Pros and the IRA - Tripping Through Old Lj Posts...
Every now and then I go back through old lj posts to find links to things that I remember, and on the way I come across other posts and other links, and I'm quite excited to say that this happened today, relevant to comments made in the the Trip Through Your Wire Reading Room discussion from a couple of weeks ago.
We were talking about why the IRA wasn't featured more obviously in Pros, as "the Troubles" were very much part of life in the UK at the time. I remembered an article where Clemens explained this, but didn't have it to hand. I've just found a link to the article in a previous brief discussion about Pros and the IRA! *g* It's sadly gone from the internet now, but it was available via The Wayback Machine, and I'm actually going to copy the text of the article below, for future reference!
The Professionals: tough, tasty, but really a cop-out?
Article date and source unknown [but the article says it was an interview by "TV Choice", which was a tv guide magazine. It also indicates that there were two pictures accompanying it - "BATTLING Bodie: Lewis Collins", and "DASHING Doyle: Martin Shaw". The opening sentence suggests that the article was published either when filming had just ended, or when the last ep was about to be newly transmitted in the UK, so 1981 or 1983]
With 60 episodes filmed The Professionals has entered its final series. TV Choice talked to Brian Clemens, veteran thriller writer of this law and disorder mayhem in which only the cameras shoot faster than the high-powered guns...
AS VIOLENT police shows go, The Professionals, Brian Clemens freely admits, has achieved popular success but never the critical acclaim that The Sweeney attracted.
The comic-strip violence of the show leaves little space for the character that Jack Reagan and George Carter of The Sweeney possessed.
The exploits of CI5 sprang from LWT's order to Clemens for 'a show with two fellas'.
And from that brief Clemens shaped the characters Bodie and Doyle.
The two tough guy heroes work out national grievances on a variety of heavily armed offenders.
Clemens answered the insecurities of a country plagued by sensational headlines of terrorism without a trace of moral ambiguity.
Clemens was never tempted to pitch his heroes against the real terrors of front-page violence such as the ordinary, run-of-the-mill battles in the streets and homes of Ulster.
The reality of shoot-outs in Northern Ireland would jar with the exuberant abandon of helter-skelter car chases.
The IRA 'is a bit too real,' says Clemens.
So Clemens' 'relentlessly British' boys shun controversy.
They may be as hard as nails but they are granted no authority outside this country,
'Belfast is abroad,' says Clemens.
But that doesn't mean they aren't seen abroad, and they are sold across the world.
But among the list of major customers German TV has refused two episodes.
This was because the programmes handled a Baader-Meinhof type terrorist group.
Knuckles are fine, it seems, but not if they bruise a national conscience.
Disillusioned with the tendency of British TV to resemble 'photographed radio' Brian Clemens stresses the escapist strength of the show.
It is in the camera-work that the strength of Clemens' commitment to the show lies.
One of his earliest ideas for a TV show was rejected on the grounds that the number of cameras needed was too high.
As 'a good exercise in shooting fast' (camerawise, that is) The Professionals succeeds - but with what future?
Fallen between the surreal joy of an Avengers plot and the grimy sympathy of The Sweeney the bold feature-film strokes of The Professionals may not fade, but are likely to date.
[Source: The Martin Shaw Scrapbook, 1st December 2006, via The Wayback Machine]
And what I reckon? Pros hasn't dated as much as The Sweeney has! *g*
We were talking about why the IRA wasn't featured more obviously in Pros, as "the Troubles" were very much part of life in the UK at the time. I remembered an article where Clemens explained this, but didn't have it to hand. I've just found a link to the article in a previous brief discussion about Pros and the IRA! *g* It's sadly gone from the internet now, but it was available via The Wayback Machine, and I'm actually going to copy the text of the article below, for future reference!
The Professionals: tough, tasty, but really a cop-out?
Article date and source unknown [but the article says it was an interview by "TV Choice", which was a tv guide magazine. It also indicates that there were two pictures accompanying it - "BATTLING Bodie: Lewis Collins", and "DASHING Doyle: Martin Shaw". The opening sentence suggests that the article was published either when filming had just ended, or when the last ep was about to be newly transmitted in the UK, so 1981 or 1983]
With 60 episodes filmed The Professionals has entered its final series. TV Choice talked to Brian Clemens, veteran thriller writer of this law and disorder mayhem in which only the cameras shoot faster than the high-powered guns...
AS VIOLENT police shows go, The Professionals, Brian Clemens freely admits, has achieved popular success but never the critical acclaim that The Sweeney attracted.
The comic-strip violence of the show leaves little space for the character that Jack Reagan and George Carter of The Sweeney possessed.
The exploits of CI5 sprang from LWT's order to Clemens for 'a show with two fellas'.
And from that brief Clemens shaped the characters Bodie and Doyle.
The two tough guy heroes work out national grievances on a variety of heavily armed offenders.
Clemens answered the insecurities of a country plagued by sensational headlines of terrorism without a trace of moral ambiguity.
Clemens was never tempted to pitch his heroes against the real terrors of front-page violence such as the ordinary, run-of-the-mill battles in the streets and homes of Ulster.
The reality of shoot-outs in Northern Ireland would jar with the exuberant abandon of helter-skelter car chases.
The IRA 'is a bit too real,' says Clemens.
So Clemens' 'relentlessly British' boys shun controversy.
They may be as hard as nails but they are granted no authority outside this country,
'Belfast is abroad,' says Clemens.
But that doesn't mean they aren't seen abroad, and they are sold across the world.
But among the list of major customers German TV has refused two episodes.
This was because the programmes handled a Baader-Meinhof type terrorist group.
Knuckles are fine, it seems, but not if they bruise a national conscience.
Disillusioned with the tendency of British TV to resemble 'photographed radio' Brian Clemens stresses the escapist strength of the show.
It is in the camera-work that the strength of Clemens' commitment to the show lies.
One of his earliest ideas for a TV show was rejected on the grounds that the number of cameras needed was too high.
As 'a good exercise in shooting fast' (camerawise, that is) The Professionals succeeds - but with what future?
Fallen between the surreal joy of an Avengers plot and the grimy sympathy of The Sweeney the bold feature-film strokes of The Professionals may not fade, but are likely to date.
[Source: The Martin Shaw Scrapbook, 1st December 2006, via The Wayback Machine]
And what I reckon? Pros hasn't dated as much as The Sweeney has! *g*