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Not Brentford

Retro Copper Capers in Brentford

Count Otto Black (decd) :I recently noticed that those fine upstanding officers of the law Carter and Regan once got up to their usual tricks in Brentford. To be precise, in "The Sweeney" Series 3, Episode 8, "The Sweet Smell of Succession", the now-demolished Brentford Market, already derelict in 1975, provided a suitable venue for our heroes and their adversaries to screech around in those silver Jaguars everybody on that show used to drive until everything was satisfactorily resolved with a bit of gunplay and fisticuffs.

The relevant action occurs in the last few minutes, and the poignant decrepitude of the location is shown in loving detail, with the names of various defunct businesses visible in the background, as well as Brentford's distinctive skyline, which in those days still included the gasometer. Curiously, in the previous episode John Thaw makes a cryptic reference to "that business in Brentford", which must be a different case since this one hasn't happened yet, though sadly it's never mentioned again. However, I bet it involved a dodgy geezer driving a silver Jag far too fast on some waste ground until Dennis Waterman punched him in the face. I expect that's why they named the Arts Centre after him.

Anyway, you can watch the entire episode online easily enough, and if politically incorrect seventies cop shows aren't your cup of tea, skip forward to about six minutes before the end.

The following stills came with the email:
Stills from 'The Sweeney'
Stills from 'The Sweeney'
Stills from 'The Sweeney'

A couple of images from the above, the first showing the apprehension of a felon, with 'Brentford Ltd' signage above, and the second the interior of Brentford Market.

Nabbed!
Brentford Market interior

Links: Market interior, probably at opening in 1893, and a history of Brentford Market by Janet McNamara.

Published February 2021