Callan: came for the wargaming, stayed for the drama.

Being borm in 1978 there are quite a few classic shows that other wargamers reference that were before my time.

One of these shows has been Callan. Bob Cordery of Wargames Miscellany (a blog well worth checking out btw) wrote about the show in reference to its old school wargaming charm and suggested that I looked it up.

I watched the episode he suggested and really liked it but not for the wargaming reason he was so fond of. Growing up and cutting my wargaming teeth with GW it featured a style of gaming that has never been part of my past but the story and plot of the show had me hooked. Since then I have been acquiring the series on DVD and have become quite the fan.

Basically Callan (starring Edward Woodward in the eponymous role) is a bitter cynical antihero, a skilled assassin working for British intelligence with a high degree of loathing of the state and its officials as well as himself as killing is the only trade he has seemed any good at. Set comtempoarily in the height of the Cold War it is the complete antithesis of James Bond. Dirty deeds and questionable morals with none to truely trust beats implausible chases and naff one liners in my book everytime.

 

The show ran for four series after a successful pilot epiode from the late 60s to the early 70s. Sadly alot of the first and second series have been lost, given that this was before the widespread introuduction of home recording they have probably gone for good. After the series finished the pilot episode was refilmed as a full length feature which is  also good; sadly the legacy was soiled somewhat by a TV special in the early 80s. Vrey dissapointed in the way in which the 80’s monstrosity killed off Meres (Callan’s fellow agent and subject of a lot of his ire, tempered by a sense of grudging respect for his abilities) I found his brand of cheery public school psychopathy to my liking.

I think this episode is one of my favourites  as it includes all of the themes that I have mentioned above and is certainly worth your time.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

2016- plots and plans.

I had a look back at what I wanted to do in 2015 gaming wise and it was a bit of a failure. The first idea proved to be deeply unsatisfying for reasons I won’t elaborate on, the second fizzled out as soon as it started and the third was not even attempted.

Accordingly I’m loathe to make any commitments but 6mm gaming and SCW look like they’ll feature. Most of my energy gaming wise will be going to ensure that my first megagame (more on that later) goes well.

I’m hoping real life will be busier this year too so that is another reason not to want to try to plan too much.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

4th quarter and end of year report 2015.

In the fourth quarter I painted 44 20mm and 63 6mm figures, 8 1/72nd scale vehicles and 67 1/300 sized ones. I also read 30 books.

This makes the years totals to be:

289 20mm,  76 28mm, 16 54mm and 75 6mm figures painted.

58 1/72nd kits, 67 1/300th vehicles, and 29 1/600th aircraft painted

plus 112 books read.

Not too shabby all told- more variation than previous years too.

Next post will be a recap of the years and my plots and plans for 2016.

Cheers,

 

Pete.