History Series / TheProfessionals

* AbandonedWarehouse: [=CI5=] used the former Wembley Palace of Engineering for training, and of course scenes take place in the usual empty warehouses, derelict dockyards, and decommissioned WW2 airfields. Parodied in "[[Series/TheComicStripPresents Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown]]" when our heroes find the Docklands are being redeveloped.

* UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar: In "Mixed Doubles" both good guys and bad guys debate whether to use dum-dum bullets, despite the fact that the Hague Convention doesn't apply to civilian law enforcement.

-->'''Cowley''' Nothing is personal, Doyle. When you joined [=CI5=], I made that perfectly clear. The department owns you — I own you! I can sell your body to science if I want — while it's still alive.

* Cowley is an [[CoolOldGuy ex-army officer]] and veteran of several wars, including WorldWarII. He's a dour Scotsman who [[DaChief barks roughly at his underlings]], but of course always defends them to the hilt.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The short-lived 1984 Australian series ''Special Squad''. And in the late 1990's a revival series, ''[=CI5=]: The New Professionals'', was produced for Sky One. It starred Edward Woodward as Cowley's successor and had a British/American pairing for the two agents, but was not a success.

** There's also the (fictional) A-180 in ''Hunter/Hunted'', a drum-fed automatic rifle that can hit a target over a 1000 yards away with its LaserSight. Likely inspired by the [[http://modernfirearms.net/smg/usa/american-10-e.html American 180 submachine gun]].

* AbandonedWarehouse: Along with abandoned dockyard and WW2 airfield.

* AbandonedWarehouse: Along with abandoned WW2 airfield.

** A few early episodes have a strange title sequence that seems to feature Cowley getting the lads to do some kind of fitness test. A few other episodes have Cowley doing a voiceover ("anarchy, terror...") over the more familar and far cooler title sequence with the car [[SheetOfGlass bursting through a window]].

* BruceWayneHeldHostage: Bodie and Doyle take a trip out to the country with their girlfriends, only to be captured by armed robbers looking to hold up in their house.

* BatmanGetsTakenHostage: Bodie and Doyle take a trip out to the country with their girlfriends, only to be captured by armed robbers looking to hold up in their house.

* BusmansHoliday: Bodie and Doyle take a trip out to the country with their girlfriends, only to be captured by armed robbers looking to hold up in their house.

** Bodie also slaps a hysterical hostage in "Old Dog with New Tricks", but at least he has a good excuse. He had to knock out out fast to get the live hand grenade that had just dropped down her blouse.

* BuddyCopShow

* CoolGuns: Where to start - the Browning Hi Power for Bodie and Doyle in the early seasons, Smith Wesson model 19 for Bodie, Walther P38 for Doyle. Not to mention both being issued with AR 18's, AR 10's, Uzis, Smith and Wesson Model 29's. Just pure GunPorn

* VerySpecialEpisode: ("Klansmen") Bodie's life is saved by a black doctor despite his [[CompressedVice racist abuse]], while members of white supremacy organisations are portrayed as ignorant thugs being manipulated by right-wing politicans and crooked businessmen for their own ends. The episode is [[BannedEpisode banned in Britain]] for its [[CompletelyMissingThePoint racist content]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: All of the vehicles, weapons and technologies available (and the fashion-''definitely'' the fashions) show that it is all set strictly during TheSeventies, not to mention the many stories that involve the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (and fighting spies straight from MoscowCentre) and other things like the Congo brush wars.

* [[HoYay/LiveActionTV Ho Yay]]: A long-time favourite for {{Slash}} writers, even without [[MrFanservice Bodie and Doyle's]] tendency to [[http://kiwisue.livejournal.com/69429.html?style=mine&mode=reply camp it up on occasion]]. TheComicStripPresents parodied this in "The Bullshitters", with 'Bonehead' and 'Foyle' resolving their burning sexual tension before the final shootout by [[ShirtlessScene getting shirtless]] and snogging each other while rolling around in a pile of gravel.

* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Invoked by Doyle when Bodie was about to kill the man who killed [[spoiler: a woman he loved.]] This is sheer EarlyInstallmentWeirdness - thankfully Doyle never has such a tedious bout of sancitmony again.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Zigzagged. Bodie is ex SAS and ex para. Doyle is a regular ex police constable, and Cowley an ex regular officer. TruthInTelevision as Lewis Collins was a Territorial Army Paratrooper and had even passed selection to 21 SAS - the only reason he couldn't serve was because he was too famous to be in a covert special forced unit.

* WorthyOpponent: Subverted when Cowley says of a KGB opposite number, "Terkoff. He was a good man." As his partner has just been shot by Terkoff, Doyle angrily points at where Doyle is lying and snaps, "Yeah? Well, there's a better man back there!"