Finding Aid

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Scope and Contents

This collection contains fanzines and individual examples of fan fiction relating to the British crime drama The Professionals. Most of the collection is composed of fan fiction - short stories, novellas and entire novels. A large percentage of this fan fiction is "slash", that is, fiction that concentrates on sexual relationships between two or more characters of the same sex.

Series I in this collection is comprised of materials from the Professionals Circuit Library. The Circuit Library (also known as the Circuit Archive) is a singular form of fannish creative association, that for Professionals fans actually predates the creation of more typical zines. In a standard fanzine distribution, a fan or group of fans will write, edit and publish a fanzine, and the publication will be printed and made available for sale. With The Professionals fandom, things began much more informally. Fans would place their stories 'on the circuit'. That is, they would write their stories and then produce photocopies; the copies would then be circulated among one another via standard mail. In time, certain fans began collecting copies together into 'circuit libraries'. Interested fans could become members of these informal lending libraries, and would receive titles on request, which they could read and /or photocopy and then return to the library. Although, in time, Professionals fans began producing zines in the same ways that other fans did, much of the fanfiction remained (and remains) on the circuit.

By the late 1980s, two large circuit libraries were in place: one in Great Britain, and another in the United States. They enjoyed considerable overlap in their contents, but because of geographical distance and the informality of circuit distribution did not duplicate each other. In the early 1990s, as zines started entering the electronic era, fans began working to convert the vast number of paper stories into an electronic format that would encourage and increase access (as well as help preserve the much-used paper originals). In 1996, the Circuit Library went online and continues to periodically increase its contents with new stories. The Circuit Library, sprung from humble beginnings, now holds more than 1000 individual stories, which form the backbone of Professionals creative fandom.

To quote Morgan Dawn, the donor of the collection, "the circuit library in the Professionals fandom is a unique tradition of women writing and sharing fan fiction (often anonymously) without going through the editorial and fanzine publication process. In many ways, it is the precursor to the fan fiction on the Internet where people would read a story, photo-copy it and send it on to someone else, and then write a response story, copy that and mail it on in an endless flow...and because The Professionals was a UK show, you have the unique situation where this communication was crossing both cultural and geographic barriers."

Learn more about the Circuit Library (Circuit Archive) and its contents at http://fanlore.org/wiki/Circuit.

*Note: The materials in Series I are maintained in the same assemblage and order in which Morgan Dawn kept them. Stories from a particular author (or group of authors) or those comprising a particular series were collected in binders by Dawn; each binder was given an informal title which has been retained here. Individual stories for each binder (now each folder) are listed in italics under the general title of each story collection. Other stories, not tied to a particular collection, were individually bound (now individually foldered).

In addition, Series I contains several paper indexes to the various Circuit Library stories. There are also two CD-ROMs on which are stored (arranged in various fashions - i.e. alphabetically by title, author, genre, etc.) electronic versions of the CL's contents. The "Slash Fanfiction Archive 2010", in addition, contains a large variety of supplemental Professionals reference documents, including episode transcripts, scripts, lists of episode titles and writers, fan-authored articles on the show, and scanned photographs and sound files.

Series II consists of more typical fanzines, although many are photocopies of the originals (suggesting that at least some of them existed originally on the circuit).  A few are multimedia anthologies, containing stories that chronicle other media universes as well as The Professionals.

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Biographical Note

Morgan Dawn is a long-time fan who has been reading and writing fan fiction since her early teens. As she says herself, "I was a fan early on, I just didn't know it. Writing my own Starsky & Hutch episodes in my school notebooks seemed so very natural.  Plotting out complicated adventures for Capt Kirk and Mr Spock was a given. My imagination took them  (and me) everywhere."

In Dawn's late twenties, she stumbled across media fandom, and along with it slash fan fiction. From there, she began attending conventions, writing fan fiction, and moved into vidding (video editing.).  She helped moderate the first slash mailing list and, as electronic fandom evolved from mailing lists to blogging, helped set up and administer several online fan communities.  "I don't think there hasn't been an area of my life that fandom has not touched - from creating friendships  with women across the world to teaching me technical skills in web design, video editing, and desktop publishing, to allowing me a chance to stretch my wings creatively, I owe it all to the women who first thought that there was more to Capt Kirk and Mr Spock than just two guys on a spaceship."  

While the majority of the items in this collection are items that Dawn actively sought out and acquired, many were deposited with her by other fans. Dawn pays tribute to these fans by commenting "I owe my collection to the many women who were happy to have me hold their zines and fan fiction until I could find them a forever home."

Historical Note

The Professionals was a British-made crime drama broadcast by ITV from 1977-1983. The show chronicled the operations of the fictional government agency CI5 [Criminal Intelligence 5], which was tasked with law enforcement duties beyond the purview of the regular police, but which did not necessarily come under the authority of either the British military or MI-5 (the domestic security service).  CI5 agents would be granted flexibility in their operations, allowing for frequent use of violence and other extralegal, unconventional activities.

The show focused on the adventures of two CI5 operatives: William Bodie (played by Lewis Collins) and Ray Doyle (Martin Shaw). Bodie and Doyle, in the tradition of cop shows, are temperamental opposites brought together in an unlikely partnership. Bodie is a former SAS paratrooper- tough, hard and ruthless, more willing than Doyle to bend the law and adopt the methods of the criminals he hunts. Doyle, on the other hand, is a former police detective, more open-minded and liberal than his partner but at the same time more impulsive. The two are supervised by CI5 director George Cowley (Gordon Jackson).

In the course of the show, Bodie and Doyle faced a number of different enemies, reflecting the flexible nature of CI5's mandate: episodes might involve spies, drug dealers, terrorists, or various other adversaries. The series is also marked by the contentious friendship between Bodie and Doyle, which attracted many fans to the show and had a major impact on the creation and development of Professionals fan fiction. It is this relationship that led to The Professionals becoming the first fandom that was founded specifically as slash-based.

While popular enough during its initial run, the series was criticized by some for what was seen as excessive violence, as well as for occasional usage of sexist and racist terms. The Professionals ended production in 1981, although episodes continued to be broadcast through 1983. An attempt in 1999 to update the show with a new series, CI5: The New Professionals, lasted a mere 13 episodes.

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Related Materials

DAWN, MORGAN. Morgan Dawn Fanzine and Fanvid Collection, 1976-2010. 13.5 ft.
Collection of fanzines and fanvids (fan-created montages of video clips from assorted media fandoms set to music) relating to numerous media fandoms, assembled by long-time fan writer and vidder Dawn. MsC403. (Finding Aid)

For other fannish collections, many of which contain materials relating to The Professionals, please consult the Fandom-Related Collections subject page, at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/resources/FandomResources/.

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Box Contents List

Series I: The Professionals Circuit Library

Box 1

Ace of Spades/The Joker Is Wild (n.d.)

An Affair to Remember/Heir Apparent (n.d.)

Another Turn of the Rack (n.d.)

As Games Are Played (n.d.)

‘The Bangcock Collection’ (n.d.)
--Seven Nights in Bangkok/One Night in Bangcock

Bird in a Gilded Cage: An Alternative Universe B/D (n.d.)

Camera Shy (1986)

‘Consequences’ Collection (n.d.)
--Consequences/Despite Consequences/The End of an Illusion/Wrapped Around Your Finger/After Consequences, Truth/Input/Coldwater Morning/Rough Comfort/Light of Day/Two Crazy Lovers/Reparations

Box 2

‘Courtney Gray Collected’ (2 folders, 1991, n.d.)
--Tricks of the Trade/Tis The Season/Tainted Love/Griffin/Fluff/Kink/Night Moves/Rebound/Room 101

‘The Endgame Universe’ Collection (n.d.)
--Endgame/Endgame: An Epilogue of Sorts/Before The Time of Crossing

‘EPS-ET-M. Fae Glasgow Collection’ (1982-1996, n.d.)
--Back Alley/Prometheus Unbound/Subject to Change/Changing the Rules/Honor’s Shadow/Nemo Repente Fuit Turpissimus/Three Hatstands Written From Doyle’s POV/A Kindred Hand/One Good Turn/Scoring A Try/Spring Tide/Sweet Sunshine on the Quayside/Through A Glass Darkly/Counter

Moves/Westering Home/Roses Are Red/Peek-a-Bodie/Spring Tide

‘FJ-Fanny Adams-Frankie Collection’ (n.d.)
--For The Time Being/Fantasies/Realities/Into The Future/Middle Journey/Homeward Bound/Starlight, Starbright/Whose Love Is Given Over/What’s A Nice Girl Like You/About Heart, By Heart, For Heart/Noises At Dawn/Brother’s Keeeper/It Happened One Night/Possession/Rest and Recovery/Exorcism

Box 3

‘Gen Pros Collected Collection’ (n.d.)
--Damaged Goods/Heart of the Lion

‘Graveyard Collection’ (n.d.)
--Rediscovered in a Graveyard/In His Majesty’s Secret Service

Island Innocents (n.d.)

‘Jane Carnell Collection’ (n.d.)
--A Night Out/Afterwards/Altered Aspects/The Lych-Wake Dirge/Woven Patternings/The Birthday Present/Closets Are For Clothes/Lest These Dark Days/As Games Are Played

Jigsaw Puzzle (September 1996)

Box 4

‘Kathy Keegan Collection’ (n.d.)
--Arabian Nights/Coming Home/Dark of the Heart

Labyrinth (n.d.)

‘Lainie Stone Collection’ (Folder 1, n.d.)
--Apprentice to a Journeyman/Art Forms/Aurelian/Bondage/Braille/Brass in Pocket/Brown Study/Days of Futures/Dead and Buried/Dreamin’/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Five and a Half Months/Heat

‘Lainie Stone Collection’ (Folder 2, n.d.)
--Hijacked/Hot Hatstander/House of the Rising Sun/How About It?/Lonely/Out…And In/Rachid/Rules of the Game/Sapphires At Midnight/Starting At The Top/Victorian Bed/The Watcher/A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

Look Through My Eyes (n.d.)

‘Looking Glass World Collection’ (n.d.)
--Looking Glass World/And Memories Die

Box 5

The Luck of the Draw (1989)

‘Meg Lewtan & Helen Raven Collection’ (1990, 1992, n.d.)
--Point of No Return/Ritual Cleansing/Ritual’s End/Shirt Tales #4/Because It’s There/Crash Diet/The Tailor-Made Sequence

‘O Yardley Collected’ (Volume 1) (1983-2001, n.d.)
--Secrets/A Gnome From ‘Ome/Aardvark/Air on the ‘G’ String/Angel Delight/Among The Lilies/Black Bodie’s Treasure/Command Performance/Finger Lickin’ Good/Shadows/Shadows of a Ghost/Ghostly Shadowy Ghost Shadow/Ghost of a Shadow/Getting At The Truth/Truth Beauty?/How To Improve Your Mind/Ill Met By Moonlight/Journey’s End

‘O Yardley Collected’ (Volume 2) (1987-1988, n.d.)
- - Wearing Away Stone/In Tandem-And So To Wake/King of the Playground/Lick And A Promise/Not Bad for A Beginner/Off Day/One Summer Night/Paper Chains/The Right Words to Say/Happy Endings/Even Tough Guys Like Us/Solitaire/Solo/Stand And Deliver/Stir-Happy/That Little Twinkle/There’s An Old Mill/Uncovered In a Drawer/Unfinished Business/Voyage of Discovery/Welcome Home/Yule Log

‘O Yardley Collected’ (Volume 3) (n.d.)
--Soldier of Fortune/Bear Necessity/A Necessary Evil

Box 6

Of Tethered Goats and Tigers (1984)

‘Old Longing Series’ (1981, n.d.)
--Old Longings/Russian Roulette/Better to Forget/Practical Demonstrations

‘Pam Rose Collection’ (1983-1988, n.d.)
- - If Wishes Were/Fevers/Double Vision/Forget That I Remember & Dream That I Forget/A Pardon After Execution/Poison Apples

‘Pam Rose & Chris Power Collection’ (n.d.)
--Masquerade/Where The Worms Are

‘Party Spirit Volume 1 by O Yardley’ (n.d.)
--Party Spirit/Quicksand/Loosening Up/Keeping Us In Line/X-Rated Area/Wimbledon Weather/Ostrich Syndrome/Zebra Crossins/Hang-Up/Teddy Bear/Yellow Streak

‘Party Spirit Volume 2 by O Yardley’ (1985-1989, n.d.)
--Visiting Hours/Dam Bust/Escape Route/Romantic It Ain’t/No Gentleness/Sweeter Than Wine/False Heroes/Beneath Your Station/Cooperation Guaranteed/In For A Penny/Mushroom System/Any Way You Like It/Gay Sir Galahad/Undercover Activities

Box 7

The Peerless Pair (n.d.)

‘Pros Circuit Stories (A-E)’ (Folder 1: A-C) (n.d.)
--After The Party/All Alone With Friends/Apples and Oranges/Autumn Leaves Falling/Another Pros Misadventure/Ambush/All Roads Lead To Him/Addiction/Amoureux/Absent Friends/Breaking Point/Blues For A Winter’s Day/Black Sheep/Carnal Intents/Confessions of A Shutterbug/Cupid/Caravans/Cabaret

‘Pros Circuit Stories (A-E)’ (Folder 2, D-E) (1991, n.d.)
--Double Down/Discovered At A Wedding/Dance With The Devil/Dancing In The Dark/Death and Life/Domestic Bliss/Double Take/Denouement/The Devil and George Cowley/Enemy Within/Exposure

‘Pros Circuit Stories (G-L)’ (Folder 1: G-H) (n.d.)
--Families (or, And Bodie Makes Three)/Fly On The Wall/Windy/Games People Play/The Ghost of Cowley/Getting To Grips/Games/Gravity’s Angel/Housewarming/His Reply/A Hopeless Case

‘Pros Circuit Stories (G-L)’ (Folder 2: J-L) (1993, n.d.)
--Just When You Least Expect It/A Long Time On The Road/Living In Hope/Lost In The Shadows/Lakeside/Locked in a Cupboard/Long Shadows/A Little Learning/Limbo/Like A River To The Sea/Leap in the Dark/The Janus

Box 8

‘Pros Circuit Stories (M-S)’ (n.d.)
--The Morning After/Migration/Nothing So Relaxed/None But The Brave/Name Your Poison/Natural Progression/Overnight Stay/Of Temples and Trials/Of Priests and Powers/A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words/A Practical Proposition/Pictures of an Exhibition/Precis/Playing To Win/Rough Ride/Stormy Weather/The Selling Hours

‘Pros Circuit Stories (T-Z)’ (1983-1984, n.d.)
--That Which Matters/Team Spirit/Tales of the Riverbank/Three and A Half Hatstands/Transition/Twisting The Strings of Fate/Words/Widening Gyre/When The Soul Speaks/Unofficial C15 Fairytales/A Very Different Kind of Hotwater Bottle/Waking Up/Whispers In The Wind/When I’m Sixty-Four

‘Pros Collection’ (n.d.)
--Kind Of Magic/Old Friends/Homosapien Trois/T.H.E. Fiction Supplement #10/Breaking Cover

Professional Dreamer (1990)

Rainbow Chasers (1990)

‘Remember Angola Collection’ (1981, 1983)
-- Remember Angola/Strange Days Indeed

Box 9

‘Rhiannon Collected’ (n.d.)
-- One Bright Morning/Prelude—And Answer/Veils of Morning

‘Rob Collected’ (n.d.)
-- Cupid Was A Housewife/Doyle’s Secret Problem/Green Wellies/Personal Delivery/A Question of Trust/Question Time/Section 26/Shades of Blue/The Stripper/Two Plain Brown Envelopes/Sequel to Two Plain Brown Envelopes

‘Sebastian Collected – Adagio Series’ (n.d.)
-- Adagio/Catharsis/Starting Over/Plain Sailing

‘Sebastian Collection – Volume 2’ (1990, 1995, n.d.)
-- Down To The Waterline/The Anniversary/Army Games/The Ball Was Good/B & D Beside the Sea/Between The Lines/Blood Heat/Flu/Hyperion To A Satyr/Just A Kiss/The Jungle Book/No Unicorns/On Heat/Pleasure Bent/Siren/Bound To The Mast/Voyeur/Going For The Shore/Such A Day Tomorrow/Two In A Bunk/Velvet Underground/Who Gave Us Delight

A Simple Game (n.d.)

Box 10

Stage Fright (n.d.)

‘Stepping Stones Universe’ (n.d.)
-- Ice, Wind & Fire/Little White Lies/Driving Seat/U-Turn/Scapegoat/Temporary Assignment/Team Spirit/Queen and Country

‘Tiger By The Tail Collection’ (n.d.)
-- Tiger By The Tail/Action of the Tiger/Bull By The Horns

To Walk By Owl-Light (n.d.)

Waiting To Fall (Part 1, n.d.)

Box 11

Waiting To Fall (Part 2, n.d.)

The Walled Garden, or, William Ashton’s Secret (1988)

Circuit Library Indexes (May 1993, July 1993)

Professionals Circuit Library Index Through March 2010 (2 Indexes: Arranged Alphabetically, By CD Folder)

Circuit Library – Electronic Materials

Professionals Circuit Stories [as of September 1999) – CD-ROM

Slash Fanfiction Archive 2010 – CD-ROM

Other Materials

Box 12

The Complete Professionals [Episode Guide] (n.d., photocopy)

“Professional Insight’ Fan Guide to Series (n.d.)

The Professionals (UK)/Starsky & Hutch Art & Photo Portfolio [Contains art, photographs, photocopies]

Series II: The Professionals Fanzines

Box 13

Arabian Nights (1992)

…As A 3 Pound Note (Bent Coppers #1) (February 1991)

…As Two 3 Pound Notes (Bent Coppers #2) (October 1991)

…As Three 3 Pound Notes (Bent Coppers #3) (May 1993)

B & D’s Excellent Adventures: The Collected Quanta Leap Universe (May 1998)

Backtrack #1 (September 1989); #4 (May 1991)

Backtrack #9 (February 1994)

Backtrack #10: ‘Innocently Employed’ (March 1994)

Bene Dictum: A Dickensian Christmas (February 1992)

Box 14

Bene Dictum: Noughts and Crosses (October 1995)

British Takeaway #1 (New printing, September 1985) [Photocopy]

British Takeaway #2 (1983) [Photocopy]

British Takeaway #3 (1985) [Photocopy]

British Takeaway #4 (n.d.) [Photocopy]

British Takeaway #6 (n.d.) [Photocopy]

The Cassidy Legacy (1991)

Box 15

Concupiscence #3 (October 1993) [Photocopy]

Continental B & D: Have Partner, Will Travel (1994) [Photocopy]

The Cook and the Warehouseman (October 1997)

D-Notice (1995)

Diamyien #1 (1990) [Photocopy]

Discovered On A Rooftop (August 1985) [Excerpted Photocopy]

Down Under Express Collection (n.d.)

Echoes of Elfland Echoes (1995/1996)

Ember Days (n.d.) [Photocopy]

The Hatstand Express #11 (1986?)

Box 16

Heat-Trace (September 1992) [Photocopy]

Harlequin Airs (April 1993) [Photocopy]

Hunted By Devils (September 1993)

In The Public Interest #3 (May 1991) [Photocopy]

Indigo Boys #1 – 2 (May 1994-May 1995) [Multimedia - Photocopy]

Injured Innocents (n.d.) [Photocopy]

It’s Greek To Me (1992) [Photocopy]

Box 17

Jigsaw Puzzle (September 1996)

Journey West (February 1997)

Master of the Revels (n.d.) [Fandom: Facelift, starring Professionals actor Martin Shaw]

No Holds Barred #2 (May 1992) [Photocopy]

No Holds Barred #4 (May 1993) [Photocopy]

Not What You Expect (January 1998) [Multimedia]

Nudge Nudge Wink Wink #1 (February 1992); #3 (September 1993) [Photocopy]

Box 18

Old Friends, Too (Summer 1995)

Paean to Priapus #2 (October 1990) [Multimedia - Photocopy]

Paean to Priapus #4 – 5 (August 1992-September 1993) [Multimedia – Photocopy]

Paper Flowers (n.d.) [Photocopy]

Priority A-3! (January 1999)

The Pros Theme Zines #1 (n.d.)

Roses and Lavender #1 (May 1997); #3 (October 1999)

Roses and Lavender #4 (February 2001)

Box 19

Roses and Lavender #5 – 6 (October 2001-February 2007)

Sand Castle (February 1997)

Shadows Over The Land (1992)

A Shot In The Dark (May 1995)

Tenderloin (1991)

Teo Torriatte (July 1986) [Photocopy]

The Turn of a Friendly Card (March 1995)

Twenty-One (n.d.) [Photocopy]

Unprofessional Conduct #2 (1993?) [Photocopy]

Box 20

Up Against The Wall Stories (n.d.) [Excerpted Photocopy]

Up To Standard (May 1988)

Walking In The Moonlight (October 1989) [Excerpted Photocopy]

What If… (May 1992) [Photocopy]

Whatever We Are…YOU Made Us! (October 1999)

Whisper Of A Kill (May 1992) [Photocopy]