The Protectors (TV Series) Talkdown (1973) User Reviews

Talkdown

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 3 April 2023]

Harry Rule finds him alone and in an aeroplane thousands of feet in the air. It is up to Paul Buchet to bring him home by instructing Harry to pilot the plane to touchdown.

Flashbacks unveil how Harry fell foul with a man called Colin Foster (Derren Nesbitt.) He has been playing games with Harry, how he would blackmail Harry for killing a man.

It is all a ruse to get Harry on a plane. Foster leaves by parachute, hoping that Harry will be pinned for his death.

Although Harry had gone to the police about Colin Foster, Inspector Hill had been very sceptical.

Interesting how little pull the Protectors have with the police.

It turns out that Foster wanted to take revenge on Harry over the death of his brother. Maybe he could had pulled a less elaborate stunt.

Although Nesbitt brings some unnerving tension, the story is a load of hokum.

One of the Better First Season Offerings

[secragt · 8/10 · 5 November 2006]

Change of pace from season one featuring incomparable creep character actor par excellence Darren Nesbitt in a neat battle of wits with Harry Rule. The usually limiting 25 minute format of this show is somehow a little less noticeable in this tight little backwards-told tale, which hooks you with its cliffhanger in the first minute then proceeds in reverse to retrace everyone's path to that moment. While the series began with Rule, Bouchet and the Contessa protecting others, as time passed, the producers seemed to shift more and more to placing one or more of the team in jeopardy and the others having to come to the rescue. This particular iteration is one of the best of that particular motif; Nesbitt is possibly the first foe to actually out-maneuver Harry Rule, a welcome departure. For a series which had little choice to go with style over substance because of time considerations, this one offers a little more steak than sizzle, though it still would have been nice to see this outing expanded to an hour.