Callan (TV series)

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Callan
Genre	Drama Spy thriller Action-adventure
Created by	James Mitchell
Starring	Edward Woodward Russell Hunter Anthony Valentine Ronald Radd Michael Goodliffe Derek Bond William Squire Clifford Rose Patrick Mower Geoffrey Chater Lisa Langdon
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	44 (of which 10 missing) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	50 minutes per episode approx. (60 with adverts)
Production companies	ABC Weekend TV (S1-2) Thames Television (S3-4) ATV (Wet Job)
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	8 July 1967 (1967-07-08) – 24 May 1972 (1972-05-24)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Callan is a British action-drama spy television series created by James Mitchell, first airing between 1967 and 1972.

It starred Edward Woodward as David Callan, an agent of a state secret service dealing with internal security threats to the United Kingdom. Though portrayed as having responsibilities similar to those of the real-life MI5, Callan's fictional "Section" has carte blanche to use the most ruthless of methods. In the storylines, interrogation is by means of torture, while extrajudicial killings are so routine, they have a colour-coded filing system.

Despite being an assassin who stays in the socially isolating job because it is the only thing at which he is good, Callan is a sympathetic character by comparison to his often-sadistic upper-class colleagues and implacable superiors. The downbeat cover for the Section's headquarters was a scrap-metal business in a former school, belonging to "Charlie Hunter"—an alias inherited by each of Callan’s superiors.

Produced by ABC Weekend TV and Thames Television, the programme proved extremely popular; in addition to four series between 1967 and 1972, a feature-length film was released in 1974,^[1] and a TV film produced by Associated Television in 1981 was aired.