Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1960s TV Shows - 1970s 4 Mins Read

    Z Cars

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    1 9 6 2 – 1 9 7 8 (UK)
    801 x 25/50 minute episodes

    Writer Troy Kennedy Martin was confined to bed with a bout of mumps and passed his time listening to a police radio. It was then he realised that Dixon of Dock Green was out of date. He set out to create a realistic, new police series for the sixties, and thus was born Z Cars.

    zcars14

    The location was the tough dockland area of Liverpool in the north of England. He renamed Kirkby to Newtown and Seaforth to Seaport.

    The fictional Lancashire town of Newtown was an overspill estate without amenities or any sense of community.

    The series opened on 2 January 1962 with the burial of PC Reginald Farrow who had been shot on duty.

    The answer was to introduce “modern” Ford Zephyr patrol cars and ‘Z Victor One’ (the ‘Z’ stood for Zulu not Zephyr) was soon cruising around with Northerner PC William “Fancy” Smith (Brian Blessed) and Scotsman PC Jock Weir (Joseph Brady) onboard. ‘Z Victor Two’ contained Irishman PC Bert Lynch (James Ellis) and redhead PC Bob Steele (Jeremy Kemp).

    And in Z Cars, Liverpool had the type of policemen it deserved. These bobbies were no angels.

    PC Lynch liked a flutter on the horses while Constable Steele was not above a spot of wife-beating. Violence on the beat was rewarded with violence from the coppers on the beat as they encountered harsh urban realities very different from those on Dixon’s patch.

    Stories were confined to small social or criminal happenings and the series maintained an air of reality.

    Episode titles emphasised the documentary flavour: ‘Affray’, ‘Policework’, ‘A Place of Safety’, ‘Friday Night’.

    The series was transmitted live to air (with some pre-filmed inserts) from studio six at the BBC Television Centre. The live transmission gave an edge to performances and technique, and productions enjoyed the verve of an adrenaline rush. There could be as many as 15 sets per episode with actors racing between them. Men sat in half-cars with a street projected onto a screen behind them.

    Within two months, Z Cars was attracting 14 million viewers.

    In 1967, Pandas zoomed around the Newtown streets instead of Zephyrs and the series switched to colour in January 1970, with the 300th episode airing a week later.

    The two characters who created the most impact were Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow (Stratford Johns) and Detective John Watt (Frank Windsor). Barlow was a huge man, prone to the occasional spot of verbal or physical violence, while the gentler Watt was his ideal foil.

    The pair were so successful that they departed for the Regional Crime Squad and their own spin-off show, Softly Softly (1966 -1970).

    Barlow eventually gained two more series’ of his own: Barlow at Large (1971 – 1973) and Barlow (1974 – 1976) in which he was promoted eventually to Detective Chief Superintendent.

    The Police Association, the viewers (and even Jack Warner, old Dixon himself) all complained, but Z Cars ran for 16 years until 1978 when it, in turn, seemed dated when compared with shows like The Sweeney.

    zcars555

    This series moved British Television police drama into a new era of realism.  Superb casting and scripts were coupled with the BBC’s drama-documentary experience

    The late Elwyn Jones, then BBC TV Head of Series and Executive Producer of Z Cars, turned down The Beatles, before they became famous, for a background band appearance in an episode. Michael Caine turned down the part of PC Steele and future Monkees star Davy Jones appeared in three episodes. John Thaw played a detective constable who had to leave the force because he couldn’t drink hard enough in four episodes.

    The series’ memorable theme tune was adapted from a folk song called Johnny Todd (“Johnny Todd, he took a notion/For to sail the ocean wide”). The Everton football team adopted the anthem in 1963.

    zcarswelland

    DI Charlie Barlow 
    Stratford Johns
    DS John Watt 

    Frank Windsor
    PC ‘Fancy’ Smith 

    Brian Blessed
    PC Jock Weir 

    Joseph Brady
    PC/Sgt Herbert ‘Bert’ Lynch 

    James Ellis
    DI Dunn 

    Dudley Foster
    PC Bob Steele 

    Jeremy Kemp
    PC Ian Sweet 

    Terence Edmond
    Sgt Percy Twentyman 

    Leonard Wiliams
    Mary Watt 

    Gwen Cherrell
    Sgt Blackitt 

    Robert Keegan
    PC David Graham 

    Colin Welland
    Detective Supt. Miller 

    Leslie Sands
    DI Sam Hudson 

    John Barrie
    PC Ken Baker 

    Geoffrey Whitehead
    PC Raymond Walker 

    Donald Gee
    DS Tom Stone 

    John Slater
    PC Owen Culshaw 

    David Daker
    PC Alec May 

    Stephen Yardley
    WPC Jane Shepherd 

    Luanshya Greer
    PC Steve Tate 

    Sebastian Breaks
    PC Finch 

    Christopher Denham
    DI Goss 

    Derek Waring
    DC Scatliff 

    Geoffrey Hayes
    PC Quilley 

    Douglas Fielding
    WPC Parkin 

    Pauline Taylor
    WPC Jane Beck 

    Victoria Plucknett
    WPC Jill Howarth 

    Stephanie Turner
    WPC Bayliss 

    Alison Steadman
    DI Witty 

    John Woodvine
    DI Bamber 

    Leonard Rossiter
    PC Newcombe 

    Bernard Holley
    PC Roger Stevens 

    Ralph Watson
    DC Skinner 

    Ian Cullen
    DI Todd 

    Joss Ackland

    Related Posts

    • Waterfront Beat
      Waterfront Beat
      1 9 9 0 - 1 9 9 1 (UK) 16 x 50 minute episodes Phil Redmond wrote more depth, personal…
    • Nation's Health, The
      Nation's Health, The
      1 9 8 3 (UK) 4 x 85 minute episodes Channel 4 launched in 1982 with a promise that it would…
    • Gang Busters
      Gang Busters
      1 9 5 2 (USA) 49 x 30 minute episodes This NBC anthology of crime stories aired on alternate weeks with…
    • Adam-12
      Adam-12
      1 9 6 8 - 1 9 7 5 (USA) 174 x 30 minute episodes Adam-12 was developed and produced by…
    • Call the Gun Expert
      Call the Gun Expert
      1 9 6 4 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes This police procedural drama from the BBC dealt with famous historical…
    • Juliet Bravo
      Juliet Bravo
      1 9 8 0 - 1 9 8 5 (UK) 82 x 50 minute episodes This British police drama series was…
    • Barlow At Large/Barlow
      Barlow At Large/Barlow
      1 9 7 1 - 1 9 7 5 (UK) The third part of the Charlie Barlow story saw the former Z…
    • Murder Bag
      Murder Bag
      1 9 5 7 - 1 9 5 9 (UK) 56 x 30 minute episodes Debuting in 1957, Murder Bag introduced Raymond Francis…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleHeartbeat
    Next Article Hec Ramsey

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Steve and The Board
      Australian R&B band Steve and The Board formed in Sydney in […]
    • Babes of S.H.A.D.O.
      A photographic tribute to the female operatives of Supreme […]
    • Man With a Gun (1958)
      Nightclub owner Harry Drayson (John Le Mesurier) makes a £20,000 […]
    • That Thing You Do (1996)
      Tom Hanks made his directorial debut with this immensely […]
    • Magician, The
      1 9 7 3 – 1 9 7 4 (USA) 24 x 60 minute episodes Wealthy […]
    • Johnny Jarvis
      1 9 8 3 (UK) 6 x 50/55 minute episodes An uneasy Hackney-based […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.