The Sweeney displaying "1979". In "Sweeney 2" (1978), George and Jack eventually find themselves going to the island of Malta in order to track down a group of particularly violent armed robbers who have been committing bank and payroll robberies all over London and kill anybody that gets in their way, even members of their own gang, Jack & George were assigned the case by their recently convicted chief inspector as his last order, as he is about to be charged with corruption. In "The Sweeney" (2012) the setting moved to the present day, with Regan being played by Ray Winstone, Carter
The Sweeney have a high body count, i.e. several deaths per episode. The series reflected the fact that it was made during a dark period for the real-life Flying Squad, which in the late 1970s had been publicly censured for being involved in bribery, corruption and excessively close links with the criminal fraternity. The actual commander of the Flying Squad, Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Drury, was convicted of five counts of corruption and imprisoned for eight years on 7 July 1977 (an incident that formed a plot element in the movie "Sweeney 2"). An internal investigation, called Operation Countryman, was then launched