Subject: Chat and fic for The Professional

Description: In November 1971 the British Home Secretary called a meeting of several law, military and intelligence chiefs to ask for suggestions on how to tackle the increasingly expert and well-armed criminal and terror groups that were starting to wreak havoc across the country. It was recognised that too often the agencies were hide-bound by "red tape", inefficient bureacracy, poor co-ordination and inter-departmental rivalry � such elements often allowing villains to not only escape justice but commit their crimes in the first place...

Attending the meeting was MI5 head George Cowley and he already had a radical proposal: the creation of an "umbrella" organisation to amalgamate the military intelligence-gathering and combat techniques of the other agencies in an effort to efficiently handle such criminal activity before it endangered the public. But Cowley had recognised that such a team would need to work extremely quickly and that under certain circumstances this would mean using underhand methods to achieve their ends...

It came as little surprise to Cowley that some of his ideas were met with strong reservations but the Home Secretary welcomed the proposal, providing the team's activities were kept secret. Within a very short space of time Cowley had left MI5 and was setting up Criminal Intelligence ('CI5'), hand-picking around forty men and women for his elite squad.

We pick up CI5's story six years later. Cowley's top two agents are the partnership of Ray Doyle and William Bodie. The three men would form the focus of the series. Doyle had been a detective constable, working in the East End and Docklands areas London � two of the city's toughest beats. Bodie had had a varied past having deserted the Merchant Navy, joined a band of mercenaries in Africa, enrolled with the Paras and then the SAS, where his many talents had been spotted by Cowley, who promptly invited him to join CI5.

Different backgrounds meant contrasting personalities and the partners were often at odds with each other over the approach to the job in hand � Bodie would think nothing of damaging a suspect to 'encourage' them to talk, whereas Doyle tended to ask questions first. These opposing attitudes led the partners to enjoy a spirited relationship while developing an awareness and respect for each other's abilities.

Well that should bring you up to speed about this BBC show, now how about coming over and sharing your thoughts about this quality, short lived, series. (check the shared files. I may post more bits, like ep guides and character bios to fill in the blanks there if I can find good info).

We're limiting the fic here to slash. New or old bits, get the word out and lets see if we can't inspire some growth in the fandom

Oh, all stories posted this list will be archived in the shared files, as well as in the list website.