Z Cars

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 It was then he realised that Dixon of Dock Green was out of date.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.

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.

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.

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