The Professionals - Fanlore

The Professionals

Name: The Professionals
Abbreviation(s): Pros, Profs (Australia/NZ)
Creator: Brian Clemens
Date(s): 1977-1983
Medium: television series
Country of Origin: UK
External Links: IMDB

EpGuides

The Authorised Guide to The Professionals
Subpages for The Professionals:

Bodie · Bodie/Doyle · Doyle · Fandom Glossary · Fanzines


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Show synopsis

Bodie and Doyle are two hard men doing a hard job, under the gimlet eye of their boss, George Cowley, the head of CI5, a semi-secret government agency that battles organized crime and terrorism in 1970s-1980s Britain.

W. A. P. Bodie, always referred to as Bodie (played by Lewis Collins), and his partner Raymond "Ray" Doyle (played by Martin Shaw) operated from a headquarters based in London. Given their orders by George Cowley (played by Gordon Jackson), the agents took on crimes and criminals that the police could not handle. Although their work occasionally drew them out of the city, the series was largely shot on location in London, with fast-paced action filmed on the Tube, double-decker buses, and in well-known city parks. In 57 episodes, broadcast over 5 years, the two agents fought the Cold War and home-grown criminals too. Russian and East German spies got traded, uncovered, or killed, while Bodie (agent '3.7' starting in the second series) and Doyle (called '4.5') demonstrated their expertise as interrogators and infiltrators. However, the biggest threat confronting British home security of the day, the IRA, was never depicted in the show. In two zippy Ford Capri cars, the agents broke speed limits stopping crime, and managed to break the hearts of most women who appeared on the show, too. The rapid-fire banter between 3.7 and 4.5, coupled with a high level of physical contact between the two young leads, provided grist for the slashers' mills in the decades that followed.

Contents

The timeliness of many themes addressed by the show contributed to its extreme popularity when it first aired, and has been part of its enduring appeal. As agents on television active in the 1970s and early 1980s, Bodie and Doyle were among the first television agents to confront drug use, overdoses, and the occasional death that resulted from heroin and cocaine addiction. As young men living in a sexually liberated era, their natural machismo had to give way occasionally to female CI5 agents, double-agents, and women who simply wanted a career more than marriage [see episodes "The Purging of CI5," "Fall Girl," and "Look After Annie"]. In a world increasingly rejecting overt discrimination, the show tackled the bigotry of a central character (Bodie) and showed the reformation of his beliefs, while attacking those who turned from discrimination to racial violence ("Klansman," never broadcast in the UK). The show was one of the first to offer a sympathetic portrayal of gay men, and showed Bodie, Doyle, and their boss George Cowley combating gay-bashing ("In the Public Interest").

However, the show's greatest attractions were never the deep social issues of the time. The show capitalized upon the good looks of its two younger leading men, Shaw and Collins; Doyle's wardrobe of tatty jeans and skimpy t-shirts routinely appeared on screen, and later in fanart and fanfiction, as did Bodie's elegant attire. Collins's earlier work as a hairdresser became a show gag and appeared in several fannish stories, working well with Shaw's curly hair that always seemed to need cutting (or fondling).

The immediate appeal of The Professionals fed off of two other pop culture hits in the era. The prototype for the CI5 agent has to be seen as James Bond crossed with specialized police officers from another popular UK television show of the 1970s, "The Sweeney." In both cases, operatives were largely unconstrained by usual police procedures. In Bond movies and "The Sweeney" snappy dialogue kept pace with fast cars to hold audiences' attention: The Professionals used the same elements, as did the fans who used the show as a creative source. Bodie and Doyle's skills in martial arts, handling weapons, and drinking large quantities of alcohol while dropping bad puns as often as literary allusions were supplemented by the ability to drive cars fast. The agents could adopt disguises and go 'undercover' in a variety of occupations (fruit vendor, bum, sugarbeet machinery salesman) that invariably let them catch the bad guys. Their skills--in martial arts, weaponry, banter, drinking, driving fast cars, and disguises--would become the raw material of many fanfiction works in later years.

Professionals fandom

Beginning in 1996, it had a second resergence with new fans coming into it online.

In Aug '96, LoreleiF (not Anne Higgins or Deb R.) created an e-mail discussion group for The Professionals. This list became CI5 -- the first list to split off from Virgule-L. It was created after a heated discussion on Virgule-L about Anne Higgins having the audacity to rewrite a Sebastian story and post it.

Though smaller than it was days gone by, the rumors of Pros fandom's death have been exaggerated; Pros is still going strong. As of today, it is fairly well integrated across zine-based fandom, list-based fandom, and livejournal-based fandom. A weekly newsletter started in 2007 and continues to be distributed: its editors attempt to gather links to all Pros news, including fannish productivity like art, stories, vids, and icons, regardless of their originating location.

The fandom has always been slanted heavily toward slash, although gen has also always had a presence. Gen stories tend to be case stories,[1] although sometimes friendship stories or curtainfic crops up. Het is relatively rare. The primary OTP is Bodie/Doyle, which accounts for the vast majority of the fanfic in the fandom. Other slash pairings include Bodie/Cowley, Doyle/Cowley (rare), and Bodie/Murphy (a recurring character). Doyle/Murphy is another rare pairing,[2] but Bodie/Doyle/Murphy is a recurring menage a trois.

Other roles that the two main leads played are considered fair game in Pros fandom, and it's not unusual for stories about those characters to be included in Pros archives or zines, either in a crossover with Pros or on their own. The most common other sources (in no particular order) are:

In the US, the first Pros stories were circulated by hand, mailed from person to person. Eventually these were gathered into the Circuit Library, a huge collection of individual stories that could be requested, 10 at a time, and kept for 2 weeks to read or copy. During the 1990s, amid some controversy, fans began scanning and typing these stories into electronic text files, to preserve them. These were distributed via mailing list, and an annual CD collection (in which stories were not just added but also sometimes deleted from year to year, at an author's request). Eventually, stories from the mailing list/CD collection became partially available online at the Circuit Archive. Some authors have requested that their stories not be included in the online Circuit Archive, making the CD collection indispensable for the devoted Professionals fan. The mailing list, annual CD collection, and the Circuit Archive continue to be updated; the Circuit Archive makes older stories available on the web, along with newer stories. The Circuit Archive is searchable by author, story title, 'zine, publication date, story pairing, genre, and combinations of all these elements, making it one of the most thoroughly accessible story archives in fandom. It can even be searched by story ratings (e.g., NC-17) that were added by the Circuit Archivist; the majority of Pros authors have consistently refused to "rate" their stories, unlike other fandoms.

As of 2008, the UK-based Circuit Library is still active, distributing printed stories to its subscribers via the post.

Fanfic

(needs more here on connection between earliest Pros authors and the ST:TOS, S/H, Blakes 7 authors; Pros as a refuge for writers seeking to stretch the boundaries acc. Flamingo)

Episodes of Pros inspired countless prequels, sequels, and interpretive stories that went behind a few lines of dialogue, or linked together disparate eps revealing hidden patterns--that observant fanfic writers had pieced together--while filling in gaps.[3] Crime lords, drug dealers and international terrorists populate fanfiction, just as they crowded the screen. Unlike the series, however, authors routinely stretched the characters to take new directions, some logical, others less so. In fiction, Bodie and Doyle could "take down the IRA" or tackle cases that would be too convoluted for television viewers who were limited to only 50 minutes a week of CI5. Case stories, in which Cowley gave the Lads a problem to solve and the fic revolved around capturing a bad guy, abound in early and current Pros fandom; most writers have been inspired to try to write new and better adventures for the agents.

Another major genre of Pros fanfiction has been hurt/comfort, in which one or both men were physically or mentally injured, to the point of needing both medical attention and some good 'ole TLC. For men who canonically confronted danger on a daily basis, it isn't hard for authors to fabricate threats that would injure Bodie or Doyle! Pros also has quite a few stories that turn on the supposed death of one of the partners; until told otherwise, one agent can mourn the other one who is presumed dead, but really isn't. Sometimes the death has been faked by criminals or terrorists; very rarely, it is faked by Bodie or Doyle.

Just as some writers pushed Bodie and Doyle into ever more threatening situations, other authors were inclined to see them safe and secure. Curtainfic has always been a major area of activity in the fandom, with Bodie and Doyle cooking, cleaning, and keeping house together, either as active agents or in retirement. A host of writers have explored Doyle and Bodie's lives 20 or 30 years after, imagining them as gardeners, cooks, and contented ex-civil servants. These (typically) home based stories are sometimes referred to as "Older Lads" tales, and those with less dramatic tension and more domestic placidity might be considered a sub-genre of curtainfic.

And last but hardly least, Pros has been, almost from the start, a veritable beehive of activity for AU authors.

AUs

Pros has more fanfic AUs than most fandoms of the 1980s and 1990s, taking the characters from ancient Greece to the French Revolution to outer space and everything in between. Bodie and Doyle have been turned into elves, pirates, fairy tale characters, Tarzan and Jane (... ish), rabbits, cats, mermen, selkies, novelist and librarian, robot... You name it, there's a good chance Pros did it as an AU 15 or 20 years ago. The 'zine series Other Times and Places featured many AU Bodie/Doyle stories

The Game

"The Game" is a product of a single story, written early in the fandom's history (1980-1981): Consequences, by Tarot[4] and AN Other.

The story behind the story is that AN Other, who was possibly a Starsky & Hutch writer, couldn't see any way Bodie and Doyle could ever have a sexual relationship unless it was rooted in violence. Tarot, her co-writer, had a different view, and attempted to "salvage" the story, to allow for a potential happier ending.[5]

The story's main premise is that Bodie's (canonical) mercenary background included a (decidedly non-canonical) "Game" -- to relieve sexual tension, the mercenaries would fight each other, winner take all. This was the only way Bodie knew how to have m/m sexual relations, so in the story's present-day, when he finds himself unexpectedly attracted to a particularly vulnerable (drunk and maudlin) Doyle, he reverts to Game techniques, beats the crap out of Doyle, and rapes him. Later that night he realizes that perhaps that wasn't his best move, and attempts to mend fences with Doyle by seducing him, which works -- sort of. Eventually they wind up in a relationship that's based on a struggle for emotional dominance, with each of them truly wanting the other but neither willing to admit to it, or to any softer feelings.

Consequences inspired several sequels, or fixits: Wrapped Around Your Finger, by Lezlie Conch; Reparations, by Susan Douglass; Inescapable Consequences by Airelle, in the zine On the Edge 2, OTP Press; Despite Consequences by Pamela Rose, on the paper circuit; Cold Water Morning and End of an Illusion, both by SJ, on the Library CD; Light of Day by Pamela D., on the Library CD; Inconsequence by Catlixe, on The Hatstand; and After Consequences, Truth by Annette H., on the Library CD (with two sequels by HG, The Waiting Game and Input, on the Library CD). Game Theory by Dee is an alternate version of this story.[6]

With so many stories using The Game as a backdrop, it quickly became fanon.

Zines and stories

Most of the fiction in the fandom started out in print, either in the Circuit Library or in zines. Pros zines consist of both one-shots and series; the original Hatstand Archive includes a masterlist of slash zines in the fandom.

One of the more controversial series of slash (and hurt/comfort) zines is the five-volume Gentle on My Mind (GoMM), written by Jane of Australia and published by Jane's press, Nuthatch. (Eventually a sixth volume was written, by Dana Jeanne.) The first volume had Doyle involved in a serious accident that left him badly injured, including permanent brain damage. The remainder of the series involved his recovery and new life, with Bodie but no longer an agent with CI-5. This is definitely a series that people either really love or really dislike, based on the premise and Jane's handling of it, and comes up in conversations on Pros mailing lists and communities every couple of years.

Notable Stories

(more here)

Notable Zine Novels/Novellas

  • Classified by Adela Kingsbury & Amy A. Morgan, published by Keynote Press. First published as separate sheets of paper 'taken from a CI5 security file' that tracked the evolution of Bodie and Doyle's evolving relationship. 100+ pieces of paper in folder (thankfully numbered for order) included artwork allegedly drawn by Doyle, coffeecup rings left by other agents, and Cowley's interpretation of the papers. Later published as a bound zine.
    Cover of the zine Harlequin Airs. Drawn by Susan Lovett, for a Pros AU novel by Ellis Ward.
    Cover of the zine Harlequin Airs. Drawn by Susan Lovett, for a Pros AU novel by Ellis Ward.
  • Fruits of the Spirit by Cherilyn, published by Gryphon Press.
  • Gentle on My Mind by Jane of Australia, published by Nuthatch. A five-volume zine series (later expanded to six volumes by Dana Jeanne) about a brain-damaged Doyle and his and Bodie's new life together; one of the more controversial zines in the fandom.
  • Harlequin Airs by Ellis Ward, lavishly illustrated by Suzan Lovett; a (highly unrealistic but very fun) circus AU
  • The Hunting by Jane of Australia, a five-zine elf AU that helped to define elves in the fandom for years
  • Jigsaw Puzzle by HG, published by Gryphon Press. Noteworthy for its depiction of Bodie and Doyle from the day they met through many years of partnership, and the running joke that they play on Cowley.
  • Never Let Me Down by Shoshanna, published by Manacles Press. Among the few 'zines that depict the variations that exist in what gay men prefer during sex, and the up-and-down qualities of an evolving gay love affair in which both characters are closeted.
  • Redemption by Kate MacLean, published by Gryphon Press. An AU in which both agents marry and are separated for a time--inspires strong love it/hate it reactions!
  • Up to Standard by M. Krause, one of the few full-length, gen, case-based novels in the fandom
  • Whisper of a Kill, by Lois Welling, beautifully illustrated by Suzan Lovett; an AU in which Bodie plays a hit-man who gives up his profession to join CI5

Notable Zine Anthologies

Notable Letter Zines

  • Short Circuit, a peripatetic Pros letterzine originally pub'd by Lyn Harrild in England, then by Linda Terrell in Florida in the early '90s, then by Joanne Keating in Australia. It also printed reviews and v. short fic.
  • Be Gentle With Us, a UK Pros letterzine (does anyone know where the name came from?) in the '90s

Fanart

Pros fanart traditionally consisted mainly of zine covers and zine illustrations, with some pieces done for art shows and art auctions at conventions. Among the many artists who created stunning likenesses of Bodie and Doyle were TACS, KOZ,[7] Karen River,[8] and Shelley Butler.[9] Bodie and Doyle have been portrayed in cartoon form many times by K. Eaton and Jane Mailander. These days, art is also being produced and posted online, with numerous innovations made possible by technology. Bodie, Doyle, and Cowley have appeared as backdrops on monthly calendars or in 100x100 pixel icons used at social networking sites like livejournal. Likenesses of 3.7 and 4.5 have also turned up on fannish t-shirts, coffee mugs, computer mouse mats and keychains.

Possibly the most prolific Pros artist has been Suzan Lovett, who illustrated many Pros zines. Some of her work has been uploaded to the Circuit Archive along with the stories they illustrated, and can be found here. Since 2000, an extremely active Pros artist has been Lorraine Brevig, whose artwork has graced the covers of numerous Pros zines.

Vids

There have been a lot of Pros vids made over the years, most of them during the VCR vidding era, particularly by Mary Van Deusen, Deejay, and the Media Cannibals. Some of those can be found online now, hosted at the Circuit Archive along with more recent vids by vidders including PR Zed, Lithiumdoll, Justacat, Bistokidsfan, Ancasta, and Josey .

Several of the early Pros vids, originally made on two VCRs with copies of copies (of copies) of tapes as source, have been remastered in recent years, using new DVD source for footage. Justacat has been instrumental in this, remastering several vids for the Media Cannibals along with Gwyneth Rhys, and making them available on a disc that Gwyneth produces.

Vids to look for

  • Too Long a Soldier - Deejay: A Bodie vid that is impressive for its dark emotion, but especially known for its incorporation of non-canon video to tell its story.
  • Detachable Penis - Media Cannibals: Perennially popular look at the series' phallic imagery and emphasis on guns and their connection to masculinity. Some people have interpreted the vidder motivation as being a critique against gun violence in series of the era; however, the vidders had no such intent, and actually enjoy that imagery immensely.


Archives

  • The Hatstand -- hosts fanfic and a variety of Pros resources, including essays, reviews, story lists by category, a list of zines, lists of vids, etc. Closed to new fanfic submissions, but continues to accept non-fiction resources.

Lists and Communities

  • CI5hq (comm) -- recs, discussion, reviews, challenges, fanfic, art, vids

Notable Authors

Resources

  • Several key books on the series. Most are out of print:
    • The Complete Professionals by Dave Rogers (some factual inaccuracies about the series)
    • Shut It! by Martin Day and Keith Topping (a must-have; includes section on slash elements of the show)
    • Professional Insight co-authored by several Pros fans, focusing on slashier aspects of the show. Originally published by Pear Tree Press. Available through Gryphon Press.
    • Die Profis by Werner Schmitz (by far the largest book about the series to date, features many color photographs and full filmographies of all show stars), still in print, and
    • a new book from Bear Manor Press authored by Bob Rocca, featuring all known locations used in shooting The Professionals, massive one-of-a-kind photographs, interviews with cast, crew, and writers

References

  1. ↑ See for example "Pure Poison."
  2. ↑ A lengthy, linked set of stories featuring this pair are Jane Mailander's "Land Bridge" works.
  3. ↑ One such 'linked' story using fragments from multiple episodes is "Bonding" by Stew, in the 'zine Concupiscence 2.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Tarot" is the name this author chose to use on the online versions of her stories, and is the name they're archived under. Please don't correct it to an earlier, print version.
  5. ↑ Comments during a discussion on Pros-Lit, April 2008. Accessed October 27, 2008.
  6. ↑ Story notes for Consequences on The Circuit Archive, archived August 16, 2006. Accessed October 27, 2008.
  7. ↑ See Professional Dreamer covers and interiors.
  8. ↑ Incredible black on black Bodie portrait in Chalk and Cheese 14.
  9. ↑ See her simply wonderful black and white illo of Doyle in Playfellows 8.
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