The Guardians (1971)

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State of England:
Series opener.
Intriguing start to this series from 1971 which takes place in a dystopian Britain in 1980s.
The said Guardians, also known as the Gs, are a paramilitary force that suppresses political opposition after the democratically elected government has been ousted and the Royal Family fled in exile.
The nation is now ruled by an autocratic Prime Minister Sir Timothy Hobson played by Cyril Luckham.
While Luckham did not play one of the said Guardians, this however felt prescient to him play another kind of Guardian that of the White Guardian in the Doctor Who stories The Ribos Operation & Enlightenment.
This opening episode is a pretty good set up of what the series is about and why a rebellion to this system of government is unavoidable.

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Pursuit:
Episode 2.
Guest stars Richard Hurndall as Sir Francis Wainwright, an old friend of Prime Minister Sir Timothy Hobson played by Cyril Luckham.
Hurndall later played the First Doctor in the Doctor Who story The Five Doctors which curiously came two stories after Luckham had played the White Guardian in Enlightenment.
A lot of this episode has the said old friends having a philosophical discussion about the society they are living in with Wainwright questioning Hobson with what he is doing as Prime Minister.
This discussion was truly enthralling to see and is worth the episode alone.

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Head of State:
Episode 3.
With an automatic Prime Minister in Sir Timothy Hobson and the Royal Family in exile comes the question of who is the Head of State which came when the French President says he will only come to Britain if he meets the real head of state.
Fascinating question that this episode presents about the head of state.
One thing that was distracting however about this episode is when Hobson refer to Britain's foreign and defence ministers as he refer to them incorrectly as the correct titles are Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary.

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The Logical Approach:
Episode 4.
The episode title refers to how executions are being carried out and quite horrifying how things plays out with this approach.

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Quarmby:
Episode 5.
This comes in the aftermath of a sniper who killed the Home Secretary and investigation is underway on this.
Quite fascinating on the other plotline with Benedict with ultimately has him killing someone and comes the question of the society that they are living in.
The said Quarmby is Miss Quarmby who is an associate of Benedict but that is not her real name as Quarmby refers to the name of an organisation that she is in.

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Appearances:
Episode 6.
Quite a harrowing episode as it deals with the aftermath of the killing of a detective in cold blood.
Elsewhere Dinsdale Landen plays a sadistic doctor at a mental facility and definitely not someone I want to be anywhere near at.

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This Is Quarmby:
Episode 7.
The said Quarmby has been making radio broadcasts and this made Hobson and his inner circle various circle.
However when it seems that Quarmby has been tracked down and killed another Quarmby makes his broadcast.
This goes to show that rebellion continues no matter who carries this out even with using the same name.
Quite tense episode this presents.
A curious appearance here and appearing in only in this episode is John Rhys-Davies playing First Guardian.

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The Dirtiest Man in the World:
Episode 8.
The episode title is not a metaphor it is about someone who is literally dirty.
Not bad the premise of this episode and how this dirtiest man played his part in the climax of this episode.

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I Want You to Understand Me:
Episode 9.
The government's hangman, who is not literally a hangman as executions are performed by lethal injections instead, gets kidnapped.
This is quite a harrowing situation to see culminating to what happens to the not so literal hangman.

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The Nature of the Beast:
Episode 10.
Dr Benedict suddenly gets a visit from someone calling himself Quarmby while Clare is having problems with her drugged husband.
Certainly a beast in storytelling on two fronts and horrifying the pills that were explained at the end.