Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Hardly a case for CI5! Obviously running out of ideas again!

A very lame story indeed by Professionals standards – I'm amazed this was one of the stories to be novelised. About the only redeeming feature is seeing Bodie having a great time as the games teacher for the day!

Little humour and the action scenes are all pretty routine stuff. Murphy has little more than a cameo appearance. (Interestingly, though, we discover his ID is 6-2 – though I'm certain this is never used in any other episode and, in fact that "number" had been used for other agents in other episodes.) In his place is agent Liz, nicely played by Hazel McBride

Like one or two other stories, I wonder if this was never originally intended for the series. An exchange between Cowley and Doyle – "It's not really our bag." / "I know I should have involved the locals [the police] but.... well, they're nice kids." – seems to be a desperate attempt to "excuse" the story.

Doyle goes to visit some of Stone's ex-colleagues – all to no avail but it helps to make the ep last the regulation fifty minutes! <G>

One of the CI5 ops dozes off while he is supposed to be watching the house – I'm not surprised!

What else is bad? Oh, yeah – the Stone's hideous wallpaper!!! Difficult to believe we all had stuff like that all those years ago!

Why does Stone leave the house on the night of the attempted killing? Think I must have missed something there – then again, I was asleep, too!

The Stone's house is along Brook Avenue in Wembley. Fan Sophie Ross should know - she moved into it shortly after filming completed! See the BTW section.

Young Nick's school is actually Rokesly Junior in Crouch End, N8. The boys wander out onto Rokesly Avenue, Tottenham Lane and Ferme Park Road. The construction site is now the rear of a grocery store/off-license. However the scene of the attempted hit-and-run is unknown. Thanks to Justin Shears who actually teaches at the school!

And another one: Bodie's Capri bears the licence plate of Cowley's Granada following the snooker club scene.

Derrick O'Connor (Jack Stone) guested in cop and 'tec shows such as The Sweeney and Hazell. Played one of the leads in LWT's 1980 series about a villainous family feuding with each other, Fox. Starred as Bob Hoskins' plumbers mate in Brazil, Terry Gilliam's spoof of Orwell's 1984. Went to Hollywood in the 90s for small parts in Lethal Weapon 2, Deep Rising and End of Days.

Melissa Wilks (young Linda Stone) will always be remembered as Jackie Wright in mid-80s Grange Hill.

Malcolm Storry (prisoner Ned Turner) played an MI5 'spook' in the wonderful Beiderbecke Tapes and then went on to Customs & Excise drama The Knock.