Anthony Andrews did not let his disappointment from being fired as Bodie from the first episode of The Professionals get him down.
He must have realised that the show would never be a hit with him in that type of role. Almost immediately he got a role in Danger UXB.
Danger UXB is more like it. Andrews plays Brian Ash, a young lieutenant officer, freshly commissioned and sent to his new unit in the early days of World War 2.
That unit deals with unexploded bombs. Training is brief, life expectancy is not that long. There are 300 Unexploded bombs in London and only 50 soldiers with sufficient training to deactivate them.
This first episode is told in the point of view of the new boy, Ash. He seems shocked by the scenes of the bombed out people in London as he drives in his swanky car. There is a bigger shock waiting for him as he soon starts to deactivate an UXB.
The audience via Ash gets all the information about unexploded bombs, dodgy fuses, how to make it safe and hopefully your luck does not run out. The more seasoned soldiers in his unit take bets as to whether Ash will make it out alive.
This opener is a solid start, Andrews seems just right for the role and it was this that sent him to the road to stardom.
The production was lucky that they could still film in surviving parts of a bombed out London even in the late 1970s.
Andrews gets good support from actors such as George Innes, Maurice Roeves and Kenneth Cranham.