The BEST episodes of The Professionals
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
The Professionals (1977 - 1983) - "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." - George Cowley. The Professionals was one of British television's most popular and successful action series of the 1970s and 80s. At their peak in 1980 The Pros were earning as many as 17.6 million viewers. The Professionals began life in early 1977, provisionally titled The A-Squad, in an idea conceived by Brian Clemens, the then head of the independent TV company Avengers Mark I Productions. His aim was to create a rival for Thames television's hugely successful long-running police series The Sweeney. Bodie, Doyle and Cowley could have looked very different to how we remember them as. A number of very different actors were considered for the three central roles, with neither of the final chosen team being the original choices. The final three were more or less drafted in when the first choice stars either declined or were axed. Gordon Jackson (formerly the distinctly unmenacing Butler Hudson in Upstairs Downstairs) and Martin Shaw (whose first TV appearance was as a hippie in 1960s Coronation Street) were first to be cast. During the filming of the first episode, Old Dog with New Tricks Bodie was in fact played by Anthony Andrews. Unfortunately, old mates Shaw and Andrews spent much of the time cracking up with laughter - hardly a recipe for ensuring the renowned edgy banter between the two leads. Lewis Collins (best known by this time as Gavin Rumsey in comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz) was brought in to play Bodie, with Andrews being given the heave-ho. Collins and Shaw had previously worked together just months earlier in an episode of The New Avengers, and were cast alongside each other again thanks to the 'sparky, abrasive' on-screen partnership that they generated. In other words, they didn't particularly like each other! But with the central cast c
#1 - Private Madness, Public Danger
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/30/1977
Charles Nesbitt, an expert on chemical weapons, threatens to contaminate the water sources of London with a lethal hallucogenic drug and in order to back up his claims, plans several small 'demonstrations' in warning to the local authorities - including CI5.
#2 - Hunter/Hunted
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/7/1978
Cowley assigns Doyle to test a brand new high-tech laser beam rifle. But the rifle is stolen from his flat and the thief decides to 'test' it on Doyle, sending him on a cat-and-mouse chase around London.
#3 - The Female Factor
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/6/1978
An Iron Curtain agent is using a young girl to extort secrets from, and ultimately destroy the career of, a future British Prime Minister, unaware that the girl is the long-lost daughter of a well-known local prostitute.
#4 - A Man Called Quinn
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/30/1983
A former colleague of Cowley's who is now a patient in a mental hospital reappears in London, going on the run when he believes that the KGB have drugged him.
#5 - Involvement
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/28/1980
In the midst of a shoot-out during a drugs smuggling investigation, Doyle meets and falls for Ann Holly, only to discover that CI5 suspect her of being closely linked to the scam herself.
#6 - Discovered in a Graveyard
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/5/1982
Whilst investigating a bombing plot Doyle is shot and left for dead in his flat, and as the hospital fights to save his life, he seems unable to decide whether he wants to live or die...meanwhile, Bodie goes on a chase to find Doyle's assailant.
#7 - The Untouchables
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/16/1983
Bodie is offered the opportunity to clear up all his gambling debts by a foreign diplomat - who in exchange wants to have some vital secrets from CI5.
#8 - Killer With a Long Arm
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/20/1978
CI5 become aware that an assassination plot on a group of visiting Greek Royals is being planned using a rifle that has a range of over two miles. But they must find out who is the gunman and what is his target - before it is too late.
#9 - Kickback
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/20/1980
Bodie and Keller, an old acquaintance from his days in the SAS, go undercover in order to trap a would-be assassin by posing as hitmen offering to do the job themselves - in order to fake the killing. But Keller turns out to have an ulterior motive.
#10 - Mixed Doubles
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/7/1980
Bodie and Doyle are undergoing intense training in preparation for an assignment where they are protecting a foreign official...at the same time, two potential killers are receiving similiar training to prepare them for the assassination of the same official.
#11 - The Ojuka Situation
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/23/1983
A sacked former African Head attempts to get reinstated in office using the help of the British Government, but the plan is sidetracked by one particular civil servant who now wants him dead.
#12 - Servant of Two Masters
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/15/1979
Bodie and Doyle are shocked to discover that Cowley appears to be selling nerve gas to a group of East Germans in order to line his own pockets, and are assigned by his rival Plumb to track their boss's every move.
#13 - The Acorn Syndrome
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/7/1980
The daughter of a British Government engineer who is working on a defence protect is kidnapped, and the only way she will be safely returned is if he agrees to betray secrets to enemy agents.
#14 - The Purging of CI5
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/27/1979
CI5 and their agents find themselves under attack from a vendetta of bombings and assassination attempts. Bodie and Doyle are on a chase to find out who the perpetrators are before they end up as the next victims.
#15 - Need To Know
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/5/1980
Cowley finds himself under suspicion when a former colleague of his is arrested for being a double agent. So just how deeply involved is the CI5 Chief?
#16 - Its Only a Beautiful Picture...
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/27/1980
Various industrial secrets and highly-valuable arts treasures are being stolen and sold on by a gang who are using the blind routine of Customs to their full advantage. CI5 devise a trap to stop the thieves in their tracks.
#17 - The Gun
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/9/1980
A drug addict is murdered by a pusher who then hastily discards the gun, only for it to be found by a young boy-who then accidently shoots his friend in the process. The pusher then goes in search of the boy in an attempt to retrieve the gun and at the same time has to try to avoid his own people who are in pursuit of him.
#18 - Take Away
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/12/1980
A team of Hong Kong police join CI5 in London to help crack a local heroin supply and protection racket. It's down to Bodie and Doyle to expose a scheme to smuggle drugs to the US by teams of Triads and European agents.
#19 - Hijack
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/30/1980
Silver bullion is being shipped into Britain via the Iron Curtain, only for it to be hijacked by one of the group's own officials.
#20 - Fugitive
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/21/1980
A CIA agent is murdered in London, prompting CI5 into launching a fake arms deal with the terrorists who were responsible for the killing. But the gang uncover the plot in time, taking Bodie hostage and using him as their meal ticket to escape the country.
#21 - Black Out
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/19/1980
CI5 discover that a possible terrorist attack is being planned, and the only clue they have in solving it is a German girl who is found collapsed in a church and suffering from amnesia.
#22 - Operation Susie
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/14/1982
A department in a British Government appears to be attempting to kill a bunch of drug-dealing students...but why?
#23 - You'll Be All Right
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/21/1982
A leader of a criminal gang offers to surrender himself if in exchange he is guaranteed protection for his family.
#24 - Wild Justice
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/14/1980
Bodie's mental state is called ino question when he becomes obsessed with a local Hell's Angel motorcycle gang, gradually sending him further and further behind in training. Is he cracking up?
#25 - Slush Fund
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/2/1980
A hitman is employed by a group of East German officials to assassinate a reporter who is planning to publish a report in which their new fighter plane is branded as a potential death-trap.