Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Professionals: MkIII Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 20, 2017

Created and produced by Brian Clemens, The Professionals: MkIII (1979-1980) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Network. The supplemental features on the four-disc set include archival production and promotional materials; isolated score tracks; and more. The release also arrives with a 180-page book of program notes authored by TV historian Andrew Pixley. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for each of the show's thirteen episodes. Region-B "locked".

Another hitman

The complete first and second seasons of The Professionals are already out on Blu-ray. You can see our listings and reviews of Network's four-disc sets here and here.

Some of the very best episodes of The Professionals are in season three. There is a greater variety of content here and the quality of the writing is significantly better. Many of the bad guys that Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw) face are actually either international figures or individuals with ties to powerful groups and organizations that can easily manipulate the local authorities. The CIA, KGB, Stasi, and even the Bulgarian Secret Service also emerge as active players that would not hesitate to break the law to accomplish their goals.

In Stopover a former CI5 agent on who has been missing for a long time reemerges and demands that "The Cow" (Gordon Jackson) meets him, but after the old man arrives and offers to help him recover he surprises everyone by becoming a key figure in a very complex game involving some very dangerous KGB agents. In Dead Reckoning “The Cow” and his two boys find themselves right in the middle of an even more complex and ambitious secret operation to smuggle a high-ranking Bulgarian spy out of the country, which collapses shortly after they contact his grown-up daughter, a classical pianist, and she meets him after years of living in the dark. Runner is about a couple of ambitious local gangsters who stage a fake robbery which they hope will start an underground war that will help them get to the top of an influential crime organization. Very sensitive military plans for a sophisticated tank are targeted by foreign spies in The Acorn Syndrome, but Bodie and Doyle intervene on time and prevent a massive disaster. In The Purging of CI5 a shadow player with intimate knowledge of CI5 and its operations phones “The Cow” and warns him that there is a bomb in his office that will explode in 30 seconds; the old man miraculously survives and orders Bodie and Doyle to find out who made the call. And in Take Away get help from a foreign colleague while trying to take down a powerful Hong Kong-based group involved with international drug trafficking.

Despite an often very tense atmosphere the overwhelming majority of the new episodes also come with a nice dose of light humor. While chasing bad guys or shooting at them, Bodie and Doyle routinely find time to sneak in a few jokes about their boss or their elusive pay raise. Also, as in the previous seasons, the two rarely miss an opportunity to flirt with the ladies.

A couple of comments about the car chases: While by contemporary standards some, or most, may appear a bit slow, there are some very serious driving skills on display. Indeed, instead of relying on digital effects and using careful cuts and zooms, the creators of The Professionals shot longer, less flashy but ultimately drastically more authentic footage. It makes the entire season look remarkably fresh.

A top-notch soundtrack created by Laurie Johnson complements the show. It blends catchy jazzy tunes, pop tracks, and very stylish '70s electronica. (Johnson also created the soundtracks for The Avengers and Stanley Kubrick’s classic film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).

Each episode of The Professionals MkIII is approximately fifty minutes long. On Network's Blu-ray box set they are grouped in the following order:

Disc One

1. Stopover
Directed by William Brayne. Original ITV transmission November 10, 1979.

2. Runner
Directed by Martin Campbell. Original ITV transmission December 8, 1979.

3. A Hiding to Nothing
Directed by Gerry O'Hara. Original ITV transmission December 1, 1979.

4. Dead Reckoning
Directed by Dennis C. Lewiston. Original ITV transmission December 1, 1979.

Disc Two

5. Mixed Doubles
Directed by Roger Tucker. Original ITV transmission December 7, 1980.

6. Need to Know
Directed by William Brayne. Original ITV transmission October 5, 1980.

7. The Purging of CI5
Directed by Dennis Abbey. Original ITV transmission October 27, 1979.

8. Fugitive
Directed by Denis Lewiston. Original ITV transmission September 21, 1980.

Disc Three

9.The Acorn Syndrome
Directed by Martin Campbell. Original ITV transmission September 7, 1980.

10. Slush Fund
Directed by William Brayne. Original ITV transmission November 2, 1980.

11. Weekend in the Country.
Directed by James Allen. Original ITV transmission December 14, 1980.

12. Take Away
Directed by Douglas Camfield. Original ITV transmission October 12, 1980.

Disc Three

13. Involvement
Directed by Chris Burt. Original ITV transmission September 28, 1980.

Archive Material/Galleries

• Lewis Collins - Military Training
• Stopover
• Runner
• A Hiding to Nothing
• Dead Reckoning
• Mixed Doubles
• Need to Know
• The Purging of CI5
• Fugitive
• The Acorn Syndrome
• Slush Fund
• Weekend in the Country
• Take Away
• Involvement
• Merchandise Gallery
• PDF Material

The Professionals: MkIII Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted 1080/50i transfers, all 13 episodes of The Professionals MkIII arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Network.

The high-definition transfers are encoded in 1080/50i, but they actually contain progressive frames. This means that there is absolutely no motion-judder whatsoever. To be clear, they are solid progressive transfers "locked" inside 1080/50i encodes. (The 1080/50i encodes are needed to retain the show's native speed).

Similar to the first and second seasons, this season has been fully restored. And again, anyone that has previously seen this show will instantly agree that the improvements in quality are substantial. On the other hand, I must mention again that at some point degraining adjustments were applied, which is rather unfortunate. To be perfectly clear, while most viewers will likely miss the minor effects that the degraining has produced, there will be a few that will spot the numerous areas where the end result could have been a lot more convincing. For example, take a look at screencapture #24, where the effects are very obvious, and notice how the degraining eliminates existing detail and actually introduces black crush that further exacerbates the flatness and ultimately smearing from the digital adjustments. A very similar effect can be seen in screencapture #8, which detail is again eliminated. Obviously, these are the type of anomalies that very easily could have been avoided without unnecessary digital filtering. The rest of the presentation basically mirrors the quality of the presentations of the first two seasons -- color balance is convincing, image stability is excellent, and there are no traces of annoying age-related imperfections. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: Network's release is Region-Free. However, because the entire show is encoded in 1080/50i, which is a standard that is not supported in North America, it cannot be played by the overwhelming majority of native Region-A Blu-ray players, including the PS3 and PS4. This being said, there are a few Blu-ray players on the market that automatically convert 1080/50i content to 1080/60i or 1080/60p. If your player is capable of performing such conversions, you will be able to view the show on your North American TV set. All Region-Free players will automatically do the conversion described above).

The Professionals: MkIII Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for each episode.

I can transfer all of my comments from our review of the second season here and they will perfectly describe the technical qualities of the two tracks. To be honest, I don't quite understand why the optional music and effects track is LPCM 2.0 while the original Mono track is only lossy, but that is how both appear on the release. I viewed all episodes with the Mono track and liked it quite a lot, but if you prefer a wider dynamic field definitely switch to the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track because there is a pretty significant difference between the two. There are no purely technical anomalies to report in our review.

The Professionals: MkIII Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Music and Effects Track - included with every episode and featuring Laurie Johnson's original scores. Presented as LPCM 2.0.

• Promotional Content - a large gallery with archival promotional materials for the third season of The Professionals.

• PDF Content - scripts and memorabilia.

• Book - 180-page book of program notes authored by TV historian Andrew Pixley, which documents the complete production history of The Professionals MkIII.

The Professionals: MkIII Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you are even remotely interested in The Professionals you should probably consider picking up copies of the original four seasons for your collections between now and Christmas. My guess is that they won't be around for too much longer because there is already a limited number of copies of the first season, which is why its price has been fluctuating a lot. I think that The Professionals is a great show, with plenty of good old-fashioned (and politically incorrect) action and a wonderful retro vibe. Years ago I absolutely loved spending time with Bodie and Doyle, and I have to say that it has been great to revisit all these different episodes from each season on Blu-ray. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.