The Professionals 3.07 The Acorn Syndrome
Mar. 2nd, 2012 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaOnce upon a dream and way back in the dim and distant mists of time, I used to write reams about The Professionals, watching and reviewing each episode in turn. Being a bit on the fandom fickle side, however, and because there just aren't enough hours in a day or days in a week to devote to all the shows I love, the Pros reviews started to fall by the wayside after a while and eventually dried up altogether. But I've always meant to get back to them, eventually, picking up where I left off. I've tried a couple of times, but seem to have some kind of mental block where The Acorn Syndrome is concerned. I don't know what it is about this episode, I watch it, enjoy it, start writing about it, but somehow tail off about halfway through and never pick it up again. Time to break through that block, methinks, try to stave off a bit of my guilt over letting the project drop. So here goes.
Overview
The Acorn Syndrome is not an episode I tend to think of as a favourite, somehow. When I first sat down to write it up, rather longer ago than I care to remember, I found the plot a bit on the dull side when picked apart in detail…and yet on the other hand, the episode also contains all kinds of wonderful moments that no fan can help but love. The dialogue, the banter, the camaraderie – not just between Bodie and Doyle, but among the other CI5 agents that we meet, as well, to say nothing of Cowley – there are loads of scenes that just sparkle. The story is really well constructed, dividing neatly into two halves: the first half being a mystery, trying to find out what the hell Bodie and Doyle have so inadvertently stumbled upon, while the second half is a more straightforward hostage case, which must be investigated and resolved without arousing any suspicions.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
I love everything about the opening sequence. I love the reactions of the Lads when they see the desk they are expected to transport on their very average-sized car. I love Doyle's disbelief and Bodie's more philosophical shrug. I love the persnickety old fella stopping them to get some padding, so as not to scratch the desk in transit. If only he knew. "We're in the wrong game," says Doyle upon hearing how much Cowley's new desk cost. I share that sentiment!
Doyle laughing at his own jokes just never gets old.
I really like that the whole case comes about by accident. The ill-fated kidnappers just happen to leave their car across the entrance to the yard Bodie and Doyle just happen to be trying to get out of at just the wrong moment. Doyle just happens to be careless enough to let them see his gun when he goes to ask them to move it. They spook and the Lads give chase without even knowing why (it's that copper's instinct: anyone who runs away must be guilty of something! Well, the fact that they wave a gun at Doyle while making good their escape probably has something to do with it, as well, of course) and thus the case-of-the-episode is born. The whole teaser sequence is really well constructed, kudos to the show.
I love that Doyle has to jump out of the way as Bodie instantly starts to drive after Shifty One and Two – then has to jump into the car as it is moving, as Bodie doesn't slow down much for him! Little details like that add so much to the story, make it feel raw and real rather than staged.
That car chase is just fantastic, so much fun. I love that this show gave us a high speed car chase with a very heavy and very ornate desk strapped to the roof of the Lads' car – all the screeching of tires and brakes as they scream their way around corners with that desk threatening to topple the car at any moment and the drawers flopping around and falling out all over the place. I love the dialogue between the Lads as they zoom along, Bodie struggling to handle the car with its heavy load, frantically shouting at his partner to cut the desk loose, no matter how much it cost, but Doyle reluctant to do so, knowing full well how Cowley will react to the loss of his new desk. And I love that after all that back-and-forth, the desk just falls off anyway – so much for the knot-tying skills of whoever strapped it in place!
I really like the pace the story hits early on, how fast the situation develops – one minute the Lads are casually collecting a desk for their boss, the next they are pursuing armed suspects at speed through suburban streets, the next they've got themselves an armed siege and a whole family-full of hostages to contend with. Nought to sixty in about two seconds flat – way to start an episode running!
I love the way Bodie sprints from the car yelling orders at the uniformed police who have appeared out of nowhere in a very timely fashion. See, that's where I went wrong when I reported a break-in at my house and then waited an hour for them to show up – I should have got a CI5 agent to radio it in for me!
The scenes of the siege feel really tense and very gritty. The shifty hostage-takers seem as terrified as their unfortunate hostages, who are pretty convincingly petrified – kudos to the actors.
Oh, our Lads are so pretty!
Yeah, the stroppier hostage-taker kind of talks himself and his mate into a death sentence by threatening to talk if captured – his bosses are much more ruthless than he realized!
The credits tell me that the detective handling the siege is called Grainger, but he isn't named on-screen. The transcript tells me that he does have actual dialogue, but I can't actually make out a word he says to Cowley, he just seems to mutter incomprehensibly under his breath. So Cowley just pats him on the shoulder and breezes on past without even looking at him. Says it all, really! And then after Cowley has been fully briefed by his agents, Grainger wanders up and does the muttering again. "Absolutely!" breezes Cowley, who can't have understood a single word, any more than I did.
I rather enjoy listening to the Lads chewing over the mystery that is the case as they make their way to Slough to investigate the weapons factory their unexpected hostage-takers were trying to get in touch with. And how fast said cogitation breaks down into grumbling commentary on the bandits their green and pleasant land seems, from their law enforcement perspective, to be riddled with.
'Hee' is the only appropriate response to the security guard at Apex who casually opens Doyle's car door so he can step on the running board and ride with the Lads from the gate to the front door of the factory. And their bemused and amused reactions! "Impressive display of security," remarks Doyle, who has the man's crotch right there beside his head. "Yeah, but is it all front?" snarks Bodie. Ha.
Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins are both at the top of their game here: the rapport between Doyle and Bodie just jumps off the screen at you in every scene they share. Brilliant.
I enjoy the how busy the scene on the warehouse floor is when Bodie and Doyle are escorted in to meet the MD, Guthrie – there are random factory minions going about their business in the background through the whole conversation, and it adds a nice air of authenticity to the scene. Similarly as Guthrie leads them toward his office, a random extra saunters down the stairs and tries to talk to him, only to be brushed aside, for no other purpose than to establish that this is a busy, bustling workplace. It's a nice little touch – background detail always adds depth to any story.
I do always enjoy the faux-posh voice Bodie puts on when he's trying to impress.
Apex-McInross have all their classified files in a big old-fashioned safe in Guthrie's office. They'd all be stored on computer these days!
I love the wry little smile Bodie gives Guthrie as he shakes his head when asked if he is happy with their security arrangements, the holes in which are apparent even to my untrained eyes.
Bodie and Doyle have time to get to Slough, conduct their hasty investigation at Apex-McInross, and drive all the way back to Musgrove Hill…and the siege is still ongoing, situation completely unchanged. It doesn't look as if anyone has even tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers. They're all just stood around waiting.
I love how all the neighbours just stand around gawking – that's very realistic. Fast-forward 30 years and they'd all have camera-phones to record the occasion for posterity!
I love that when the shifty hostage-takers are shot by an unknown assassin, Cowley throws himself over the little girl they'd taken hostage.
It always tickles me when Cowley drives the Lads around. It's a character thing for Cowley, once they established who he is, that he prefers to drive himself and got rid of the chauffeurs he used to have, wherever possible…but it still amuses me to see him chauffeuring his agents around. Also, I love watching the three of them mulling over what they do and don't know about the case so far, putting the pieces together.
Oh, I love the scene with Lucas and McCabe in their little surveillance hideout. I love it when we are allowed to see other CI5 agents and they are allowed to have personalities. I love seeing them bouncing off Bodie, Doyle and Cowley, with banter that reinforces the notion that these men all work together regularly and know each other well. I love that Cowley only has to cough slightly for McCabe to hastily extinguish his cigarette. And then when they start discussing Cowley's desk and what Bodie and Doyle did to it…words fail me. So, so funny!
Bodie and Doyle's conversation with the posh little rich girl, Nancy, at Sandy Copeland's school, is beyond hysterical.
I like that when Bodie and Doyle start to chase a suspicious vehicle spotted lurking outside the Copeland house they are thwarted by an innocent passing car that gets in the way of their u-turn. It's another of those throwaway little details that adds a lot of grit and realism to this story, which is stuffed full of them – kudos to the writer and production team.
Oh, it absolutely kills me that Cowley reckons his forensic expert will be able to tell which documents might have been Photostatted just by looking at them. I mean, obviously I don't know much about photocopying methods in 1980, maybe it did leave obvious traces, but I do know that it really, really doesn't work like that today!
Once the mystery of the first half of the story has settled down into the hostage story of the second half, Cowley splits the Lads up by setting them separate assignments. I would complain about this, as the relationship between the two is the lifeblood of the show and episodes are always stronger if they are allowed to stick together as much as possible, but on the other hand they always do get separated a lot, because that's how sub-plots are constructed, and it works for the story: they both get some great scenes individually, on top of the banter of their shared investigations in the first half.
Doyle is so sarcastic with the forensics chap talking him through the area he's going to have to search for the missing girl.
I like how pro-active and feisty young Sandy Copeland is. She might have been abducted by dangerous criminals, but she isn't cowering in a corner whimpering, she's doing whatever she can to break out and escape! It doesn't work, but at least she tries. Full marks.
I really like what we see of CI5 agents Lucas and McCabe in this episode, McCabe especially (aided and abetted by the fact that he has a larger role, on stakeout with Bodie and all; he seems to have a nicely deadpan sense of humour, which I appreciate). It's a shame we never see them again.
Mmmmmmmm, Bodie action sequence, dashing covertly to the Copeland house to surreptitiously read their note from the kidnappers.
Mmmmmmmm, Doyle in his wellies and horsebox, checking out possible kidnap locations in the countryside – and having to fend off bored housewives, at that! Hee!
I like the way Doyle and Cowley snap at each other over R/T about how long Doyle's farm-to-farm search is taking. Both under stress and taking it out on each other, very realistic, and I like that Cowley's agents have enough freedom that they can snap back at him like that, without his authority or their respect for him being diminished in the slightest. They're all in this together.
Ooh, Bodie picking the lock on Copeland's garage. What a useful skill.
Heh, when Doyle goes to investigate one of the potential kidnapper hideouts, he gets his sleeve hooked on a rambling rose in the garden – that was so not intentional, but they kept it in; presumably it wasn't worth re-shooting the scene!
The director did a really good job with this story: he got some really lovely, artistic shots and angles in places.
It all builds up to a nicely tense conclusion, as we cut back and fore between Doyle and his horsebox searching for Sandy and Copeland dashing from phone box to phone box as the hostage-taking gang send him on a mad treasure hunt before meeting to collect the highly confidential documents he has copied for them. Since they never had any intention of returning his daughter upon receipt of the documents, it is just as well Doyle does manage to find her in time!
The Copelands seem like a really nice little family, so I'm glad they get a happy ending.
The bad guys really aren't fleshed out at all in this story. They are just ciphers, really, who aren't given any motivation at all. Their reasons for kidnapping the girl or for wanting those highly classified tank designs aren't the point of the story; CI5's solving of the puzzle from a standing start is what the story is all about.
Doyle is impressively good at subterfuge – well, Bodie is too, but it's Doyle we see doing all the grifting in this episode. He is very convincing in his undercover guise as hapless lost horsebox driver, certainly fools the kidnappers.
Doyle is also an excellent shot, shooting the kidnapper with the girl right there, being held as a human shield! No wonder she collapses into hysterics. Mind, I would, too, if I thought it would earn me a hug from Doyle…
All's well that ends well – got to love a nice upbeat ending!
Quotable Quotes
BODIE: How much is it?
JOINER: Eight hundred and twenty-five. Nicker.
DOYLE: We're in the wrong game.
BODIE: What d'you reckon he's been up to? Ripping off a bank?
DOYLE: Ripping off the taxman. That's deductible, that is.
DOYLE: First day off in months and he gives us a desk job.
BODIE: Beats me what he wants it for; he carries his office in his head.
DOYLE: Oh, well, he's getting big-headed, you see. [laughs]
BODIE: What was that?
DOYLE: I think we just lost our drawers. [into radio] Nah, don't get excited, love, not you.
COWLEY: By the way, did you two pick up my desk?
BODIE: Ah, well, yes, sir, we did.
DOYLE: And, we didn't.
COWLEY: You did and you didn't?
DOYLE: Yeah.
BODIE: Yeah, well, we did the first time.
DOYLE: But not the, uh, second time. [laughs] See, well, it'll be all right because, uh, you can claim now, you see, under the new act.
BODIE: Yeah. Bend the law a little.
DOYLE: Yeah, I'm sorry.
BODIE: Don't look back.
DOYLE: What?
BODIE: Don't look back!
DOYLE: Why?
BODIE: Cowley: turn you into a pillar of salt.
BODIE: Give you the rule of thumb: too smart, too dumb.
DOYLE: Of course.
COWLEY: I suppose you heard what these two did to my desk, McCabe.
McCABE: It's the talk of the department, sir.
COWLEY: Battered beyond recognition, minus its drawers.
McCABE: Nasty. On that evidence, I'm surprised you don't charge them with rape.
BODIE: You know, when you leave here, you ought to join the police force.
NANCY: No, thanks. I used to watch 'Police Woman'. Too fraught. There are easier ways of making a living.
DOYLE: Oh, tell us.
NANCY: Marry a millionaire.
DOYLE: 'Too fraught.' I love it. [laughs] She's right, though.
BODIE: Down, boy. She's not in your income group.
LANGTON: Allowing for error, you have, um, say, a hundred square miles to cover.
DOYLE: Really? Is that all?
LANGTON: Don't despair.
DOYLE: Nice kid.
COWLEY: Nice little family.
BODIE: Yeah, just think, in a couple of years, she could be coming home with someone like him. [nods at Doyle]
COWLEY: Then they should enjoy this good time while it lasts.
The Verdict
Overall, it may not be a standout favourite but this is nonetheless a really strong story full of brilliant moments. The actors are all in fine form, bouncing off each other to excellent effect. Great stuff!
Overview
The Acorn Syndrome is not an episode I tend to think of as a favourite, somehow. When I first sat down to write it up, rather longer ago than I care to remember, I found the plot a bit on the dull side when picked apart in detail…and yet on the other hand, the episode also contains all kinds of wonderful moments that no fan can help but love. The dialogue, the banter, the camaraderie – not just between Bodie and Doyle, but among the other CI5 agents that we meet, as well, to say nothing of Cowley – there are loads of scenes that just sparkle. The story is really well constructed, dividing neatly into two halves: the first half being a mystery, trying to find out what the hell Bodie and Doyle have so inadvertently stumbled upon, while the second half is a more straightforward hostage case, which must be investigated and resolved without arousing any suspicions.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
I love everything about the opening sequence. I love the reactions of the Lads when they see the desk they are expected to transport on their very average-sized car. I love Doyle's disbelief and Bodie's more philosophical shrug. I love the persnickety old fella stopping them to get some padding, so as not to scratch the desk in transit. If only he knew. "We're in the wrong game," says Doyle upon hearing how much Cowley's new desk cost. I share that sentiment!
Doyle laughing at his own jokes just never gets old.
I really like that the whole case comes about by accident. The ill-fated kidnappers just happen to leave their car across the entrance to the yard Bodie and Doyle just happen to be trying to get out of at just the wrong moment. Doyle just happens to be careless enough to let them see his gun when he goes to ask them to move it. They spook and the Lads give chase without even knowing why (it's that copper's instinct: anyone who runs away must be guilty of something! Well, the fact that they wave a gun at Doyle while making good their escape probably has something to do with it, as well, of course) and thus the case-of-the-episode is born. The whole teaser sequence is really well constructed, kudos to the show.
I love that Doyle has to jump out of the way as Bodie instantly starts to drive after Shifty One and Two – then has to jump into the car as it is moving, as Bodie doesn't slow down much for him! Little details like that add so much to the story, make it feel raw and real rather than staged.
That car chase is just fantastic, so much fun. I love that this show gave us a high speed car chase with a very heavy and very ornate desk strapped to the roof of the Lads' car – all the screeching of tires and brakes as they scream their way around corners with that desk threatening to topple the car at any moment and the drawers flopping around and falling out all over the place. I love the dialogue between the Lads as they zoom along, Bodie struggling to handle the car with its heavy load, frantically shouting at his partner to cut the desk loose, no matter how much it cost, but Doyle reluctant to do so, knowing full well how Cowley will react to the loss of his new desk. And I love that after all that back-and-forth, the desk just falls off anyway – so much for the knot-tying skills of whoever strapped it in place!
I really like the pace the story hits early on, how fast the situation develops – one minute the Lads are casually collecting a desk for their boss, the next they are pursuing armed suspects at speed through suburban streets, the next they've got themselves an armed siege and a whole family-full of hostages to contend with. Nought to sixty in about two seconds flat – way to start an episode running!
I love the way Bodie sprints from the car yelling orders at the uniformed police who have appeared out of nowhere in a very timely fashion. See, that's where I went wrong when I reported a break-in at my house and then waited an hour for them to show up – I should have got a CI5 agent to radio it in for me!
The scenes of the siege feel really tense and very gritty. The shifty hostage-takers seem as terrified as their unfortunate hostages, who are pretty convincingly petrified – kudos to the actors.
Oh, our Lads are so pretty!
Yeah, the stroppier hostage-taker kind of talks himself and his mate into a death sentence by threatening to talk if captured – his bosses are much more ruthless than he realized!
The credits tell me that the detective handling the siege is called Grainger, but he isn't named on-screen. The transcript tells me that he does have actual dialogue, but I can't actually make out a word he says to Cowley, he just seems to mutter incomprehensibly under his breath. So Cowley just pats him on the shoulder and breezes on past without even looking at him. Says it all, really! And then after Cowley has been fully briefed by his agents, Grainger wanders up and does the muttering again. "Absolutely!" breezes Cowley, who can't have understood a single word, any more than I did.
I rather enjoy listening to the Lads chewing over the mystery that is the case as they make their way to Slough to investigate the weapons factory their unexpected hostage-takers were trying to get in touch with. And how fast said cogitation breaks down into grumbling commentary on the bandits their green and pleasant land seems, from their law enforcement perspective, to be riddled with.
'Hee' is the only appropriate response to the security guard at Apex who casually opens Doyle's car door so he can step on the running board and ride with the Lads from the gate to the front door of the factory. And their bemused and amused reactions! "Impressive display of security," remarks Doyle, who has the man's crotch right there beside his head. "Yeah, but is it all front?" snarks Bodie. Ha.
Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins are both at the top of their game here: the rapport between Doyle and Bodie just jumps off the screen at you in every scene they share. Brilliant.
I enjoy the how busy the scene on the warehouse floor is when Bodie and Doyle are escorted in to meet the MD, Guthrie – there are random factory minions going about their business in the background through the whole conversation, and it adds a nice air of authenticity to the scene. Similarly as Guthrie leads them toward his office, a random extra saunters down the stairs and tries to talk to him, only to be brushed aside, for no other purpose than to establish that this is a busy, bustling workplace. It's a nice little touch – background detail always adds depth to any story.
I do always enjoy the faux-posh voice Bodie puts on when he's trying to impress.
Apex-McInross have all their classified files in a big old-fashioned safe in Guthrie's office. They'd all be stored on computer these days!
I love the wry little smile Bodie gives Guthrie as he shakes his head when asked if he is happy with their security arrangements, the holes in which are apparent even to my untrained eyes.
Bodie and Doyle have time to get to Slough, conduct their hasty investigation at Apex-McInross, and drive all the way back to Musgrove Hill…and the siege is still ongoing, situation completely unchanged. It doesn't look as if anyone has even tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers. They're all just stood around waiting.
I love how all the neighbours just stand around gawking – that's very realistic. Fast-forward 30 years and they'd all have camera-phones to record the occasion for posterity!
I love that when the shifty hostage-takers are shot by an unknown assassin, Cowley throws himself over the little girl they'd taken hostage.
It always tickles me when Cowley drives the Lads around. It's a character thing for Cowley, once they established who he is, that he prefers to drive himself and got rid of the chauffeurs he used to have, wherever possible…but it still amuses me to see him chauffeuring his agents around. Also, I love watching the three of them mulling over what they do and don't know about the case so far, putting the pieces together.
Oh, I love the scene with Lucas and McCabe in their little surveillance hideout. I love it when we are allowed to see other CI5 agents and they are allowed to have personalities. I love seeing them bouncing off Bodie, Doyle and Cowley, with banter that reinforces the notion that these men all work together regularly and know each other well. I love that Cowley only has to cough slightly for McCabe to hastily extinguish his cigarette. And then when they start discussing Cowley's desk and what Bodie and Doyle did to it…words fail me. So, so funny!
Bodie and Doyle's conversation with the posh little rich girl, Nancy, at Sandy Copeland's school, is beyond hysterical.
I like that when Bodie and Doyle start to chase a suspicious vehicle spotted lurking outside the Copeland house they are thwarted by an innocent passing car that gets in the way of their u-turn. It's another of those throwaway little details that adds a lot of grit and realism to this story, which is stuffed full of them – kudos to the writer and production team.
Oh, it absolutely kills me that Cowley reckons his forensic expert will be able to tell which documents might have been Photostatted just by looking at them. I mean, obviously I don't know much about photocopying methods in 1980, maybe it did leave obvious traces, but I do know that it really, really doesn't work like that today!
Once the mystery of the first half of the story has settled down into the hostage story of the second half, Cowley splits the Lads up by setting them separate assignments. I would complain about this, as the relationship between the two is the lifeblood of the show and episodes are always stronger if they are allowed to stick together as much as possible, but on the other hand they always do get separated a lot, because that's how sub-plots are constructed, and it works for the story: they both get some great scenes individually, on top of the banter of their shared investigations in the first half.
Doyle is so sarcastic with the forensics chap talking him through the area he's going to have to search for the missing girl.
I like how pro-active and feisty young Sandy Copeland is. She might have been abducted by dangerous criminals, but she isn't cowering in a corner whimpering, she's doing whatever she can to break out and escape! It doesn't work, but at least she tries. Full marks.
I really like what we see of CI5 agents Lucas and McCabe in this episode, McCabe especially (aided and abetted by the fact that he has a larger role, on stakeout with Bodie and all; he seems to have a nicely deadpan sense of humour, which I appreciate). It's a shame we never see them again.
Mmmmmmmm, Bodie action sequence, dashing covertly to the Copeland house to surreptitiously read their note from the kidnappers.
Mmmmmmmm, Doyle in his wellies and horsebox, checking out possible kidnap locations in the countryside – and having to fend off bored housewives, at that! Hee!
I like the way Doyle and Cowley snap at each other over R/T about how long Doyle's farm-to-farm search is taking. Both under stress and taking it out on each other, very realistic, and I like that Cowley's agents have enough freedom that they can snap back at him like that, without his authority or their respect for him being diminished in the slightest. They're all in this together.
Ooh, Bodie picking the lock on Copeland's garage. What a useful skill.
Heh, when Doyle goes to investigate one of the potential kidnapper hideouts, he gets his sleeve hooked on a rambling rose in the garden – that was so not intentional, but they kept it in; presumably it wasn't worth re-shooting the scene!
The director did a really good job with this story: he got some really lovely, artistic shots and angles in places.
It all builds up to a nicely tense conclusion, as we cut back and fore between Doyle and his horsebox searching for Sandy and Copeland dashing from phone box to phone box as the hostage-taking gang send him on a mad treasure hunt before meeting to collect the highly confidential documents he has copied for them. Since they never had any intention of returning his daughter upon receipt of the documents, it is just as well Doyle does manage to find her in time!
The Copelands seem like a really nice little family, so I'm glad they get a happy ending.
The bad guys really aren't fleshed out at all in this story. They are just ciphers, really, who aren't given any motivation at all. Their reasons for kidnapping the girl or for wanting those highly classified tank designs aren't the point of the story; CI5's solving of the puzzle from a standing start is what the story is all about.
Doyle is impressively good at subterfuge – well, Bodie is too, but it's Doyle we see doing all the grifting in this episode. He is very convincing in his undercover guise as hapless lost horsebox driver, certainly fools the kidnappers.
Doyle is also an excellent shot, shooting the kidnapper with the girl right there, being held as a human shield! No wonder she collapses into hysterics. Mind, I would, too, if I thought it would earn me a hug from Doyle…
All's well that ends well – got to love a nice upbeat ending!
Quotable Quotes
BODIE: How much is it?
JOINER: Eight hundred and twenty-five. Nicker.
DOYLE: We're in the wrong game.
BODIE: What d'you reckon he's been up to? Ripping off a bank?
DOYLE: Ripping off the taxman. That's deductible, that is.
DOYLE: First day off in months and he gives us a desk job.
BODIE: Beats me what he wants it for; he carries his office in his head.
DOYLE: Oh, well, he's getting big-headed, you see. [laughs]
BODIE: What was that?
DOYLE: I think we just lost our drawers. [into radio] Nah, don't get excited, love, not you.
COWLEY: By the way, did you two pick up my desk?
BODIE: Ah, well, yes, sir, we did.
DOYLE: And, we didn't.
COWLEY: You did and you didn't?
DOYLE: Yeah.
BODIE: Yeah, well, we did the first time.
DOYLE: But not the, uh, second time. [laughs] See, well, it'll be all right because, uh, you can claim now, you see, under the new act.
BODIE: Yeah. Bend the law a little.
DOYLE: Yeah, I'm sorry.
BODIE: Don't look back.
DOYLE: What?
BODIE: Don't look back!
DOYLE: Why?
BODIE: Cowley: turn you into a pillar of salt.
BODIE: Give you the rule of thumb: too smart, too dumb.
DOYLE: Of course.
COWLEY: I suppose you heard what these two did to my desk, McCabe.
McCABE: It's the talk of the department, sir.
COWLEY: Battered beyond recognition, minus its drawers.
McCABE: Nasty. On that evidence, I'm surprised you don't charge them with rape.
BODIE: You know, when you leave here, you ought to join the police force.
NANCY: No, thanks. I used to watch 'Police Woman'. Too fraught. There are easier ways of making a living.
DOYLE: Oh, tell us.
NANCY: Marry a millionaire.
DOYLE: 'Too fraught.' I love it. [laughs] She's right, though.
BODIE: Down, boy. She's not in your income group.
LANGTON: Allowing for error, you have, um, say, a hundred square miles to cover.
DOYLE: Really? Is that all?
LANGTON: Don't despair.
DOYLE: Nice kid.
COWLEY: Nice little family.
BODIE: Yeah, just think, in a couple of years, she could be coming home with someone like him. [nods at Doyle]
COWLEY: Then they should enjoy this good time while it lasts.
The Verdict
Overall, it may not be a standout favourite but this is nonetheless a really strong story full of brilliant moments. The actors are all in fine form, bouncing off each other to excellent effect. Great stuff!
