Bodyguards

When i first saw this show advertised to be on Australian TV back in the late 90's i ignored it thinking it was just capitalizing on the Kevin Costner movie 'Bodyguard'. But then i caught an episode and i wish i had watched it from the start. The partnership between Sean Pertwee and Louise Lombard was so well acted and the structure of each episode was extremely entertaining. It wasn't an overblown TV show that you can tell spent most of its energy in making things explode so that they could put that clip in the commercial to lure audiences and then not deliver on any other level. The show delved into the lives of the two main characters and thats what made it interesting. The stories for each episode where also well written with interesting guest stars who were good actors. And of course there was a lot of action and intrigue which is always good. But what was great was that there was humour, and it flowed naturally from the characters, it didn't appear contrived. It was British but in a good way, and if this show was made in America it would no doubt be on DVD by now. I don't know why British TV production companies are not interested in releasing this show on DVD. It was a great show and deserves a DVD release.

This short-lived quality action drama series deserved a better fate, but sadly suffered for being either 10 years too early or 15 years too late. Its heritage is the classic UK commercial TV action shows of the 1970s and early 1980s, like the Avengers or the Professionals, cross-bred with the classic espionage world of Deighton and le Carre and updated for the touchy-feely mid-1990s. The result was a show with gun-toting super-cops tumbling away from exploding cars, who still worried about missing their daughter's birthday, while thin-lipped middle-aged men made tough decisions, compromised their principles, and regretted necessary betrayals. Too late to surf the original wave of home-grown action classics and over before it could enjoy the current curious renewed popularity of the slick spy caper, it's my sad duty to report Bodyguards was a better show than many of them. It might suffer now because it relies quite heavily on the tensions and narrative conventions of cold war spy fiction, but somewhere there's a pilot movie and six 50 minute episodes of a more intelligent than average TV show which deserves a DVD release.

It's very easy to figure out why The New Professionals was a dud, at least in New Zealand: it didn't just follow in the footsteps of the original, it followed Bodyguards, which out-Professionaled the show considerably with its boss-and-two-agents formula. Cmdr McIntyre was a latter-day George Cowley: tough on his team, but one who would defend them to the death against others. The shadow the show cast was huge.

Well, not as huge as it should have been in the UK. Here, it was networked in prime-time. It was even marketed in the promos as, 'They are the professionals.' Someone else obviously noticed the difference. We were fortunate enough not to have this show released in different regions at different time slots.

It was the high production values that sealed the deal for me. As other reviewers have noted, it followed the great British tradition of the one-hour actioner, but blended in personal elements at the same time. There's a slight undercurrent of something developing between Liz and Ian, though that never distracted one from the real plot. Most episodes were based around inflammatory diplomatic incidents, the sort of thing that helps Spooks along from time to time.

Unlike many 2000s shows, the plot was not sacrificed at the expense of fancy-pants photography or over-stylish direction. Directors like Christopher Young kept the pace up and did their job. They made use of good locations, making Bodyguards slicker than if it had been shot on back roads and alleyways. It was contemporary, it would still stand up beautifully today, and it was one of the better examples of the British actioner in the 1990s, showing that the UK can still do them better than anyone else.

Maybe except for the Germans and their Cobra 11.

I watched 2 and a half episodes last night from a video tape I got many years ago. if I'm honest I found them rather predictable. because it is based around people who protect politicians and the like, therefore the scriptwriters do what I consider as "predictable" i.e. they invent a plot that inevitably leads to a politician being the target of a hit-man. but because the script writers know that to simply write a script which ends with a politician being shot, would be boring. so they decide to invent a plot which involves the bodyguard and his wife and young daughter, being held captive by a foreign couple who then attempt to manipulate the bodyguard by saying that unless he cooperates and leads the politician into a situation where he can be shot, the bodyguard's wife and daughter will be shot. the body guard then "predictably" feels stressed but decides to cooperate. there after things become even more predictable i.e. "the commander" decides that they should try to find and if necessary kill the hit man before he can kill the politician. that was obviously designed to create a feeling of "tension" but in my opinion it doesn't work and by this point it is difficult to take it seriously. anyway the plot ends with the wife of the bodyguard being shot. and before the episode ends we get to see the bodyguard "going through the motions" but again its too predictable and just lacks "realism" and feels rushed because don't forget that each episode lasts for 60 minutes, therefore everything feels rushed. it doesn't work in my opinion. this was a good opportunity to set a new standard because up till 1996 most British "cop shows" didn't focus on bodyguards who protect members of state. and so when "bodyguards" was created it was fresh and new. but the plot, script, and directing let down what could and should have been a good series. therefore its not surprising it only ran from 1996 to 1997.

When this was first shown I thought it was great and still do. It was an all action series the likes of which have not been seen since classics like The Professionals. It depicts a team of DPS officers (Diplomatic protection service), a special part of the police force and through the six episodes show some of the cases they worked on and the regular brushes with death by would be assassins. I thought the cast was great particularly Sean Pertwee and Louise Lombard and the scripts very good. I am still disappointed that the series was canned after the first series. I am also disappointed that Carlton haven't made it available on DVD yet. A missed opportunity... come on guys.