THE SWEENEY / THE PROFESSIONALS

How may of you have seen these classic late ’70s / early ’80s action shows? I have every single episode of each of them on DVD and lately, I’ve been sifting through my Sweeney collection. Network did a stunning job digitally restoring and remastering the John Thaw / Dennis Waterman crime series, using the original negatives, and watching it, it feels as if it was made as a period piece only a few years ago.

There is no way ITV1 would repeat the Sweeney (ITV4 show it anyway), because of its non-PC attitudes and occasionally disturbing violence (watch series 3’s Taste Of Fear – an action-packed cracker, but with a brutal opener). Same with The Professionals, for which the picture quality isn’t as crystal clear, but it’s still not bad.

Sweeney was a great police drama, but The Professionals was far more action driven, with two heroes who could have come straight out of a comic book, car chases, punch-ups and shootouts galore. For 3 or 4 years, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins were pin-ups and LC even auditioned for James Bond, but didn’t get the role. 🙁

Anyway, I’ve done loads of screencaps from both shows and whenever I can, I’m gonna get my pal to make moving avatars of them which he’ll send me. =)