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The Security Men

2013 television film

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 13, 2025
Entity authorityQ17022584
Source-derived summary

The Security Men is a British television comedy pilot, written by BAFTA-award-winning comedian Caroline Aherne and Jeff Pope, that first broadcast on ITV on 12 April 2013. The pilot, written as a precursor to a planned four-part series, follows a group of night security guards working at the fictional Whittington shopping centre in Greater Manchester, who create an elaborate scheme to hide a robbery that has taken place on their watch. The pilot, which was filmed in 2011, remained shelved whilst writing on a planned four-part series, which promised to "follow the characters home to meet their friends and families", was written. Although the series did not materialise, for reasons undisclosed, the pilot was finally broadcast in 2013 as part of ITV's new "primetime comedy" season.

Produced by ITV Studios, the pilot starred Brendan O'Carroll, Bobby Ball, Dean Andrews and Peter Wight as "security men" Jimmy, Duckers, Ray and Kenneth. Archie Kelly and Paddy McGuinness also starred as police constables Clarke and Greaves. The pilot received an advance broadcast in Northern Ireland, being shown on 5 April 2011 prior to the broadcast of a new documentary series on RTÉ following the lives of real life "security men".

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Security Men” is 2013 television film. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Security, television and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2013, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2013. For this dossier, Security, television and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2013 television film” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17022584. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013 and 2011.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Security Men”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Security Men primary sources, The Security Men archive and Security research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Security Men”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Security Men” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.