They're Back
 When
we last saw them they wore flares, had
gold medallions jangling across their
chests and drove a Capri.
Now
they're back, driving a Lotus sports car,
dressed in designer suits... without a
tacky gold chain or polo neck in sight.
Forget
Bodie and Doyle. Here come Keel and Curtis
- The Professionals fro the Nineties.
A new £10million series recreating
of (sic) the famous CI5 crime fighters
will ht our TV screens in the autumn.
And fans of the original series, starring
Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw, are set
for a few surprises.
The
Seventies drama - with it's famous catch-phrase
"Cover me!" - was mainly filmed
in England.
Now
our heroes will travel the world, from
South Africa's Cape Town to Canada's Toronto
and America's South Carolina.
Helicopter
dogfights and dramatic explosion scenes
will replace the less expensive stunts
of the Seventies.
And
as well as having the latest hi-tech gadgetry
at their fingertips, Keel and Curtis even
have a woman as a crime-fighting
colleague.
Canadian-born
Kal Weber, 28, who plays agent Chris Keel,
is the more rugged of the two. Londoner
Colin Wells, 34, has been chosen as the
smoothie partner, Sam Curtis.
Their
boss and mentor George Cowley, previously
played by Gordon Jackson, is replaced
by Edward Woodward. And actress Lexa Doig
comes in as female agent Tina Backus.
Kal
moved to London seven years ago to study
acting and says: "I came here and
thought, 'In a year, I'll become a famous
actor and go to Hollywood.'
Six
years later, I was totally broke. I crashed
in my brother's spare room for a while
and worked in restaurants."
Since
then he has won parts in TV's Taggart,
Soldier, Soldier and Painted Lady - but
now he's been chosen for the big time
he has to live up to the sex symbol status
of Bodie and Doyle.
He
says: "It's a very amusing notion.
I never grew up thinking I was a good-looking
guy."
Colin,
who has been an actor for 15 years and
appeared in Mr Bean, Peak Practice and
Birds of a Feather, is also coming to
terms with landing a star role.
He
says: "I got the part on my birthday
and was quite confident I had it. You
know when something has gone well."
Unlike
Kal, who is single, Colin is a family
man. He married actress Joanna Macleod
in January last year - and they have a
four month old baby, Rachael. They met
when they were both appearing at the Citizen's
Theatre, Glasgow, and Colin says: "We
were in different plays and I saw her
in the canteen and it was love at first
sight."
He
adds of Rachael: "She's lovely, she's
fab, she's everything that every father
ever says. She is the apple of my eye,
gorgeous."
When
the crew were filming for six weeks in
South Africa both Joanna and Rachael went
with him - it's written into his contract.
But
despite being a dedicated family man,
Colin confesses he loves the gun-toting
action of The Professionals.
"Being
an action-hero is a schoolboy's fantasy
come true. It's testosterone gone wild.
It's absolutely brilliant."
But
he adds: "My head's not going to
get big if this takes off. At the end
of the day I go back to my wife and baby.
I love them to the ends of the earth."
Where
did the 70s guys go?
The
three stars of the original Seventies
series eventually went their separate
ways.
Lewis
Collins, 51, who played Bodie, spends
a lot of time in Los Angeles. He was asked
to appear in the new series but chose
instead to play panto at Marlowe Theatre,
in Canterbury, Kent.
Martin
Shaw, 53, who co-starred as Doyle, now
prefers highbrow roles and starred in
the BBC drama Rhodes.
Gordon
Jackson, who played their boss George
Cowley, appeared in several films before
dying of cancer in January 1991.
(Copyright
The Sunday Mirror 1998)
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