October 12, 2025 • 21 mins
Rewind Episode -- British screenwriter Ian Mackintosh’s plane went missing on July 7, 1979, nineteen days before his thirty-ninth birthday, over the Gulf of Alaska. What happened remains a mystery. Join us as we tell the story of Lieutenant Commander Hamish Ian Mackintosh, a British Royal Navy officer, a writer of thriller novels, and a screenwriter for British television.
Ian’s series, THE SANDBAGGERS, was groundbreaking. The New York Times said, "the best spy series in television history." Ian MacKintosh was among the first writers to present espionage realistically and as a sordid series of political struggles, double-crosses, and personality clashes.
If you would like to read more about Ian Mackintosh I highly recommend The Life and Mysterious Death of Ian Mackintosh by Robert G. Folsom
The PAGE International Screenwriting Awards sponsors the WRITERS HANGOUT.
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller
Email: thewritershangoutpodcast@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello, my name is Sandy Adamis,the social media director for
the page, internationalScreenwriting Awards, and your
host for the Writer's Hangout.
A podcast that celebrates themany stages of writing, from
inspiration to the first draft,revising, getting a project made
and everything in between.
(00:21):
We'll talk to the best and thebrightest in the entertainment
industry and create a spacewhere you can hang out, learn
from the pros, and have fun.
Hi, I'm Sandy Adamis.
And I'm Terry Sampson.
Today Terry and I are going totell you about the life and
mysterious death of IanMacintosh.
(00:44):
The sources for this story arean article by Jane Ennis of the
London's TV Times.
A book that I leaned very, veryheavy on is called the.
Life and Mysterious death of IanMacintosh by Robert g Folsom.
And another article called AnUnfortunate Accident, or A
(01:08):
Daring Escape by RobinBearfield.
Born to Annie and JamesMacintosh.
Ian Macintosh grew up in innervests in the Scottish Highlands.
His mom was the governess andhis father was a naval officer.
He had a younger brother namedLawry.
I love that name.
Lawry.
(01:29):
Very pretty.
Yes.
It has been reported by theMacintosh family that while
Ian's father was serving inWorld War ii, his ship was
attacked by a German destroyerwhile on an arctic convoy run to
Russia.
A senior officer ordered JamesMacintosh to seal the fire doors
to his engine room to preventfire spreading to the rest of
(01:53):
the ship, rather than leave hismen trapped inside.
Ian's dad knocked the officerunconscious and got his men out.
Wow.
Yeah.
Okay.
Ian was educated at the.
Inverness Royal Academy.
He was a boy scout and he playedsports, including cricket,
rugby, and soccer.
(02:14):
At 16, Ian taught Sunday Schooluntil he left for the military
college, Britannia Royal NavyCollege, the British equivalent
of the United States NavalAcademy in 1958 to train as a
Royal Navy officer.
Ian graduated on April 26th,1961 and the very next day he
(02:41):
was assigned to the Light Feetaircraft carrier, HMS Center
based at Aberdeen in Scotland.
While in the Royal Navy, officerIan's exact duties are.
Still unclear, but it has beensurmised that Ian was a spy, an
(03:02):
intelligent aist, and may havecarried out mix of duties.
Lori McIntosh said about hisbrother, quote.
Ian frequently disappeared forlong periods, was totally
uncontactable, and then justreappeared with no explanation.
Unquote, this wasn't the normalpattern for naval officers
(03:27):
during this period of fiveyears.
Ian turned out five novels,crime novels or procedurals
crime procedurals.
That's, he wrote a lot on aweekend.
In 1961, Ian went to dinner atthe home of his superior officer
who introduced Ian to hisdaughter Sharon.
(03:48):
Ian was 20 and she was 12, thankGod.
Eight years later on September6th, 1969, Ian and Sharon
married.
It worried me the first time Iheard that, they had two
daughters, Zoe and Zema Uh, Ianand Sharon eventually divorced,
and I'll get into why theydivorced a little bit later on.
(04:11):
Ian made the transition frombooks to television Look Easy.
In 1972, he suggested the ideaof a naval drama to Admiral
Lewin, who Ian once was an A toAdmiral Lewin, served in the
Second World War, commanded adestroyer.
(04:32):
The Royal Yacht, two frigatesand an aircraft carrier.
This guy was just, he was theboss.
He was the man.
The royal yacht.
The royal yacht, yes.
The Queen's yacht.
I'm sorry, would that be theQueen's yacht?
Yes.
Yes.
Nice.
So I guess during the war, hecom commanded the destroyer and
then maybe after the war, wentto the yacht, then chew frigates
(04:56):
and an aircraft carrier.
Man, he was First Sea Lord.
Chief of the Naval staff in thelate 1970s, this man had power.
Yeah.
Admiral Lewin liked the idea andthe BBC was brought in to
produce the series that came tobe known as Warship.
(05:17):
Admiral Lewin ordered the seacommand to provide a leaner
class frigate and crew for theproduction.
At the time, the Linder classwas the most worthy warships.
The Royal Navy possessed.
Ian wrote most of the episodesall the while Ian was still
carrying out naval duties.
(05:39):
War was on the air from 1973 to1974, and it became a hit
drawing in 12 million people.
He's still connected to theNavy.
Mm-hmm.
While writing for tv.
Yeah.
Huh?
Yeah, with worship, the writingbug had captured Ian, but it
would eventually break up hismarriage.
(06:02):
Lori Ian's brother explainedquote, when Ian got involved in
worship, he still had navalduties along with the extra
demands of writing andsupervising the production,
which meant he worked very longhours.
It became just impractical forhim to travel back and forth to
their home in Hemp Shire.
(06:23):
About a two hour journey eachway.
He wanted Sharon to move up toLondon, but she refused, unquote
because Hampshire is a muchbetter place to bring up
children than Central London.
I'm still stunned at the ideathat a guy who was dabbling, if
you will, in makeup stuff, I'mmaking things up every day,
(06:47):
right, and turning over.
To another thing that mighthappen that day that involved
actual Navy stuff.
Yeah.
Isn't that wild?
Yeah.
I can't imagine.
He's in his mid thirties, Ibelieve, at this time.
I mean, he is an impressivehuman being.
Yes.
(07:07):
Oh.
Also, I, you know, friends haveepisodes due.
You can always tell,'cause youcall them up and it's like,
can't talk.
I can't talk.
And he is like.
Okay.
Got it.
I got it.
You got something to do.
He must, he must have been likethat all the time.
He was like that all the time.
In 1976, Ian retired from theRoyal Navy and was immediately
(07:28):
hired by the YorkshireTelevision company.
Ian's first venture was.
Creating Wild Alliance about acrime writer and his wife who
self who'd done it kind of like,um, heart to heart, I would
think.
Oh, yeah.
Heart to, yeah.
Next up was Thundercloud, acomedy adventure depicting the
(07:50):
antics at a Royal Navy CoastalStation in World War ii.
Wow.
See, up to this point I was downwith this guy being able to sort
of take these two huge seriousideas, actual life as a Navy
commander.
Mm-hmm.
And then writing about that.
You throw funny in there.
(08:11):
Yeah.
Now.
I'm really impressed.
In early spring, 1977, a yearinto his new career as a
producer writer, Ian came upwith the idea of a series about
a tiny cadre of secret agents.
He called the Sandbaggers andwrote up an 11 page outline, the
(08:34):
protagonist.
Neil Burnside showed Ian'sdissatisfaction with, uh,
political interference intointelligent operations.
It showed the good guys don'talways win, and when they do
win, it's not always because oftheir own actions.
This was all new, I guess inthose days.
(08:57):
Also, Burnside goes to greatlengths to protect his
sandbaggers, but he also doesn'thesitate to risk their lives
when the mission is important.
The information is good, andthey can cover their tracks.
Why the group was called theSandbaggers was never explained,
but it may have to do withputting up sandbags as a defense
(09:21):
against an incoming flood.
To prevent erosion or somethinglike that.
Right, right.
Yeah, that makes sense to me.
I also looked, uh, this up andit said that if you went to the
original.
Idea.
If you went to an olddictionary, for instance, the
original first pass on thiswould've been, it's a person who
(09:41):
uses a sandbag as a weapon.
Now I know that we've gotten allfancy with our guns and, uh,
exploding stuff.
Yeah, man.
A guy comes walking at you witha big, heavy sandbag.
It looks like you have moretime.
To think out the situation,maybe call the police, feed the
police dog, whatever you wannado.
You still got lots of time.
'cause he is bringing a big bagto hit you with, right?
(10:04):
Yeah.
That would hurt because in themovies I've seen them drop from
the theater.
From the actor.
Right, exactly.
That's always to that.
Maybe that's how it was done.
Yeah.
Maybe it was a big surprise.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I send Guy send back though hedidn't know it hit him.
Oh, we figured it out.
We figured it out.
(10:25):
So in golf, there are guys thathustle something.
They, they act like they can'tplay well and then when the
betting happens, they play greatand win money.
It's a trick, I guess thoughthey did trick people and, oh
yes.
I think spy work is all abouttrickery.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Yes.
The first episode of theSandbaggers aired September
(10:49):
18th, 1979.
It was a hit the New York Timescalled Sandbaggers, the best spy
series in television history andthe first TV series to.
Espionage, realistically, asword series of political
struggles, double crosses andpersonality clashes.
(11:11):
I watched the first episode I, Iwatched a couple mm-hmm.
Of Sandbaggers.
You can get it on Amazon Prime,I believe.
Uh, but I did it through BritBox.
I loved it.
Now.
It's very different kind ofviewing from what we're used to
watching.
And you watch some episodes?
Yeah, I watched an episode.
Yeah.
A lot of meetings.
(11:33):
A lot of meetings.
It's um, a lot of opening doorsand they just start talking.
Men, men, men, men are doing allthe talking.
The war room was just a big roomwith fax machines and, uh, also
I loved, they had to drop two ofthe sandbaggers into Russia and
(11:54):
they literally planned the wholething, like five guys over a map
with a wooden ruler.
It was amazing.
We're gonna send a squad in.
I want you to measure this verycarefully with that ruler
because every millimeter can youimagine is 10,000 miles.
(12:15):
Yes.
Yeah.
Somebody's going to Finland.
I don't care who they think,right where the Russians are.
But if you don't measurecorrectly, you are in Finland.
In Finland.
Yeah.
I searched the internet and gotsome free video, and, and the
episode was only 38 minutes.
We've now just.
Discussed this when you showedup today and I, and you looked
at me like, no, they're not.
38 minutes over an hour.
Yeah.
So yeah, so these, this one wasedited ho horribly, which I'm
(12:38):
happy to hear because I wouldbarely follow it.
A lot of jargon.
Lot of sky jargon.
So much chitchat too.
Mm-hmm.
By the way, un unbelievable.
Aaron Sarkin.
Without the walks, it's justthey're sitting across from each
other talking.
It was back.
Before cell phones and, and pushbutton numbers.
So rather do the dial thing.
Anybody out there who hasn't puttheir finger in it went like
(13:01):
that and let your finger rideback.
That's a good part of it.
It's good for the ride back.
So this guy was dialing andthere's a, and he finally stops.
He looks at his watch and heputs the phone down and leaves.
That's the rest of us.
Now.
I'm not waiting to dial I canuber over to this place faster
(13:24):
than I can dialing this.
Yes.
The uh, lead guy Neil Burnsidehad two phones on his desk.
Did you notice the red phone?
Yes.
And the regular phone.
Yeah.
And I know Brits are coolpeople.
They don't go off the handlequite as quickly as the rest of
us.
No, there was not yelling atall.
But still, I think when the redphone rang.
(13:46):
Everybody except Brits would go,crap, this can't be good.
This can't be good.
It's never good.
Exactly.
The Bri phone is never good.
The most famous episode, whichwas called The Special
Relationship, was a watershed inthe history of spy fiction.
The character Laura Dickens, theonly female sandbagger and
(14:09):
burden side's love interest iscaptured and swapped.
For an East German spy duringthe crossover on that real
bridge of spies in Germany,that's a, mm-hmm.
Laura is unceremoniously killedby an unseen sniper.
This had never happened intelevision before, and the
(14:32):
outcry for them killing off.
Laura was huge.
Now, this episode was supposedto be the last episode of the
Sandbaggers and Ian decided tojust go out with a bang because
special relationship gardened somuch attention.
The sandbaggers was given aseason.
(14:53):
Two with one less actress, withone less.
Yeah.
The budget went down.
Yeah.
But everything Ian touches isgold.
Yeah.
Midway through season two, Iangot.
The word that the series wasgonna go for three seasons.
Bravo, Ian, just good for you.
By 1979, Ian had become theexecutive producer of the show
(15:18):
and as a gift of appreciation tocast and crew, they were given
18 days to shoot an episode inSunny Malta.
Ian, who loved to travel alongwith his girlfriend of two
years, is Susan.
Insole decided to take avacation while production was
shooting in Malta, and upon hisreturn, Ian had three scripts
(15:42):
due, but he figured piece ofcake, I can handle it.
And it's Ian.
I believe it.
Good for Ian?
Yes.
On July 7th, 1979, just a fewweeks shy of Ian's 39th
birthday, he, Susan and Ian'sgood friend, Graham Barber, an
experienced British Airwayspilot, rented a single engine
(16:06):
rally, 2, 3, 5 airplane inAnchorage.
Ah, the 2, 3, 5.
After a test flight, the trioflew towards Kodiak.
The weather that evening wasclear, but it was very windy in
Kodiak at 5:45 PM while flyingnortheast of the Kodiak Island.
(16:28):
Barbara sent out a distresssignal saying he was losing oil
pressure.
The air traffic controller atthe Kodiak Airport relayed the
call to the US Coast Guard andsearches were in the air within
10 minutes.
And over the last knowncoordinates of Ian's plane in 30
(16:49):
minutes, but they saw no sign ofthe aircraft.
The search continued for threedays, but neither the plane nor
the passengers.
Wherever found.
No sign of those three scriptseither.
We're gonna cut that.
No, we're keeping it.
(17:11):
Remember when you write to theWriter Hangout
podcast@gmail.com.
It's T-E-R-R-Y.
That was Terry.
Okay.
Now, I mean, really.
So sad.
Yeah.
But of course, because Ian waswho he is and his previous
lifestyle controversyimmediately began to swirl
(17:33):
around.
And there were two majortheories, well, three without a
trace.
Ian set up the plane crash inorder to defect to Russia.
I could not find it any of myresearch reasons why Ian would
defect, other than, this is abrilliant man.
He could have been a doubleagent, but the fact that Susan
(17:57):
and Graham were also involvedkind of negates that.
Yeah, it's.
That's pretty con uh, uh,convoluted.
Yeah, it's pretty unlikely thosethree people would've also been
Russian spies, right?
Graham maybe.
But Susan, I don't think so.
Who knows?
The spy who came in from thecold, even though he was
(18:18):
retired, Ian was on a missionfor the British government.
This is speculated because Ianwas required to report to the
foreign office every time heleft the country.
Even though it had been fouryears since he retired.
Ian also had high-end electronicequipment in his apartment in
(18:38):
London.
That's what Lawy has.
Brother said, and it was notunusual for someone like Ian,
who is officially retired, butstill asked to do something
while traveling.
You know, nothing big.
Maybe take photographs or justreport what they saw.
I don't even have a movie namefor it.
It because it's just so simple.
Maybe the natural, the cap forthe oil was left off.
(19:02):
And when they got to where theywere outside the Kodiak Islands,
the plane stalled.
Even though Graham was anamazing pilot and he probably
coasted as long as he could, itwent into the water.
If the plane flipped the chancesand I guess it had fixed landing
(19:23):
gear and a fixed landing gearplane when it hits the water,
will flip.
And the three of them.
Getting out of one door, thedoor on the right the three of
them getting out, definitely aperson in the back was not gonna
get out.
Right.
And the freezing temperaturesand.
It is very likely that a planecould, sink that fast at half
(19:46):
hour.
Sure.
And not leave an oil slickbecause No oil.
No oil.
And were we in a position toknow where it went when it went
down?
Was there, it was if is gave thecoordinates.
There was some back and forthbetween Graham and the Kodiak
airport.
Also, um, I should havementioned earlier that part of
(20:11):
the world is filled with.
Russian spy submarines.
Wow.
And Russian trawlers that areactually, spy trawlers that,
they look like fishermen, butthey're all crowded around
sophisticated, listeningdevices.
So that supports two theoriesthat they picked him up and he's
(20:32):
still living in, Russia.
He's still living in Russiasomewhere or, yeah.
Uh.
They picked him up and knew hewas a pain in the ass and, And
said no.
not even 40, all those books,all those series groundbreaking
series, I wish we could stillbe, uh, watching his movies
Yeah.
And TV shows.
(20:52):
I think we could give him acouple extra things to do.
I don't think it would slow himdown.
That's a wrap for the Writer'sHangout.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the show, pleasesubscribe and thrive till we get
to hang out again.
Keep writing.
The world needs your Stories.
Hello, my name is Sandy Adamis,the social media director for
the page, internationalScreenwriting Awards, and your
host for the Writer's Hangout.
A podcast that celebrates themany stages of writing, from
inspiration to the first draft,revising, getting a project made
and everything in between.
(00:21):
We'll talk to the best and thebrightest in the entertainment
industry and create a spacewhere you can hang out, learn
from the pros, and have fun.
Hi, I'm Sandy Adamis.
And I'm Terry Sampson.
Today Terry and I are going totell you about the life and
mysterious death of IanMacintosh.
(00:44):
The sources for this story arean article by Jane Ennis of the
London's TV Times.
A book that I leaned very, veryheavy on is called the.
Life and Mysterious death of IanMacintosh by Robert g Folsom.
And another article called AnUnfortunate Accident, or A
(01:08):
Daring Escape by RobinBearfield.
Born to Annie and JamesMacintosh.
Ian Macintosh grew up in innervests in the Scottish Highlands.
His mom was the governess andhis father was a naval officer.
He had a younger brother namedLawry.
I love that name.
Lawry.
(01:29):
Very pretty.
Yes.
It has been reported by theMacintosh family that while
Ian's father was serving inWorld War ii, his ship was
attacked by a German destroyerwhile on an arctic convoy run to
Russia.
A senior officer ordered JamesMacintosh to seal the fire doors
to his engine room to preventfire spreading to the rest of
(01:53):
the ship, rather than leave hismen trapped inside.
Ian's dad knocked the officerunconscious and got his men out.
Wow.
Yeah.
Okay.
Ian was educated at the.
Inverness Royal Academy.
He was a boy scout and he playedsports, including cricket,
rugby, and soccer.
(02:14):
At 16, Ian taught Sunday Schooluntil he left for the military
college, Britannia Royal NavyCollege, the British equivalent
of the United States NavalAcademy in 1958 to train as a
Royal Navy officer.
Ian graduated on April 26th,1961 and the very next day he
(02:41):
was assigned to the Light Feetaircraft carrier, HMS Center
based at Aberdeen in Scotland.
While in the Royal Navy, officerIan's exact duties are.
Still unclear, but it has beensurmised that Ian was a spy, an
(03:02):
intelligent aist, and may havecarried out mix of duties.
Lori McIntosh said about hisbrother, quote.
Ian frequently disappeared forlong periods, was totally
uncontactable, and then justreappeared with no explanation.
Unquote, this wasn't the normalpattern for naval officers
(03:27):
during this period of fiveyears.
Ian turned out five novels,crime novels or procedurals
crime procedurals.
That's, he wrote a lot on aweekend.
In 1961, Ian went to dinner atthe home of his superior officer
who introduced Ian to hisdaughter Sharon.
(03:48):
Ian was 20 and she was 12, thankGod.
Eight years later on September6th, 1969, Ian and Sharon
married.
It worried me the first time Iheard that, they had two
daughters, Zoe and Zema Uh, Ianand Sharon eventually divorced,
and I'll get into why theydivorced a little bit later on.
(04:11):
Ian made the transition frombooks to television Look Easy.
In 1972, he suggested the ideaof a naval drama to Admiral
Lewin, who Ian once was an A toAdmiral Lewin, served in the
Second World War, commanded adestroyer.
(04:32):
The Royal Yacht, two frigatesand an aircraft carrier.
This guy was just, he was theboss.
He was the man.
The royal yacht.
The royal yacht, yes.
The Queen's yacht.
I'm sorry, would that be theQueen's yacht?
Yes.
Yes.
Nice.
So I guess during the war, hecom commanded the destroyer and
then maybe after the war, wentto the yacht, then chew frigates
(04:56):
and an aircraft carrier.
Man, he was First Sea Lord.
Chief of the Naval staff in thelate 1970s, this man had power.
Yeah.
Admiral Lewin liked the idea andthe BBC was brought in to
produce the series that came tobe known as Warship.
(05:17):
Admiral Lewin ordered the seacommand to provide a leaner
class frigate and crew for theproduction.
At the time, the Linder classwas the most worthy warships.
The Royal Navy possessed.
Ian wrote most of the episodesall the while Ian was still
carrying out naval duties.
(05:39):
War was on the air from 1973 to1974, and it became a hit
drawing in 12 million people.
He's still connected to theNavy.
Mm-hmm.
While writing for tv.
Yeah.
Huh?
Yeah, with worship, the writingbug had captured Ian, but it
would eventually break up hismarriage.
(06:02):
Lori Ian's brother explainedquote, when Ian got involved in
worship, he still had navalduties along with the extra
demands of writing andsupervising the production,
which meant he worked very longhours.
It became just impractical forhim to travel back and forth to
their home in Hemp Shire.
(06:23):
About a two hour journey eachway.
He wanted Sharon to move up toLondon, but she refused, unquote
because Hampshire is a muchbetter place to bring up
children than Central London.
I'm still stunned at the ideathat a guy who was dabbling, if
you will, in makeup stuff, I'mmaking things up every day,
(06:47):
right, and turning over.
To another thing that mighthappen that day that involved
actual Navy stuff.
Yeah.
Isn't that wild?
Yeah.
I can't imagine.
He's in his mid thirties, Ibelieve, at this time.
I mean, he is an impressivehuman being.
Yes.
(07:07):
Oh.
Also, I, you know, friends haveepisodes due.
You can always tell,'cause youcall them up and it's like,
can't talk.
I can't talk.
And he is like.
Okay.
Got it.
I got it.
You got something to do.
He must, he must have been likethat all the time.
He was like that all the time.
In 1976, Ian retired from theRoyal Navy and was immediately
(07:28):
hired by the YorkshireTelevision company.
Ian's first venture was.
Creating Wild Alliance about acrime writer and his wife who
self who'd done it kind of like,um, heart to heart, I would
think.
Oh, yeah.
Heart to, yeah.
Next up was Thundercloud, acomedy adventure depicting the
(07:50):
antics at a Royal Navy CoastalStation in World War ii.
Wow.
See, up to this point I was downwith this guy being able to sort
of take these two huge seriousideas, actual life as a Navy
commander.
Mm-hmm.
And then writing about that.
You throw funny in there.
(08:11):
Yeah.
Now.
I'm really impressed.
In early spring, 1977, a yearinto his new career as a
producer writer, Ian came upwith the idea of a series about
a tiny cadre of secret agents.
He called the Sandbaggers andwrote up an 11 page outline, the
(08:34):
protagonist.
Neil Burnside showed Ian'sdissatisfaction with, uh,
political interference intointelligent operations.
It showed the good guys don'talways win, and when they do
win, it's not always because oftheir own actions.
This was all new, I guess inthose days.
(08:57):
Also, Burnside goes to greatlengths to protect his
sandbaggers, but he also doesn'thesitate to risk their lives
when the mission is important.
The information is good, andthey can cover their tracks.
Why the group was called theSandbaggers was never explained,
but it may have to do withputting up sandbags as a defense
(09:21):
against an incoming flood.
To prevent erosion or somethinglike that.
Right, right.
Yeah, that makes sense to me.
I also looked, uh, this up andit said that if you went to the
original.
Idea.
If you went to an olddictionary, for instance, the
original first pass on thiswould've been, it's a person who
(09:41):
uses a sandbag as a weapon.
Now I know that we've gotten allfancy with our guns and, uh,
exploding stuff.
Yeah, man.
A guy comes walking at you witha big, heavy sandbag.
It looks like you have moretime.
To think out the situation,maybe call the police, feed the
police dog, whatever you wannado.
You still got lots of time.
'cause he is bringing a big bagto hit you with, right?
(10:04):
Yeah.
That would hurt because in themovies I've seen them drop from
the theater.
From the actor.
Right, exactly.
That's always to that.
Maybe that's how it was done.
Yeah.
Maybe it was a big surprise.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I send Guy send back though hedidn't know it hit him.
Oh, we figured it out.
We figured it out.
(10:25):
So in golf, there are guys thathustle something.
They, they act like they can'tplay well and then when the
betting happens, they play greatand win money.
It's a trick, I guess thoughthey did trick people and, oh
yes.
I think spy work is all abouttrickery.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Yes.
The first episode of theSandbaggers aired September
(10:49):
18th, 1979.
It was a hit the New York Timescalled Sandbaggers, the best spy
series in television history andthe first TV series to.
Espionage, realistically, asword series of political
struggles, double crosses andpersonality clashes.
(11:11):
I watched the first episode I, Iwatched a couple mm-hmm.
Of Sandbaggers.
You can get it on Amazon Prime,I believe.
Uh, but I did it through BritBox.
I loved it.
Now.
It's very different kind ofviewing from what we're used to
watching.
And you watch some episodes?
Yeah, I watched an episode.
Yeah.
A lot of meetings.
(11:33):
A lot of meetings.
It's um, a lot of opening doorsand they just start talking.
Men, men, men, men are doing allthe talking.
The war room was just a big roomwith fax machines and, uh, also
I loved, they had to drop two ofthe sandbaggers into Russia and
(11:54):
they literally planned the wholething, like five guys over a map
with a wooden ruler.
It was amazing.
We're gonna send a squad in.
I want you to measure this verycarefully with that ruler
because every millimeter can youimagine is 10,000 miles.
(12:15):
Yes.
Yeah.
Somebody's going to Finland.
I don't care who they think,right where the Russians are.
But if you don't measurecorrectly, you are in Finland.
In Finland.
Yeah.
I searched the internet and gotsome free video, and, and the
episode was only 38 minutes.
We've now just.
Discussed this when you showedup today and I, and you looked
at me like, no, they're not.
38 minutes over an hour.
Yeah.
So yeah, so these, this one wasedited ho horribly, which I'm
(12:38):
happy to hear because I wouldbarely follow it.
A lot of jargon.
Lot of sky jargon.
So much chitchat too.
Mm-hmm.
By the way, un unbelievable.
Aaron Sarkin.
Without the walks, it's justthey're sitting across from each
other talking.
It was back.
Before cell phones and, and pushbutton numbers.
So rather do the dial thing.
Anybody out there who hasn't puttheir finger in it went like
(13:01):
that and let your finger rideback.
That's a good part of it.
It's good for the ride back.
So this guy was dialing andthere's a, and he finally stops.
He looks at his watch and heputs the phone down and leaves.
That's the rest of us.
Now.
I'm not waiting to dial I canuber over to this place faster
(13:24):
than I can dialing this.
Yes.
The uh, lead guy Neil Burnsidehad two phones on his desk.
Did you notice the red phone?
Yes.
And the regular phone.
Yeah.
And I know Brits are coolpeople.
They don't go off the handlequite as quickly as the rest of
us.
No, there was not yelling atall.
But still, I think when the redphone rang.
(13:46):
Everybody except Brits would go,crap, this can't be good.
This can't be good.
It's never good.
Exactly.
The Bri phone is never good.
The most famous episode, whichwas called The Special
Relationship, was a watershed inthe history of spy fiction.
The character Laura Dickens, theonly female sandbagger and
(14:09):
burden side's love interest iscaptured and swapped.
For an East German spy duringthe crossover on that real
bridge of spies in Germany,that's a, mm-hmm.
Laura is unceremoniously killedby an unseen sniper.
This had never happened intelevision before, and the
(14:32):
outcry for them killing off.
Laura was huge.
Now, this episode was supposedto be the last episode of the
Sandbaggers and Ian decided tojust go out with a bang because
special relationship gardened somuch attention.
The sandbaggers was given aseason.
(14:53):
Two with one less actress, withone less.
Yeah.
The budget went down.
Yeah.
But everything Ian touches isgold.
Yeah.
Midway through season two, Iangot.
The word that the series wasgonna go for three seasons.
Bravo, Ian, just good for you.
By 1979, Ian had become theexecutive producer of the show
(15:18):
and as a gift of appreciation tocast and crew, they were given
18 days to shoot an episode inSunny Malta.
Ian, who loved to travel alongwith his girlfriend of two
years, is Susan.
Insole decided to take avacation while production was
shooting in Malta, and upon hisreturn, Ian had three scripts
(15:42):
due, but he figured piece ofcake, I can handle it.
And it's Ian.
I believe it.
Good for Ian?
Yes.
On July 7th, 1979, just a fewweeks shy of Ian's 39th
birthday, he, Susan and Ian'sgood friend, Graham Barber, an
experienced British Airwayspilot, rented a single engine
(16:06):
rally, 2, 3, 5 airplane inAnchorage.
Ah, the 2, 3, 5.
After a test flight, the trioflew towards Kodiak.
The weather that evening wasclear, but it was very windy in
Kodiak at 5:45 PM while flyingnortheast of the Kodiak Island.
(16:28):
Barbara sent out a distresssignal saying he was losing oil
pressure.
The air traffic controller atthe Kodiak Airport relayed the
call to the US Coast Guard andsearches were in the air within
10 minutes.
And over the last knowncoordinates of Ian's plane in 30
(16:49):
minutes, but they saw no sign ofthe aircraft.
The search continued for threedays, but neither the plane nor
the passengers.
Wherever found.
No sign of those three scriptseither.
We're gonna cut that.
No, we're keeping it.
(17:11):
Remember when you write to theWriter Hangout
podcast@gmail.com.
It's T-E-R-R-Y.
That was Terry.
Okay.
Now, I mean, really.
So sad.
Yeah.
But of course, because Ian waswho he is and his previous
lifestyle controversyimmediately began to swirl
(17:33):
around.
And there were two majortheories, well, three without a
trace.
Ian set up the plane crash inorder to defect to Russia.
I could not find it any of myresearch reasons why Ian would
defect, other than, this is abrilliant man.
He could have been a doubleagent, but the fact that Susan
(17:57):
and Graham were also involvedkind of negates that.
Yeah, it's.
That's pretty con uh, uh,convoluted.
Yeah, it's pretty unlikely thosethree people would've also been
Russian spies, right?
Graham maybe.
But Susan, I don't think so.
Who knows?
The spy who came in from thecold, even though he was
(18:18):
retired, Ian was on a missionfor the British government.
This is speculated because Ianwas required to report to the
foreign office every time heleft the country.
Even though it had been fouryears since he retired.
Ian also had high-end electronicequipment in his apartment in
(18:38):
London.
That's what Lawy has.
Brother said, and it was notunusual for someone like Ian,
who is officially retired, butstill asked to do something
while traveling.
You know, nothing big.
Maybe take photographs or justreport what they saw.
I don't even have a movie namefor it.
It because it's just so simple.
Maybe the natural, the cap forthe oil was left off.
(19:02):
And when they got to where theywere outside the Kodiak Islands,
the plane stalled.
Even though Graham was anamazing pilot and he probably
coasted as long as he could, itwent into the water.
If the plane flipped the chancesand I guess it had fixed landing
(19:23):
gear and a fixed landing gearplane when it hits the water,
will flip.
And the three of them.
Getting out of one door, thedoor on the right the three of
them getting out, definitely aperson in the back was not gonna
get out.
Right.
And the freezing temperaturesand.
It is very likely that a planecould, sink that fast at half
(19:46):
hour.
Sure.
And not leave an oil slickbecause No oil.
No oil.
And were we in a position toknow where it went when it went
down?
Was there, it was if is gave thecoordinates.
There was some back and forthbetween Graham and the Kodiak
airport.
Also, um, I should havementioned earlier that part of
(20:11):
the world is filled with.
Russian spy submarines.
Wow.
And Russian trawlers that areactually, spy trawlers that,
they look like fishermen, butthey're all crowded around
sophisticated, listeningdevices.
So that supports two theoriesthat they picked him up and he's
(20:32):
still living in, Russia.
He's still living in Russiasomewhere or, yeah.
Uh.
They picked him up and knew hewas a pain in the ass and, And
said no.
not even 40, all those books,all those series groundbreaking
series, I wish we could stillbe, uh, watching his movies
Yeah.
And TV shows.
(20:52):
I think we could give him acouple extra things to do.
I don't think it would slow himdown.
That's a wrap for the Writer'sHangout.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the show, pleasesubscribe and thrive till we get
to hang out again.
Keep writing.
The world needs your Stories.
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