The Professionals (1977)

Action · Comedy · Crime

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

IMDb rating: 8.0 (4,076 votes)
Episode average: 7.5 -0.5 vs IMDb
Seasons: 5
Language: EN
Type: TV series

Rating trend: this show's seasons do not settle into one shape. Rising Shows ranks whole shows by the shape of their rating trend rather than one average score, which is how you find a show that got better rather than a show that started well.

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Ratings refreshed Oct 3, 2026 · 5 seasons indexed

Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (1977)

7.58 avg 13 episodes 7.5 → 7.6 50 min avg

Season 1 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Private Madness, Public Danger	7.5	242
2	The Female Factor	7.6	214
3	Old Dog with New Tricks	7.4	222
4	Killer with a Long Arm	7.7	203
5	Heroes	7.7	198
6	Where the Jungle Ends	7.6	199
7	Close Quarters	8.0	201
8	Everest Was Also Conquered	7.8	193
9	When the Heat Cools Off	7.8	178
10	Stake Out	7.6	184
11	Long Shot	7.3	191
12	Look After Annie	6.9	171
13	Klansmen	7.6	161

Season 2 (1978)

7.68 avg 10 episodes 7.9 → 7.8 50 min avg

Season 2 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Hunter/Hunted	7.9	181
2	The Rack	7.3	167
3	First Night	7.5	158
4	Man Without a Past	7.9	174
5	In the Public Interest	7.7	175
6	Rogue	7.6	163
7	Not a Very Civil Civil Servant	7.4	147
8	A Stirring of Dust	7.8	155
9	Blind Run	7.9	173
10	Fall Girl	7.8	148

Season 3 (1979)

7.56 avg 8 episodes 8.2 → 7.4 50 min avg

Season 3 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Purging of CI5	8.2	172
2	Backtrack	7.5	148
3	Stopover	7.5	150
4	Dead Reckoning	7.5	132
5	The Madness of Mickey Hamilton	7.6	147
6	A Hiding to Nothing	7.4	128
7	Runner	7.4	134
8	Servant of Two Masters	7.4	140

Season 4 (1980)

7.32 avg 15 episodes 7.6 → 7.2 50 min avg

Season 4 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Acorn Syndrome	7.6	144
2	Wild Justice	6.9	141
3	Fugitive	7.4	124
4	Involvement	7.4	128
5	Need to Know	7.7	127
6	Take Away	7.2	127
7	Black Out	7.5	135
8	Blood Sports	7.1	133
9	Slush Fund	7.3	146
10	The Gun	6.5	124
11	Hijack	7.2	121
12	Mixed Doubles	7.7	143
13	Weekend in the Country	7.7	145
14	Kickback	7.4	122
15	It's Only a Beautiful Picture...	7.2	123

Season 5 (1982)

7.62 avg 11 episodes 8.2 → 7.6 50 min avg

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Foxhole on the Roof	8.2	159
2	Operation Susie	7.6	124
3	You'll Be All Right	6.9	113
4	Lawson's Last Stand	7.6	122
5	Discovered in a Graveyard	7.6	132
6	Spy Probe	7.9	132
7	Cry Wolf	7.8	128
8	The Untouchables	7.4	121
9	The Ojuka Situation	7.5	115
10	A Man Called Quinn	7.7	109
11	No Stone	7.6	124