History Series / TheProfessionals

** In "Need to Know", [[spoiler:Cowley shoots a DoubleAgent InTheBack as he's 'trying to escape' (he ''was'' fleeing, but Cowley stopped Bodie and Doyle from chasing after him). In "Wild Justice" however Cowley stops Bodie from getting his own revenge, because a [=CI5=] agent committing murder could destroy the organisation.]]

* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: [=CI5=] use exactly the kind of tactics condemned by Royal Commissions into police misconduct, but it's OK because they [[MoralDissonance only use them against bad people]]. Their limits are best lampshaded in the episode "In the Public Interest" where Bodie and Doyle investigate a town [[GoodPolicingEvilPolicing where the police are cracking down on crime and "immoral behaviour" by extralegal means]], such as planting evidence and roughing up members of a gay support group. Bodie and Doyle eventually gain evidence of the latter, and when the main culprit decides to murder them to avoid prison, another officer steps in and arrests him, as murder is going too far.

* MadLibThrillerTitle: "The Ojuka Situation".

** In "Need to Know", [[spoiler:Cowley shoots a DoubleAgent InTheBack as he's 'trying to escape' (he ''was'' fleeing, but Cowley stopped Bodie and Doyle from chasing after him).]]

* OldFlame: Cowley's old love Annie in "Look After Annie". (Yes, Cowley had a GirlOfTheWeek, don't [[{{Fainting}} faint with amazement.)]]

* SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness: Pimps, drug dealers, corrupt officials, and {{professional killer}}s are treated with contempt. Terrorists are evil but their idealism is acknowledged as long as it's left wing; white supremacist terror groups are not given the same respect. Communist bloc agents are ruthless but respected as fellow professionals.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: There are female agents in [=CI5=], but we only see them if required for a particular episode. And there is Susan who captures a professional killer in "The Purging of [=CI5=]", but in later episodes is only seen working as Cowley's chauffeur. Given the era a likely explanation is that these women ''are'' chauffeurs, technicians or secretaries, but Cowley has them trained so they can work as agents too when a female operative is needed.

* MagicCountdown: When a lunatic holds a nurse hostage via a grenade with the pin removed shoved won her blouse, Bodie says it has a ten second fuse. It takes the grenade ''25'' seconds to explode. You ''could'' handwave this as the grenade safety lever being caught inside her blouse and not springing free until Bodie cut it loose.

* MeanBoss: The 'Cow'.
-->"If you could [[TryNotToDie avoid getting yourself killed]] I'd be grateful. [[BaitAndSwitchComment Replacements can be very expensive.]]"

** In "Lawson's Last Stand", Bodie and Doyle are sent to track down Colonel Lawson who has walked out of a psychiatric hospital. They're amused to find him prancing about with a couple of other soldiers in a sandpit, brandishing imaginary firearms. Cut to the next scene of Lawson and his men robbing a bank with real submachine guns, using the same tactics they'd been rehearsing earlier.

** In "Lawson's Last Stand", the eponymous [[InsaneAdmiral Colonel Lawson]] is holding up a cannister of [[DeadlyGas nerve gas]], strapped to a hand grenade with the pin wired to an overhead pole. He's standing out in the middle of a field wearing rear view mirrors so he can see if someone sneaks up on him, and has trained himself to hold up the weight of the cannister for one hour, by which time he wants his demands met or he'll drop it and kill millions.

* EmptyQuiver: A white supremacist group steals enough plutonium to make an atomic bomb in "Stakeout." And in "Where The Jungle Ends", a mercenary unit does an ArmedBlag of a nuclear waste recycling plant.

* DeadMansSwitch: In "Old Dog with New Tricks," a nurse is taken hostage by a lunatic armed with a hand grenade with the pin removed. Bodie and Doyle make a reckless bid to free her because the longer he holds down the safety lever, the more cramped his hand will get.
-->'''Doyle''': The right technique is to keep him talking, play him and tire him out.\\

* BestHerToBedHer: {{Subverted}} in "Long Shot". Bodie and Doyle see an attractive female member of [=CI5=] practising her marital arts. Bodie claims that she is a Womens Libber who will only date a man she feels superior to, and convinces Doyle to spar her and take a dive. Bodie then challenges her and, after winning, asks her out which she accepts, having already rejected Doyle because "she couldn't date a man she felt superior to." Doyle isn't happy at having been had, but at the end of the episode [[CheatersNeverProsper he's shown walking off with the girl instead, to Bodie's confusion.]]

** Given that Cowley believes in channeling your anger into something constructive, he has no problem if an agent has personal issues driving them. Although Cowley refuses to let Bodie investigate after his girlfriend is caught in a bombing (not least because Bodie could have been the target) he changes his mind once Bodie involves himself against orders and it's obvious someone else was mean to be the victim.

** Bodie does use the word "spade" in a [[AesopAmnesia later episode]] before a DeathGlare from Cowley causes him to VerbalBackspace.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: There are female agents in [=CI5=], but we only see them if required for a particular episode. There is Susan who captures a professional killer in "The Purging of [=CI5=]", but in later episodes is only seen working as Cowley's chauffeur. Given the era a likely explanation is that these women ''are'' chauffeurs, technicians or secretaries, but Cowley has them trained so they can work as agents too when a female operative is needed.

** In "Servant with Two Masters," a man is sitting at a desk pointing a gun at Bodie and Doyle. Doyle shoves the desklamp so it shines into the man's face causing him to flinch, whereupon Bodie snatches the gun off him.

** In "Servant with Two Masters" Cowley himself falls under suspicion, and Bodie and Doyle are ordered to investigate their boss.

--->'''Bodie:''' Bet she's got a [[DoubleEntendre lovely full lotus]].

* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: [=CI5=] use exactly the kind of tactics condemned by Royal Commissions into police misconduct, but it's OK because they [[MoralDissonance only use them against bad people]]. Their limits are best lampshaded in the episode "In the Public Interest" where Bodie and Doyle investigate a town where the police are cracking down on crime and "immoral behaviour" by extralegal means, such as planting evidence and roughing up members of a gay support group. Bodie and Doyle eventually gain evidence of the latter, and when the main culprit decides to murder them to avoid prison, another officer steps in and arrests him, as murder is going too far.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: One serves as a ChekhovsGun in "A Hiding to Nothing". [[spoiler:Bodie is investigating the roommate of a female terrorist who was killed, and enjoys the sight when she bends over in tight patterned jeans. Bodie decides she's innocent of any involvement, but later while guarding a VulnerableConvoy recognises those same patterned jeans on a woman standing with his back to him by the side of the road, and realises they're about to be ambushed.]]

** In "The Female Factor", Doyle uses this trope to explain why he's taken over an investigation into the suspicious death of an escort girl, whom he knew from his time in the Drug Squad. Cowley is not impressed. (Fortunately Cowley then finds the Prime Minister's personal phone number in the dead girl's apartment, so [=CI5=] takes over the case anyway. Given that Cowley believes in channeling your anger into something constructive, he has no problem if an agent has personal issues driving them.)

* HomoeroticSubtext: Two [[AccidentalInnuendo 'hard men']] in tight pants [[FireForgedFriends who would kill and die for each other]], who have no issue [[HoYay/TheProfessionals camping up their relationship for a laugh]]. Famously parodied in ''Series/TheComicStripPresents'' skit "The Bullshitters" when Bonehead and Foyle resolve their burning sexual tension before the final shootout by getting [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] and snogging each other while rolling around in a pile of gravel.