Your favourite scenes from plod procedurals

[shiftwork2]

* sometimes The Professionals is a plod procedural, other times it looks as if the producers have watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and thought 'what if Kid's TV?'

If we're turning Professional then I'll crosspost this lengthy but worth it Taylor Parkes Quietus article from the chart music thread.

What The Sweeney is to worn-out mid-1970s Britain (tin ashtrays, floral headscarves, bent-faced men in grey slacks and platform shoes kicking each other in the bollocks), so The Professionals is to the very late 70s and very early 80s: huge microwaves, Harrington jackets, Eddie Kidd in a neon nightclub drinking Harp from a glass with a handle

[monkfromhavana]

I do love The Professionals and all its proto-fascist perms and Capris going round corners all sped-up. I like the first one with Keith "Duty Free" Barron poisoning all manner of shit with "ADX". One hepped-up salaryman gets doped and walks into a meeting declaring "The sky is very big" before unconvincingly throwing himself out of the window.

The Professionals is basically a kid's show made for simple-minded adults like me who like loud bangs and car chases.

Didn't Kenneth Williams in his diaries say that he watched an episode and then rang up his old mate Gordon and basically said "Why are you in this drivel?"

[Gurke and Hare]

Didn't Kenneth Williams in his diaries say that he watched an episode and then rang up his old mate Gordon and basically said "Why are you in this drivel?"

"Same reason you're in all those Carry On Films Kenny."

[A Hat Like That]

Wasn't entirely sure where to put this, here or the hauntological one. So here will do.

I'm finding The Long Shadow more and more compelling. They've nailed the failings of the enquiry pretty squarely.

There's a misstep in every episode, something that rings pretty false, and Lee Ingleby looks like he's stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool, but there's also something in every episode that absolutely grips me.

Last night, the Met officer interrogation scene, for one, and the scene with three characters we pretty know aren't going to be victims making their way home at night. Earlier episode had a long single shot on the WPC talking a possible victim through getting help and getting away. Then taking another phone call.

There was a gut punch last week when the chief Bradford copper, who has been unfailingly nice and reasonable throughout, goes back to interview one of the survivors, Marcella, and just drops this one bit of nastiness into the conversation.

It's very much a counter to Life on Mars. Everything kinda played for laughs there, the interview techniques on the wrong suspect, the lack of practically any forensics, the casual callousness, shown to be corrosive in actually getting the job done here.

Anyway, if in wrong place, sorry, but wanted to get it down somewhere.

[LordMorgan]

Couldn't have put it better myself about the long shadow.
I knew a bit about the case and that the two lead cops in George Oldfield and dick Holland were staggering in their incompetence
I'm sure Dick holland was involved in the stitch up of Stefan Kiszko too

There was also a very decent drama covering the ripper case from 2000
Starring Alun Armstrong. A much more sympathetic take towards George Oldfield and Dick Holland

[Fambo Number Mive]

I've been watching The Long Shadow over the past few nights, finished it last night. A brilliant drama which shows how shit most of the police* were (in particular the tunnel vision focus on the fake Ripper letters and phone calls and their bigotry towards sex workers) and how the victims and their friends and families, as well as women in the North in general, were failed by the police.

Oldfield also ran the M62 coach bombing investigation, which led to Judith Ward being wrongfully imprisoned for eighteen years. Oldfield was strongly critisied by the Court of Appeal for not disclosing a series of interviews with Ward to her defence team.

*Some of the police officers, like the one played by Toby Jones, were portrayed in a more sympatheic light.

[Alternative Carpark]

I do love The Professionals and all its proto-fascist perms and Capris going round corners all sped-up. I like the first one with Keith "Duty Free" Barron poisoning all manner of shit with "ADX". One hepped-up salaryman gets doped and walks into a meeting declaring "The sky is very big" before unconvincingly throwing himself out of the window.

The Professionals is basically a kid's show made for simple-minded adults like me who like loud bangs and car chases.

Didn't Kenneth Williams in his diaries say that he watched an episode and then rang up his old mate Gordon and basically said "Why are you in this drivel?"

Almost but not quite. What he actually says is:

Friday 27 January 1978

Watched Gordon in 'The Professionals'. Now, he's my friend & I've never seen him do anything that wasn't truthful but this role doesn't work for him. Usually his work seems effortless but this part makes him look laborious: he seems to be working at it. The writing is the sort of stuff which is banal enough to require great bravura delivery (a la Kojak or Stratford Johns) and the nearest Gordon gets to that is to shout. No wonder he told me he was unhappy in this series.

[Gurke and Hare]

Does anyone ever sit in a car reading a magazine who isn't a fictional cop doing some kind of stakeout? Seems like a dead giveaway.

[lauraxsynthesis]

Shetland Series 6 Episode 5. The baddie Donna Killick has tricked Duncan into helping her kill herself with drugged cocoa. Duncan shares a daughter with Jimmy Perez the detective and they have this love/hate thing going on for all the previous 6 series and now live together - it's all very slashy. Jimmy decides to risk his career etc to keep Duncan safe. Notice the different colours on the walls behind them and how Jimmy moves across to Duncan's side of the room. Lovely stuff. 

Apols for the sound of my dog's claws on the floor as he chose that moment to wander around and I couldn't be arsed to re-record.

[Mr Farenheit]