The Professionals (TV Series) Black Out (1980) User Reviews

Black Out

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 17 April 2019]

A young woman in just her bikini wanders into a church and collapses.

It is a case for CI5 because the woman mutters something in German, about a diplomatic conference taking place the next day.

The woman is called Gerda, she has amnesia and the ambulance in which she is being taken to hospital comes under gunfire.

Bodie and Doyle drive Gerda around villages in Kent because there is traces of hop in her hair. They hope to jog her memory.

Bodie thinks she might be stalling and actually be part of the attack but she leads them to an abducted family.

There is a bit of everything in this episode. Doyle somersaulting out of an ambulance, a pub crawl and Doyle gets partnered with another CI5 operative played by a pre Chariots of Fire, Ben Cross. They actually make a good team as it all leads to a race against time.

I liked Bodie being more upset that his new watch broke than his arm being injured.

Thanks for the memory!

[canndyman · 8/10 · 21 November 2020]

Gerda, a young German woman, wearing only her underwear, walks into a church and collapses. She's suffering from amnesia, but mysteriously seems to know vital clues about a secret diplomatic meeting that's very soon to take place.

CI5 are alerted, and Bodie and Doyle drive the woman around rural Kent as they try to get her to piece together her movements over the past few days before her black out, and how she came to be in her predicament - and also what her link is to the secret meeting.

This has always been one of my favourite episodes and, living as I do in Maidenhead, I loved all the location work in and around my town when I first saw this story as a child.

Linda Hayden is excellent as Gerda, and the story builds nicely as her memory becomes clearer and Bodie and Doyle uncover the clues to solve the puzzle of what actually happened to her.

There's some good little humorous scenes too - one of my favorites being when Cowley sends Bodie on a dawn mission to somehow fill his hip flask with Scotch. Doyle also gets off on the wrong foot with po-faced undercover CI5 agent Stuart, who chides him for talking too much!

It all leads up to a fast-paced climax with the boys customarily closing in on their targets just in the nick of time - but have they left it too late? It's a good job Bodie is sporting his fancy new watch!

Linda Hayden!

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 23 November 2020]

BLACK OUT is notable for featuring an important guest role for none other than Linda Hayden, the cult actress beloved to many fans for her appearances in the likes of BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW. Hayden plays a distraught woman who wanders into a church and collapses in the memorable opening sequence - given that she's only wearing a skimpy bikini, the vicar nearly has a heart attack! What follows adopts a mystery template with some decent action mixed in. Solid stuff, as usual.

Watches r us

[xwnbn · 8/10 · 18 January 2023]

As well as Bodies new expensive watch. There are closeups of other CI5 members with top end watches. I assume they we're trying to get some product placement going. Presumably the many Fords used throughout the series were paid for/provided by Ford.

A generally entertaining episode with various locations. Including a shot of the Capri driving round some bends immediately after ice creams are purchased. This is the road outside St Mary's church White Waltham. This along with the nearby airfield was also used extensively in the episode Stopover. I wonder if they just used spare shots from old episodes and spliced them in.