New Z-Cars Project

It's been a while since I last posted on here, for the past couple of months I have been starting to plan out and research for a book that I am going to write about Z Cars after reading comments from people who have read my articles on the show. It won't be a massive, encyclopaedia type book, it will be a book that will try to cover the less remembered eras of the show from the late 1960's onwards but will have some information on the early era as well. So far I am in the early stages, trying to produce a solid plan and doing some research, I do not have any idea when this will be finished (Or published if you like) and publishing this might be the hardest part and I have been looking into ways where I can get this book published.

I do realise that this will be far from easy to write about to say the very least but I will do my best to research as much information as I can, I am also interested in anybody who has an interest in the show and may be interested in contributing with the book (And also have your name in the book as well for contributing), I am open to suggestions.

You can contact me on my twitter account (Just type in @RyanMcGivern) if you have any suggestions.

Z-Cars: The Retrospective

It would seem unfair of me to just end with some reviews of Z-Cars episodes and not write about anything else about it so here I am looking back on the show, it's the least the show deserves since it's been over 50 years since the show started. Looking back at the episodes I have reviewed to me it still holds out today, a lot more than the likes of Dixon of Dock Green and the Sweeney, Z-Cars doesn't feel as dated as them two shows and to me, it is perhaps the best made show of the lot.

The show did in a way live on after it finished in 1978, it did spawn a number of spin off shows such as "Softly, Softly", "Barlow at Large" and two rather unusual shows called "Jack the Ripper" and "Second Verdict" all of these shows featured Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor (Expect for one series in his case) reprising their roles as Charlie Barlow and John Watt respectively. Personally I have only seen one episode of "Softly, Softly" (The rest seem impossible to find) and from what I have seen it's definitely worth watching. There is also a short film that was made a few years ago called "A Lot of Fuss About Light" which saw Bernard Holley reprise his role as Bill Newcombe recalling an incident that happened back in the 1960's and the film is done in the style of the series, this film is also worth watching (You can find it on YouTube).

What I do like about Z-Cars is firstly: the acting, I really haven't seen any bad acting in the show and the show is best remembered for the actors who were in it with the likes of Brian Blessed, Ian Cullen, Bernard Holley, James Ellis and many more that some would consider to be household names back in the day, the guest cast as well would put shows like Doctor Who to shame with the likes of John Thaw (Before the Sweeney), John Challis (Before Only Fools and Horses) and even Dame Judi Dench has made an appearance, so in a way Z-Cars can be considered a prestigious show in some respect with its impressive cast.
                               

The second part of what I like about Z-Cars is the production side of the show, it was broadcast live which is no easy task for any drama series and yet they managed it extremely well, especially with people like a young Ridley Scott who was part of the production team in the 1960's, you would expect high quality standards. The writers themselves managed to do what no other police drama shows did at the time, produce a show that shows the lives of police officers in a rough town up north with situations that are based on real life activities of police officers.

Personally I do think that this show has made a bigger impact on modern culture not just on TV shows, but in films, books and to an extent, comics as I do feel that the writers on the "Judge Dredd" comic strip from 2000AD were in some way influenced by Z-Cars and also the Sweeney in the way the law is portrayed as a questionable force, they are not bad people but people don't always trust them and there is corruption within the ranks as the comic follows the day to day life of a Judge in a similar format to Z-Cars, also in another comic strip from 2000AD called "Absalom: Ghosts of London", there is a direct reference to both Z-Cars and the Sweeney in that the main character has worked with both Charlie Barlow and Jack Regan in the past, so it looks like Z-Cars is not really forgotten.

In some way, Z-Cars did pave way to a new generation of police drama series such as "Juliet Bravo", "The Gentle Touch" and "The Bill" all of which were made in the 1980's and they did become popular shows at the time as well, to me modern police drama shows never have the same impact as shows like Z-Cars did in that the characters feel less original, the acting is questionable and the plots tend to be on a far darker tone and in some ways less realistic, for some reason, some of the more darker dramas make me think they are getting closer in style to something you would see in foreign police dramas like "The Killing" which has a more stylish approach.

Sooner or later this is going to lead to the inevitable question: will Z-Cars ever see the light of day for the general public to see?

Personally I hope so one day and there are rumours going around that it may actually see the light later this year according to one DVD company called Acorn Media who did surprisingly release "Dixon of Dock Green" last year, so there may be hope for Z-Cars. It would also be interesting for a new audience to see this show as well with shows like the Sweeney being constantly repeated on ITV 4 (And also a cinema remake last year which I didn't watch due to it not being the Sweeney that I know, I won't get into that argument here), there is always a chance for people who never watched it when it was originally on to have an opportunity to watch it now.

It would be nice if the BBC would have thought the same with their programmes that are not available on DVD as I think there is great potential, otherwise all those episodes of TV shows that haven't been released would just gather dust in the archives which does seem rather pointless if people can't watch the material, why keep them if no-one can watch them?

I may have digressed a bit back then but it is a relevant question to think about and here is where I shall conclude my retrospective. I can definitely see how people look back on this show with nostalgia , to me it does feel like an important part of television history and it is a show that deserves to be remembered. If there is anyone that I would thank for inspiring me to write about this show and watching it through an old VHS tape it would be both Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen, without them I think I probably would never have ventured into this classic series, I do feel as if I have learned a lot from watching this series and I feel as if I have learned a lot from the cast members that I have met. I might do more reviews one day but for the moment I'm taking a rest from it so to everybody who had read them and this, thank you.

Z-Cars: Day Trip Review

I continue in this trip through this legendary show as we move back into colour with the episode Day Trip that also includes an appearance with Elizabeth Sladen before she was in Doctor Who which does make this episode some interesting viewing. This episode deals with a known thief who tries to fool the police that she has mended her ways but she hasn't and of course, gets caught again in the end, but it's not as simple as that as there is more to this as we find out during the course of this episode...

The episode starts off in a routine manner seeing PC Quilley (Played by Douglas Fielding) back on the job after the events of a previous episode called "Breakage" (I did a review of that a while back.) and PC "Geordie" Skinner (Once again played by Ian Cullen), both are under the supervision of Detective Sergeant Haggar (Played by John Collins). From the start there is a sense of Skinner not liking Haggar that much which I'm guessing part of it is because Haggar always calls Skinner "Geordie" due to where he is from (The accent is a give away), Skinner doesn't seem that pleased to see Haggar when he hints that he may be back in Newtown for good.

During the course of the episode, Haggar is keeping an eye on Dilly Watson (Played by Hilary Tindall) who is know to him as a thief and she's come to Newtown to do some more theft, it's interesting to see that these two have got some history in that Haggar is doing some good in trying to keep her out of trouble but ultimately fails at the end. Dilly does have a friend called Rose played by the ever brilliant Elizabeth Sladen (Sounding like a proper Scouser too!) who seems fed up of her situation in that nothing exciting happens in Newtown, so they go around looking for stuff to steal and they don't go unnoticed.

Another thing that is surprising was that Dilly used to go stealing with an old associate called Fang (Played by Carolyn Jones) who is now a traffic warden on the straight and narrow, but she doesn't forgive herself for what she has done which makes the character have an extra dimension so she doesn't feel like a last minute addition. Looking back at the character of Haggar, to me it feels as if he was partially an inspiration for the character of Gene Hunt from Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes and I do say partially because the way Haggar addresses people is similar in the way Gene Hunt does if you lose some of the more offensive words he likes to say.

This story is good to watch not just from the fine performances of the cast (Which I would say for pretty much every episode of Z-Cars I've seen) but for the fact that there is more depth to the guest characters than I expected, especially from the traffic warden which can make you think if anybody from the law might have been involved in trouble in the past.

Z-Cars: Eleanor Rigby Slept Here Review

It's been a while since my last Z-Cars review and I was originally going to finish off a retrospective on the show but after a lot of thinking and some positive feedback from one of the main cast members, I have decided to do a few more reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy reading them as I write them.

What first caught me was the title of the episode itself, as someone who does like the Beatles I thought it was interesting, at first I thought it was the name of a character in the episode and that the series is set outside Liverpool you can connect them, but the character in question is actually called Helen Carter (Played by Anna Cropper) but I think it's because she lives alone is where the link to the title is since Eleanor Rigby in the Beatles song lived alone. The situation is that Helen is becoming more terrified by a stalker who is continuously outside her flat door until the Police arrive.

PC Lynch (Played by James Ellis) arrives on the scene, as the story progresses you do notice some sort of relationship between him and Helen as they find similar interests and with that he borrows a book from her, one might expect this relationship to continue but sadly it doesn't, in a way this is what this story is about: relationships, because the stalker actually admires her but he is going the wrong way into showing his affection by hanging outside her flat whereas with Lynch, he shows some affection with her but in the end in his case it's about doing his job and also when Helen talked about the last time she went to court which didn't end well, that also influenced his decision.

Out on patrol in Zed Victor One is PC Skinner and a quiet PC Newcombe (Played by Ian Cullen and Bernard Holley respectively), they both take more of a back seat in this story with Newcombe suffering from a case of tooth ache and Skinner jokingly suggesting some pliers as a solution (At least I think he is?), they do have some involvement by checking up on Lynch at the scene of the incident but nothing substantial sadly as these two characters are pretty interesting and it's a shame they were not used that much in this story.

This story is certainly an interesting one with a sense of a Hitchcock thriller to it that also includes lighter (If quieter) moments from Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen which evens the tone of the story, the cast in general are also on top form which makes this even better.

Z-Cars: Pressure Review

So here we are, the very last episode of Z-Cars. The show was going into decline as some people felt it was outdated, just like Dixon of Dock Green, the show Z-Cars was trying to replace which actually ended two years previously. One good thing I noticed at the start, they brought back the original title music which is always great to hear but the sequence itself isn't but that's just a minor fault, nothing to cry home about. What's great about this episode in particular is that they brought back some of the original cast back, but not all as you know them which is nice to see the show go in a high note by celebrating it with the returning cast. The story however is a strange one.

First thing we see in this episode is an arrival of a local worker who likes to think of himself as a poet in Liverpool airport, drunk and full of money and is going back to his family in a work deprived Newtown, put simply it doesn't end well with him being stabbed towards the end of the episode by the person who took his wife, surprisingly he doesn't appear to die which is good as it doesn't turn into a clichéd murder investigation, what this has to do with the police is anyone's guess though as he only had one brush with the law earlier on in the episode and no-one reports the stabbing towards the end. It does show a realistic approach on a work deprived Britain in the late 70's just before Margaret Thatcher's rein as Prime Minister which does date this episode.

The main issue in this episode is that Newtown is at risk of being blown up sky high from a gas leak, that is not a joke as most of the people in the episode complain about the gas and Inspector Lynch investigates how serious this is, this is the point where we see the special appearances of the original cast members although they don't return as their original characters sadly which would have been a good thing. I must admit, I did sort of expect Newtown to blow up given the way the episode was building up but luckily I was wrong. The really strange part involves a defence advisor from the army checking the area for possible threats and making defences for the police station, I'm kind of lost as to what this has to do with the rest of the episode and feels very out of place and just strange.

The most down to earth part of the episode is when Lynch investigates a boy who has lost his mother and brother, this is where is feels more like a basic episode of Z-Cars and ends with the boy being reunited with his brother which ends in a speech by Lynch about kids growing up in rough areas like Newtown. Lastly is a more interesting case of police corruption investigated by DCS John Watt once again played by Frank Windsor which sadly only gets touched on, it could have been better if they focused on that more than the motherless boy investigation.

This has to be one of the more eventful episode I have seen and they have made a good effort to bring some of the original cast members back which shows that quiet a bit of effort went in for this final episode. I just find that some of the plots are a bit over the top for a Z-Cars episode, one thing I didn't mention earlier is that the police patrols are not named Zed-Victor 1 and 2 any more which I find a bit sad. In the end is is a good final episode and it is good for the show to end on a high note.

Z-Cars: Breakage Review

This shows the start of a changeover for the show, it's in colour, it's got a new title sequence and music, personally I don't like the new music, it basically shows that they were really trying to make it more modern and up to date, I'm not saying that they should not go with the times it's just a preference that I prefer the original title music. From what episodes I have seen, they also seem less focused on the Z-Car squads themselves and focus more on the investigations of promoted DC Skinner (Played by Ian Cullen).

This first part of this story is about DC Skinner investigating theft of property (Just like the previous story I reviewed, but more interesting this time) from someone called "George T. Wood" (Played by Porridge's Fulton Mackay), a character who is mysterious as we are not sure whether to believe his story or not as he talks vaguely, saying that he is travelling, living in doss houses, we are not even sure if that is his real name because at the end, he goes to another doss house under the name of Wilfred Miller which was taken from DS Wilf Miller (Played by Geoffrey Whitehead), sure enough though, "George" did have some money stolen and got the money back but it does make me wonder who he really is and what are his real plans?

The second part is a lot more dramatic and even surprised me at one point, it's about Skinner investigating someone on the roof on an industrial estate that looks as if he may about to commit suicide, the person (Who we don't know the name of by the way as he never says his name) is obviously disturbed as we see him cry one minute and laugh the next so it's obvious he has mental problems, so as a precautionary measure PC Quilley (Played by Douglas Fielding) takes a ladder around the building and tries to stop the person with his increasingly aggressive behaviour as Skinner tries to talk to him, now this is the part that surprised me, PC Quilley tries to apprehend the person but falls through a window and is in serious condition at the end, this does go to show that the writers of Z-Cars are not afraid to have some proper dramatic moments which is very impressive and in some ways memorable. This is a very good representation of a decent episode of Z-Cars in the 1970's.

Z-Cars: A Lot of Fuss for Fifteen Quid Review

We now move into a lesser known era of Z-Cars following from the first era and a two year break, we move onto the second era which lasted to the end of the show in 1978. With this new era there was also a new cast, for the purpose of this review I shall only focus on the cast of this particular episode and not the whole era.

This story was split up into two twenty five minute episodes which lasted for a short period in the show and to be honest, it doesn't suit the format of the show which is better suited to it's fifty minute format in which the show will return to. The policemen who have taken the steering wheel of Z-Victor 1 at this particular point in the series are acting legends Bernard Holley (Who plays PC Newcombe) and Ian Cullen (Who Plays PC Skinner). The story is about a woman who has had £15 stolen from her, if that sounds mundane to you then you are not alone as PC Skinner thinks it's a waste of time which does go to show that life as a police officer is not all about stopping armed robberies and solving murders, PC Newcombe puts it into perspective saying that £15 is a lot of money for some people which does put up a decent argument especially since back then, £15 can mean a lot of money to some people.

PC Newcombe seems to be the more sensible optimist of the pair but doesn't like to deal with situations like this, the same with PC Skinner but he has a less than optimistic approach. Both are not afraid to show how they feel and there is a sense of envy towards DI Goss (Played by Derek Waring) as PC Skinner heard that he may be promoted to CID, this would be perhaps the most interesting part of the story, even more interesting than the crime they investigate. An interesting observation I have noticed about the show, the characters do feel well constructed, they have a back story, they seem believable and it helps a lot with some great actors playing the characters in this case it's Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen who do a fine job playing PC Newcombe and PC Skinner respectively.

You may realise that I'm not reviewing the plot that much, put simply the plot is paper thin which goes in a roundabout way in that the victim does not press any charges towards the person who stole the £15 in the end, it does make me wonder why they don't get the victim into trouble for what appears to be wasting police time in the end. That does not mean that the thief is going away free as her son tells the police what happened in the end, there does seem to be a hint that the thief may have problems with the way she was acting as well. Full marks go for the scenes with Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen as they both play great, interesting characters that don't feel clichéd and two dimensional. The only negative part is that the plot is basic for a Z-Cars episode, it's not the most thrilling or suspenseful of episodes I have seen.

In the end, that really is a lot of fuss for £15.

Z-Cars: Friday Night Review

Whilst everyone is out going to clubs and having a good time in general on Friday night, the night shift kicks in for our Policemen and it is far from a good night...

What we see from these episodes is that they are mainly focused on one pair of Police officers with appearances from the other regulars, in this case this episode is mainly focused on Steele and Lynch with Steele investigating a motorcycle accident followed by Lynch and a Traffic Warden who already has had a bad day by cleaning the remains of a child off the road, this episode does not hold back on the grim tone. The situation is a tragic one where a brother and sister are killed by a drunk driver, so now Steel and Lynch have to inform their mother of her loss, this episode gets darker by the minute yet strangely there are lighter parts set in the canteen where the officers try to get some dinner, it does feel strange but balances the tone of the episode.

At this point, Steele and Lynch find a very drunk person with a sober friend accidentally breaking a window, the drunk man thought he was practising discus, it's pretty good drunk acting as it makes a nice change from the more violent drunks you would normally see. They arrive at the motorcycle victims house with Steele aided by the sober friend of the drunk to break the news to the mother. One of the benefits of these episodes is that they don't play any tragic music over the scenes so it has a more of a realism feel to it and it works well in scenes like this one.

We move on to two other sub-plots in this episode, one is a failed attempt of arson and the other is the Traffic Warden following a stolen van and ending up in an accident herself, I do feel very sorry for her, first was a dead child, then a dead brother and sister and then ending up in a ditch knocked out, she must feel unlucky at the end of the day, luckily PC Wier and Fancy Smith arrive on the scene and recover her so there are no more deaths in this episode (Thank god), eventually the criminals in the van do get caught in the end.

We move on to the final part of Friday Night, the failed arson attempt by old Grampa who I'm guessing is well known to everyone in the Newtown area as he is under the delusion that someone told him to set fire to the gas station, but he forgot his matches which are used by the officers in the station so he goes to the pub to get some, which ends up in a bar room brawl by a member of Grampa's family who is also drunk (Looks as if nearly everybody is drunk in Newtown on Friday Night), of course the arson attempt failed and it sounds as though Grampa is known for this kind of behaviour in the area as I said earlier.

So in conclusion, it's quiet a good episode if a very grim one, it does show that Z-Cars is a cut above the other Police dramas they were making at the time so if anyone has a chance to watch this show, this would be one of the episodes worth watching.

Z-Cars: Four of a Kind Review

This is how it all started, the episode that was the beginning of a prestigious police drama that took the crime genre to a new level. The series started off with the search for four policemen to assemble a team split into two patrolling the streets of Newtown in cars codenamed Zed-Victor 1 and Zed-Victor 2, best known as Z-Cars.

The idea behind this was from the death of a policeman whilst on duty which automatically tells us that this show is not going to be like Dixon of Dock Green, same with the policemen in this series as they are not all squeaky clean friendly bobbies at the end of the street types, they are more realistic and we do see into their personal lives as well which does feel slightly like a 1960's kitchen sink drama but it works, for example we see into the family life of PC Bob Steele (Played by Jeremy Kemp) which shows that he doesn't have a good relationship with his wife and implies that their arguments go over the top with injuries his wife shows to PC Bert Lynch (Played by James Ellis) who sympathises with her.

So far we have been introduced to the first two policemen the series will focus on, now for the last two. The next is PC Jock Weir (Played by Joseph Brady) who has the least screen time as the character is also a rugby player who is in a bit of a state when we see him so we have not much of an idea what the character is like. Last but not least we are introduced to PC "Fancy" Smith (Played by Brian Blessed) in which is perhaps  the fun part of the episode when a bar room brawl starts out and Fancy just stays outside in good comedic timing, not sure if it's meant for a bit of light heartedness or not since most of the episode has a dark tone to it.

The two officers that assemble this team are DCI Charlie Barlow (Played by Stratford Johns) and DS John Watt (Played by Frank Windsor) both brilliantly played as they are the main focus of the episode and it's interesting to hear their recommendations with a less than welcome reception from their superiors which show that they don't pick any ordinary policemen for the team. So for a first episode it works really well, the actors are great and the characters do have a depth to them.

I do think that this is going to be one interesting series to review, if that's any sign that I will review more episodes then yes, it is.

Z-Cars 50th Anniversary

I must admit I'm surprised that very few people talk about this well remembered series and at it's 50th anniversary year, there has been no special events or repeats of the show which is a shame as it's actually a decent show to watch but it seems the BBC has no interest in showing this to a new audience either by repeats or releasing it on DVD.

This show is unique as it started a new wave of police drama shows which took on a more gritty feel compared to the likes of Dixon of Dock Green which was a much lighter tone of police drama. Z-Cars was a show that starred the likes of such famous actors like Brian Blessed, Bernard Holley, Ian Cullen and John Challis to name a few throughout the run of the show. The show was about the work of mobile police units patrolling the streets of the fictional town of Newtown in Merseyside. The series started in 1962 and ended in 1978, the show also had a spin off called Softly, Softly which had two of the original cast in.

So for it's 50th anniversary, I'm going to try to review at least one episode of the series, I say try because it is near impossible to try and find any episodes around and if I do find one, it will most likely be from the Brian Blessed era as I have had no luck at all in finding any episodes of the later seasons to watch, I do know that not all the episodes survive but with about half the entire run of the show surviving but there must be a few around that I can watch?