Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Various, Via Vision Entertainment.
Cast: Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins.
The golden era of police drama was represented in the 1970s – or so it’s said. That was when gimmicks were obvious in shows, with police appearing as super cops who single-handedly fought dishonesty to get justice. Over the decades, there have been many changes with more diversity and changes, some due to do with complex dynamics.
Then deeper storylines emerged with an emphasis on law and order. Now, cable networks have allowed police drama to push the limits of television by depicting the police in a more lifelike fashion. One of the earlier shows that made its presence felt was a British crime-action television series, The Professionals. It aired from 1977 to 1983, and was described as “brilliant, controversial, fast-paced, infamous, hard-hitting, all-action, explosive”. For the era of its release, it certainly was.
This long-running cult drama produced 57 episodes over five seasons. They have been digitally remastered and are available as a 22-disc set in this complete collection.
The adventures of Criminal Intelligence 5 (CI5) sees boss George Cowley (Jackson) trying hard to keep his agents in line: Ray Doyle (Shaw) and William Bodie (Collins).
As he puts it: “Anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I’ve got special men – experts from the Army, the Police – from every service. These are The Professionals.”
Cowley describes the team as “The Action Squad, The Big A, The Squad! There are half a dozen names for the one job prevention…” C15 agents are trained to detect and take action. That they do – their commitment is solid. As well, their distinctly human characteristics are on display, with real emotions and flaws.
Each episode is a self-contained story, overarching a multitude of storylines, all of which are reasonable. The very first episode is titled ‘Private Madness Public Danger’ and it deals with a rogue biochemist, who threatens to poison London’s water supply with a powerful hallucinogenic drug unless the government ceases all research into chemical warfare.
Other storylines include Soviet agents using a “honey trap” in an attempt to extort state secrets from an ambitious politician; an Israeli government minister is kidnapped on a visit to London; and CI5’s headquarters are being bombed and its agents assassinated.
This iconic series is worth checking out.
