I always like to watch The Professionals on ITV4 when I catch it on. I was a young boy when the original series was shown so it’s a nice piece of nostalgia.
But I have noticed the episodes are a bit “samey”.
So I wondered what someone who watched The Professionals would learn about the 70s if the show was used as a reference.
Well firstly, it goes without saying that the security forces dressed for image rather than comfort. With an absence of purpose-made breathable fabrics, the temperature generated by the incessant rubbing of polyester during a chase on foot put Bodie and Doyle in a state of constant fire hazard.
If I remember rightly, cleaning products in the 70′s were totally useless. Regardless of what was claimed on TV ads, if it got dirty, it stayed dirty. So when the boys were hiding out in a self-constructed forest bivouac, their clothes were certainly rendered unwearable after that point.
Which brings me to……..
Forests and other woodlands. Lots of things in the 70′s seemed to happen surrounded by trees. Criminals buried things, they practiced shooting, made their own weapons and, of course, generally hid out in the great outdoors. Bodie and Doyle made a lot of their arrests purely by taking a nice walk at lunchtime.
Cars in the 70′s seemed unable to pull away at normal speed. It was floor it or walk it. Just seen your main suspect drive the other way? Slam on the brakes, spin the Escort round and hammer it after him.
You could also travel down any street at any speed with no fear of hitting a pedestrian or another car.
The main reason for this is that it appears that every house in London was occupied by a terrorist or former terrorist with a grudge against those who tried to put them (or managed to put them) in prison. Houses in remote locations and country manors were especially prone to this as they could be occupied by several individuals or a gang of Eastern European terorrists.
Because in the 70′s, you simply could not trust anyone who wasn’t British, apart from…….
Former judges, high-ranking civil servants and Army officers, all of whom have a shady past that will come back to haunt them and bring down any life and riches they have built up since “the old gang” broke up.
Finally when it comes to arrest, criminals gave up much more easily than they do today. There was no “you’ll never take me alive”, it was much more “no problem, I will just wait over here”.
Ah yes, the 70′s. there you go kids, that’s how it was and if you don’t believe it, it’s all there, in The Professionals.
