Crouchback was the central character in Waugh's three novels set against the background of Britain's involvement in World War II. This black-and-white TV dramatisation is now much less well known than a more lavish 2001 colour version with Daniel Craig playing the part of Crouchback. However, the 1967 dramatisation enjoyed a high profile at the time, and it featured several leading actors of that era, including Ronald Fraser, Freddie Jones, Vivian Pickles, Nicholas Courtney, and James Villiers. Moreover, Evelyn Waugh had met and approved Giles Cooper as the scriptwriter, having their schooling at Lancing College in common, albeit more than a decade apart. In 1967, Woodward played the eventual victim in an episode of The Saint TV series ("The Persistent Patriots"). The same year, he was cast as David Callan in the ITV Armchair Theatre play A Magnum for Schneider, which later became the spy series Callan, one of his early television roles and one in which he demonstrated his ability to express controlled rage. His performance assured the series success from 1967 to 1972, with a film appearing in 1974. He also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in a 1978 adaptation of Saturday, Sunday, Monday in the Laurence Olivier Presents anthology series. The success of Callan typecast him somewhat, but the enduring success of the genre allowed him to gain leading roles in similar productions, though none would prove to be as iconic as Callan. In 1977, he starred in two series of the BBC2 dystopian drama 1990, about a future Britain lurching into totalitarianism. The late 1970s he spent on both stage and film, but he had not found recognition and popularity exceeding that of Callan until he took the lead role in the American television series The Equalizer (1985–89) as a former intelligence operative. After filming a few episodes of the third season, Woodward suffered a massive coronary. For several episodes, additional actors were brought in to reduce the workload on Woodward as he recovered from the condition. The first episode filmed following Woodward's heart attack involved his character being severely injured by a KGB bullet, providing Woodward with a chance to rest over several episodes. Later in the season, Woodward resumed his full duties and carried the show through a fourth season during 1988-1989. During this period, he also starred in the Cold War espionage thriller, Codename: Kyril (1988), as an MI6 double agent. Subsequently, he starred