Martin Shaw has opened up about the difficult relationship he had with his “arrogant” Professionals co-star Lewis Collins during their time on the show.
Shaw and Collins played CI5 agents Ray Doyle and William Bodie on the British crime-action drama, which ran for five series on ITV between 1977 and 1981.
The pair played close work colleagues and their onscreen chemistry helped propel the show to its success. However, Shaw has now revealed that he disliked Collins so much that he tried to prevent him from being cast on the programme and detailed the “truly horrible” experience of subsequently working with him.
“The trouble all started when I was a villain in The New Avengers in 1977 and he was my sidekick,” Shaw told The Telegraph. “Lewis behaved so badly on that set. He had a small part but he was so arrogant. It was beyond that. It was bizarre.”
He gave alleged examples of Collins’s behaviour including boasting about his physical prowess and how his scripted fights would turn out differently if the actors were forced to fight in real life.
“It was truly, truly horrible and there was a sense of blessed relief when it was over,” Shaw said.
The experience led to him trying to block the actor from being cast in The Professionals after he won the role of Doyle.
Shaw assumed his good friend and fellow Operation Daybreak (1975) actor Anthony Andrews would be a “shoo-in” for the other lead after being considered. But the production company wanted a more “abrasive relationship.”
Shaw explained: “I’d already said to the casting director, ‘I can’t work with Lewis because we don’t get on’, but they cast him anyway.
Shaw said he tried to clear the air when production began.
“I went up to him on the first day of shooting and said: ‘You know I didn’t want you to do this but let’s get on with it and have fun.’ And he told me to f*** off and he never forgave me for the next four years.”
The pair were eventually able to smooth over their differences, with Shaw remarking: “10 years after the show finished I met Lewis and everything was healed between us.”
Collins died of cancer, aged 67, in 2013.
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