The Cops is a British television police procedural drama series created by Jimmy Gardner, Robert Jones, and Anita J. Pandolfo, first broadcast on BBC Two on 19 October 1998.

[1] Produced by World Productions, the series follows the lives of one shift of uniform officers based at Christie Road Police Station in the fictional town of Stanton, Greater Manchester.

The programme won back-to-back British Academy Television Awards in the Best Drama Series category in 1999 and 2000 and was nominated for a third time in 2001, narrowly losing out to Clocking Off.

Dixon of Dock Green it definitely isn't, much to the chagrin of the duty office, not to mention the numerous members of the force who had hoped for something a little less provocative with The Cops.

Unlike their soft Southern counterparts, the cops in Stanton swear copiously, get involved in fistfights and generally behave badly.