Hardly the Consummate Professionals

Memory is a strange thing. When I was younger I used to live for The Professionals. Messers Bodie and Doyle were, for me, the epitome of cool. I suppose I'd have been around 10 years old. The car chases, the gun fights, the high drama, the babes (whatever they were - at age 10 women just spoil a good story) were the highlight of an evenings viewing. Starsky and Hutch were great too, but they were Yanks. The Professionals were home grown. It proved that leather jackets could cross the Atlantic with ease.

As a kid I never missed it - well, you couldn't! VCRs were a thing of the future. Sitting here now, in 2008, watching re-runs of it on ITV4, I wonder what it was that attracted me in the first place. I put it down to the naivety of youth. The stories are laughable. The acting 2D. The attitudes distinctly non-PC (and non-Mac for that matter). Stereotypes abound, both racial and gender, and 'being a man' is defined in the throwing of a punch or the pulling of a trigger. 

Before settling down to watch I was excited. That was soon replaced by horror. It was awful. No, more than that. It was utter shite! I recall exactly the same feeling upon catching sight of old re-runs of Carla Lane's "Butterflies". 

People who say "things were much better in the old days!" are really saying to you that their memory is completely shot, please help them. I can't remember who said, "Nostalgia.........it's not what it used to be" but they hit the nail on the head. Our memories of the past are not simply rose tinted, they stink of lavender too. 

When it comes to Church and general morality we all suffer from defective memory. People were nicer back then. Faith was stronger. Doctrines were purer. Everyone knew their place, and you could leave all your doors, windows and drawers wide open without fear of dodgy doings occurring.

The trick ,I suppose, is not to hold onto the past, even if our memories resemble some sort of reality. The trick might be to plough forward into the future, whatever it may bring. To take the plunge, to walk in faith, into situations and experiences that will be nothing like our recollections of the past, but will have their value in that very fact. Maybe the cry will no longer be "do you remember how good it was in the past" but, "how good is it now?!" Until it does, I will continue to watch Bodie and Doyle with my jaw on the floor.