The Professionals Episode Reviews – DVD set one


reviewed June 2004

Jo:
This week I very suddenly went into acute Pros withdrawal, which had to be remedied. I watched Hunter Hunted for the quick fix, and very nice it was too. But then I felt it was perhaps time to revive our episode reviews, as it seems ages since the last one. Plus, I felt it would be a good way of helping resolve my withdrawal issues. <g>

So here goes, When the Heat Cools Off, which is the next episode on the DVDs.

The show opens in 1971, with a genteel cricket match being shown on a B&W telly in a pub. Badly acted trouble breaks out, when a medallioned thug named Hayden struts in, slices up the barman and starts threatening a weaselly little guy called Fitch over some grievance or another. The landlord kicks Hayden out, and then follows him out to argue some more, only to return shaken and scared, telling his barman they have to 'fix Hayden'.

We're back to the old credits – did the DVD people just chop and change at random?

Still in 1971, it is baking hot, and a supposedly young Doyle, beautifully uniformed, and his partner, Sid Parker are being briefed about the trouble between Hayden, landlord Harry Scott, and the weasel Fitch. In the car, Young Doyle talks to Sid about the newly formed CI5 and how it sounds exciting and interesting, but you don't apply – they find you. And then Doyle pauses to admire a Harley Davidson. "I'm going to have one of them one day." Ah, foreshadowing.
But then they spot Hayden's car outside Fitch's place and pull over for a look. Sid tells Doyle to wait outside while he pops in to the building (Ambury Mansions), and an old man who appears to be the caretaker watches him go upstairs. Just as Sid gets to the door a gunshot rings out. Alarmed, Doyle rushes into the building, while upstairs Sid kicks the door in, and rushes into the room to be greeted by a gunshot all of his own. Arriving on the scene minutes later, Doyle's approach is more circumspect, but it is already too late. Leaving the bodies of Sid and Fitch there, he rushes back downstairs to give chase as the gunman drives off, witnessed by the caretaker. The Pros Hot Pursuit music is playing, and he isn't even a Professional yet. Dutiful Doyle calls the double murder in with admirable self control.

What a wonderful moment! As Hayden gets out of his car he is rugby tackled quite beautifully by the grief-stricken Doyle.
"You murdering bastard! You're busted!"

Hayden is sentenced to life, to serve at least 30 years.

Fast forward to 1977. That is the year I was born! Doyle is working on his bike, looking very fetching in his red overalls when Bodie rocks up in a natty pale grey suit. They bicker gently over Doyle's bike, which to Bodie is an old wreck and to Doyle is a classic. Hunter Hunted has a similar exchange regarding Doyle's Jag prior to its fiery end. Bodie talks Doyle into coming out on a double date with him, and helps Doyle push his bike into the garage, making me fear for his natty pale grey suit!
"Have I ever let you down?"
"Yes, you have as a matter of fact." When? How?
The Big Gymnast is referred to (for the first time?), Doyle hoping his blind date is not her, and they spot a girl lurking around by the gate, but pay little attention to her. Viewers, however, do take note, as these things are never random.

Later, and they are out on their double date, Bodie still in his natty pale grey suit, while Doyle has smartened up about as much as he ever does and looks great. The foursome are making small talk, bickering gently about who should pay, when the Lurking Girl from earlier turns up at Doyle's elbow, having followed them here. She alarms them by knowing his name, then says, "I didn't want to disturb your dinner," although that is exactly what she has done! Gentleman Doyle gets her a chair, and regards her indulgently. "Well?"
The indulgent look fades on hearing her name. Jill Hayden. Doyle kind of freezes up at that, especially when she adds that he arrested her father, William Hayden.
"That Hayden. Goodbye." Doyle wants no more of this.
"Seven years, five months and two days ago," according to Jill. Eh? By my reckoning, 1977 minus seven equals 1970, not 1971. Someone can't count. Maybe the flash card should have said 1978 instead.
"I remember it very clearly, I remember it exactly, goodbye." Doyle is getting upset, and Bodie intervenes. Glad of the interruption, Doyle is keen to get out of there. Bang goes the evening, and the foursome make a sharp exit.

Back home – is this Bodie's place or Doyle's? The girls are gone, and Bodie seems to be annoyed with Doyle, not Jill, for ruining the evening. ... She just wanted to talk to you ... what did her father do to you, anyway? ... Look, I don't know what this is about, but to hold a grudge-"
"He killed my partner," Doyle snaps at that. "Sid Parker, a good copper and a good friend. Until Hayden stuck a bullet right through the middle of him. Now tell me, Bodie, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?"
"I dunno," is all the answer Bodie can offer to this vehemence, and Doyle apologies for shouting. Doyle loses the jacket and starts loosening his cuffs, so this is clearly his place, for all that Bodie was so casually helping himself to the drinks a moment ago. Bodie looks outside and spots Jill Hayden standing out there watching the windows.

Doyle gives up and lets her in.
"You've got two minutes." How generous. Me, I'd have been worried about stalkers as she seems to be following him around, but only because I watched Hunter Hunted this week. Jill is annoyed that her dad has served seven years and is still not eligible for parole, and then she claims that her dad is innocent. She wants Doyle to visit Hayden.
"Doesn't it bother you that you might have got the wrong man? Doesn't it bother you at all?" Wow. She has picked the exact right method of getting to Doyle and his conscience.
"Ray, old son," Bodie chimes in. "I think, if you're going to get any peace at all, you're going to have to go and see the man." Whose side is he on? I have decided to blame Bodie for this entire episode. Would he be so generous to a man who had murdered one of *his* friends? I don't think so.

So, Doyle toodles along to the prison, and finds Hayden rather greyer than when they last met. Hayden claims that Harry Scott set him up. Since this is the same line he used in court, Doyle is unimpressed. He looks marvellous, though, in his yellow shirt and brown leather jacket. Hayden claims that the caretaker was bought, that his testimony was false, and protests that the gun was never found, and that is proof of his innocence.
"I've heard about you. You've joined that new outfit. You could help me – if you wanted to. If justice is what you really care about." Have the Hayden's been studying up on Doyle, finding his weak spots like this? I'm worried about stalking again!

Doyle and Bodie hop along over to Ambury Mansions, Doyle vehemently certain that he got the right man, but feeling compelled to check with the caretaker just in case. A nosy neighbour informs them that the caretaker has died suddenly of bronchitis and will now be unable to enjoy the retirement he had planned – a villa abroad, which certainly sounds unlikely on a caretaker's pension. Except that he had it all picked out. Doyle's face listening to this is just perfect. He is so sure he is right, but wants to be fair and can see something is wrong. So he breaks into the man's apartment.

"You'd no right to rifle the man's apartment, but what you've come up with is fascinating." Ah, Cowley-logic. I love his little aside while chuntering on about the case, asking for change and getting it from Bodie even as Doyle checks his own pockets. It's all in the detail. It appears that the caretaker kept a Swiss Bank account, very secret. Cowley rambles on about how Doyle's original arrest was perfectly correct, and all the circumstantial evidence pointed to Hayden, but now they need to think about other possibilities – is it possible that someone else could have carried out the murders and set him up?
As they talk, Cowley uses Bodie's change to get a coffee from the machine in the corridor, and Bodie follows suit, staying out of the conversation but close enough to hear.
Cowley suggests that Hayden could have been set up – Doyle and Parker has been warned before they went on duty about trouble between Hayden and Fitch, so it is possible that Doyle could have mistaken the man he saw running for someone else. It seems to like everyone is out to make Doyle doubt himself today. He looks defensive, but Cowley ends on: "Hayden's story seems to have as much validity as yours. But just the same, I'm backing you over him."
That earns him a faint smile. But Cowley still wants to dig deeper, just in case. It is possible the real killer was hiding in another room, and Doyle didn't check – just rushed off to give chase. He gives them until Wednesday to check it out, as that is when they are due back on duty. Eh? You mean they get time off? Wow. What day is it now, I wonder? How many days leave do they have left to sort this all out? He shuts the door in their faces, and they pull faces at each other. Then take note. Doyle taps, very gently, and as they walk away you can faintly hear Cowley call out "come in," followed by a bellow. LOL. Doyle is not that upset then.

Doyle tells Jill they are checking, and she is delighted, giving him a kiss on the cheek on her way out. Bodie remains aloof – he is helping, but has no emotional involvement in the case. Doyle insists that he will remain dispassionate, but this has clearly got under his skin. Again. They will start with Harry Scott – the most likely to have set Hayden up, if anyone did.

Harry remembers the night clearly. He claims that when he confronted Hayden in his car he produced a gun out of nowhere.
"What kind of gun?"
"How should I know? The kind that kills you!" LOL.
Doyle accuses Harry of the murders and set up, and he gets very annoyed. "I don't have to listen to you. I'll cooperate, but I don't have to listen to you." The one will be very difficult without the other, methinks. Doyle looks marvellous here.

Doyle reports back to Jill and Bodie, but still believes Hayden did it. Jill presses, desperate to prove her dad's innocence. When it all gets too much and he goes out for some air, Bodie gestures for her to follow him. Eh? I'm really unsure what Bodie is thinking through all this. But he seems at least as convinced by Jill and Doyle is.

Outside, Jill talks persuasively about how old and weak her dad has become, her fears for what will become of him, and when she cries of course Doyle feels compelled to comfort her. He admits that he no longer knows what to believe, and that for her sake he almost wants to believe Hayden's story.

The number found in the caretaker's apartment is for a Swiss bank account, Cowley informs the Lads, and by now Doyle has talked himself into believing that Hayden is innocent and that it is his fault for putting him away. Cowley points out that he was only a witness, that a judge and jury found Hayden guilty. But it is too late – Doyle is off on a crusade now. And the missing gun is the key to it all.

So Doyle goes off searching, looking marvellous in yet another change of clothes. Jill is clearly stalking him as she pops up again. She has got him wrapped around her little finger, and goes in for the kiss. Ach. And a full scale search is launched for the gun, with Jill delightedly telling her father.

Doyle is back in his red overalls when Stalker!Jill shows up again looking for news, of which there is none. He invites her up.
"Help yourself to a drink."
"I don't want a drink."
"Well that's a bit mean. While you're helping you, you could be helping me! I'll have a scotch." Nice one. And then – oh, such nice arms in the short-sleeved black t-shirt. Jill is very persuasively steering him toward her own ends, full of ideas about where the hypothetical gunman might have run to, suggesting they search the canal.

So they do. Who is paying for all this police time and effort? And then the Minister comes to see George. Their conversation is truly great. The Minister has come to complain about Doyle.
"A good man. One of my best," Cowley objects. Nice to know. But the Minister is annoyed about the Hayden case being re- investigated.
"He's a good man. He's my man, and I back my men to the hilt."
"Even if they are wrong?"
"Until they are proved wrong." Good to know. The Minister gives them two days to clear it all up.
"This is a question of justice, and justice is within CI5's brief." Cowley is staunch in defence of his man.

And then the police diver finds a gun in the canal. An exuberant Bodie rushes over to Doyle's in delight to give him the news. How did Bodie hear first? And why are they both so delighted? They hop along over to tell Jill. Jill has got a very lovely house, presumably paid for by her dad's pre-prison exploits. I wish I could afford such luxury.

The gun expert can't tell how long it has been in the water, but it is the right gun. And Doyle is now getting upset again, the euphoria wearing off. He is back to doubting himself, worried that he might have behaved wrongly, that his evidence was biased. But Cowley insists that he has read the files: "Your evidence, as I would expect of you, was detailed, correct and scrupulously fair."
Doyle now wants to make a statement, though, to start the ball rolling in hope of a re-trial. Then, as they leave, a woman in the corridor slips something into Bodie's hand, much to Doyle's puzzlement and curiosity. An amusing throwaway moment never alluded to again but fun to watch.

Jill is relieved as this time tomorrow Doyle's statement will be official. She goes to tell her dad, while Doyle signs the letter Cowley has written on his behalf without reading it. But Cowley tells the Minister he will hold on to it for a while, though. Then he calls his secretary for every file ever written on the Hayden case, taking his jacket off. No rest for Cowley. I can't help wondering why he is only now putting this much effort into the investigation. Did he not expect Doyle to go this far? Or is he only now starting to have doubts? Like Bodie, it is hard to get a real feel for what Cowley is thinking in this episode.

Bodie is making plans for his and Doyle's last day of leave, not that they've had much actual leave, what with the Hayden case and all. Bodie is planning a day fishing, near a pub with two beautiful barmaids of course. Doyle agrees to go, but looks thoughtful as Bodie leaves.

The ever dependable Betty is also getting no rest, bringing coffee to her fearless leader as he works. Does Cowley never sleep? Does Betty never sleep?
And at home in bed, Doyle is going over and over the case in his head. Ah. Half naked Doyle in bed. Such bliss.
Back at CI5 Cowley has clearly had a Idea, as he tells Betty to get their doctor out of bed to prepare for an autopsy, and to get the duty home office person over with an exhumation order.

So Bodie shows up bright and early to take Doyle fishing. Snicker at the scene where Doyle emerges from his apartment to find Bodie pretending to be asleep leaning against the wall. But Doyle has no intention of going fishing. Aw. Poor Bodie, his plans ruined, and he so philosophically accepts this change of plans with no argument. He knows what Doyle is like when he's got a bee in his bonnet. Doyle wants to go after the car, Hayden's car.
It is now on sale in a shop window. The salesman instantly snaps into full on sales pitch mode, albeit slightly disconcerted by the double act. Remembering the heatwave of 1971, Doyle is keen to find where Hayden produced his gun from when he pulled it on Harry Scott, since he wore no jacket to conceal it. So they start searching the car, much to the salesman's dismay. Doyle's argument is that if having produced the gun from nowhere, Hayden then put it back into nowhere, then maybe it was concealed well enough not to be found when the car was searched.

Cowley is still at work, the exhumation and autopsy of the caretaker accomplished. And Bodie finds the secret gun slot behind the radio. Eh? In the flashback Hayden seemed to produce the gun from the car door – he certainly didn't reach over towards the radio. The salesman is most dismayed as they impound the car. And Doyle is furious at being set up.

Cowley arrives at Jill's place to find her paying off the lady who told Doyle all about the caretaker's death and fortune. Then Doyle shows up, positively radiating anger. It seems the caretaker had been suffocated, which a woman – Jill – could easily have accomplished. Hearing this, Jill tries to attack Cowley, but Doyle pulls her off. He then goes to see Hayden. And takes great delight in telling him how unlikely it is he will ever know freedom again.

The end.

Overall: not my favourite episode by any means. I find the story rather hard going, although it is good character stuff for Doyle. Cowley and Bodie both feel almost like makeweights here, supporting cast. This is very much a Doyle story, giving us some rare background information on his life as a humble copper. The story also draws heavily on Doyle being who he is, and he was, above all, a good copper. His fairness and attention to detail is highlighted, as is that conscience of his and determination to do the right thing and see justice fairly served. I'm still worried about stalking as it seemed far too easy for the Haydens to find out so much about him and use it to set him up like this.

Food and drink: well, we see both Lads out on their double date, having presumably eaten and drunk there. We later see Bodie pouring each of them a shot back at Doyle's place. Doyle made himself a cup of what looked like hot chocolate when he couldn't sleep. Other than that I don't remember.

There is a lot of fun dialogue in there.

Doyle looked absolutely fantastic in this episode.

Sue:
Sorry, no time to add anything interesting or useful to your review but I had to just post quickly to say how very much it made me laugh. I do enjoy your reviews and I'm so glad you've started them again!

Yes, let's blame Bodie for the whole thing - why not? <g> And of course, Doyle looks gorgeous throughout - when doesn't he? <BG>

Carol:
Just a few random thoughts to add to Jo's excellent review:

We're back to the old credits - did the DVD people just chop and change at random?
I think it was LWT who messed up the original tapes.

"You murdering bastard! You're busted!"
Wonderfully poetic, but Doyle must've read him his rights properly otherwise he'd have been off on a technicality <G>

Fast forward to 1977. That is the year I was born!
OK, feeling old...

"Yes, you have as a matter of fact." When? How?
hmm, good point. Anyone inspired to write it?

Viewers, however, do take note, as these things are never random.
tee hee...

"I didn't want to disturb your dinner,"
uh, yes. Because she couldn't possibly have spoken to Doyle earlier, or even the next day?

"Seven years, five months and two days ago," according to Jill. Eh? By my reckoning, 1977 minus seven equals 1970, not 1971.
It's bizarre that no one noticed this in the filming stage. Also, it's even more inaccurate than it appears because if it was August 1971 (Doyle's Panda is a K plate, which means the earliest it can be is an August 71 registration) then seven years and five months would put us into December 1978 - I didn't notice any snow or Xmas decorations...

I have decided to blame Bodie for this entire episode.
Which is an absolutely brilliant idea <G> I just wish I hadn't read the review in the office - I nearly choked with not LOL!

"I've heard about you. You've joined that new outfit.
It is a little worrying that the Haydens know all about Doyle - and it doesn't make him even slightly suspicious...

As they talk, Cowley uses Bodie's change to get a coffee
I love the coffee machine bit. It's all so natural.

She has got him wrapped around her little finger, and goes in for the kiss. Ach.
Ach indeed. That scene always makes me want to slap her and tell her to put him down, he's mine... <BG>

An amusing throwaway moment never alluded to again but fun to watch.
Maybe someone could write that incident as well?

Ah. Half naked Doyle in bed. Such bliss.
8-Þ~~~~~~~~~~~

Bodie finds the secret gun slot behind the radio.
'It's been through a dozen hands since then' - and no one ever complained that the radio didn't work???

I quite enjoy this episode although the plotholes can be annoying. It's not one I watch that often - although the lads are worth watching some of the other characters are a bit hammed up and unbelieveable.

Doyle looked absolutely fantastic in this episode.
I agree <BEG>

Birgit:
Hi folks,
I'm just popping in to say thank you Jo for the lovely review - there's not much to add, and as far as I'm concerned, I think Carol did say all that came to mind :)

One thing that always baffles me is the minister's remark "you used to beat me at tennis as well" - Cowley playing tennis with that leg, eh? Especially considering that in the first series he's still supposed to be in agony about it. Or did they know each other before Cowley collected that bullet? Hardly likely, if you ask me.

Oh, just one more thing: I *love* the hair-ruffling scene! It's all so natural, including Doyle nearly choking on his drink, whatever the reason was :)

There's one point, however, where I don't fully agree with Ll and C, and that's Doyle's looks (sorry): It's one of those weird eps in the first season where I'm really torn between finding his face wonderful and appalling (his body is never anything else but gorgeous, of course). While he looks stunning in the scenes in the park, at the restaurant or in the hair-ruffling scene, he seems kind of puffy and is having an extremely bad hair day when he's interviewing Harry Scott at the pub, or even when he's in bed (not that I take much notice of his face in that scene, admittedly <g>).

The same goes for the eps immediately before and after Heat (in contrast, for instance, to Private Madness or Female Factor where he looks great throughout) and I keep wondering if it's a camera thing - the angle, filters and whatnot can change things tremendously – or if Mr. Shaw maybe wasn't well during that period.

Does anyone else get that impression as well?

Debbie:
Re: the hair ruffling/Doyle choking scene. I read it somewhere, can't remember where now sorry but apparently that drink WAS SCOTCH not what ever they used to drink so poor Martin has taken a mouth full expecting cold tea or some such thing and got a hell of a shock. One of Lew's notorious practical jokes apparently.

Astrid:
You probably read it in Sharon's review on Dave's website, that is where I have it from. Martin not drinking alcohol and Lewis playing a joke on him and they still continue the scene.

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