The Professionals - Remastered Season 3 [DVD]

Brian Clemens created some of the most successful programmes on British television, The Professionals being one of them. The nostalgia factor probably has an effect on how you view this series. Weekend nights in front of the box watching this was essential for me as a young lad. Then next day I'd be out on my bike arguing with my friend about who was going to be Bodie as we acted out the latest episode. Sorry, Doyle but the perm was too much even back then. Is that why he wasn't keen on tv re-runs?
This is high quality tv the like of which we just don't see any more. Saturday night now means Ant and Dec or some similar "entertainment".
The Professionals was not without its critics. I feel the problem arises when people treat the subject matter too seriously - this was escapist nonsense and even I knew that back in 1977. The Professionals were the good guys and the baddies were clearly bad guys. There was lots of shooting, screeching of tyres in a great selection of British cars and a few "birds" thrown in for good measure.
This series contains 14 episodes on four discs.
Rumours are rife that a new film is going to be made. Do yourself a favour and watch this instead in all its un-PC glory.

This season of The Professionals has a good selection of stories, some predictable and some clever. Most of all though, it's the interaction between the three main characters that's the best! Also, how they drive cars, the guns and the fights!!! Great entertainment, great pace, good stories and great characters. Forget modern stuff, be retro, watch The Professionals! Just try to stop yourself from humming the theme music!

Series three of the great show The Professionals continues the now established and successful adventures of CI5 with Cowley, Doyle and Bodie.
The entire Third series is presented nicely in this excellent DVD set. The Professionals is an exciting series from the 1970s. The DVD sets of all four seasons are excellent. This third series is very good.

The Professionals had been created by Albert Fennel and Brain Clemens after a long history in British TV with successful series in like The Avengers in the 1960s and The New Avengers a couple of years earlier. They had used the same composer, Laurie Johnson to compose the music for those shows and now again for the Professionals. Series one and two each had 14 episodes of which one episode from series one had not been screened.
This new season Three also has 14 episodes, all of which were transmitted. The series was produced by Raymond Menmuir.
Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens and composer Laurie Johnson had worked together in the 1960s and together had created MK1 productions to make the New Avengers. The same team as MK1 productions now produced The Professionals.

Criminal Intelligence 5, or CI5 is a special branch of British Law that deals with crime of a serious nature that go beyond the capability of the police. It is a Unit that is instructed by the Home Secretary.
CI5 is fictitious but it enabled the writers to give our heroes a wide variety of situations to deal with.
It has similar appearance to the real MI5 or CID but being fictitious also gave the show more artistic licence that the portrayal of the Flying Squad in The Sweeney. CI5 deal with espionage, cold war problems, terrorists, civil unrest, and large-scale crime.

The head of CI5 is George Cowley, a no nonsense leader that believes in fighting fire with fire. His best agents are Ray Doyle (Martin Shaw), a softer more caring but hot headed ex detective constable who has worked the tough parts of London, and William Bodie (Lewis Collins) who is an ex paratrooper and SAS sergeant with a calmer but tough attitude.

Doyle, (Played brilliantly by Martin Shaw) was a former detective constable that had worked in tough parts of London. Cowley, head of CI5 had recruited him to work with Bodie. Doyle is an expert shot and used to run a Karate class for kids on his beat. He likes cooking, football, art, music and women.

There are a number of cars featured in the series. Some are from British Leyland in the early series, with some Rover models, some Triumph models, a Leyland Princess and a Dolomite Spirit. Later series feature cars by Ford with the Capri, Granada, Escort and Cortina.

Series three has some interesting stories. There are stories about spies, double agents, more terrorists, undercover work to find out whom an assassin was intending to kill, Drug smugglers and a violent motorcycle gang. We also see an excellent episode, "Mixed doubles" where Bodie and Doyle get intensive training to stop a soon to be assassination attempt. Unknowns to them the two assassins are getting equal intensive training to carry out the assassination. There is another episode where there is a killer who is targeting CI5 agents. And another episode where Bodie and Doyle take their girlfriends away for the weekend but find themselves in danger from a fugitive and armed gang.
This series is one of the best of all the four seasons with some great plot lines, production and acting.

The show was often criticised for its violence even though there is little blood seen. There are scenes of fast chases, car chases, fist fights, shootings, martial arts and asphyxiation however.
The show was also criticised for its "political incorrectness" for use of so called sexist and racist terms.
The controversy and disagreement about its suitability for screening led to the show being blocked for repeating on terrestrial television for over two decades.

This DVD set contains all of the shows from the third series. It is uncut. And has been digitally re mastered. The picture quality is not that great but it is ok but any problem is down to the age of the material. The series is spread over four DVD discs and they are neatly displayed in a good fold out box. It is a great series from a by gone age. It is most enjoyable.