One Night in Bangcock

Fanfiction
Title:	One Night in Bangcock (Yes, it is spelled this way on purpose.)
Author(s):	Sharon F
Date(s):	1986
Length:	89kb
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):	Bodie/Doyle
External Links:	at The Professionals Circuit Archive
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One Night in Bangcock is a Bodie/Doyle story by Sharon F. It has the subtitle: "An Alternate Beginning" and the author states her "apologies to Murray Head."

It was published in The Hatstand Express #9.

This is not the same story as Karen Miller's Professionals story in the gen zine, Mixed Doubles #2 published at the same time. That story is called "Seven Nights in Bangkok."

Zine's Title

The title likely takes its name from a song from the concept album and subsequent musical Chess by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

Not much between despair and ecstasy

One night in Bangkok makes the tough guys tumble

Can't be too careful with your company

I can feel the Devil walking next to me

Summaries

"Soon after they are partnered, Bodie and Doyle go to Club Bangcock, separately, to work off a little tension."

– Lady Dagger at The Professionals Online Library Summary 

Reactions and Reviews

"One Night in Bangcock" was too violently sexual for me to enjoy. But maybe it wasn't mean to enjoy. I'd like to say what I got out of this story, although the author may say "Where'd she get that?" Most of the stories I enjoy are about two men who exist in a very harsh world, who exist in this world in order to clean it up for the rest of us. These two men, while they are not working, are trying to shield themselves from that harshness, to find a certain amount of love and beauty that cannot always be there for them. Their relationship epitomises this escape from the horror. The two men in "Bangcock" are men who cannot quite escape. They have let this horror into the other side of their lives as well, have let it influence their personal relationships, and sex lives. On one level, it is perhaps a more realistic story. I was uncomfortable with this story. Perhaps that says more about me than the author. I would like to see how Bodie works out his inability to reach beyond that harshness. And I wonder if Ray, in thinking that he can do it, is being totally honest with himself.

Loved "One Night in Bangcock"... — but then, I love most B/D stuff that Sharon writes, anyway! It was fun seeing Bodie as the one, for a change, with most of the "emotional & psychological" hang-ups — and he expressed most of those so endearingly, too. he's torn by his love and desire for Doyle, and his ambivalent feelings for that love the felt trapped by it, obviously) — yet, he goes into the club, even though he KNOWS his partner is in there. He apparently wants a confrontation, but then again, he doesn't; he initially seems drawn to a smaller, red-haired man (sublimation?), then quickly drops THAT, too. when they finally "get together" for the first time, though they obviously want each other very badly, I think Bodie was relieved that it was in the most "anonymous" surroundings possible so that he could give full vent to his passion, without having to reveal any of his deeper feelings of love, which frighten him. I still can't decide if Doyle should gualify for "sainthood" here, or if I wanted to kick him, instead — on the one hand he seemed almost surpassingly patient with Bodie and his problems — he understood more than Bodie really wanted him to — yet, at other times, he seemed to be trying to push Bodie too quickly into a depth of the relationship that he wasn't ready for yet. What struck me most about this story was that it showed how frighteningly they can both swing so quickly from tenderness and sweetness and love, to being a couple of wildcats fighting for dominance, capable of actually hurting each other. It's disturbing, but realistic, and I love the dynamics of their relationship.