User reviews

On the surface the success of The Professionals is something of an enigma. Two characters with embarrassing haircuts, dreadful dress-sense, little respect for birds... err, women, in a show almost universally panned by the critics...

Yet the Professionals not only succeeded in its day but continues to do so in repeat runs almost 25 years on.

Bodie and Doyle's characteristics arguably had near-plagiaristic similarities to that of Starsky & Hutch. The action and (more particularly) violence depicted was essentially a continuation of the "rules" laid down by The Sweeney. Yet The Professionals still carved out a niche for itself. What sets it apart from the other shows is the firework chemistry between the two leads (as much down to the good fortune of casting Shaw and Collins together - two completely different actors) and the jibing, black humour they share and harangue each other with.

Gordon Jackson's searing performance as Cowley, meanwhile, proved to be a formidable boss for the two reprobates.

The humour also extended to the situations and the show was not afraid to make fun of itself occasionally.

In the early years the exciting, varied plots were a bonus, too (Contrary to other remarks, they were often quite complex). Action-wise, Collins and Shaw gamely tackled much of their own stuntwork.

Although characterisation was never the primary objective of the show, the characters were given a reasonable opportunity to add facets to their personae. Doyle, in particular, emerged as a surprisingly rounded, unpredictable and constantly surprising character - due mainly to Shaw's splendid acting skills.

Unlike other British action shows, the Professionals gained an immense female following - indeed its fandom is probably split 50:50 between the sexes.

In the meantime London Weekend Television exported the show massively to eager overseas broadcasters (and continues to do so to this day).

However the programme was not without faults. By the fourth season (1980) the writing team were struggling to find new ideas and the boys of CI5 often found themselves lumbered with jobs that more traditional law forces would normally take on.

By 1981 the show was clearly running out of steam and with Shaw and Collins keen to move on to other things, LWT decided to call it a day after a grand total of 57 episodes.

Today it's easy to say the whole reason it's such a success again is because of its refreshingly un-PC image. Yet there is more to it than that and, indeed, what were seen as the strengths of the show in 1977 are being appreciated by new audiences the world over.

Watching The Professionals now it comes across as a bit dated but I still find it fun.

Collins and Shaw as Bodie and Doyle are great although sometimes their scenes together can appear a bit camp, especially the comic ones. They respect and trust each other as partners but there is sometimes an edge to their friendship as apparently there was in real life too.

Jackson is good too as their tough boss who realises that he can rely totally on Bodie and Doyle although he sometimes has a hard time keeping them in line.

I love the cars which get thrashed a lot. Particularly the Capri 3 litre S, Escort RS2000 and Granada 2.8 Ghia. Too many modern cars look the same and don't have the exciting looks that many cars had back then. The way they thrashed them must have meant they needed a lot of maintenance !.

Overall a very enjoyable series, which although it looks dated now, still has enough action and excitement to be worth seeing.

Arguably one of the best British action series ever made. The Professionals has a gritty, streetwise style, strong plots and scripts and excellent acting. Out of the episodes made between 1977 and 1981, there is hardly a bad one: the quality spoke for itself.

Many episodes see what feels like two hours' worth of storyline packed tightly and competently into the single hour. The editing, photography, direction, stunts and score stand comparison today. The ingredients endeared the series to its many fans, probably attracting viewers from outside its target market. It was an example of how we could have it all - and its longevity was not down to luck alone.

It is even credited for the long production life of the Ford Capri sports car, driven by the two main agents in the series, Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw). The rapport between the two actors is superb and at no times are their performances unrealistic.

The series sees a fictional unit, CI5, which is not answerable to any one ministry. Its controller, Maj George Cowley (Gordon Jackson), commands loyalty and respect amongst his men, and would fight to the ends on their behalf. His access to the highest levels within Westminster is without doubt. Bodie, ex-SIS, and Doyle, formerly with the police, are faced with perilous situations against terrorists, spies, and traitors. Thanks to their specialist skills and attitude, they cope well in any situation.

The Professionals is still a demonstration of British television at its best.

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.

This was the first "real" non Police drama/series on TV in my younger days. Re watching now, in fact binging. I loved it then and I love it now. The cars, the stunts, the simple days and of course the non political gratuitous scantily clad hotties. Great memories of a far simpler time but still addictive viewing.

They appeared to have been incapable of stopping without a screech. Oh the days before ABS :)

The Professionals is one of the best television series ever made.

This is a cop buddy drama series which aired in the seventies and eighties.Perhaps a follow_on from the Sweeney although it lacks the gritty realism of that programme. The chemistry between the two main players is endearing and it generally offers some escapist entertainment without having to concentrate too much on the plot.

As someone who lives in North London (where some of the episodes were filmed) I enjoy watching this simply for nostalgia reasons alone. But it should not be taken seriously at all. The relationship between Bodie and Doyle is great to watch, but the plots are ridiculous and full of holes (the 'Heroes' episode is a notable example) and anyone offended by sexism shouldn't watch it. The series is also astonishingly violent and bloody for something that is currently being shown outside the British TV viewing watershed hours on ITV4. To give an example, over the past two afternoons this channel has shown the episodes 'Killer with a Long Arm' and 'Heroes' in which many people are shot dead with blood squibs being used.

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.

First of all, I just can't believe how many fans. Great, most of all for those like me, who grew up so far away.

I remember the series being broadcast in my country, madly in love with both, I adore Doyle's curly hair, I think it was perfect for him. The clothes? maybe I would have changed his tight jeans but that's it. There is a look of his with a white jacket (or is it a knit vest?) with a blue shirt and he looks fantastic. Bodie? adorable, I wouldn't change anything.....except for that red shirt he used in one episode.

Love them cause they were part of my youth and of course there were other series at the time but The Pros got something (the camaraderie and friendship in spite of the difficulties of the daily work, no matter what, including some disagreements and hard facts, they will take care of each other).

Besides, the series resume the 70's in all of the senses (colors, style, etc).

This has got to be one of the most popular hardman TV shows ever - it ran from 1977-83 on UK TV.Lewis Collins And Martin Shaw were superb in this - great action scenes and car chases in Ford cars - the show was known for the Capri - The theme music became a hit - by Laurie Johnson and the titles are one of the most memorable in history with the Granada smashing through the glass. Bodie and Doyle were easy on the eye and massive icons at the time - the first series was filmed in and around Buckinghamshire - Close quarters on the Thames at Boulters Lock and Maidenhead - Classic TV of the time - lots of beige ! And the best bit is that it was before we all became PC correct and health and Safety obsessed - if you have not seen this show go and buy it on DVD .

My dad bought a box of tapes at an auction in the early 80s and it had a few seasons of this show, it is brilliant.

I reckon I enjoy it more 40 years on or maybe I see it in a different light than back then!! Very well produced and great story telling and acting

I grew up with this and the Sweeny, the two best unrivalled series of the time, just brilliant, nuff said.

What a fantastic series, I was just about born when the series first aired and apart from the obvious cars and clothes looking dated the rest is surprisingly fresh. While it isn't very PC it is quite a hard series dealing with drugs, personal losses and the full spectrum of criminal activity. Bodie, Doyle and Crowley make a perfect team with plenty of one liners thrown around between them. The episodes are well constructed, interesting and well balanced. At present I am halfway through series 3 and enjoying it greatly.

Its far far better than the Bill and the only current TV series that comes close is life on mars, which obviously is at least part homage to the Professionals as well as Sweeney.

Good series, good plots and great acting.

I find it pathetic that British TV was so filled with the protection and promotion of promiscuous behaviour. Proper good old British values were just dropped in so many episodes. Some of those I would like to rate -10 but alas the least possible is 1.

"The Professionals" has been slated from all sides over the years. It's fallen foul of, among others, the self-appointed moralist zealots of television watchdog groups because of its often hard-hitting violence, and the feminist lobby for its portrayal of most of its female characters as bimbos and ciphers. Even Martin Shaw, one of its three main stars, was so embarrassed by the show that for years his veto prevented it from being repeated in the UK (or perhaps it was simply because he was ashamed of the perm which he sported throughout the show's six-year run and which led to co-star Lewis Collins giving him the nickname "the Bionic Gollywog"). Whatever the reason, "The Professionals" won few critical admirers at the time and now - in the age of political correctness - is perhaps even more widely pooh-poohed. So why did it run for 6 years and become one of British TV's biggest ever, and most popular, exports? And why does it still enjoy cult status? The answer, paradoxically, lies in the reasons why it was so widely reviled in the first place. It's violent, politically incorrect and - to put it kindly - doesn't demand that its audiences have the intellect of rocket scientists to follow its plots. It was escapist entertainment aimed at boys of all ages from 10 to 50. Pictures of Bodie & Doyle adorned the bedroom walls of teenage girls up and down the land as they got in on the act too. And the show practically became an hour-long advertisement for the Ford motor company. In the UK during the late 70s and early 80s, it was positively hazardous to venture forth on a Friday night during a "Professionals" run, for fear of being knocked over and hospitalised by some young Johnny screeching round the corner in his Ford Capri, pretending to be Bodie & Doyle. Sure, "The Professionals" (like most shows of the genre) had its moronic moments, but who can forget classics like the episode in which two anti-social misfits holed up on a high rooftop and started taking pot-shots at a nearby hospital? Or the one with Bodie trapped in a country house, under siege by a bunch of German terrorists and with all contact to the outside world lost? Everything the critics accuse "The Professionals" of may well be true. But who cares? It's still a cult classic. They don't make 'em like that any more.

This is a 'rootin - tootin," shoot-em-up, no holds barred, action filled cops and robbers show, with the occasional touch of male chauvinism and with vintage 1977 class. It's Dempsdy and Makepeace meets John Thaw's The Sweeny done with panache and verve. It's notable for the presence of a very young Martin Shaw who, in his 50's, went on to play the erudite, gentleman detective Inspector George Gently. The show's appeal and popularity are attested to by the fact that it ran five seasons.

CI5 (Criminal Investigations 5) is a specially formed police group tasked to tackle those criminal enterprises that prove beyond the reach of New Scotland Yard and the Special Operations Branch. Its commander George Cowley (played by Gordon Jackson) and its two chief operatives Doyle (played by Martin Shaw) and Bodie (played by Lewis Collins) comprise the staple team that undertakes a range of special police assignments under a broad mandate and with sometimes less than scrupulous observance of the niceties of British Due Process but always focused on defeating the criminals others can't touch and achieving justice. Cowley barks orders and runs interference with the lordly, upper political classes embarrassed by the teams non-gentile methods. Doyle and Brodie provide the muscle and street smarts brought to bear on the situation at hand.

This format effectively sustained the series during its five season run from 1977 to 1982. It's a great piece of police action drama that aficionados of the genre should not miss.