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The Professionals

Year:

1977

Duration:

50 min (57 episodes)

Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

IMDB rate:

8.2

Details

Country: UK

Release Date: 1977-12-30

Filming Locations: Beckton Gasworks, Beckton, London, England, UK

Cast

Actor

Character

Alice Krige

Nick Brimble

Trevor Adams

Steve Alder

Timothy Carlton

Lewis Collins

The Professionals

Felicity Dean

Lisa Harrow

Lise Hilboldt

Oona Kirsch

Sylvestra Le Touzel

Keith Marsh

Mitzi Rogers

Carol Royle

Gary Waldhorn

Diana Weston

Maggie Wright

Gillian Duxbury

Gordon Jackson

George Cowley

Martin Shaw

Doyle

Did you know?

Trivia

Original choices for the lead roles were Clive Revill (Cowley), Jon Finch (Doyle) and Anthony Andrews (Bodie). Andrews had already completed three days filming when he was replaced.

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In the series, all CI5 agents used numerical radio call signs. Bodie was Three-Seven, and Doyle Four-Five.

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Episode The Professionals: Klansmen (1977), in which black people are harassed by a group that has modelled itself on the Ku Klux Klan, was banned and never shown in the UK because of its racial content.

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Quotes

George Cowley: 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.

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Faq

Why were the original actors playing Bodie and Doyle replaced?

Jon Finch was originally cast as Doyle but withdrew at the last moment as he did not wish to play an ex-police officer (ironically Finch was a former member of The Parachute Regiment and SAS, mirroring Bodie's background perfectly). He was replaced by Martin Shaw but when filming began the series' creator Brian Clemens felt that Anthony Andrews playing Bodie lacked chemistry with Shaw and that the two looked too similar. Andrews was dropped and replaced with Lewis Collins who had appeared together with Shaw in an episode of Clemen's previous series, The New Avengers.

Were any of the stories based on real life?

Yes, 'Hijack' where a consigment of East German silver is stolen was based on a real robbery in the early 80s. The character of Krivas in 'Where the Jungle Ends' is based on Costas Geirgiou, a notorious Greek-Cypriot mercenary from the Angolan civil war. The ' group in 'At Close Quarters' is clearly based on the German Baader Meinhoff terrorist group (also known as the 'Red Army Faction') and the assassins in 'Long Shot' and 'Mixed Doubles' are extremely similar to infamous international terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez aka Carlos the Jackal.

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