The Professionals (1977–1983)

This series chronicled the lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism ... See full summary »

Creator:

Brian Clemens

Stars:

Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins

Cast

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

Storyline

This series chronicled the lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie was a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, came to CI5 from the regular police force, and was more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship was often contentious, but they were the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

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Plot Keywords:

secret agent | spy | cult tv

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Genres:

Action | Crime

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Details

Official Sites:

The Authorised Guide to The Professionals

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 December 1977 (UK)

Also Known As:

Los profesionales

Filming Locations:

Beckton Gasworks, Beckton, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

London Weekend Television (LWT), Mark 1 Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min 60 min (57 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

'Martin Shaw' publicly disliked the series describing his character as a 'violent moppet'. By contrast Lewis Collins revelled in his tough guy image, becoming a black belt in martial arts and joining the Territorial Army as a paratrooper. Allegedly he also attempted to join one of the Territorial Army's Special Air Service (S.A.S) Regiments but was rejected as being too famous for their covert role. He would go on to play an SAS officer in the films 'The Final Option' and '_Codename Wildgeese (1984)_'. The actors' contrasting attitudes influenced the writing for their characters, Bodie very much being written as a tougher, more ruthless individual with few qualms about his job whilst Doyle is more thoughtful and troubled by the violence he has seen.

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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.

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Connections

Remade as The Professionals

User Reviews

A cut above the rest

I was only born a year after this series started production, so I only know it by re-runs, thanks largely to my mother who loves the series.

There are a great many TV series with the premise that you've got good guys running around trying to catch bad guys, and there are guns, cars and explosives thrown in for good measure. Some are good, some are not. The Professionals is a cut above the rest, not because of any trick or gimmick but simply because of superb writing, casting, directing and acting.

Shaw (Doyle), Collins (Bodie) and Jackson (Cowley) excel in their roles and are really the glue of the whole series. The constant jibing between Doyle and Bodie is an absolute delight to watch, as is Bodie's unashamed love for fast-driving and shooting stuff.

The action is very satisfying, with many shoot-outs, explosions and car chases. The plots are actually more varied and sophisticated than most people seem to remember, some of them require a very sharp mind to keep track of the wheeling and dealing. There's espionage, grand-theft, madmen with nerve-gas and more than a few personal vendettas. The characters, too, are deeper than most people seem to remember.

My favourite episodes are: "Discovered in a Graveyard" - Doyle is shot and seriously wounded by an unknown assasin. While Bodie and Cowley hunt down the shooter, we are given an insight into the thoughts going through Doyle's comatose mind.

"Blind Run" - what starts as a simple escort run for Doyle and Bodie turns into an urban war as their charge turns out to be much more significant than they thought. This is one of the most action-packed episodes, featuring multiple shootouts and car-chases.

"Mixed Doubles" - Bodie and Doyle are assigned to organise protection for a very high-level foreign diplomat who is almost certain to be an assasination target. As we see our two heroes making preparations, we also see the two hired assasins making theirs and we get an incredible insight into just how similar the two doubles are, and how sad it is that only one pair of them can survive the day.