Here is a guide to all 57 episodes produced for the original series. They are listed in original UK transmission order with original UK Transmission Dates. I've given a short story synopses for each and also listed the main support actors. For a full cast-list, have a look at John Smith's page, too.

Go to the Episode List

One thing to make clear is that, like any long-running TV show, The Professionals consisted of outstanding, good, routine and even weak episodes. To that end, I've also given ratings for Storyline, Action, Pace, Humour and Violence and an opinion on each. Please note that the Violence ratings are for uncut episodes. Unfortunately these days even the sight of somebody falling off a roof can cause some broadcasters to get the scissors out! (Hello Granada Plus!)

As an action show, The Professionals is fairly unique in having a 50:50 split of male and female fans, so I felt it was important to include views from the fairer sex. Sharon Brondos has very kindly submitted her own comments, which include a deep insight into the characterisations and relationships in the show (plus, of course, her views on the actual storylines).

An important note on filming locations : Some locations are marked as "CONFIRMED" - these are sites that I have visited personally (often with an accompanying photo) and can, therefore, guarantee accuracy. Contributions are always welcome but, as has happened in the past, honest mistakes do occur. Any information regarding unconfirmed locations must, therefore, be accepted at face value.

Each location is hyperlinked to StreetMap's excellent on-line mapping site. Please note that although some of the maps contain "arrow" graphics, this is is only an approximate pointer to the location in question.

Production Dates. One of the most frustrting aspects of researchingthe show has been the almost complete absence of production paperwork. Unless/until documentation turns up, the production dates given are, at best, educated guesses gleaned from the (thankful) fact that we know the order in which the stories were filmed and the approximate date from which each filming block commenced. Each episode was scheduled to require ten working days to shoot (post-production time such as dialogue dubbing and general editing sessions were scheduled much later and I do not attempt to ascertain such dates). There is one notable exception to the ten-day rule: the very first episode 'Old Dog with New Tricks' overran to an additional week (and possibly required work during weekends) due to the recasting of Anthony Andrews and LWT's apparent request for the story's denouement to be rewritten and reshot. The only other oddity I am aware of is 'Backtrack' which was interrupted part-way through for several months due to Lewis Collins' parachuting accident. I'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank Bob Rocca for invaluable assistance in this area.

Technical Notes: An explanation of this section is required to give readers an understanding of the background issues dictating the state of the episode prints in general use today. In 1991 London Weekend Television decided to use new technology to create a fresh set of episode copies to be held on digital tape. The process involved creating a new set of traditional standard 16mm "analogue" film prints which were then run through a (then new) digital "telecine" machine made by German electronics manufacturer Bosch. This turned each frame of the new film print into an electronic digital image, written to a form of digital videotape known as "D2". Once completed, the analogue prints were secured in a vault while the digital tapes were stored in LWT's programme library, to be made quickly available for anyone wishing to either broadcast the series, issue it on video (and later DVD, of course) or simply to use clips of the show in other broadcasts....

... The advantages of the D2 tapes were clear: they were physically smaller and therefore easier to handle and transport than traditional film print canisters with the added bonus of (theoretically) negligible degradation in picture and sound quality. The tapes also had the capability of storing the audio as separate elements, which meant that non-English-speaking countries could easily substitute their own dialogue...

In fact Granada and LWT performed this process on many of their TV shows. In 1992 Granada founded a new company called British Independent Television Enterprises ("BRITE") whose purpose was to market and distribute these shows from their D2 copies. By this point Granada had taken over LWT and all the Professionals D2 tapes were shipped to BRITE. Hence the reason for numerous references to "the BRITE copy" in this section...

... Unfortunately the Bosch machine had a number of inherent faults and shortcomings. It had tendency to apply a strange "gauze"-like effect to the visuals - this is particularly noticeable on some second-season episodes, particularly the "courtroom" scenes in 'The Rack'. Also small changes in the machine's set-up could affect the picture dramatically in terms of contrast, brightness, sharpness and colour balance. Sudden changes during an episode were usually the result of an engineer adjusting the settings during actual transfer. Ideally LWT should have corrected these problems but obviously chose not to...

Returning to the newly-made analogue film prints, there is some debate on how these were created. Ideally they should have been struck from either the original master negatives or a source known as "inter-negatives" which are essentially a "half-way house" between negs and a transmittable "positive" print. Despite LWT's evasive attitude to the situation regarding negs/inter-negs for season two onwards, research by Dave Rogers uncovered that they were still in existence by 1992. Yet many BRITE episodes display so much "positive" scratching and dirt^* that the 16mm prints made in 1991 were clearly struck from an earlier transmission print instead, probably for reasons of cost.

What we have ended up with is a huge variety in picture and sound quality. While the former is mostly to a high standard for the first season, thereafter it ranges from surprisingly good to quite poor.

In short, this series desperately requires genuine remastering... if only LWT could find the negatives!

Huge thanks to Ros Connors for info on this topic! Technical Notes for each episode are taken from her own observations and many of her comments are quoted verbatim.

^* Damage to and flaws in prints generally show as black-coloured marks and scratches, while damage to negatives is usually white in colour.

For details of the episodes from the new series, please click here. It isn't really possible to detail production order and/or dates for this series as, unlike the original show, episodes were not filmed "back-to-back".