The Bullshitters: Roll Out The Gunbarrel was a spoof of The Professionals, first broadcast in 1984 on Channel 4. Although it was made by many people behind The Comic Strip, it did not feature the Comic Strip logo and is not considered by some to be part of the series. However, it was included in the Comic Strip DVD box set (2005), and its lead characters Bonehead and Foyle reappeared in a later Comic Strip episode, Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown. It was also represented as an episode of the show on 30 Years of The Comic Strip.
A parody ; also called a spoof, send-up, take-off, lampoon, play on (something), caricature, or joke is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style, or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody ... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice." Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music, animation, gaming, and film.
The Professionals is a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mark1 Productions for London Weekend Television (LWT) that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson as agents of the fictional "CI5".
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster that began transmission on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide TV channel for the first time.
When Commander Jackson (Robbie Coltrane), head of DI5, hears that his daughter Janie has been kidnapped and held for ransom, he has to call in ex-agents Bonehead (Keith Allen) and Foyle (Peter Richardson) to save her. Since being kicked out of DI5, Bonehead works at a TV Tough Guys School, teaching others the "rules" of being a TV tough guy (such as not locking your car because you need to get straight back into it), and Foyle is now an actor on stage. Jackson blackmails the two into working together. It's time for Bonehead and Foyle - the flashiest, fastest and most under-dressed detectives to be kicked out of DI5 to get back to work. With a Magnum in one hand and a bus pass in the other, the Bullshitters set out to track down the criminals and get some good close-ups. However, as every good TV cop knows, not all is as it seems, especially Bonehead and Foyle's relationship with each other - is there a reason they wear so little clothing around each other?
Robbie Coltrane is a Scottish actor and author. He is known for his roles as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in the James Bond films GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough, and as Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the British TV series Cracker during the 1990s.
Keith Howell Charles Allen is a British actor and television presenter. He is the father of singer Lily Allen and actor Alfie Allen, and brother of actor and director Kevin Allen.
Lanah P, previously known as Alan Pillay is a genderfluid English entertainer, who's referred to and identified using female pronouns.
Jimmy Fagg is an English stand-up comedian, musician and actor. He is most notable for his roles in the Comic Strip Presents.. and separate roles in other British comedy films.
Fiona Hendley is a British actress and latterly Christian speaker, married to the former Manfred Mann singer and actor Paul Jones.
Gay themes
Bonehead and Foyle spend the latter half of the episode bare chested or with their shirts undone revealing their chests - in fact, as soon as they start working together again. During a chase scene, both of them are wearing undone jackets, briefs, and shoes - and nothing else. They put on jeans later on and then discard the jackets as they try to save Jackson's daughter.
Near the end of the episode, they hear a gunshot and hug each other in fright, before they declare their love for each other and kiss passionately. It turns out they have loved each other secretly for years.
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