Oh, no. It’s one of the gems of TV - it was wildly politically incorrect and featured one hardass SOB.
Basically, the character was a retired James Bond with less libido and more evil bastard dirty tricks plus a heck of a lot more realism than ever seen in any Bond film.
And The Equalizer's Robert McCall was the actually the kindest, gentlest of Woodward's secret agent characters
Callan's David Callan and La femme Nikita's Mr Jones, now they were ruthless bastrichs
Ironically Woodward wasnt first choice. Producers wanted a younger British actor:
Martin Shaw, still a very popular and household name in Britain, probably best known to Americans for ‘The Seven Voyages of Sinbad’ in the 70’s and Banquo in Polanski’s 1971 version of Macbeth. Shaw had just come of what is now an iconic British TV action series: ‘The Professionals’, and wanted to go back to the theatre and away from TV for a while. His Robert McCall would have been mid-30’s, recent ex-SAS, Falklands veteran for hire...