Long Shot

The job sounds straightforward on paper: look after Dr. Ernest Harbinger, a former American Secretary of State, while he attends a peace conference in London. CI5 are used to that sort of detail. What they aren't used to is being the target themselves.

The hitman is Ramos, played by Roger Lloyd Pack, years before he'd earn immortality as Trigger, and he very nearly does for Harbinger before the opening act is out. Cowley's quick thinking saves the American's life, and that's when the real shape of the job shows itself. Ramos wasn't after Harbinger at all. The man he wants is Cowley.

When a direct shot won't work, Ramos changes tactics. He kidnaps a millionaire's daughter and uses her to lever his way to Cowley, and suddenly the protective detail becomes a rescue mission with the boss as bait. Doyle and Bodie are left to unpick it. There's a stretch where everything goes quiet, one apparent attempt and then nothing, the kind of silence that makes professionals nervous, and sure enough Ramos turns up again, this time at CI5 headquarters itself.

Brian Clemens and Anthony Read wrote it; Ernest Day directed. The regulars are all here, Gordon Jackson's Cowley, Martin Shaw's Doyle, Lewis Collins's Bodie, and a solid guest list backing them: Martin Benson's Villa, Robert Gillespie's Sammy, Peter Cellier's Walton, Nadim Sawalha's Sheikh Achmeia, Ed Bishop as Harbinger and John Horsley's Mitchell. Roger Lloyd Pack makes Ramos a genuinely chilling presence, all quiet menace and patience, which is no mean feat given the man would spend most of the eighties being the slowest-witted council employee on British television.

It's a tidy reminder that for the men of CI5 the job is never quite finished. Even when the file says closed, there's always someone out there taking a long shot.