The BEST episodes of The Professionals season 2
Every episode of The Professionals season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Professionals season 2!
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 - 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.
#2 - The Rack
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/14/1978
A suspect being held under CI5's supervision is found dead in his cell - apparently after a fatal blow administered by Doyle. A public inquiry ensues and an influential lawyer calls for CI5 to be shut down. It's left to Cowley in fighting to save the organisation he founded.
#3 - First Night
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/21/1978
CI5 are left to dig deep when an Israeli Minister is kidnapped, and the only clues to his whereabouts are a shadowy photograph and a coded tape message.
#4 - In the Public Interest
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/4/1978
A virtual police state has been imposed by a local Chief Constable, resulting in a supposedly almost crime-free city. But that is because all the crime is taking place behind the scenes by the police officers themselves - who will think of nothing of imposing on suspects' rights in their pursuit of 'zero tolerance'. Bodie and Doyle become hunted men when they visit the city and begin to question the rather unorthodox methods of action taken by the local constabulary.
#5 - Man Without a Past
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/28/1978
Bodie is out at a restaurant with his girlfriend when a bomb goes off at their table, leaving her critically injured and several other diners dead. It's left to Bodie to find out who targeted him and why - until he realises he wasn't the target after all.
#6 - Rogue
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/1978
A trial witness is murdered by a member of CI5, who then goes on and attempts to kill Cowley - his own boss. Bodie and Doyle find themselves battling against a man who is as well-trained as they are.
#7 - A Stirring of Dust
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/25/1978
A British traitor returns to his homeland and must be found before his former colleagues, seeking vengeance for his past betrayals, go in search of his whereabouts.
#8 - Blind Run
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/1978
Bodie and Doyle are assigned to protect a foreign official who is on a secret visit to Britain. But already possible enemy assassins appear to know his - and CI5's - every next move.
#9 - Fall Girl
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/9/1978
Bodie is re-acquainted with a former girlfriend when she shows up in London, and during a secret meeting with her finds himself framed for an assassination and then ultimately on the run from his own colleagues at CI5.
#10 - Not a Very Civil Civil Servant
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/18/1978
CI5 manage to undercover a series of financial blunders between a group of builders and council officials after a site of newly-built houses on a council estate are found to be crumbling.