Look After Annie

Directed by veteran Charles Crichton who would be Oscar nominated for A Fish Called Wanda.

I did find the politics all over the place for this one. I mean a left wing evangelist who is hot in the USA!

Annie Irvine is a Christian evangelist with left wing links and big in the USA.

She has had a failed assassination attempt in the past. When she returns to Britain for an event, Cowley increases security while a fascist group organise a protest against her.

Bodie and Doyle find out that Annie is an old flame of Cowley. When Cowley visits her with some opera tickets he seems to be put out that Annie is close to one of her entourage who just happens to be a black man.

As Cowley talks to one of the fascist organisers, it seem the danger to Annie is from within her circle.

Some of the episode was overambitious and really did not work. Archive footage of right wing marches mixed with this episode just did not look right. When Annie is running away from the bad guys she comes across no police or demonstrators who are all supposed to be nearby.

Also CI5 needs to look into its security detail. All the bad guys and their shooters were in the building all along.

That was the end of the first series of The Professionals. There was a 13th episode that was never broadcast because it had such a clunky anti racism message. It revealed Bodie to be a racist which Lewis Collins was unhappy about. Lewis Collins did a marathon charity run with mixed race former world boxing champion John Conteh in 1980 with both of them carrying an army backpack.

What made the show a hit was the chemistry between Shaw and Collins, simply effortless. Ironic as it seems that the two actors may not had got on well with each other. Shaw had a desire to be a serious thespian while Collins wanted to be the next James Bond.

Controversial evangelist Annie Irvine - self-proclaimed leader of the Workers' Christian Alliance - brings her tour back to the UK from America, with plans for a highly-charged public performance at a provincial theatre. Cowley enlists Bodie & Doyle to take care of her security - aware that two years' earlier she was the victim of a failed assassination attempt. It soon transpires that not only is she an old flame of Cowley's - but also that the threats to her life may come from a source closer to home than thought.

This episode is unusual in that it explores some aspects of Cowley's past and his love life, much to the amusement of a smirking Bodie and Doyle - providing some much-needed comic relief, & some of the story's most memorable moments.

A big drawback though are the scenes of rioters in the streets using rather obvious stock news footage (and also clips from the 1972 film 'All Coppers Are...'), and does require some suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer!

But, that aside, it's not a bad episode, though maybe not exactly one of the 'classics'. It livens up considerably in the third act as Annie is left exposed and running for her life in the streets - with CI5 desperately trying to find and protect her.

It's interesting in that it's directed by veteran Charles Chrichton, & he does a serviceable job. Changes of course would soon be on the way for season two, with a more gritty, realistic and authentic approach that would take the whole series up a notch as it headed towards the 1980s.