ROY MARSDEN stars as Neil Burnside, director of The Sandbaggers - a small elite team inside the British Secret Service who take on anything from assassination to defections. Their work is often dangerous, sometimes "mundane; but always delicate and interwoven with the gritty realities of today's global politics; Burnside's struggles with his superiors are just as bloody as any his men face in the field. The New York Times recently called this"the best spy series in televison history".

First PRINCIPLES
In Westminster there stands a drab, building, peopled by ambitious men great power in total secrecy. Among its staff are Neil Burnside and Willie Caine, for whom the Secret Intelligence Service is not just a way of life, but life itself.

A PROPER FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT
A top Government official should be in Scotland, but is found in Vienna; a British journalist is executed in East Africa; and Burnside starts to play a double-game. But there are ethers"just as good at it.

IS YOUR JOURNEY REALLY NECESSARY?
"No operation infringing the sovereignty of ,another nation is to be mounted without the personal approval of the Prime Minister". It's one thing for Burnside to break that rule; quite another to be caught.

THE MOST SUITABLE PERSON
There has never been a woman in SIS's Special Operations Section, but with only one Sandbagger left to him, Burnside faces a crisis. The Training School can offer no-one... except the enigmatic Laura Dickens.

ALWAYS GLAD TO HELP
A Russian ship which may not be what it ,. seems, an Arab prince who plots to overthrow his father, a succession of bitter clashes with Peele, and a Sandbagger who wants to leave the Section; life for Burnside is over-full.

A FEASIBLE SOLUTION
"It's hot what they do, but what they may have to do, come the crunch. Well, the crunch has come." Burnside has to face facts in London, as Caine faces danger in Cyprus.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
In the spy game, there has always been a clash of professional and personal priorities. But with Burnside in love, and Laura in danger, this clash could become a head-on collision.

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