I did write when I reviewed the very first episode of The Professionals that it always appeared to be a bit too crypto fascist for my liking. The Rack is an example.
It starts out very conventionally. An informer called 'Nosey' Parker tips CI5 off about the activities of notorious former boxer now gangster John Coogan. He is arrested along with his brother Paul. No drugs is found in the premises and both are taken to a disused warehouse to be interrogated because that is where a shadowy crime fighting organisation takes all suspects.
Doyle apparently punches or shoves Paul and he later dies. A smart lawyer is hired by the gangster and an enquiry is held whether CI5 should be disbanded.
Calling this far fetched is the least of it. Does a police force or MI5 come under threat of being disbanded each time someone dies in custody?
What is wrong with this episode:
Was a post mortem held on Paul Coogan? What was the cause of death? Why was he buried so quickly?
Lawyers are bad, especially smart female ones who take on CI5. Why were the suspects taken to a disused warehouse to be interrogated? What was wrong with a police cell?
Since when Cowley was a lawyer? I thought he was a soldier. Can CI5 not afford a proper barrister? Why were Bodie and Doyle not properly prepared for cross examination? Hold on was this a trial or an enquiry?
I like the fact the Cowley puts up a feeble defence when asked to name his informant and then promptly names him. Nosey Parker nearly gets killed when the gangster and his goons get to him, making everyone involved in this inquiry to be grossly incompetent.
In fact Parker has a better case against CI5, Coogan's lawyers and the people holding the enquiry for the damage done to him.
This is feeble stuff, the episode tries to do something different but it is cack handed. Understandable why Martin Shaw wanted to pull away from being associated with the show.