Z-Cars

Z-Cars
Created byTroy Kennedy Martin
Allan Prior
StarringJames Ellis
Brian Blessed
Stratford Johns
Frank Windsor
Jeremy Kemp
Joseph Brady
Colin Welland
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series12
No. of episodes801 (462 missing) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time25 minutes & 45 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC1
Release2 January 1962 (1962-01-02) –
20 September 1978 (1978-09-20)
Related
Softly, Softly
Softly, Softly: Task Force
Barlow at Large/Barlow
Jack the Ripper
Second Verdict
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Z-Cars or Z Cars (pronounced "zed cars") was a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.

The series differed sharply from earlier police procedurals. With its less-usual Northern England setting, it injected a new element of harsh realism into the image of the police, which some found unwelcome.[citation needed]

Z-Cars ran for 801 episodes, of which fewer than half have survived. Regular stars included: Stratford Johns (Detective Inspector Barlow), Frank Windsor (Det. Sgt. Watt), James Ellis (Bert Lynch) and Brian Blessed ("Fancy" Smith). Barlow and Watt were later spun into a separate series Softly, Softly.