SPY TRAP

Commander Paul Ryan is the chief interrogator of "the Department"

That is an otherwise unnamed part of the British intelligence community reporting to the Department of Defense and based on the ranks held by the various individuals, closely associated with the Royal Navy. It is headed by a well-heeled fellow named Carson who is very much a part of the old-boy, upper-crust hierarchy, smarmy almost to a fault but undoubtedly cold underneath. We do not see much of Carson in the day-to-day operations of the organization; usually when trouble escalates and special action need clearance.

It routinely falls to Ryan to handle the day-to-day activity which largely consists of questioning, well, everybody. If something seems amiss, it likely would be passed to this group to sort things out and it would be Ryan who would take the intel discovered by his field agents and then have a sit-down with the individuals under suspicion. Ryan is certain to let those he has to question know that he is a hard-nose, no-quarter-given sort of fellow and based on his actions, he speaks the truth.

The field operatives mentioned above are several very capable investigators. There appears to be just a pair of them at any one time. Initially that pair was Commander Anderson and Lieutenant Saunders. After a while, Anderson will be replaced (no reason given) by Major Sullivan (Royal Marines, perhaps).

Apparently the people at the Department were empowered to investigate only. Should the need for warrants and arrests come about, they had to call upon others with that authority (likely Special Branch). Luckily they have a couple with whom they have a good relationship and can summon as needed, which is fairly often because when Ryan starts asking questions, people tend to talk, eventually.

There is a whole lot more I do not know about the individual episodes in this series than that I do. I regret that because the little that I have found showed me I would have enjoyed them a lot. Alas my wonderful time spent in Scotland would come a couple years after this series came and went.

From the sound of it, the first season was a wee bit different than the following two. That initial season had slightly longer adventures told in shorter installments.

I got the feeling that the tone was more somber or at least the pace a tad slower. I could be wrong, of course.

The second and third series had the always enjoyable Tom Adams, best remembered from the Charles Vine movies of nearly a decade before.