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ci5hqThis week's Pros novelisation was Long Shot, which begins very differently in the book and the episode. In the episode we see how Mandy Mitchell is kidnapped, and then we are given this:
An apparently naive and innocent Doyle being given tips on how to get a date with the new CI5 agent:
The lads then head into CI5, past Fred on security, which is where the novelisation starts - and where we find out a bit more about Fred, who was once in the Marines and is now being sure to hand out the "...security passes anyone must wear who wished to pass his guard post." The lads are bantering back and forth about being given time off, and I'm quite chuffed to see that Doyle is wearing a hoodie in the ep! I've obviously noticed before, because I've screencapped and titled it, but I'm chuffed all over again... *g*
They head up to see Cowley - who promptly informs them that their weekend on standby has been cancelled. It's pretty much word-for-word the episode, but there is this:
George Cowley regarded Bodie and Doyle as the entered with a look compounded of some deep satisfaction and a great delight in the twist of fate that had brought him to the organisation and command of CI5. The Turkel brothers had been seen off handsomely. The Big A's techniques, however brutal and amoral they might appear, had worked. Now he was sending his men out on a different operation."
So Long Shot apparently takes place immediately after the Turkel job, from Old Dog with New Tricks.
In another bit of continuation, we get this exchange:
Still unwilling to forfeit leave without a fight, Bodie said "Tommy can-"
"You, Bodie. You and Doyle. A certain former U.S. Secretary of State."
Both agents understood that Tommy McKay was not the CI5 man for this job. Strange - that was a mild word for Shotgun Tommy.
More build-up in the novelisation to Tommy's episode, later in the series...
The lads head out to Dartington, where the conference is being held at an old army camp (which explains the lookout tower, I guess!). As they approach that tower to check it out, an SAS sergeant comes up to them to ask what they want - and Bodie recognises him as an old colleague.
Bodie looked, his mobile mouth widened, he chuckled. "Dennis!"
The sergeant peered hard, his weather-beaten face hard, and, suddenly, transforming with a big smile into the face of a friend.
"Bodie?"
"Right. How's it going?"
"Great, just great. What you up to these days?"
"Bit of this, bit of that-"
Doyle said smartly. "Bit of the other whenever he gets half a chance."
Doyle's face was composed, straight. Bodie glared, and then said with a long-suffering air: "Ray Doyle. My partner."
"Doyle?" said the sergeant, puzzled. "What outfit's he with?"
In an outrageous Irish accent, Doyle said: "The IRA, what else?"
"You was and you'd be in here horizontal. We've got this place sewn up so tight you couldn't get a puff of wind in without a security clearance."
"I'm glad to hear that Denis." Bodie looked at the spidery watchtower. "Think we'll carry on with our little stroll."
The SAS sergeant nodded them on and as they moved off he said in a low, misgiving voice to Bodie: "He really your partner? If I was you, Bodie, I'd watch it."
"Oh," said Bodie airily. "He's not bad. I'm training him up real good."
By the foot of the watchtower the partners halted and looked about. The field of fire appeared adequate, the low pine trees being cut back beyond the wire. Doyle decided to overlook Bodie's crack, which he had heard, Bodie having spoken with that intention. Lightly, Doyle said: "Which way's the River Kwai, colonel?"
Bodie accepted his partner's initiative; his crack had been a little raw after all. "River Kwai? This here fort's built to keep the redskins at bay, son."
We miss the scene with Bodie and Doyle at the window, about the NAAFI canteen - although we're told Unobtrusively Cowley checked with Bodie and Doyle who complained with some bitterness over the victualling arrangements for them, compared with the sumptuous fare served up for the delegates.
Shame - I'd love to have read about their exchange in the dark!
The scene were Ramos shoots at Harbinger/Cowley is slightly different - Ramos uses a zipwire to escape, rather than grenades (which I suppose made for more dramatic telly).
There's some extra chat when the lads are calling around, trying to trace Ramos.
A messenger brought in another file, and Bodie signed for it and flicked it open, gave it a quick scan. He threw it down, disgusted.
"From Six. Aden - Ramos has a pad there."
Doyle looked just as disgusted. "Great. Marvellous. Ramos has a pad in Aden!"
Bodie stood up. "This is useless. We'd be better off on the street."
"Yeah," said Doyle. "So come on."
"Who do we talk to? Arabs?"
"I know this great Lebanese chick," said Doyle, heading for the door.
"Has she," enquired Bodie loftily, "Got a sister?"
Doyle opened the door and the telephone rang. "No," he said, as Bodie reached for the phone. "But her brother's quite pretty."
The scene with Sammy Martin is a bit different too - no jokes about Bodie being better at heights than Doyle, which never makes sense to me, considering the way we see Doyle scramble about rooftops and buildings and so on with abandon in other eps. I almost wonder if it's an adlib, and a private joke - Doyle's face, and Bodie's amusement:
Once Cowley has said goodbye to Harbinger, he ponders on the way back to CI5.
A nagging concern stayed with Cowley all the way back to his office in that drab building off Whitehall. He nodded to Fred and went up in the lift. Bodie and Doyle were just about his two best men - there were others as good, well, almost as good - and this killer Ramos was still on the loose. Bodie and Doyle would see Harbinger safely off and report back. There was a strong whiff of bad cheese in here somewhere...
Others as good...? No - almost as good!
There's an interesting addition when the lads are taking Ramos to the airport.
The foyer was reasonably crowded as the three men headed across and so Bodie caught only a quick, fleeting glimpse of the man hurrying with suitcases for the exits and the taxis. He was English, about thirty, and he moved with a smooth sureness of purpose very familiar to Bodie.
"Benny?" Bodie said to himself, then calling "Benny!"
Benny Marsh heard the voice, caught a flickering glimpse of Bodie, and headed on without faltering or breaking stride.
Doyle said "Come on, Bodie - Ramos - what was all that?"
"Someone I thought I knew. But it couldn't have been... it couldn't have been Benny. What would he be doing outside a jungle?"
Sound familiar...?
One more thing of note, when the lads are rescuing Mandy.
Beams crunched down from above just abaft them, smothering Doyle so that he looked like a graded grains grader, the ancient lime mortar creating a hair-sticking, face-plastering mess. Bodie held Mandy carefully as they fought their way free. It was touch and go.
The foreman had been blowing his whistle as though playing the Last Trump. There was no joke in that, either, he was thinking as the two white-plastered scarecrows emerged. He started over ready to let them have a real right mouthful, when he saw the girl, and the bonds, and the gag.
"Yeah," said Bodie. "They leave all kinds of things lying about in these old buildings."
The novelisation ends with Cowley letting the lads know that Ramos was shot trying to escape when the plane was diverted to Morani, and Doyle asks whether the heart attack victim was anyone we know? The episode, of course, has a continuation of the sub-plot with Susie, the new CI5 agent.
Did anyone else who might have read this think that the writing style seemed a bit different to that for Old Dog with New Tricks? I'm sure I remember a rumour that Ken Blake was actually more than one person - I think I might believe it, having read these two together in (relatively) quick succession...
Did I miss anything else interesting...? What did anyone else think?!
An apparently naive and innocent Doyle being given tips on how to get a date with the new CI5 agent:
The lads then head into CI5, past Fred on security, which is where the novelisation starts - and where we find out a bit more about Fred, who was once in the Marines and is now being sure to hand out the "...security passes anyone must wear who wished to pass his guard post." The lads are bantering back and forth about being given time off, and I'm quite chuffed to see that Doyle is wearing a hoodie in the ep! I've obviously noticed before, because I've screencapped and titled it, but I'm chuffed all over again... *g*
They head up to see Cowley - who promptly informs them that their weekend on standby has been cancelled. It's pretty much word-for-word the episode, but there is this:
George Cowley regarded Bodie and Doyle as the entered with a look compounded of some deep satisfaction and a great delight in the twist of fate that had brought him to the organisation and command of CI5. The Turkel brothers had been seen off handsomely. The Big A's techniques, however brutal and amoral they might appear, had worked. Now he was sending his men out on a different operation."
So Long Shot apparently takes place immediately after the Turkel job, from Old Dog with New Tricks.
In another bit of continuation, we get this exchange:
Still unwilling to forfeit leave without a fight, Bodie said "Tommy can-"
"You, Bodie. You and Doyle. A certain former U.S. Secretary of State."
Both agents understood that Tommy McKay was not the CI5 man for this job. Strange - that was a mild word for Shotgun Tommy.
More build-up in the novelisation to Tommy's episode, later in the series...
The lads head out to Dartington, where the conference is being held at an old army camp (which explains the lookout tower, I guess!). As they approach that tower to check it out, an SAS sergeant comes up to them to ask what they want - and Bodie recognises him as an old colleague.
Bodie looked, his mobile mouth widened, he chuckled. "Dennis!"
The sergeant peered hard, his weather-beaten face hard, and, suddenly, transforming with a big smile into the face of a friend.
"Bodie?"
"Right. How's it going?"
"Great, just great. What you up to these days?"
"Bit of this, bit of that-"
Doyle said smartly. "Bit of the other whenever he gets half a chance."
Doyle's face was composed, straight. Bodie glared, and then said with a long-suffering air: "Ray Doyle. My partner."
"Doyle?" said the sergeant, puzzled. "What outfit's he with?"
In an outrageous Irish accent, Doyle said: "The IRA, what else?"
"You was and you'd be in here horizontal. We've got this place sewn up so tight you couldn't get a puff of wind in without a security clearance."
"I'm glad to hear that Denis." Bodie looked at the spidery watchtower. "Think we'll carry on with our little stroll."
The SAS sergeant nodded them on and as they moved off he said in a low, misgiving voice to Bodie: "He really your partner? If I was you, Bodie, I'd watch it."
"Oh," said Bodie airily. "He's not bad. I'm training him up real good."
By the foot of the watchtower the partners halted and looked about. The field of fire appeared adequate, the low pine trees being cut back beyond the wire. Doyle decided to overlook Bodie's crack, which he had heard, Bodie having spoken with that intention. Lightly, Doyle said: "Which way's the River Kwai, colonel?"
Bodie accepted his partner's initiative; his crack had been a little raw after all. "River Kwai? This here fort's built to keep the redskins at bay, son."
We miss the scene with Bodie and Doyle at the window, about the NAAFI canteen - although we're told Unobtrusively Cowley checked with Bodie and Doyle who complained with some bitterness over the victualling arrangements for them, compared with the sumptuous fare served up for the delegates.
Shame - I'd love to have read about their exchange in the dark!
The scene were Ramos shoots at Harbinger/Cowley is slightly different - Ramos uses a zipwire to escape, rather than grenades (which I suppose made for more dramatic telly).
There's some extra chat when the lads are calling around, trying to trace Ramos.
A messenger brought in another file, and Bodie signed for it and flicked it open, gave it a quick scan. He threw it down, disgusted.
"From Six. Aden - Ramos has a pad there."
Doyle looked just as disgusted. "Great. Marvellous. Ramos has a pad in Aden!"
Bodie stood up. "This is useless. We'd be better off on the street."
"Yeah," said Doyle. "So come on."
"Who do we talk to? Arabs?"
"I know this great Lebanese chick," said Doyle, heading for the door.
"Has she," enquired Bodie loftily, "Got a sister?"
Doyle opened the door and the telephone rang. "No," he said, as Bodie reached for the phone. "But her brother's quite pretty."
The scene with Sammy Martin is a bit different too - no jokes about Bodie being better at heights than Doyle, which never makes sense to me, considering the way we see Doyle scramble about rooftops and buildings and so on with abandon in other eps. I almost wonder if it's an adlib, and a private joke - Doyle's face, and Bodie's amusement:
Once Cowley has said goodbye to Harbinger, he ponders on the way back to CI5.
A nagging concern stayed with Cowley all the way back to his office in that drab building off Whitehall. He nodded to Fred and went up in the lift. Bodie and Doyle were just about his two best men - there were others as good, well, almost as good - and this killer Ramos was still on the loose. Bodie and Doyle would see Harbinger safely off and report back. There was a strong whiff of bad cheese in here somewhere...
Others as good...? No - almost as good!
There's an interesting addition when the lads are taking Ramos to the airport.
The foyer was reasonably crowded as the three men headed across and so Bodie caught only a quick, fleeting glimpse of the man hurrying with suitcases for the exits and the taxis. He was English, about thirty, and he moved with a smooth sureness of purpose very familiar to Bodie.
"Benny?" Bodie said to himself, then calling "Benny!"
Benny Marsh heard the voice, caught a flickering glimpse of Bodie, and headed on without faltering or breaking stride.
Doyle said "Come on, Bodie - Ramos - what was all that?"
"Someone I thought I knew. But it couldn't have been... it couldn't have been Benny. What would he be doing outside a jungle?"
Sound familiar...?
One more thing of note, when the lads are rescuing Mandy.
Beams crunched down from above just abaft them, smothering Doyle so that he looked like a graded grains grader, the ancient lime mortar creating a hair-sticking, face-plastering mess. Bodie held Mandy carefully as they fought their way free. It was touch and go.
The foreman had been blowing his whistle as though playing the Last Trump. There was no joke in that, either, he was thinking as the two white-plastered scarecrows emerged. He started over ready to let them have a real right mouthful, when he saw the girl, and the bonds, and the gag.
"Yeah," said Bodie. "They leave all kinds of things lying about in these old buildings."
The novelisation ends with Cowley letting the lads know that Ramos was shot trying to escape when the plane was diverted to Morani, and Doyle asks whether the heart attack victim was anyone we know? The episode, of course, has a continuation of the sub-plot with Susie, the new CI5 agent.
Did anyone else who might have read this think that the writing style seemed a bit different to that for Old Dog with New Tricks? I'm sure I remember a rumour that Ken Blake was actually more than one person - I think I might believe it, having read these two together in (relatively) quick succession...
Did I miss anything else interesting...? What did anyone else think?!
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no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 08:08 pm (UTC)I tried an explanation in Outwitted, or The Problem of Susie but I'd love to know the "real" reason!
no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 08:13 pm (UTC)Having read your summary I prefer the opening and ending to the episode, and agree that it might be done that way to put some humour into the episode. Although - I really can't see Doyle following Bodie's advice about picking up women! *g* He's just not that naive. BUT, I can see Bodie trying that with Doyle. A good bit of fun! And Bodie gets his just desserts at the end.His expression is priceless.
I've never like those red track suits on the lads - they shouldn't ever dress in the same outfits. ;-)
Doyle with the IRA! Love that scene.
Sorry that this is all a bit short and disjointed - its been a crazy weekend. Thanks for posting another tale from the books.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 09:20 pm (UTC)I'm not sure about the whole Susie sub-plot - it's a bit too cartoon-y for me really, though I don't dislike the idea of it, and it's fun seeing Bodie try to get out of trouble with Doyle. *g*
I forgot I had red tracksuits icon, and you reminded me - sorry! *g* Though I'm definitely glad that they were only wearing matching clothes to protect Harbinger - I think it's rarely a good look on anyone over the age of eight or so...
And yes - love Doyle with the IRA, I wish they'd filmed that! *g*
no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 09:22 pm (UTC)is all in there).
no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-20 05:14 am (UTC)but it’s common in the publishing industry for a series to be published under the one name but to
have been written by different authors. Part of a contract is that this won’t be revealed. Also
as these books are adapted from scripts really anyone could write them, so if a text reads differently
chances are it’s because there was input from another writer.
I was very disillusioned to discover that The Bobbsey Twins [which I loved when little] wasn’t written by Laura Lee Hope.
This was a pseudonym and the series was written by a syndicate. I've never recovered!