"The Professionals" (1977) TV series 1977-1983

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Creator:

Brian Clemens

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Release Date:

30 December 1977 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Crime

Plot:

This series chronicled the lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5)...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Secret Agent

Cast

Gordon Jackson	...	George Cowley (57 episodes, 1977-1983)
Martin Shaw	...	Doyle (57 episodes, 1977-1983)
Lewis Collins	...	Bodie (57 episodes, 1977-1983)

Runtime:

60 min (57 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Iceland:12 (some epiosodes) | Iceland:16 (some epiosodes) | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Beckton Gasworks, Beckton, London, England, UK

Company:

London Weekend Television (LWT)

Trivia:

Episode "The Professionals: Klansmen (#1.13)" (1977), in which black people are harassed by a group that has modelled itself on the Ku Klux Klan, was banned and never shown in the UK because of its racial content.

Quotes:

[scene-setting voiceover from Season 1 opening titles]
George Cowley: Anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I've got special men - experts from the army, the police, from every service - these are The Professionals.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "On the Waterfront: (#3.7)" (1989)

''Cover me!!''

I wasn't even born when this show was first shown on British TV in the late 70's. It was created by Brian Clemens, was a follow-up to a cop show called The Sweeney and starred Gordon Jackson as George Cowley, Lewis Collins as Bodie and Martin Shaw (who hated the show and his character) as Ray Doyle, working for a spy agency called CI5.

Violent, sexist and very politically incorrect, The Professionals was just good fun and it knew how daft it was. Basically an episode would go like this: Bad guy of episode shows up, usually foreign and he was a hitman, terrorist, spy or something like that. He would commit a crime and then the main titles which still impress would come on backed by the great theme tune. Bodie and Doyle would be given the case by Cowley, and then there would be 45 minutes of fights and car chases (in their Ford Capris) which ended with the bad guy dying in an explosion.

The plots were interesting and there were a lot of good ideas from the writers. After the show ended there were lots of pretty awful follow-up shows like Dempsey and Makepeace and Bergerac and have mostly been forgotten. Although The Professionals is not often seen on TV nowadays it's a cult classic, and way better than any of the stuff they put on nowadays.