Line #27 YMMV/TheProfessionals


1	!! For the TV series:
2
3	* {{Adorkable}}: Doyle. Yes, he's a badass [=CI5=] agent and ex-copper, but it’s been noted by the fandom that he has a "ridiculously appealing, dorky-looking grin", has moments of tongue-twistedness when talking to women he fancies and the less said about his dancing the better.
4	* 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 marmite episode.
5	* CriticalDissonance: In a Creator/Channel4 documentary on the series, Brian Clemens recalled:
6	-->Well the critics hated it, of course, because it was ever so popular. I mean the public loved it!
7	* {{Fanon}}: The series has quite an impressive array of fanon, including:
8	** 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.
9	** Doyle is moody, inclined to tears, and a vegetarian.
10	** Bodie is a cold-blooded loner, had a terrible childhood, 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. He also has a pretty sophisticated SweetTooth (courtesy of said childhood-either he grew into money but hated it or he grew poor and he's compensating).
11	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The series was a cult hit in Germany and (ironically) Czechoslovakia while it was still communist.
12	* HilariousInHindsight:
13	** Creator/MartinShaw and Lewis Collins were first paired in ''Series/TheNewAvengers'' episode "Obsession". In their final scene together Collins' character says, "Maybe we should work together again sometime? A good team."
14	** In "In The Public Interest", Creator/StephenRea's character says "I'm not a homosexual myself, but [[Film/TheCryingGame many of my friends are]]."
15	* HoYay: Yes, and by the bucket. Modern day fans of the series often have discovered it via old slash zines.
16	* RetroactiveRecognition:
17	** Creator/CharlesDance plays an AmoralAfrikaner in "The Ojuka Situation".
18	** Creator/DavidSuchet leads a gang of mercenaries in "Where the Jungle Ends".
19	** Creator/DavidBradley is one of the bad guys in "Close Quarters".
20	** Creator/MichaelKitchen is a terrorist with a grudge against Doyle in "Runner".
21	** Creator/PierceBrosnan appears in "Blood Sports" as the [=CI5=] agent manning the surveillance van.
22	** Creator/StephenRea runs a gay support group in "In the Public Interest".
23	** Christopher Ellison is the [=CI5=] agent staking out the reservoir in "Private Madness, Public Danger" before he became DCI Frank Burnside in ''Series/TheBill''.
24	** Creator/AlunLewis plays [=McCabe=] in "The Acorn Syndrome" before he played the first Darryl Stubbs in ''Series/BirdsOfAFeather'' and Vic Windsor in ''Series/{{Emmerdale}}''.
25	** Creator/ChristopherFairbank plays Billy in "The Purging of [=CI5=]" before he played Moxey in ''Series/AufWiedersehenPet''.
26	** Creator/GaryWaldhorn plays Turner in "Everest Was Also Conquered" before he played David Horton in ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley''.
27	** Creator/KennethWaller plays a caretaker in "Killer with a Long Arm" before he played Old Mr. Grace in ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' and Grandad in ''Series/{{Bread\|1986}}''.
28	** Creator/MichaelAngelis plays Lew Clarke in "Lawson's Last Stand" before he narrated ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends''.
29	** Creator/PeterPolycarpou plays a waiter in "Discovered in a Graveyard" before he played the second Chris Theodopolopodous in ''Series/BirdsOfAFeather''.
30	** Creator/RobinParkinson plays a taxi driver in "A Stirring of Dust" before he played the third [=LeClerc=] in ''Series/AlloAllo''.
31	** Creator/RogerLloydPack plays Ron Fielding in "Everybody's Business" before he played Trigger in ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' and Owen Newitt in ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley''.
32	** Creator/SuzanneDanielle plays a pretty girl in "Killer with a Long Arm" before she played Emmannuelle Prévert in ''Film/CarryOnEmmannuelle''.
33	** Creator/VickiMichelle plays Jo in "Hunter/Hunted" before she played Yvette Carte-Blanche in ''Series/AlloAllo''.
34	* SpecialEffectsFailure:
35	** In "Slush Fund", a car goes off a cliff in SlowMotion giving a perfect view of the two crash test dummies in the front seat. Even if a short-sighted audience member was fooled, a dummy head falls off for no apparent reason.
36	** It's not unusual to see skid marks on the road ''before'' our heroes do a handbrake turn, from previous takes (see "Need to Know" and "Blood Sports").
37	* SpiritualSuccessor:
38	** 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.
39	** ''The Professionals'' is itself something of a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Series/TheNewAvengers''. 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 ''The Professionals'' more than it resembles ''Series/TheAvengers1960s''. Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw even guest-starred in an episode together.
40	** The series can be seen as ''Series/TheSweeney'' but with spies instead of cops.
41	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: All of the vehicles, weapons and technologies available (and the fashion-''definitely'' the fashions) show that it is all set strictly during TheSeventies, not to mention the many stories that involve the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (and fighting spies straight from UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre) and other things like the Congo brush wars.
42	* ValuesDissonance:
43	** The series' violence and fast driving was highly criticised at the time; later on its sexism.
44	** The [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar use of dum-dum rounds]] in "Mixed Doubles" is portrayed as crossing a MoralEventHorizon for Bodie and Doyle. Nowadays armed police and anti-terrorist units routinely use hollowpoint or other such frangible rounds.
45
46	!! For the Film:

Context YMMV / TheProfessionals