchen was a long-time boyfriend of Joanna Lumley in the 1970s. Previously seen in an episode of Brian Clemens' Thriller series and a string of guest spots in many TV shows during the 1980s. But didn't really come to prominence until playing Prince Charles in the controversial mini-series To Play the King in 1994. More recently has appeared in a couple of Pierce Brosnan Bond films and can presently be seen alongside Martin Shaw in Always and Everyone.

Barbara Kellerman (Sylvie) played a lead in the Edward Woodward series "1990" and starred as the White Witch in the BBC's Chronicles of Narnia. Also landed a tragic role in my fave horror flick The Monster Club (yes, I just had to give it another mention!)

Australian fans may remember Ed Devereaux (Mr Albie) for the 1960s childrens' series about a cuddly kangaroo, Skippy. He also appeared in The New Avengers episode 'The Midas Touch'. In fact he shuttled between the UK and Oz quite a bit, appearing in some of the early Carry Ons, while landing hard-men roles in The Sweeney and the neat Oz thriller Money Movers. Turned to comedy in Whoops, Apocalypse! and a guest role in Absolutely Fabulous. Passed away in December 2003.

James Cosmo (Glover) has been a very busy character actor throughout the last three decades, notable roles including episodes of The Sweeney, Minder, Spender. Was a regular in the BBC drama series Warship.

Billy Murray (Morgan) went on to great success as a dodgy CID sergeant in The Bill. Now a regular in EastEnders.