| CI5: The New Professionals | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Crime, Action |
| Created by | Brian Clemens |
| Written by | Brian Clemens Steven Whitney |
| Directed by | Raymond Austin Colin Bucksey Harley Cokeliss John Davies |
| Starring | Edward Woodward Kal Weber Colin Wells Lexa Doig Adrian Irvine Charlotte Cornwell |
| Theme music composer | Laurie Johnson |
| Composers | Hywel Maggs Chris Winter |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox television with "list_episodes" parameter using self-link. See Infobox instructions and MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE. |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | David Bainbridge Brian Clemens Peter Hitchen Laurie Johnson |
| Producer | David Wickes |
| Cinematography | Peter Belcher Ken Brinsley Frank P. Flynn Robin Vidgeon |
| Editors | John Grover Hugo Middleton |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company | David Wickes TV |
| Original release | |
| Network | Sky One |
| Release | 19 September – 19 December 1999 |
| Related | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
CI5: The New Professionals is a British television action crime drama series, created and principally written by Brian Clemens, that first broadcast on Sky One on 19 September 1999.[1] Billed as an updated version of the 1970s terrestrial television series The Professionals, the series is set in a fictional government agency known as CI5 (Criminal Intelligence Department 5). The original group of three men - Doyle, Bodie and their boss Cowley - are replaced by a team consisting of Harry Malone (Edward Woodward), Chris Keel (Kal Weber), Sam Curtis (Colin Wells) and Tina Backus (Lexa Doig).[2] In a similar manner to The Professionals, the series included a number of high-budget impressive action sequences, often filmed in a James Bond-esque style.[2]
An initial thirteen episode series was offered to all major British broadcasters. At one time, it was suggested that ITV would broadcast the series, but after attempting to secure a cheaper deal for broadcast rights, producer David Wickes told The Daily Mail that he "would sooner lock it away in a vault than hand it over to ITV for next to nothing."[2] Sky chose to invest in the series, after considerable editing which removed a number of sequences deemed "excessively violent or disturbing".[2]
Sky provided the show with considerable pre-publicity, but viewer response to the show was extremely poor, with the low production values and perceived low-quality acting being widely mocked among those who watched it.[2] The inevitable comparisons to the original series were uniformly negative, also the series was not a success in the ratings. The overall reaction was that Sky, which normally aimed to maximise its value from any of its programming by repeating it extensively, chose never to re-broadcast it after its premiere run.[2] Subsequently, the series was not repeated on any other satellite television channel until 2012. The series, in its original, uncut form, was eventually released on Region 2 DVD on August 8, 2016.[3]
- ^ "CI5: The New Professionals (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)".
- ^ a b c d e f "The Authorised Guide to the Professionals". Mark 1. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
- ^ "CI5: The New Professionals: The Complete Series". Amazon UK. 8 August 2016.