The Professionals (TV Series) Private Madness, Public Danger (1977) User Reviews

Troubled waters...

[canndyman · 8/10 · 17 October 2020]

This is another good, tense story from the first season - the sixth to be filmed, but for some reason scheduled as episode 1 on first broadcast (despite the pilot story 'Old Dog with New Tricks being the series more natural introduction episode).

It's a clever story of unhinged chemicals expert Nesbitt (a nicely understated role by the rugged Keith Barron) who has cooked up a plan to hold the country to ransom - unless his demands for the scrapping of all chemical weapons are met.

Di Trevis is excellent too as the drug-addicted Susan, who becomes an unwitting pawn in Nesbitt's plans and doesn't realize what she's got herself into until it's too late.

Bodie and Doyle are on fine form too, and the chemistry is really there between them - we also see a good early example of them too disobeying Cowley's orders and going out on a limb... when they feel there's no other alternative.

Gordon Jackson is in good voice too as 'The Cow', and shows a ruthless streak at one point to get the results he needs.

Look out as well for Christopher Ellison as a CI5 operative - known to viewers in the UK of course later as hardman DI Burnside in long-running police show The Bill.

We also get to see Thorpe Park fishing lake before it was transformed into a theme park in the 80s.

This is an entertaining and intriguing episode that showcases the series well, and what made it so special. Love Doyle's rather uncharacteristic Triumph TR7 too - soon to be ditched though when the show's producers switched from Leyland to Ford cars from season 2 onwards.

Great start

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 30 August 2020]

PRIVATE MADNESS, PUBLIC DANGER is a great start for one of the most energetic and stylish of all British crime TV shows. This one featues an intense performance from guest star Keith Barron who plans to poison various water supplies in order to create a reign of terror and force the governement to bend to his requests. Our heroes are the ones up against him. There's camaraderie and charisma between the stars already by this stage, although you have to love Gordon Jackson's sheer gruffness as the boss. Look outside for a youthful Christopher Ellison as a key ally.

Private Madness, Public Danger

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 22 November 2018]

I always regarded the BBC series Spooks as the natural successor to ITV's The Professionals.

Whereas Spooks in some ways reflected the political inclinations of the New Labour years when most of the episodes were shown.

The Professionals although started at the end of 1977 when James Callaghan was Labour Prime Minister. It gained popularity when Mrs Thatcher got elected and certainly to me reflected an element of crypto fascist leanings.

No wonder actor Martin Shaw seemed uncomfortable to talk about the show at one point.

This opening episode very much set itself up as a gritty exciting action show. Slightly hard boiled, you see some scantily clad ladies and right from the off you see a chemistry between Bodie and Doyle laced with humour.

Keith Barron plays Charles Nesbitt. A clever and ruthless activist who plans to poison the water supply with hallucinogenic drugs. Nesbitt wants the government to stop testing on chemical warfare.

It certainly is a lot of fun and to think a generation of viewers in the 1980s would know Barron from his sitcom work.

Slick series opener

[gordonl56 · 9/10 · 2 June 2013]

THE PROFESSIONALS – "Private Madness, Public Danger" – 1977 This is the first episode of the, 1977 to 1983 UK series, THE PROFESSIONALS. Gordon Jackson is in charge of a crack anti terrorist unit, CI-5, that is made up of top Police and Military types. They are on call for any threat against the country.

A slightly mad chemist, Keith Barron, has decided that he wants the government to stop chemical warfare experiments. And how does he decide to get his request across? By lacing the water supplies of London with a powerful and probably lethal hallucinogenic drug.

Barron is a chemist who makes cash by producing LSD for the local drug market. He has developed a new drug 10-20 times as strong. He intends to drop a drum full in the water supply. He does a test at a chemical plant first. He puts a few drops in the coffee machine in the plant office. Then he quickly hits the road.

Ten minutes later half a dozen employees are blasted out of their minds. One, Ian Fairburn, decides he is a bird and goes for a five-story jump out of a window. The Police are called and then CI-5 is called in. The dead man had top-secret access to government documents. This needs to be checked out.

Soon afterwards, a letter is delivered to the government with Barron's demands. If they are not met, there will be another display of the drug made. If his demands are still not meet, he will poison the water.

CI-5 agents, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins are assigned the case. They soon find that everyone sick had drank from the same coffee machine. Some quick tests on the contents soon establish just how powerful the drug is. The only person with keys to the machine is office canteen worker, Di Trevis. She disappeared right after all the trouble. She had lent the keys to the coffee machines to her drug supplier, Barron. Trevis, a drug addict, needed a fix and Barron had supplied it. Barron had just told her he wanted to look inside the machines. Trevis realizes that Barron must have laced the machines and leaves in a panic. She was the only one who had the keys to the coffee machines.

Once home, Trevis calls Barron to ask why he did it. Barron now realizes that Trevis is a loose end he had not thought of. He has a drug peddler friend, Donald Douglas deliver a pure uncut packet of drugs to Trevis. Barron is sure that addict Trevis will overdose. Loose end closed.

Shaw and Lewis decide to pay the woman a call and ask her about the incident. They find the woman sprawled on the sofa close to death. Off to the hospital they speed making it just in time to save her. All they get out of the near comatose Trevis, is the name of the man who brought her the drugs, Douglas.

A quick call to the drug squad is made. Could the squad hunt up Douglas for CI-5. They soon return the call and Martin joins in on the raid. Douglas is collared and brought in for some 3rd degree. Douglas is most uncooperative at first. But when Gordon Jackson brings is a syringe full of heroin and makes to shot up Douglas, he folds.

The CI-5 boys have it wrong. It was not him who makes drugs but Barron. "The man is mad but he makes first rate product". Douglas tells them. They have the address and get ready to raid the place. Then a phone call comes in, Barron has spiked the lines at a pub. Several people are badly injured when the try to drive after a drugged pint. This is Barron's second warning. Next will be the whole barrel.

Into their car and off to the Barron lab, Lewis, Shaw and Jackson roar. Barron has no intention of coming quietly. He has a large rifle and uses it. He then escapes out the back and hotfoots to the nearby water reservoir. He has a sealed barrel of drugs floating in the water there. A couple of bullet holes will start the spill.

Collins and Shaw catch up with Barron and more rounds are exchanged. Barron is on the loosing end and is soon captured. The men see the floating barrel and put two and two together. It seems that the swine Barron, has also placed an explosive device on the barrel. They grab a boat and drag Barron out to the barrel. Barron does not wish to go up with the device, and tells the men how to disarm it.

A pretty quick moving bit of UK television. The show was a hit and ran for 57 episodes over 5 years. The show was created by, Brian Clemens. Clemens of course was the man behind the 60's hit, THE AVENGERS.