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The Professionals - Season 2 [1978]


RRP: £39.99
Our Price: £17.14 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The second series of The Professionals hit television screens running in 1978, with Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins now wearing their roles--and their trousers--as the fearless CI5 duo, Bodie and Doyle, like second skins. Brian Clemens' creation, based on the notion of a special crime-busting unit, targeting terrorism, espionage and international wrong doing, crackles with humorous one-line exchanges, car chases, shoot-outs and punch-ups, all under the auspices of Gordon Jackson's George Cowley, a man with a tight reign on his team's anarchic tendencies. "Anyone who disobeys will spend the rest of his life watching trawlers in the outer Hebrides," he warns, with no expectation that his star boys will take a blind bit of notice.

The formula works time and again. And it's so unmistakeably British: the irony-laden scripts; action which always seems to be filmed on the dankest of autumn days; locations which run the gamut of every dreary ring road, piece of urban wasteland and derelict warehouse within 30 miles of central London; and the kind of committed performances from a succession of stalwart guest stars which defines the quality of British television drama. Defiantly of its time, The Professionals is mercifully free of self-conscious political correctness and perhaps because of that, and despite the stylised violence at its heart, it retains an innocence and a quirky sense of humour which its modern equivalents--anything starring Ross Kemp or Robson Green--can never hope to match. TV heaven, of a sort.

On the DVD: The Professionals, Series 2 comes in a package that has been lovingly and skilfully compiled to satisfy the most demanding of fans, with all 14 episodes digitally remastered and presented in sharp 4:3 format matched by a clean mono soundtrack. The extras--interactive mission briefs, snatches of Cowley's orders, car and fashion notes and guest star listings--are topped by an interview with creator Brian Clemens and composer Laurie Johnson. Anecdotes abound, covering casting decisions, the television production climate of the late 1970s and the hopelessness of British Leyland. The excellent booklet includes even more, with descriptions of the filming process and the actors' physical training, plus minutiae for the dedicated Professionals anorak. --Piers Ford


Driving In the Home Counties, A Guide for Foreigners
Review date: 2003-01-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

If you need to show your friends a real police action show, and how to drive your Ford around the home counties, the Professionals DVD series 2 set is an unavoidable purchase. For your money you get numerous handbrake turns in the Capri, one featuring a line of pensioners applauding Bodie after a particularly needless occurence, while Martin Shaw ruins his perm with a convertible E-Type Jaguar and the more familiar RS Mexico.

Even if your efforts fail to convince your friends that this is how we all drove (or more accurately wished we could) in the home counties during the late 70s, this set provides 16 episodes of action-packed mayhem that makes James Bond look positively dull and commercial.

By the second series the creator, Brian Clemens, moved scenes away from "back at the office" to the streets giving a pace and an edge hard to rival even in today's series. The creators ensure the villains are highly-organized and outgun the heroic twosome. Villains include Art Malik (Living Daylights , the Jewel in the Crown) and D.C. Burnside from "The Bill" - his Bill name presumably stemming from his almighty side-burns illustrated in the episode "The Rack".

For a series first shown in 1978 the Professionals keeps even the most hard core CSI watcher in suspense. I'll take Bodie and Doyle doing handbrake turns over a crime lab anytime delivered here with a crisp picture, stereo(phonic) sound, actor biographies and production notes for each episode.

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Reviews


Long gone tv age
Review date: 2002-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

Being a spotty 14 year old when the Professionals were originally on our tv screens may have some influence on my rating of this 4 disc box set. However, twenty three years after the original screenings, this series still excites and entertains with Brian Clemens writing story lines equal in imagination only to, Forsyth or LeCarre. Superb, a must buy especially if you want to know how to write a great tv series!

Product Details/Specifications


Artist(s):
The Professionals

Recording label: Contender Entertainment Group
Manufacturer: Contender Entertainment Group
EAN: 5030305120023
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 4
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2002-08-05
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 760 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1978
Language: English (Original Language)

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