Classic TV Theme: The Professionals (Laurie Johnson)

From the people behind 'The Avengers' (Steed and Emma, not the Marvel folks) came this 1977 action series. Gordon Jackson ('Upstairs, Downstairs') was in charge of the team (Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins) who took on especially dangerous villains. The two had just played a pair of villains in a 'New Avengers' episode and were deemed to have the right chemistry. Off screen, Shaw became disgruntled over the lack of development for his character and would later block one planned series of reruns. The show was criticized over its action and violence. One episode never aired on UK over-the-air television ('The Klansmen') due to its subject matter (it can currently be seen on the free US streaming service Crackle). The theme music is by Laurie Johnson, known for 'The Avengers' and 'The New Avengers'. Decades later a 'New Professionals' with Edward Woodward appeared, but that's a story for another day. Pitch-corrected audio.
0:00 Opening titles. The visuals seen here were only used in season one, to be replaced by:
0:48 Revised opening titles. This style was used for the remaining four seasons.
1:35 End credits.