Proswatch - Stakeout
The DVD says… “Some of us are in the gutter… Bodie and Doyle’s presence in a bowling alley isn’t just the R ‘n’ R it might appear: the death of a CI5 agent has warned of a possible nuclear threat. Detailed to surveillance, the lads are going spare waiting for the villain to strike…”
Apart from anything else, I love the way it sounds like CI5 agents are like budgies to detect gas escapes - ‘one’s down, Fred! Send the squad in!’
Bowling, skittles, someone looking furtive wearing tweed jacket and pink shirt… not exactly the best look to be furtive in… Owner of bowling alley hints strongly - ‘not a night to be hanging around, not a night to take any chances…’ So I guess we can presume something is going to happen, right? Furtive bloke chooses to use the phones in the bowling alley - why not leave and use one outside? Surely if you’ve just heard something ‘around the back’ - that sort of suggests the owner/workers are in on whatever it is? But no… And gosh, aren’t those phones busy with unobservant people? Not even peering down to see why that man has just ducked out of sight…
Cowley’s office - two phones, as he is that important. Nearly eight o’clock, according to his watch - must be winter, as it is so dark. CI5 HQ looks empty. Ah, furtive bloke is Fraser - ‘the usual place’, so he rendezvous’ a lot with Cowley? Reminds me of the ep where Doyle goes for a cup of tea and Cowley pops up in the tea van… or was that a dream?!
Ah theme… run Doyle run. Punch Bodie punch. Stern Cowley stern. Wah, wah, wahhhh….
Cowley’s getting impatient - gosh it is dark. Fraser’s going to get there though… agh boxes! Yay lads! So Bodie had a drink with Fraser (and Doyle didn’t) and Fraser told him of his fears (premonitions?) Hmm… Like all that bustle with the ambulance but still they carry on their own conversation, and that Doyle stops when he realises that Bodie needs more than flippancy.
Bodie sounds a bit Liverpudlian to my ears - ‘So where was Benny?’ Where indeed, but no matter, lets go and listen to that large tape thing in Cowley’s office.
Like the way they are all staring at each other while Fraser’s voice speaks - Bodie has that eyebrow speaking volumes. Such an obvious camera change when Doyle hands the bowling score card over, I always imagine that they called CUT and went for lunch at that point. Bodie asks Cowley what they are looking for on a stake out and gets chewed out - Doyle looks a bit pouty as he quickly answers for both of them, appeasing the power that be, so much that the ‘running all the way, sir’ line gets a little smile from Cowley - ‘och the scallywags’, I hear him think. Special hearing, me.
Back to bowls - peanut chewing man empties another bag down his gullet, and B & D are in fine form… Doyle asks Bodie how many stake outs he has been on - so perhaps they weren’t immediately teamed in CI5. Like Doyle’s ‘maybe we should just yell out, anyone got anything to confess!’ and Bodie’s smile - ah, teasing banter. Love it.
Not quite sure why with the camera snap you can see the old perv in the reflection, as surely that means he is facing the lens, not taking the shot, but oh well. The peanut man is eating yet another bag of them…I take it he hasn’t a nut allergy. Very serious these bowling alley type peeps - special clothes (short skirts always the way forward for sports where you bend over)… Oh forget all that - Bodie’s hand on Doyle’s arm! For ages!
“Can you see anyone acting suspicious?”
“Yeah - us!”
Heee! Like the way before they play bowls, Bodie throws in the challenge ‘money’ and waits in the same laid back pose for Doyle to come back, rising to the bet, with a casual ‘you played much’ question to see if the bet would be worth it. Loser buys drinks - ah, gave yourself away Bodie. Something about their voices sound odd in this exchange… not dubbed exactly, just, sort of too precise or something. Maybe it was a tricky sound challenge for the producer, with the bowling noises in the background. Anyway, something is just a bit odd. Like the ‘can’t be any good for the figure’ line and Doyle’s oh I dunno’ at seeing Pammie, in her most recent incarnation.
Bodie has to ask Doyle’s shoe size… Doyle goes to look around managing to make himself look well dodgy - who goes into the men’s for a bit of a stare and then wanders out again? Eh, eh? Oh that line ‘what are you staring at?’ - where did that deep voice come from out of that skinny bloke!!!!!!!!! Doyle should have replied ‘it’s that amplifier you’re plugged into, mate’. Awful bit of dubbing.
Bodie getting impatient - trying to nick the bowling shoes! He takes a smaller shoe then Doyle, and then pays with a pound note. I could have sworn the owner bloke says how much the bowling is but no… (oh, he does later - 40p each. Blimey!) Like Bodie’s pretending to stumble with the heaviness of the balls, and Doyle’s smile at him… oh great line to Pammie:
“Have you got the time?”
“If you’ve got the inclination!”
Doyle’s look at Bodie is classic - almost like oh here he goes, getting into gear…
Hmm, just nine o’clock… so an hour has been by. How far away is Bedford? As that bomb man has got back there quite quickly to get his bomb.
Bodie’s very obvious glee at Doyle’s bad bowl - ooo almost a hug! Oh, big clap on the back instead…
…
…
Sorry, was just eying up that jean clad bottom. How do you score banter is all fab - so neither of them have played before, or Doyle cannot remember. And Bodie sticks his tongue out the way he does when he is pleased with something… and Doyle’s look! Ah perfect!
Owner blokes ‘you look terrible’ to that man is a bit of an understatement, aspirin won’t cut it mate - oh my God, that man is STILL eating peanuts. How many bags can he take in one evening?! Stay tuned to find out!
Oh - Bodie is now bored as he is losing - hee! But action is coming Bodie, with a push in the back from Doyle, they have to cart that practically-dead bloke to hospital. Bloody swallows... Ah, Benny - it looks like a different Benny to me. I am going to assume it’s the same bloke though. The clock says 20 to 10, so peanut man has been solidly eating peanuts for nearly 2 hours.
I like the way Doyle says ‘alright go on then, chat her up’ sort of like he is resigned to that sort of behaviour from Bodie, permission granted as Bodie will do it anyway, Doyle sort of smiling at his machismo - hmm, all very interesting.
Bodie buys 2 old ring pull coke can’s - quite like his chat with Pammie - her world weary stance. The Crown - pub on the corner - very nice. Very intense with that repeated ‘don’t you’... (one for the black and white affectionado's!)
...while Doyle is getting chatted up by that fat man ‘so, how about giving me a work out’ - blimey mate, steady on! ‘You might learn something’, ‘we’ll make up a threesome’ - hello have they switched the dialogue to a 1970s porn flick? MS goes to shoot another shot with the cue before quickly resting it down - I always wondered if that was intentional; it looks a bit like a slip up.
I sort of like Bodie with the woman, trying to sound her out, accepting the kiss almost as his right, his look of dawning cynicism realising she’s a prossie. His rough handling of her ‘everyone’s called Johnnie’ and then realising it was Fraser. So Fraser working on a drugs case gives the drugs to this woman in exchange for… info? Her body? Hmm… Bloody swallows again. “You are coming back to my place!” Again, nice dialogue.
Doyle’s foot over the line - yup, you were wrong Doyle. POW! In the novelisations, it says that Bodie realised Doyle was losing it with ‘the handsome Negro’ (God, don’t you love the seventies - I have issue with both descriptions there!) and shouted Doyle’s name, so that Doyle took his eyes off the man and turned to Bodie, which is why he got hit. And:
Bodie wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of Doyle’s mouth, the full lips just a little split.
I must go read them again for unintentional slashiness. Anyway, HN has his hands up in true Marquess of Queensberry rules, Bodie vaults the bowling thing and grabs Doyle under his armpits, hauling him back like a naughty child - this is the best scene ever! All that angry eyeballing and struggles from Doyle, all that gripping and holding from Bodie. Oh, and LC has a tear in his trousers here - all credit to I think Metabolick who pointed this out ages ago on the Pros Forum, but it’s true! Keep an eye on his thigh (like you need me to tell you!)
At the bar Bodie instantly puts his arm around some random woman - if some strange bloke did that to me in a bar he’d get his arm chopped off. Bodie then puts his arm around Doyle, very tactile a person, isn’t he? “Two cokes please.” - gosh they’ll be up all night, doing… well. Whatever.
Blimey, peanut eating man is still chomping - I think he needs to see a Doctor. 10.15 now… Bodie and Doyle drinking tea… Doyle looks very slim here, broad shouldered but such narrow hips…
“Closing soon… yeah, 11.30…” Well, that’s not exactly soon, is it? Why does Bodie throw his tea on the floor? Ah, but he has found a sarnie… he was probably getting grumpy from hunger.
I think this is a bit of an ad-lib, as LC knocks MS’s elbow off the chair, and both of them sort of smirk as if that wasn’t supposed to happen - at least, that is what I like to think.
I like their idea of running everyone in so Cowley has a late night and they go home! Lovely banter in this bit - ah I like Stakeout!
Swallows, Bedford - oh, it looks like peanut man has eaten his last bag - finally sated in his ever increasing lust for yet more of the salty nuts. Off he sets in his car to clear out Bedford of his favourite snack, London just can’t hold him anymore bwahahaha!
Then Doyle knocks Bodie’s arm off when he was sleeping - see, I think this they just liked from the unintentional slip from before, and so decided to make more of it. Ah, Bodie looks so happy to be doing something when they arrest the perv. And then Doyle’s little fight with weird voiced man - hee! Classic Doyle fighting moves - lovely. Another thing I think was unintentional - when Doyle throws him at Benny he almost knocks everyone over - take a look at LC’s face, there is a definite smirky grin going on there.
More explanation of the actual plot - bored with that bit now. Get back to the bowling alley… So dark and grey this ep - a-ha, the nuclear bomb squad! Ah back with our men, must be 11.30 - ‘cmon boys and girls!’ Agh the patronising bastard. Wonder why the baddies have only given themselves a 25 minute get out time with the bomb. If the alley is closed, they could have given themselves much more time to get clear. Still, drama, drama…
Swallows bloke, back to HQ, no Cowley as he is ‘out chasing atom bombs’… As byslantedlight pointed out - ‘if he goes anywhere near a button or a lever kill him’ - hahaha, let’s hope his toilet hasn’t got a long dangly flush.
Ah, 11.45pm now… I actually quite like the way the events unfold, so many times in Pros the timings seem peculiar. Love the way the holdall ‘is about bomb size’ - yup, standard, that.
Midnight, and that chopper must be seriously flying (how far away is bloody Bedford!!) "Did you hit the button?" Yes, look at him, of course he did! He hated that bloody bowling alley, with its girls and boys incessantly bowling, the sound of skittles every single day - it’s driving him mad! One kick and bomb-maker is out cold… but Doyle gets him back with the fire bucket. Whoosh! Screwdriver and pliers can defuse bombs - nice hands, Doyle. Panting bomb-maker, lip biting Doyle… like the way he compares hands to see which one is steadiest. Ah, Bodie gives Doyle a ‘well done’ nudge, and a punch. Cowley ends it with the obligatory cheesy grin and roll credits! Der ner ner...