I professionals

'The Professionals' came into being at a time when the media was obsessed with secret services, specialist divisions, gun crime, and terrorism. For five years this expensive LWT series had a prime time slot just after the watershed and entertained us with its mix of violence, cars, guns, and sexist banter.

Lewis Collins (Bodie) and Martin Shaw (Doyle) became household names in their portrayals of the laconic, cynical, and fearless agents who saved the day from grenade-carriers, gunmen, and gangsters. Gordon Jackson as Cowley, their boss, had another plum TV role and was perfect in it. Sexist and silly the series may have been, but it has perhaps stood up better than other crime programmes made in the late 1970s.

Curtailed too soon because of the mood of the time, 'The Professionals' still looks good when viewed today, and enjoys re-runs on one of the many digital TV channels.

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.

As a young boy in the early 1980s, The Professionals was arguably the 'adult' programme I acted out the most with my friends. The names Bodie and Doyle were on the tips of our tongues as we strove to emulate their diving around, car chases (on our bikes) and shoot outs. The characters and the theme tune were always going to be etched in my memory for life.

However, it's only through the reruns over the last decade or so, on ITV 4, that I've gained a proper perspective on the show, albeit a show that was very much of its time. And by golly, how times have changed.

If you haven't seen The Professionals for many years, it may take an episode or two to adjust your mindset to the 80's scenery and values. Once you do, it is understandable why it was so popular with then audiences.

First of all, and vitally important, a superb theme tune. Still one of the best after all these years, with accompanying images that really whet the appetite. Secondly, both leads (Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins) are likeable and very much the sort of guys I still wish I was, dishing out the justice to the bad guys in a manly way, making the ladies swoon and still with enough time to splash on the Old Spice. Bodie the more rugged of the two, more brutal and blunt than Doyle who was the more emotional of the pairing (although pretty much everybody was more emotional than Bodie).

The action is hard and raw, there's plenty of it, and there's none of the sugary sweetness that spoilt some of the US cop shows of the time. The Professionals also wasn't afraid to end on a low note. One example, 'Operation Susie', sees a woman (played by a young Alice Krige) that Bodie and Doyle are protecting at a safe house, shot dead in the final moments. The episode ends with a few words from Bodie, as he and Doyle look down at her lifeless body.

London of the time, initially enduring and then recovering from the economic decline of the 70s, was a perfect backdrop for the car chases and shoot outs. The show benefitted from the derelict buildings and disused land around the city at the time, and knew how to use it to help ramp up the tension.

Overall, a well-made, enjoyable and iconic show from a bygone era. Cue theme tune.

"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.

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.