Pros Watch - Spy Probe
The last episode ever filmed… sob! For that very reason I tend to avoid this one, so it has been a long while since I last watched it.
The DVD says: “The death of a nobody… A group is assassinating retired spies. What can be behind this seemingly motiveless mission? Bodie and Doyle are to discover that things buried in the past aren’t always dead…”
‘Retired spies’ for a start sounds like a motive to me, and anyone on a mission is rarely ‘motiveless’, but the last line has hooked me. Dark and deadly secrets… bwhahahahaha…
Extreme close up of Doyle panting, but sadly not in enjoyment. He is pounding the hard streets of London to a red telephone box, and looks highly pissed off when a disembodied stage-villainous voice on the other end of the line tells him he must run elsewhere.
This really is the Run Doyle Run episode. All he needs is teeny tiny red swim shorts.
You do have to wonder whether the location team found a phone box with the right window smashed out (probably not too difficult) or just gave a quick glance up the road before a discreet hit on the pane with a hammer.
Five minutes to run a mile… not far off Roger Bannister. Doyle is being tailed by a man who bares a passing resemblance to a hamster. Lots of canals where Doyle is running - he meets Hamster man, who tells him that they kill to order. Green light for go theme!
Slow shooting from Doyle - get those dummies! I had to do a job once where I was asked to choose ‘some good looking mannequins’ (don’t ask). I ended up in an old warehouse in Acton that was exactly like this - naked dummies everywhere giving me the evil glassy eye. It was run by an old bloke who left me to it, gave me the willies wandering amongst them, nearly lost my way out again. I do wonder if it was the same place…
Nasty little trip pushes Doyle into the room, but Doyle is ready for anything.
I like that little smirk of Doyle’s when he hears they want to ‘check him over’ - you know he thinks he can take them easy.
I am singing Aha though.
You might want to click here to see what I mean, if you are not familiar with the video for 'The Sun Always Shines on TV'.
Pow! Touch me… how can it be?
Slap! Believe me…
Wallop! The sun always shines on TV…
Nice little advert for Sony CCTV. If the bad guys have to give bad villain voice five minutes to leave, how will they then be able to follow Doyle? They won’t know where he has gone. Still, Doyle can follow them, although I am not totally sure that through the boxes (clump, crash, bang) was the best route, Ray.
I quite like these bad guys; they have a nice light touch of humour in amongst their badness. And they eat sweets.
Nice shot of Doyle bowling down the road, leather jacket, and gold bracelet.
And there is Hamster man following him - now how did he, since they left the area first, know where to find Doyle? Perhaps Doyle has just been strutting laps outside their building.
Ministers (curse those meddling ministers) are talking about running MI6 in a rather casual ‘old boys networking over a game of snooker’ type way.
Doyle orders tea no sugar from a mobile café - and a meet with Cowley. Love the idea of agents all over London, morosely sifting sausages in vans, just waiting for an undercover bloke to check in.
Cowley wants a purge of the intelligent services, the wily ministers do not look so happy. Does Cowley have any friends in Whitehall? They think he is impetuous, headstrong, too independent, too powerful, not accountable to the right people, but highly thought of by the PM. Uh oh, Cowley has to go.
Doyle is being rapidly pursued, but loses his man by climbing on top of a van. (If you look closely you’ll see there is a girl watching leaning out one of the windows of the building on the left!) Doyle goes back to the hot dog van and tries a coffee, and gets a Cowley. He is rather nice leaning against that van…
Bodie’s hair looks like it wants to escape his head, in the nicest possible way.
Like the way he just holds up the left luggage ticket at the female agent and she knows what to do. I know he is supposed to be acting casual but there is a sort of weariness here in Bodie. Female agent photographs the stuff they want to collect - money, and a target picture. They set off to a nice house in the country.
I do wonder what Bodie would have done if Williams had come into the house with him. And seeing that Williams is also an undercover MI6 man, he doesn’t know Bodie is not a mercenary, so basically he sanctions murder - nice!
Bodie has a bit of a tan.
So… the female agent must have got the photographs processed, told Cowley, he knew it was Elizabeth Walsh and raced there ahead of Bodie to be sitting comfy in her armchair. He is like the speedy tortoise.
Elizabeth is a nice calm lass, isn’t she? Now why didn’t Georgie have a crush on her? She is much worthier than Look After The Old Bat. Cowley says there are things that don’t add up - he’s right. Not a lot about this ep does, quite frankly.
Ferris and Twig (not sure if their names have been mentioned at this point, but hey ho - we know anyway) murder one of the people they have hired to murder for them, and imply they do this all the time. Ruthless and casual about it too. Love Twig’s pork pie hat.
CI5 HQ has a lot of beeping lights these days. Cowley wants Elizabeth to ‘work a puzzle board’ - and tips what looks like the remnants of a kitchen’s odds and ends draw on the table. Dearie me, even I could do better than that.
Comic-villain is back. Ferris blinks in the lights and talks to a dummy. He does know that, right? Surely… Him and Twig spot Doyle in the street before their meeting, and asks him for a drive. Same clothes, so same day - Twig must have been in touch with Doyle somehow to tell him to meet them later in a pub. Hm… but Elizabeth Walsh had changed outfits, and her obituary was already in The Times. Um… moving on…
Bodie and Williams (do we know his name yet? Ah well…) meet Ferris back in the warehouse of naked dummies. I like the way Ferris says ‘I bet you would’ about Bodie killing someone, it’s that deadpan delivery, it means business. But its Doyle… look at his face! Aw…
Bodie looks worried… but only for a second. He points out Sony’s illustrious CCTV (viewers - it’s a bargain! Buy now!) and they drive off to a park. Not sure why Bodie didn’t just jump Williams as they got out of the car to be honest, but he gets him anyway, and Doyle has a little justified go at Bodie taking his time.
Williams proves he is MI6 by killing a tree.
Cowley storms into Dawson office at MI6. MI6 need new interior designers. And is it just me, or is there the look of the butler about Cowley? Maybe a shady butler past...
Hm, the minister intends to inform the minister. How many nefarious ministers are there? Elizabeth works out two more dead folk and asks for more pieces to help her. Cowley says he will do what he can (and presumably asks everyone to clear out their bottom draw for stray drawing pins and old string).
Cowley speaks to the ministers again - in theory on the same side. It’s now a joint CI5 / MI6 operation. Meanwhile Bodie and Doyle are together on their own in a scene - the first time so far! I think that is why I’m not particularly fussed with this ep as well - not enough time together.
Ferris is talking to dummies again, and the ‘plan’ whatever that is has been brought forward. Lots of bags - now all in Twig’s car, and then presumably back in the warehouse, as Bodie and Williams walk past a man with a bag. Williams (who didn’t care that Bodie may have murdered Elizabeth Walsh earlier) now points out that the man with the bag could kill someone. Riiiight…
Even dummies check out Bodie’s backside.
The baddies chuck a lot of money about, as Williams points out. The baddies also place a lot of emphasis on circumstantial communication - the phone boxes, the note in the milk bottles - I mean, honestly! That could all go so wrong! And who is setting up all this - Ferris and Twig themselves? Riiiiight…
Back at CI5 HQ, Doyle is in his white tee with the stripes. This is one of the only times Bodie, Doyle and Cowley are together in a scene...
Williams is marched away, Cowley examines Elizabeth’s knitting… I mean puzzle board. She should be on Blue Peter.
And now the round up of the baddies with the baggies… love the race together of the Capri’s!
To me, this sort of illustrates how bored and un-invested they are in the case, which emphasises that underlying weariness I get with this ep. It is funny how this light-hearted moment symbolises that for me, but there you go.
Now if you saw a strange man handcuffing two other strange men to a lamp-post outside your house, would you just give a sneer and close the door? Actually, probably I would. And then call the police.
Twig adds his silencer and it’s the same scenario as in Heroes - are you Mr Mitchell? Bang! Graceful dive though.
Doyle checks the body and then has to dive to one side to avoid Twig’s shot. Looks rather lovely here...
Bodie sights Twig and gets him in the end.
Elizabeth works out that everyone involved worked for Intelligence. But something they collectively know might frame someone - why would fifteen retired folk even know what they know to get together to talk about it? Um. Anyway.
Like the exchange about Ferris - sweet, because of all those sweets he eats. Back in the dummy warehouse, and Ferris is splashing petrol - as those dummies will tell secrets. He is caught.
Cowley and Elizabeth talk to the remaining retired folk. It’s the minister! Which one? Any one!
The camera bloke for this ep really likes ‘up the nose’ shots.
Ferris gets interrogated. Ah - the old bath / sparks / box of treats technique. Oooo red leather gloves! Gets them every time.
Ferris gets bugged and it is back to the hotel with the talking dummy. Cowley bursts in, and works out the real man is in a black saloon (how? Just because the car pulled away?!) and the chase is on. But he kills himself with cyanide - it is a KGB man.
There is still another man though. The KGB are trying to protect Dawson - MI6 all along. Elizabeth has cleared Cowley by logic, not intuition - hee! Cowley catches Dawson in the squash court, and tells him he is interrogating the KGB bloke. That is the bait. And it is now ‘interrogation centre’ now.
Cowley does some jiggory pokery with the tapes so Williams hears it and thinks the KGB bloke is still alive. Williams tells Dawson this, in his wooden suite of doom. And off Dawson goes to a shipyard, knocks out a bloke, and gets into a little blue floating triangle.
And B & D are together! On a boat! Patting each other a little! Finally!
Not now Doyle, someone could see us!
Love the way Bodie has to duck under the bridge - eek! And of course bigger eek for Lew nearly drowning while filming this...
Scary stuff, but the scene looks very good as they speed along.
I like the hurried chat about running out of ammo, and the way Doyle says he is going to ram us, so matter of fact and calm. No panic in peril…
It ends with Cowley musing on how many other moles there are like Dawson within the services, but with the lack of support Cowley gets, you cannot help but wonder if someone will get him out in the end. It’s not an upbeat finale, just more weariness. So let’s end it instead with a pic of what we all watched the show for - ah the lads. You may have ended here but you sail forever on in our fic!
