CI5: The New Professionals

Apparently, CI5 is no longer hiring members from the police or armed forces, and has started recruiting at modelling agencies. The plot-lines are ludicrous, the scripts are laughable and the cast, supposedly portraying the dangerous, highly-trained peak of global law enforcement, have all the menace of rice pudding and are about as attractive. A pathetic attempt to relive the original series of "The Professionals", this latest series is totally lacking any drama, suspense, wit or talent. George Cowley would eat this bunch for breakfast.

This Nineties update of a Seventies show is very enjoyable, although not as good as the original.The new cast take a few episodes to fit into their characters and Edward Woodward,excellent as he is, never matches the inventiveness of Gordon Jackson's Cowley.The first few episodes are very similar to the old series but the new crew develop a different and original style as the series progresses.Later episodes are more in the James Bond mould but boast impressive action sequences and an excellent score by Hywel Maggs and Chris Winter.As with the old series no one watches the Professionals for the writing but the spectacular action and the enjoyable interplay between the characters.

The original late 70s / early 80s "Professionals" was all British, politically incorrect, often mindless and frequently placed more emphasis on gunfights and loud explosions than it did on character development. Yet strangely this was part of its appeal and it was (and still is) hugely popular all over the world. The "New Professionals" tries to be a more international and more politically correct show than its predecessor, and that's its main downfall. Two of the main four characters are Americans - one can only assume that these characters were cast with one eye on the American export market. We also now have the male head of CI5 reporting to a female minister and a young and savvy "anything the boys can do I can do too" female sidekick on hand to get the two main (male) leads out of assorted sticky situations. In short, like so many other modern series, pandering to the politically correct lobby. This wouldn't be so bad if the plots weren't so thin and the dialog so weak and corny. "Who are CI5?" asks an FBI man in the pilot episode. "They're the best", replies his colleague, sounding suitably impressed. And so it goes on. A shame - the idea of continuing the CI5 story was a good one. Shame that the end result was such a let-down.

I cannot agree with Jack Yan, l have just seen the New Professionals 2006, and l thought that the stories were good, strong, and very much for the 90's/00. Edward Woodward was very good and was always in command (originally Lewis Collins was earmarked for this role pity it did not happen) Collin Wells and Kal Webber did a great job, a very difficult job as well as everyone compared them to Bodie & Doyle, l think had the series ran longer they would have got better, Miss Backus (Backup in the series) was excellent and had many great parts as did Adrian Irvine... The Storys as l have said were very much for present day, Germ Warfare, Body Parts, Terrorists, and l think on the whole if you look at it in the light of day it stands up very well compared with the original, it's just a pity that they only made such a small number of episodes, but l give it an 8 out of 10

Whilst not as good as the old series this is considerably better than anything currently showing on British tv.The scripts vary in quality but when they work they are superb.The new CI5 is far more in the mode of the CIA and the new cast and characters are more plausible and free of the "loose cannon" attitudes that reduced the old series to caricature. The cast work hard to breathe life into their characters and the action sequences are superior to most movies(although they were needlessly cut for UK transmission).