The Sandbaggers: The Complete First Series

The Sandbaggers Files documentary starts, as the series does, with a pair of shoes walking down the street to the ubiquitous strains of The Sandbaggers music. Then it pans out and we see that the feet belong to Ray Lonnen and Bob Sherman is seen begging in the door of MacDonald's. They agree to exchange post Sandbaggers stories and so retire to Lonnen's hotel room.

What follows is an informal chat about how the series was cast and where it was shot. Apparently, the only foreign location was Madrid, and it seems that Yorkshire stood in for Cyprus and Leeds for most of the Soviet-bloc capitals.

They discuss fellow cast members and what they have done since the series. They also talk about the mysterious disappearance of the series creator, Ian Mackintosh. His plane, which apparently was being flown by a friend, went down over the Bering Sea, with Ian, the pilot and a girlfriend on board.

Ray and Bob deliberate on whether they really did lose their lives, since not a scrap of wreckage was found and the rescue services got there in record time, or whether they defected to Russia, or simply dropped out. If that was the case, why haven't they re-emerged since? Ray remembers that he met Ian's parents when they came backstage when he was performing in Scotland and they told him that the last postcard they received from their son had the message "Live Ian", rather than "Love Ian," which seemed strange from a highly articulate, fastidious man, who didn't make mistakes.

An enjoyable documentary that pokes fun at itself a little and sheds interesting light on the casting process, as well as the methods used to create a believable character.