Once made a costly mistake while drunk, and gave up drinking absolutely. Formerly married to Wellingham's daughter Belinda. Willie Kane, Sandbagger One. Jeff Ross, head of CIA's London office. Burnside's closest friend.
Most episodes have two plot threads in ironic contrast, linked in the title.
The Norwegian secret service, trying to play with the big boys, gets in trouble and asks for help. Willie goes to Vienna to persuade a defector to come home - or, failing that, kill him. A proposal to knock off a brutal African dictator is nixed by the Minister. Laura Dickens, a somewhat reluctant new Sandbagger, goes to Morocco to try to decipher a terrorist's cryptic threat. A sheik offers favors in return for British military help in accelerating his father's retirement, and Laura is assigned to flirt with him and learn what he's really up to.