| The Sweeney | |
|---|---|
 The Sweeney opening titles (series 1–3). | |
| Created by | Ian Kennedy Martin |
| Starring | John Thaw Dennis Waterman Garfield Morgan |
| Theme music composer | Harry South |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 53 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Lloyd Shirley George Taylor |
| Producer | Ted Childs |
| Production locations | West London South East England |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company | Euston Films Ltd for Thames Television |
| Budget | £40,000 per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 2 January 1975 – 28 December 1978 |
| Related | |
| Regan (1974) | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. It was produced by the Thames Television subsidiary Euston Films for broadcast on the ITV network in the UK between 2 January 1975 and 28 December 1978.
The programme's title comes from the Cockney rhyming slang term "Sweeney Todd", used to refer to the Flying Squad by London's criminal fraternity in the mid 20th century.
The popularity of the series in the UK led to two feature films, Sweeney! (1977), and Sweeney 2 (1978), both starring Thaw and Waterman, and a later film, The Sweeney (2012), starring Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben Drew as Carter.
The Oldie magazine celebrated the 50th anniversary of the series with a cover feature, "The Sweeney at 50" by Andrew Roberts, for its May 2024 issue.