The Professionals (TV series) the show featured varied plots, good scripts and ongoing character development of Bodie and Doyle and to a lesser extent Cowley, but later series featured increasingly overused ideas and script devices and both Collins and Shaw stated they felt the show was becoming stale. While episodes were broadcast until 1983, episodes were actually filmed between 1977 and 1981. Major George Cowley (Gordon Jackson) (born c. 1917) – Nicknamed "Morris" after the car of the same name. His operatives sometimes call him "The Cow", though not to his face. Founder and head of CI5, making him Bodie and Doyle's boss. As
John Cowley (actor) Laurence Olivier seeking a position at the Old Vic; however, Olivier politely declined. In 1964, Cowley was chosen to play the part of Tom Riordan in RTÉ's new series, "The Riordans". His performance won him a Jacob's Award in 1967 and he continued in the cast until the series ended in 1979. Tom Hickey, who played Tom Riordan's son, Benjy, described Cowley as the "central rock of "The Riordans"" and "the father of the whole enterprise". Following "The Riordans", Cowley returned to the stage and continued acting up to the end of his life. At the time of his death,