The Professionals (TV Series) The Purging of CI5 (1979) User Reviews

Cowley's biggest bombshell yet...

[canndyman · 9/10 · 16 January 2021]

This is is the first (and best) of two scripts successfully submitted by teenage Professionals' fan Stephen Lister and, I have to say, it's an enjoyable and impressive episode.

It seems that someone with a massive grudge against CI5 has decided to start taking out its operatives one by one - and with some explosive results.

Cowley is the first target, with a bomb placed under his office chair... and he makes a narrow escape.

More 'hits' follow, and it's soon left to Bodie and Doyle to track down the mysterious and elusive assassin before he kills any more CI5 agents - including themselves.

This is an action-packed episode that zips along at at a fair pace - the identity of the assassin never really being found out until near the very end.

There's still space for humour - during a high-speed pursuit on foot, it seems Bodie would rather get into a tussle with a workman up a ladder, than actually chance his luck actually running underneath it! There's a fun scene too when they suspect Doyle's car has been booby-trapped, and carry out a careful and tense inspection.

CI5 operative Susan gets among the action too and proves her worth - it's a shame we didn't see a bit more of her on the frontline than we did in later episodes.

Fans of the long-running ITV police series The Bill will enjoy spotting Jack Meadows actor Simon Rouse in an early role - and EastEnders viewers will no-doubt recognize Bill Treacher in a very brief appearance.

There's some good filming too around Southall gasworks (a favourite location of the series that appears in several stories, as well as the opening title sequence).

All in all, a memorable, action-packed and explosive story that really delivers - and well done to young Stephen Lister for coming up with the goods, and to the show's producers for backing him.

An ep much better than I remember it being

[Joxerlives · 7/10 · 12 December 2016]

Some great British character actors in this one, Chris Fairbank, Bill Treacher, Simon Rouse. You'd think a secret organisation such as CI5 would have better security at their base, people seem to just be able to walk in and out at will, they seem to change it every so often as a security measure.

CI5 have a black and a female agent which puts them one step ahead of The Sweeney although the unabashed brutality they show to everyone they meet rather goes against political correctness (as does the fact they have to comfort her at the scene of the bombing). We lose 3 agents which must be a record and catch a glimpse of the wider CI5 organisation, I think one of the ways to improve the series would have been to have more recurring villains and regular members of CI5 (Murphy aside). Love Bodie's flat with the Figure 11 target and the lingerie clad women in the posters.

How incredibly plummy do all the other CI5 agents sound, no wonder Cowley depends on Bodie and Doyle. we learn that they weren't part of the original selection for CI5, the organisation was up and running before they joined. We see the same railway carriages that later recur in Operation Susie (watch how the supposed stone cold corpse flinches when Doyle smashes the glass).

The bomb disposal scenes are tense but you shouldn't use a walkie talkie near a bomb, it can detonate it through RF hazard. Nice to see that Cowley is so hard he can actually take out the villain with one hand.

This one is rated pretty highly on IMDb, I'm not sure I agree but it's pretty good.

Spot on opener

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 25 October 2020]

THE PURGING OF CI5 is a great way to start series three of the show - with a bang, as it's always been best known for. It starts off with a breakneck action scene and peppers the script with many more such moments, although perhaps the most startling element of this is Bodie's new and extremely severe haircut. The camaraderie is back and more natural than ever, and the pacing is spot on.

The best TV-series ever done!!!!!

[mdamiano-2 · 10/10 · 25 July 2007]

All these TV-series are the very best ever done!!!!!!!. The principal actors are superb!!!!!!. Very real, and incredible actual in spite of it was written in '70!!!!!!!!. You have to see it!!!!. This particular episode is not the better one but almost it. I have to say that the actors performs are quite good in every one of the seasons and in all the 5 years that was on TV. Lewis Collins (Bodie) is the tuff guy and Martin Shaw (Doyle) is the clever one, and they are supervised by Gordon Jackson (Cowley) a very very very perfectionist man who is the chief of CI5 (an intelligence division of the Royal force) in United Kingdom.

The Purging of CI5

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 28 June 2019]

There is a drama documentary look about this episode with so many bombs going off. Also Bodie looks a bit odd, I think his new haircut does not suit him. I also think the real life abrasive banter between Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins has spilled over to the show in the third series.

Cowley gets a 30 second warning before a bomb explodes at the CI5 office. More bombs later go off, some operatives die and even Bodie nearly buys it.

It is a race against time as Bodie and Doyle look for clues. Their bomb disposal expert is kept busy and a female CI5 operative Susan shows that she too can keep up with the big boys.

The clue seems to be a previous CI5 operative who has vendetta against Cowley but he is supposedly dead.

It does start off in a thrilling manner, it was still the days when there were large disused buildings in London that came in handy for television shows to destroy.