Bodyguards

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.

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.

Without doubt a great all round show that if shown today would attract a huge following.Bodyguards was only 6 episodes and a trailer,but deserved a few more series to really bring it up-to speed.With outstanding performances from the highly talented and versatile Sean Pertwee and the dynamic Louise Lombard,it really did put it up with the likes of the Proffesionals,The Sweeney and Thief Takers.The story lines are based on the Diplomatic Protection Services and with great filming and story lines and scene locations,it stood out from some of the junk that gets churned by other TV production companies.I do not think that it has been shown on terrestrial TV either,such as Sky or Freeview,witch is a shame as if it were to be shown nowadays,i am sure it would get a large viewing audience.So i hope one day the guys at Carlton TV decide to release it on DVD,cheers,Nick.

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.