The Sweeney

The Sweeney
The Sweeney opening titles (series 1–3).
Created by	Ian Kennedy Martin
Starring	John Thaw Dennis Waterman Garfield Morgan
Theme music composer	Harry South
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	53
Production
Executive producers	Lloyd Shirley George Taylor
Producer	Ted Childs
Production locations	West London South East England
Running time	50 minutes
Production company	Euston Films Ltd for Thames Television
Budget	£40,000 per episode
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	2 January 1975 (1975-01-02) – 28 December 1978 (1978-12-28)
Related
Regan (1974)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. It was produced by the Thames Television subsidiary Euston Films for broadcast on the ITV network in the UK between 2 January 1975 and 28 December 1978.

The programme's title comes from the Cockney rhyming slang term "Sweeney Todd", used to refer to the Flying Squad by London's criminal fraternity in the mid 20th century.

The popularity of the series in the UK led to two feature films, Sweeney! (1977), and Sweeney 2 (1978), both starring Thaw and Waterman, and a later film, The Sweeney (2012), starring Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben Drew as Carter.

The Oldie magazine celebrated the 50th anniversary of the series with a cover feature, "The Sweeney at 50" by Andrew Roberts, for its May 2024 issue.