The Sweeney (2012 film) The Sweeney (2012 film) The Sweeney is a 2012 British action drama film, inspired by the 1970s "The Sweeney", the British television police drama of the same name, but set in contemporary London. Directed and written by Nick Love, and co-written by John Hodge, it is based on the characters created by Ian Kennedy Martin. It stars Ray Winstone as Jack Regan, Plan B (credited as Ben Drew) as George Carter, and Damian Lewis as Frank Haskins, with Allen Leech and Hayley Atwell. The story focuses on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police. The
The Sweeney two-year gap between the third and fourth series while the team made two full-length feature films ("Sweeney!" and "Sweeney 2") to cash-in on the show's popularity. For the fourth series there were several changes, including a different title sequence and DCI Haskins being absent from a number of episodes. The final series has been criticised as the weakest. This decline in quality led John Thaw and Dennis Waterman to the realisation that the show was in danger of running out of steam, and to take the decision to end it while it was still at the peak of its popularity.