The Professionals (TV Series) A Man Called Quinn (1983) User Reviews

A Man Called Quinn

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 25 July 2019]

There is a great cast here. Del Henney is Quinn an agent who cracked up after being captured by the KGB and brainwashed.

After being exchanged he has spent years in a psychiatric unit but he escapes. Quinn keeps having visions of doctor/interrogator called Ruskin played by Steven Berkoff.

Quinn is killing his fellow agents, one of them being Cowley. Bodie and Doyle have to catch Quinn and protect Cowley.

Bodie is reduced to bugging Cowley. After all he has been doing the same to him for years!

It is another story where it might not make a lot of sense. How does Quinn know where all these people he is after live after all these years? Henney is great as Quinn, the mentally shattered ex agent who realises there is no way to be saved.

Berkoff is chilling and would go on to play Russian baddies in Octopussy later that year and in Rambo: First Blood Pt 2 in 1985.

Oddly this was the only episode directed by pioneering black filmmaker Sir Horace Ové.

Quinn-tessential Professionals!

[canndyman · 9/10 · 6 October 2019]

Former British agent Quinn escapes from a psychiatric facility where he's being treated after 3 years' captivity and interrogation in Russia at the hands of the KGB. He then draws up a hit-list of former colleagues, who he plans to take out one by one in a carefully orchestrated solo operation. Cowley sends his boys in - but will Quinn be too clever for them?

This is an excellent episode of The Professionals that has all the elements that made the series so good. A dash of humor (Bodie getting 'pulled' by a cop for speeding!), an intriguing and smart opponent in the shape of Quinn (Dale Henney in excellent form as the nominal silent assassin), and a story that really zips along until it reaches a thrilling climax.

Former Gerry Anderson scriptwriter Brian Barwick recycled elements of his UFO story 'Mindbender' for this episode, and it works very effectively as Quinn 'sees' anyone who opposes him as one of his Russian tormentors.

Coupled with some good locations and a well-cast Steven Berkhoff as Quinn's 'trigger', this is a very enjoyable and memorable episode packed with action, suspense, tension and that all-important dash of humor.