The Cars
The most famous car used by CI5 was the Ford Capri 3.0 S (primarily the Mark III model). Two were used: Bodie drove a silver version (1978–81 episodes), Doyle a gold (1980–81 episodes). Cowley used a latest model Ford Granada (1978–81 Ghia model) while other Ford models such as a Ford Escort RS2000 (1978–79 episodes, driven by Doyle) and the Ford Cortina, particularly the Mark V (TF) model, were occasionally seen. However, in the first (1977) series, the cars used were mainly those of British Leyland, including a Rover SD1, a Rover P6, a Leyland Princess, a Triumph 2000, a Triumph Dolomite Sprint and a Triumph TR7. The SD1, a turmeric yellow 3500, bore the registration MOO 229R; in The New Avengers John Steed drove an identical-looking car with the number MOC 229P. The producers of The Professionals DVDs have speculated that these may in fact have been one and the same car.
However, reliability problems with the cars and BL requiring them back to give to the motoring press was causing disruption to filming. Midway through the first series, the supplier was then switched to Ford after they offered to provide vehicles for the production crew as well as for on screen use. The first Ford to be prominent was a black 1600 Capri used by another CI5 agent (Tommy Macay).
Many of the episodes featured some kind of car chase, a role for which the Capri, at least in terms of its market positioning, was particularly well suited.
Read more about this topic: The Professionals (TV Series)
Famous quotes containing the word cars:
“I looked, there was nothing to see but more long streets and thousands of cars going along them, and dried-up country on each side of the streets. It was like the Sahara, only dirty.”
—Mohammed Mrabet (b. 1940)
“I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)