A thread for everything else Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins have been in.
Gordon Jackson had been in numerous films and 'Upstairs Downstairs' before 'The Professionals'. Afterwards he was in the film 'The Whistleblower' with his 'Upstairs Downstairs' co-star David Langton and appeared in a 'Hart To Hart' episode with Hazel McBride (You'll Be Alright) playing his wife.
Martin Shaw had been in 'Coronation Street' in the 60s, 'Doctor In The House' and the film 'Operation Daybreak' before 'The Professionals'. He has done a wide range of work since.
Lewis Collins did 'The Cuckoo Waltz' and had guested in 'Z Cars' and 'Warship' before 'The Professionals'. He is best known for 'Who Dares Wins' and 'Jack the Ripper' afterwards. He appeared in The New Avengers' episode 'Obsession' with Martin Shaw. Lewis and Martin both appeared in 'Robin Of Sherwood'.
Lewis also did a trilogy of European mercenary action pics in the '80s - Codename Wildgeese, Kommando Leopard and The Commander. He also made several appearances on American TV, featuring in Carly's Web and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also had 2 roles, one recurring, in the early '90s ITV murder mystery show Cluedo and played a Bodie-like gym instructor in The Grimleys.
Gordon Jackson starred in 2 big films, The Great Escape and The Ipcress File in which his character Jock befriended Michael Caine's Harry Palmer before meeting a sticky end. He was also in Hell Drivers which featured a cast of stars before they became famous - Sean Connery, Patrick McGoohan, David McCallum, Sid James, Jill Ireland and Herbert Lom.
Martin Shaw was in Roman Polanski's MacBeth which was made in 1971. I watched that at school as part of my GCSE studies.
I liked Martin Shaw as Scott of the Antartic in 'The Last Place On Earth' from the mid 80s.
He also was very good in a 2009 supernatural horror series on BBC1 called Apparitions. He played a priest trying to help people possessed by Satan.
Martin Shaw was in early 70s ensemble/anthology series "Villains". I'm not really a fan of his but he's pretty good in this as a flash jack the lad type who manages to muck things up in quite spectacular style.
Gordon Jackson was in the 1962 film 'Mutiny On The Bounty' and the Mrs Peel Avengers episode 'Castle De'ath'.
Here are their CVs from imdb.
Martin Shaw's part in 'Doctor in the House' was hilarious. He should have done more comedy acting. My interest in him prompted me to buy the huge box set (although he was only mainly in the first series, I guess because after that he was filming McBeth), but I love this series. It is hellishy sexist (for those that worry about such things) and would never get passed today, but boy is it funny!
I must confess to liking George Gently, the 1983 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and Strange Report - all of which feature Martin.
I do remember liking 'Run The Gauntlet' in the 80s with him in it too but can't remember much about it now other than it was a bit like Krypton Factor assault course type show.
I liked Martin Shaw in 'Operation Daybreak'.
Yes, a darn good war film.
Martin Shaw: Lo of really good V roles. Tick.
Lewis Collns: After the Pros found work difficult, taking roles 'C' rated films. Most notble IMO for the Jack the Ripper mini series, longside Mr. Caine. What a waste.
It was a major waste that Lew didn't get to play James Bond. He would have suited the recent Daniel Craig efforts to a tee. Plus he would have looked more like Bond than Craig himself does, despite his strong, serious acting ability.
I watched Gordon Jackson in the seventies BBC series Supernatural episode Night of the Marionettes last Halloween when it was on BBC4. It was very creepy and is well worth a look - maybe it will pop up again this Halloween.
Lewis Collins would have been a natural for Bond.
He would have been indeed. After Who Dares Wins, there were more films planned for him as Peter Skellen, including one set during the Falklands War, but nothing came of it. He was also rumoured to star in an American TV movie with Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) called Adventurers Unlimited.
Such is life, Martin Shaw carved out a very good career on stage and televison after the Professionals and poor Lewis Collins didn't really do much at all.
When I used to watch the re-runs of The Professionals on Granada Plus in my student days, I just used to think what a great show and I had some very brief memories of seeing little snippets of the show during its ITV repeats around 1984 - 1987. At the time, in those pre-internet days for me, I never really gave any thought to the actors who played the roles. This sounds really bizarre now I know! But in the last 5 or 6 years or so I've became really interested in Lewis Collins's career and I've occasionally considered buying Commando Leopard, Codename Wild Geese and The Commander. I never got around to buying them but I've seen them on the 'Movies for Men' channel in the last few months and my overwhelming reaction was that it was a real shame to see LC in such low budget flicks when he should have been in far more high profile roles.
I can't say I've ever seen any other similar films - at times it really does feel a bit as though it's been shot in someone's back garden with a camcorder! It is always good to see LC as he is one of those very rare actors that I find very watchable in anything but I must admit I found it quite difficult getting to the end of those films as they didn't really seem to go anywhere and the low standard or production put me off.
As I say, up until relatively recently I wasn't really aware that Lewis was considered for Bond. That's probably because the last series of The Professionals was all filmed before I even started school so Lewis's high profile days were sadly over by the time I started taking an interest in film and TV. Looking around online and at some old newspaper cuttings though, it certainly seems as though LC was the public's choice to take over from Roger Moore. I think he would have been brilliant as he was so watchable, the women liked him, the guys wanted to be like him and he had all that positive baggage of Bodie - I bet all his fans from The Professionals wanted him to be Bond so I would have thought he would have been a pretty safe bet for the producers. He would have given Bond a really modern and up to date feel back in the 1980s. As much as I like Roger Moore's portrayal, LC would have brought it up to date. It is real mystery that LC didn't go on to greater things, it would be great to read his autobiography but sadly it doesn't seem as though much progress has been made in getting it published, although hopefully I'm wrong.
I watched last night 'Who Dares Wins' which I have on home recording CD/RW. First time I've seen it years... hugely disappointed. The production, script and story is rather insipid. Crying shame as there's some good actors in the film. Not sure what the writers were thinking of in terms of quality - I 'get' it's an ideal roles Lewis... he and the others deserved better.
By contrast, on the same disc, I have 'Regeneration', directed by Gilles Mckinnon. It had a similar budget and similar calibre of actor, yet the dialogue-laden film about shell-shock victims is gripping from start to finish. Everything that Who Dares Wins lacks.
I will at some point give a full appraisal of the WWI drama.
I think 'Who Dares Wins' is a cracking action movie. It looks a bit dated these days and Lew's hairstyle is really bad. Apart from that it ticks all the boxes for me.
'Who Dares Wins' is a film I liked more as a teenager. I've got it on DVD and still enjoy watching it but I really only watch it for the end where they storm the embassy as a lot of the plot doesn't make sense if you think about it too much.
Everything has dated on the film: Hairstyles, music, the script... the action scenes at the beginning when Lewis is knocking six shades out of the US/German military is good, as is the ending action scenes. As a thought-provoking film, given it's based around the SAS and faux-terroists, it fails miserably.
It is uninvolving, wishy-washy production IMHO. Hey, what do I know?
Read the book, pp. Known as The Tiptoe Boys, it's a razor-sharp spy thriller in which the villains are more clever and devastating than they were in the movie and more depth is given to Peter Skellen, particularly his attitude towards the SAS. The finale is considerably more downbeat too.
Generally speaking the original book is better than the adapted film.
It is but IMHO the film has a slightly better action climax.
Fair enough. I was just disappointed how old fashioned it looked, and compared to the other film on my disc, the dialogue and storyline looked third rate. If they had wrote it about a IRA splinter group, and this is just my opinion, it would have a lot more credence. Using the American as the gang leader, along with crummy script didn't do the film any justice.
Apart from Lew's awful haircut and the stupid anti-nuclear am-dram play (which was dated in 1982!) this film has fared well I think in the intervening 34 years.
This reminds me of a famous Monty Python scene (Life of Brian).
A few months ago I started watching George Gently. I'm enjoying it and slowly making my way through them. I'm on series three right now. I think the '60s setting is a nice change of pace. I've been amused by the couple of references that have been made to Docfor Who.
At least once an episode I look at Martin Shaw and think "Doyle as an old man".
Fair play, Gently is a cracking show I think and I reckon you'll enjoy it!