The Sandbaggers - 307 - Opposite Numbers (Series Finale)

The Sandbaggers is a British spy drama television series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of espionage on the personal and professional lives of British and American intelligence specialists. All but three of the 20 episodes of the three series were written by its creator, Ian Mackintosh, who died during the recording of series three. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television, based in Leeds.

Cast:
Roy Marsden as Neil Burnside, "D-Ops" SIS
Dennis Burgess as John Tower Gibbs, 'C'
Ray Lonnen as Willie Caine "Sandbagger One"
Alan MacNaughtan as Sir Geoffrey Wellingham
Bob Sherman as Jeff Ross, head of London station, CIA
Jerome Willis as Matthew Peel, Deputy Head of SIS
Sue Holderness as Marianne Straker
Jana Shelden as Karen Milner, CIA field officer who reports to Jeff Ross

Creator Info:
The Sandbaggers was created by Ian Mackintosh, a Scottish former naval officer turned television writer, who had previously achieved success with the acclaimed BBC television series Warship. He wrote all the episodes of the first two series of The Sandbaggers, but he disappeared (aged 38) during the shooting of the third series.
Details of Disappearance:
On the evening of 7 July 1979, Mackintosh was flying with two others (his girlfriend, Susan Insole,a British Airways stewardess, and British Airways captain Graham Barber, who was the pilot) over the Gulf of Alaska in a light aircraft. The plane sent out a distress signal, which was picked up by the United States Coast Guard. The plane's last-known position was searched, but no wreckage of the plane was ever found and its passengers have not been heard from since.
Some of the details surrounding their disappearance have caused speculation about what actually occurred, including their stop at an abandoned United States Air Force base and the fact that the plane happened to crash in the one small area that was not covered by either U.S. or Soviet radar.
Mackintosh disappeared after he had written just four of the scripts for the third series, so other writers were called in to bring the episode count up to seven. The Sandbaggers ends on an unresolved cliffhanger because the producers decided that no one else could write the series as well as Mackintosh had and chose not to continue it in his absence.
Because of the atmosphere of authenticity that the scripts evoked and the liberal use of "spook" jargon, there has been speculation that Mackintosh might have been a former operative of SIS or had, at least, contact with the espionage community. This has extended to speculation that his disappearance was no accident or had to do with a secret mission he was undertaking. There is a possibility that Mackintosh may have been involved in intelligence operations during his time in the Royal Navy, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced.