History Main / TheProfessionals

* And neither should be confused with ''Film.TheProfessional''.

[[quoteright:333:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_professionals_uk-show_2102.jpg]]

-->''"Fight fire with fire!"''
-->-- '''Cowley'''

The Professionals was a British TV ActionSeries made from 1977 to 1983. The show follows the adventures of [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Criminal Intelligence 5]] ([=CI5=]) agents William Bodie, Ray Doyle, and their boss George Cowley. [=CI5=] deals with serious crime beyond the capacity of the police, and are authorized to use any means (including illegal ones) to do so. Being a typical show [[TheSeventies of the times]], much of the action centres around girls, guns, car chases, and drinking. It was a major inspiration of the Japanese manga ''{{Appleseed}}'' and its sequels, such as ''[[GhostInTheShell Ghost in the Shell]]''.

There was a revival (''[=CI5=]: The New Professionals'' in 1999), which wasn't warmly received. To put it politely.

It's [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1370843/Seventies-crime-series-The-Professionals-007-treatment-big-screen.html rumoured that there's a remake being made]], prompting a collective BigNo from the fandom.

The main characters:
* Bodie is an [[Main/PrivateMilitaryContractors ex-mercenary]] who was also in the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships SAS.]] He has [[DeadpanSnarker a smart remark for every occasion,]] and is [[BloodKnight perpetually cool under fire.]]
* Doyle is an [[BritishCoppers ex-policeman]] who dresses like [[MiamiVice Sonny Crockett]]'s scruffy British cousin. He's got a worse [[HotBlooded temper]] than Bodie, and is more [[TheIdealist idealistic.]]
* Cowley is an [[CoolOldGuy ex-army officer]] and veteran of several wars, including WorldWarII. He's a dour Scotsman who [[DaChief barks roughly at his underlings]], but of course always defends them to the hilt.

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!! Contains examples of:

* ArmedBlag
* BizarroEpisode: "Discovered in a Graveyard" - Doyle is in a coma and has an entire episode's worth of weird, disjointed memories/dreams. It is something of a [[LoveItOrHateIt marmite episode.]]
* BuddyCopShow
* CarpetOfVirility: Both Bodie and Doyle display man clevage on various occasion, as was mandatory for MrFanservice characters in TheSeventies.
* TheCasanova: Bodie and Doyle. Doyle even says of Bodie in "Fall Girl", 'If he was going to the electric chair, he'd have Miss Universe pulling the switch.' Which is [[HypocriticalHumor a bit of a cheek coming from him.]]
* CasualDangerDialogue: Bodie and Doyle raise this to the level of art!
* ChaseScene / CardboardBoxes / FruitCart
* CockFight: The lads do like to jokingly scrap over women, but it's never serious. [[FoeYay (There may be a reason for this.) ]]
* ColdWar: The protagonists regularly had brushes with [[MoscowCentre the KGB]] and other Eastern European intelligence agencies.
* CoolCar: Bodie and Doyle’s Ford Capris (used in the later episodes) qualify, and are part of the reason for the Capri's real-life cult status. In early episodes they drove a Triumph [=TR7=], which was either cool or naff depending on your tolerance for mid-70s wedgy styling.
* CoolShades: Doyle.
* CowboyCop: Subverted as their tactics are fully authorised by Cowley, though they do disobey his orders on occasion.
* CulturedBadass: Bodie, Doyle and Cowley can all rattle off poetry as easily as they can win bar brawls.
* DirtyCop
* DoWeHaveThisOne: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Collins Lewis Collins]], who played Bodie, actually ''qualified'' to join the SAS. He only remained an actor because his career made him too famous for covert operations.
* DoubleAgent
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Doyle's scruffy suit jacket/jeans combo and Bodie's leather jackets took about half a season to become their standard looks. They each wear all kinds of weird seventies fashions in early episodes. They also initally drive a Triumph [=TR7=], before settling into the iconic Ford Capri. A few early episodes have a strange title sequence that seems to feature Cowley getting the lads to do some kind of fitness test. A few other episodes have Cowley doing a voiceover ("anarchy, terror...") over the more familar and far cooler title sequence with the car [[SheetOfGlass bursting through a window]].
* EvilCounterpart: In "Mixed Doubles" Bodie and Doyle undergo special training with a brutal instructor in order to protect a foreign diplomat. At the same time we follow two men undergoing a similar program, who are planning his assasination. The two teams don't share a NotSoDifferent moment (though they do help each other out during a pub brawl) but it's certainly implied.
* ExcuseMeWhileIMultiTask: In "The Female Factor" Bodie fights a drunk in a pub without spilling the pint in his hand.
* {{Fanon}}: TheProfessionals has quite an impressive array of fanon, including:
** The reason the sets are always different for Bodie and Doyle's respective flats every time we see them is that [=CI5=] maintains a number of flats which it's agents live in, and they move their agents around regularly.
** Doyle is moody, inclined to tears, and a vegetarian.
** Bodie is a cold-blooded loner, had a terrible childood, had a hellish experience being a mercenary in Africa, was rescued from it by Cowley and therefore looks up to Cowley as a father figure.
* FingertipDrugAnalysis
* {{Flashback}}: "When The Heat Cools Off" has mulitiple flashbacks to 1971 when Doyle was still a uniform policeman.
* GetAHoldOfYourselfWoman: In "Close Quarters" Bodie slaps his HystericalWoman GirlOfTheWeek Julie. A particularly nasty bit of ValuesDissonance that thankfully never reoccurs. (He ''never'' hits Doyle, who (a) would shrug it off if he did and (b) is frequently far ruder to Bodie than Julie is.)
* GirlOfTheWeek: Bodie and Doyle never have the same girl for more than one episode. Generally, if the girl is blonde she'll be dumb and annoying. If she's brunette, she will be mildly intelligent, but still in need of looking after. Most notable Girls of the Week are Ann in "Involvement" (Doyle's girlfriend) and [[TemporaryLoveInterest Marikka in "Fall Girl"]] (Bodie's girlfriend).
* GlassesPull: Cowley does this all the time with his specs.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: A major appeal of the series is the [[WittyBanter bantering friendship]] between Bodie and Doyle, two men who would kill and die for each other, which of course is fertile ground for...
* [[HoYay/LiveActionTV Ho Yay]]: A long-time favourite for {{Slash}} writers, even without [[MrFanservice Bodie and Doyle's]] tendency to [[http://kiwisue.livejournal.com/69429.html?style=mine&mode=reply camp it up on occasion]]. TheComicStripPresents parodied this in "The Bullshitters", with 'Bonehead' and 'Foyle' resolving their burning sexual tension before the final shootout by [[ShirtlessScene getting shirtless]] and snogging each other while rolling around in a pile of gravel.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Most notably The Lady.
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Invoked by Doyle when Bodie was about to kill the man who killed [[spoiler: a woman he loved.]] This is sheer EarlyInstallmentWeirdness - thankfully Doyle never has such a tedious bout of sancitmony again.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: For "Professionals" their habit of [[GiveMeASword tossing loaded guns to each other]] is somewhat disturbing. On one occasion Cowley does this with a rifle, and when Doyle winces points out that he knew the safety was on. As a former soldier Cowley should have known that safeties can be unreliable.
** Even part of a nuclear bomb gets thrown about.
* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne
-->'''Bodie:''' "Permission to be admiringly insolent, sir. You're a brave old bastard."
-->'''Cowley:''' "Permission denied. Anyway, it's inaccurate. I'm not brave."
* JiveTurkey
* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: [=CI5=] use exactly the kind of tactics condemned by Royal Commissions into police misconduct, but it's OK because they [[MoralDissonance only use them against bad people]]. Their limits are best lampshaded in the episode "In the Public Interest" where Bodie and Doyle investigate a town where the police are cracking down on crime and "immoral behaviour" by extralegal means, such as planting evidence and roughing up members of a gay support group. Bodie and Doyle eventually gain evidence of the latter, and when the main culprit decides to murder them to avoid prison, another officer steps in and arrests him, as murder is going too far.
* LaserSight: The intimidation factor of a "laser-lock" sight (at the time a cutting-edge technology) is a major theme in the episode "Hunter/Hunted".
* LastNameBasis: Bodie is always Bodie -- never William, Bill, etc. We only know it because his full name was stated once, in "The Rack".
* MissingEpisode: "Klansmen" has to this day never been shown on British terrestrial television, and only once on cable television in 1997 (in a bizarre aversion of the NoExportForYou trope, it ''has'' been shown in other countries).
* ManlyTears: When Bodie is knifed in "Klansmen", Ray weeps openly as he walks beside Bodie's hospital gurney.
* UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar: In "Mixed Doubles" both good guys and bad guys debate whether to use dum-dum bullets, despite the fact that the Hague Convention doesn't apply to civilian law enforcement.
* MrFanservice: Young women in that period generally fancied one of Bodie and Doyle.
* NotSoFakePropWeapon: One episode centred around a gun used in a crime being dumped in the prop bin of a theatre company.
* OddCouple: Hot-headed idealist Doyle versus cold-blooded Bodie.
* OldFashionedCopper
* OldFlame: Cowley's old love Annie in "Look After Annie". (Yes, Cowley had a GirlOfTheWeek, don't [[{{Fainting}} faint with amazement.)]]
* OldShame: Martin Shaw (who played Doyle) blocked re-runs for years, only relenting after the death of Gordon Jackson (Cowley) so his widow could benefit.
* PerpSweating: Lots of this, usually EnhancedInterrogationTechniques.
-->'''Cowley:''' "You hear me Mr Sutton? Names. A name. I don't suppose you fought in the war, Mr Sutton. No. I fought in several. The worst was against a... a barbaric race. But the British are nothing if not adaptable. We learned barbarism very quickly. We had a problem one day. Was the road ahead mined? We had prisoners but they wouldn't talk. So we bound them and made them lead the advance. They didn't think we would, not at first. But then the first man ahead was gone. Like that. An antipersonnel mine is a very nasty thing, Mr Sutton, very nasty. And then the second man. And the third. And ''then'' they talked. ''Then'' they knew we meant it. A shocking story. It shocked me at the time and it still shocks me. But it was necessary to save hundreds of lives, it was necessary. I'm willing to be shocked again if necessary. I'm going to hoist you with your own petard, Mr Sutton. I'm going to turn you into an addict. A crash course in addiction because we have access to the purest stuff. A craving, crawling do-anything-for-money junkie. Look at me Sutton. Look at me! Remember the road that was mined. Do you have any doubt at all that I intend doing what I say?"
* PornStache: Fortunately not worn by any of the main characters, but regularly seen on guest characters. And not always villains, either.
* PrettyInMink: In "The Female Factor", the location of a dead prostitute's mink coat is a clue.
* ProductPlacement: The Cars -- British Leyland for half the first season, Ford for the rest of the show. It worked for Ford, less so for BL.
* [[BarBrawl Pub Brawl]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: "The Madness of Mickey Hamilton" - a grieving widower blames medical staff for his wife's death, and goes on a killing spree.
* RedShirt: The three main characters have ContractualImmortality but pity any other [=CI5=] agent who turns up, because there's a fairly high chance [[AlwaysMale he'll]] snuff it before the end of the episode. ([[AlwaysMale This doesn't apply]] to the staggeringly rare occasions we see a woman agent.)
* {{Room 101}}
* RogueAgent
* RuleOfCool: Martin Shaw (who'd done research into tactics used by the SAS) complained about scenes where they'd be silhouetted in doorways. The producer replied that [[RealityIsUnrealistic few people would know it was a stupid idea anyway]].
* TheSeventies: Polyester suits! Wide ties! Brown coloured everything! Perms and afros! Sideburns! Disco!
* SeventiesHair: Doyle's perm, which kind of looks like it's supposed to be a white guy version of an afro. (Luckily for Lewis Collins, Bodie just has a sensible short back and sides, presumably because Bodie is an ex-soldier.)
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: There are female agents in [=CI5=], but we only see them if required for a particular episode.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Do NOT call Mr Cowley 'Cowley' within his earshot. He will be...displeased.
* SpiritualSuccessor: The short-lived 1984 Australian series ''Special Squad''. And in the late 1990's a revival series, ''[=CI5=]: The New Professionals'', was produced for Sky One. It starred Edward Woodward as Cowley's successor and had a British/American pairing for the two agents, but was not a success.
** TheProfessionals is itself something of a SpiritualSuccessor to [[Series/TheAvengers The New Avengers]]. Both were created by Brian Clemens, and The New Avengers is noticibly more of a [[TheSeventies Seventies]] ActionSeries than a [[TheSixties Sixties]] SpyDrama. The New Avengers actually resembles TheProfessionals more than it resembles [[Series/TheAvengers The Avengers]]. Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw even guest-starred in an episode together.
* StatusQuoIsGod: Nothing ever changes from episode to episode. The relationships between the characters remain exactly the same, there is no story arc, and no-one is ever upset about the events from a previous episode. Therefore, everyone is [[AngstWhatAngst remarkably unangsty]], and there is no complicated backstory you have to know about. Which makes TheProfessionals [[TropesAreNotBad pleasantly uncomplicated viewing.]]
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece
* UnguidedLabTour: The episode "Involvement" features Doyle's girlfriend wandering into the top secret [=CI5=] headquarters and eavesdropping on an interrogation.
* VerySpecialEpisode: ("Klansmen") Bodie's life is saved by a black doctor despite his [[CompressedVice racist abuse]], while members of white supremacy organisations are portrayed as ignorant thugs being manipulated by right-wing politicans and crooked businessmen for their own ends. The episode is banned in Britain for its racist content.
** ("In The Public Interest") Bodie and Doyle go undercover when a gay youth counselling centre is attacked by masked men. [[HoYay/LiveActionTV They don't behave any differently towards each other than they normally do.]]