NEW TRICKS FOR CALLAN

In the episode "Act Of Kindness", 'Callan' attended a model soldier convention where he met Heathcote Land, an executive with an industrial corporation which sold tractors to Russian as one of its interests. They struck up a friendship as they rolled dice in their war games, but it didn't take long for Land to figure out that Callan was a government agent.Heathcote Land was a "white file" - it was Callan's mission to get him to either resign or back away from causing his rival in the corporation (Donovan Prescott) to resign. (The Russians had figured out that Prescott was a government operative and sent incriminating photos of him to Land.)

It's just a theory, but it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble (as Mushrat would say in those 'Deputy Dawg' cartoons) that another TV character was attending that war gaming convention in 1970 London.As shown in the "Congratulations" episode of 'New Tricks', Brian Lane was also an aficionado of war games and the model soldiers used to carry out those campaigns.

Currently Brian Lane is retired from the Metropolitan Police Force, but he still works for them as a member of UCOS - the Unsolved Crimes and Open Cases Squad. Back in 1970, however, he would have been a 24 year old policeman, perhaps a bobbie, more likely already a detective with that amazing memory of his. And probably with limited means for indulging in his hobby.

Still, it could be that one of the gentlemen seen in the background of that convention was actually young Brian Lane. (Being in the background, away from the camera, would help a lot since Alun Armstrong, even as a young man, might have been too distinctive to be just anybody in the crowd.)

My favorite candidate? This guy, dead center in the background: That's him again behind Heathcote Land, re-emerging from behind the flag. That profile certainly suggests the look of Brian Lane to me, to put it politley. And here he is again, walking away and passing by Callan's snitch, Lonely.It's a tenuous way to have TV characters cross paths, but look how tenuous some of the connections were between the characters of 'Lost' in their flashbacks. For instance, Jin breaks into a man's house and Hurley can be seen on the TV. But that's what we do here at Toobworld Central - we look for those unofficial, unconfirmed link pozz'bilities!

I snared these pics myself off the DVD, but if you're interested in seeing more detailed screen caps of the war games played by Callan and Land, may I suggest you visit the blog Wargaming Miscellany and search out the articles about 'Callan'. He has lots of great pics there not only from "Act Of Kindness" but also from the pilot episode, "A Magnum For Schneider", and the Callan movie, "The Wet Job".

BCnU!