in the small world of 1970s dramas this surprisingly is the most watchable.

ib011f9545i

In the crazy world of Covid lockdown I have been watching again the 1970s dramas I watched back then.
People on here will praise The Sweeney,Callan and The Professionals but probably don't mention The Sandbaggers.
Majority opinion is that the The Sweeney was wonderful,but watching it again it has surprisingly few good episodes.
Callan is great at times but the plots are predictable and looks ancient with its set bound style.
The Sandbaggers is a cult favourite but too much office based.
So we have The Professionals,which is loved and hated for the wrong reasons in my opinion.
It's fans will claim it it is non PC and realistic.
But the sexist banter and some of the attitudes are not the strengths of this drama.
People who have hardly ever seen it will say it is right wing violent crap but it is better and worse than people say.
It seems that the series was made in a rush and some of the scripts and plots reflect this fact.
But it was made mostly on location with a big budget and the best of the scripts show some research into then current affairs.
So I maintain that the show is usually better than people give it credit for,but there are some poor episodes and awful dialogue.
To the extent that the series has a viewpoint it is actually liberal towards gays but the sexism was dated even at the time.
The acting of the 3 leads is good.

score 8/10

ib011f9545i 23 July 2020

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5927308/