Talk:The Professionals (TV series)

Dreadfully confused
Especially the bit about driving under 'Controversy'. It's pointless to list repeat screenings, as they keep repeating all the time (e.g. it's being shown now in 2019). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.97.118.106 (talk) 21:55, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Rumours
I removed this addition:-
 * It is rumored that it wasn't until someone pointed out to him that royalties that would go to the wife of the by-then deceased Gordon Jackson, would considerably help her out financially, that Shaw finally relented.

Maybe I misunderstood the person's use of, but it sounds like they added something when they seriously doubted it themselves. There's nothing wrong with adding rumours, if they're widespread and their status is made clear. OTOH, it has to be verifiable that the rumour exists (regardless of its truthfulness) and is reasonably widespread. So, is it the existence of the rumour that's in dispute, or the fact itself? Fourohfour 13:04, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * It's fair enough that is was removed, as the way in which I presented it was a little dodgy. But I heard it mentioned on a documentary about the series, and can't for the life of me place which one. I was hoping that someone else could. Maybe it can be re-added if someone can recall where it was exactly. =) (forgot to sign! not my day, is it!) Jay Firestorm 15:23, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh well, I see what you're saying. Thanks anyway! Fourohfour 13:15, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Guns section
From a technical stand point (as anyone who knows anything about firearms will know), the guns section made no sense, so I've removed it. -- Pauric ( talk-contributions ) 21:09, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Written by somebody in CI5?
There's a bit of within-fictional-universe perspective here, especially in the character bios. Following copied from Talk:Obi-Wan Kenobi:
 * Rewrite with an out-of-universe perspective Manual of Style (writing about fiction)Nankai 20:58, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Doylecowleybodie.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 08:04, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

3-7 to 4-5
Bodie was 3-7 and Bodie was 4-5 in radio communications, how this can be confirmed would take more research. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.74.225.2 (talk) 13:41, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Trivia section
Removed the following, as it's been tagged for 2 years:

~dom Kaos~ (talk) 16:45, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * In "Medium Rare"—the third episode of the second series of The New Avengers—a character called George Cowley, from accounts, falls and is fatally injured in a set-up designed to frame John Steed. Cowley wears a trenchcoat, a hat, and thick-rimmed glasses, and is similar in appearance to a younger version of the Gordon Jackson character in The Professionals.
 * Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw (Bodie & Doyle) actually appeared in the same episode of The New Avengers ("Obsession") in 1977. Collins made a 'guest appearance'. They did not get on well according to Shaw.
 * The comic book series The Invisibles features a paranormal investigation squad called Division X, staffed by parodies of various 1970s cop and spy characters. It is run by Patrick Crowley, who bears an uncanny resemblance to George Cowley. An unnamed character resembling Doyle also makes an appearance, although he is quickly killed off.
 * The 1980 episode "Blood Sports" featured one-off appearances by Ruby Wax and Pierce Brosnan. When seen in the show, Wax was immediately recognisable playing an American student, and Brosnan was seen in a TV surveillance van. Apparently the payment for that episode went towards Brosnan's first air ticket to the United States.
 * During the 1980s Lewis Collins was considered as a replacement James Bond for Roger Moore after Moore announced his intention to retire from the role. However, Roger Moore continued for a further two Bond films. The role subsequently went to Timothy Dalton.

Novelisations
I suggest there ought to be a Section, or at least reference to, the official paperback novelisations of the series published under the house name 'Ken Blake'.

15 volumes are listed under Kenneth Bulmer who wrote most of them, but I'm not sure if these 15 include the last few done by at least one other sf author after Ken became too ill/dead to finish the series.

Yes, Be Bold, I know, but I'm dashing this off at work. I have most though I think not all of the volumes at home, so I'll think about adding them some time in the future, but I'm not too Wikiliterate and am also pushed for time, so if anyone else cares to. . . . {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 84.21.143.150 (talk) 17:47, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Germany & Czechoslovakia
The 14 episodes that ZDF had withdrawn were broadcasted in 1991 by Sat.1. The episodes with east german background were changed to fictious dictatorships. German terrorism episodes and Klansmen were broadcasted after German reunification. Some episodes has an earlier tv premier than in the UK. Characters spoken in Germany by Edgar Ott (Cowley), Uwe Paulsen (Doyle), Ivar Combrinck (Bodie). Source german book by Werner Schmitz: Die Profis. Auf den Spuren des CI5 – das große Buch zur Serie. Berlin 2006, ISBN 3896027042. 188.108.220.209 (talk) 19:28, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

ČST (the Czechoslovak television), bought 21 episodes between 1981 and 1988. Surprisingly, the episode Klansmen was one of the first to be dubbed in 1981, although with major cuts at the end of the episode. In czech dubbing, Doyle was spoken by Martin Štěpánek (only the episode When the Heat Cools Off) and Alois Švehlík (rest of episodes), Bodie by Petr Oliva and George Cowley by Jiří Adamíra. In 1997, czech TV Nova bought rights to all episodes, and decided to create new dubbing with Karel Heřmánek as Doyle, Petr Oliva reprising the role of Bodie and Otakar Brousek Sr. as Cowley.

Shooting and screening gap
Is there any indication of why some of the episodes were first aired up to two years after they were shot? Filming stopped in 1981, but some of the episodes did not receive their first ITV screening until 1983, which is unusual.-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 16:05, 28 November 2013 (UTC)


 * There were a great deal of rewrites, reshoots, and reordering of episodes right from the start, according to the episode guide on the Authorised Guide To The Professionals website. This was exacerbated when Lewis Collins broke his ankle towards the end of the series 2 shoot, leading that series to be slightly shorter than planned. Two further years of filming saw completed episodes put together to make three more series of varying episode numbers (eight episodes broadcast as series 3, fifteen episodes in broadcast series 4). I get the impression that TPTB at ITV were keen to move on and were taking little interest in the series, feeling it to look dated for the 1980s. Niki2006 (talk) 17:43, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

2014 remastering
The 2014 remastering by Network Distributing was trimmed because it was getting too long and promotional. There are enough external links to explore for the interested reader. This is undoubtedly important, because The Professionals has long been dogged by poor technical quality. Yesterday, I was watching Everest Was Also Conquered from season one on ITV4, and the film quality was very poor and scratchy as per usual. The sample remastering here shows a huge improvement, and is the first time that the show has been fit for a serious DVD and Blu-ray release for a modern audience. Let's hope that someone tells ITV4 and they bin the cruddy old copies of the show that they are currently using.-- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 07:05, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

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