Days when the real spooks got I-spy lessons
AMONG the consequences of lockdown is the reappearance on that box in the corner of the golden oldies of long ago. Callan is back, for heaven’s sake, and The Professionals with Bodie and Doyle putting the world to rights.
Back then the real HQ of MI6 was a tatty old office block called Century House in the Elephant and Castle. Right opposite was a decrepit ex-Peabody building used as a filming set. In their lunch break the real spooks used to gather at the windows to watch and admire Bodie and Doyle across the street showing them how protecting the nation should really be done. The superb Gordon Jackson, who played the duo’s boss George Cowley, is long gone, as is also Lewis Collins who played Bodie and died in the USA. But Martin Shaw as Doyle is still with us, and resuscitated as Inspector George Gently and Judge Deed. Ah, memory lane!