COLIN WELLAND & DENNIS WATERMAN MAKE 'THE SWEENEY: FACES'

Dennis Waterman in THE SWEENEY: Faces YEAR: 1975 Rating: ****

Starting with a bombastic heist sweeping an entire London street, THE SWEENEY season two episode FACES is, like the pilot RINGER, another centering on a grungy and eclectic lot of sordid thieves that only seems to have a leader...

Here it's British actor/screenwriter Colin Welland who, despite looking like a chunky chipmunk and having played a passive vicar in STRAW DOGS, turns in one of the most formidable and in that, suspenseful performances when he screams, "OKAY SWEENEY!" at the top of his lungs, carrying a knife from his house to the adjoined junkyard headquarters, and giving Dennis Waterman's Carter good reason to run, and climb, quickly...

Colin Welland in THE SWEENEY: FACES with Barry Stanton

But Welland's intimidating Tober has to eventually cater to the bigger boss in British actor Barry Stanton, who'd later play one of the Flying Squad's drivers in SWEENEY 2, as a German terrorist forcing Tober deeper into the next big heist by threatening to kidnap his daughter, ultimately providing Welland — who'd later play a Bob Woodward type journalist in the first SWEENEY! film — a kind of gentle giant role carrying as much sympathy as intimidation... 

And leading to another action-packed blowout (this time an ambush) where even otherwise office-set Chief Haskins pulls a gun along with John Thaw's tough main character Inspector Jack Regan who, like the other cops here, are usurped by the grungy crooks that, also including a paranoid Keith Buckley and John Cording as Welland's thuggy sidekick, make for terrific episode-stealing heavies. 

Colin Welland in THE SWEENEY: FACES with John Cording

Colin Welland in THE SWEENEY: FACES

Keith Buckley and a kitten in THE SWEENEY: FACES

John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in THE SWEENEY: FACES

John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in THE SWEENEY: FACES with Tony Allen

Colin Welland in THE SWEENEY: FACES with John Cording

Uncredited beauty in THE SWEENEY: FACES

Dennis Waterman and Jeffrey Wickam in THE SWEENEY: FACES

Garfield Morgan in THE SWEENEY: FACES