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.

Regular stars included: Stratford Johns (Detective Inspector Barlow), Frank Windsor (Det.

Z Cars as an idea came to creator Troy Kennedy Martin as he listened to police messages on his radio while trying to relieve the boredom of being ill in bed with mumps.

[1] It was set in the fictional Newtown, loosely based on the real-life modern suburb of Kirkby, one of many housing estates that had sprung up across Britain in the post-war years, and its ageing neighbour Seaport.

It directly challenged the BBC's established police drama Dixon of Dock Green, which at that point had been running for seven years but which some considered 'cosy'.

[3] The one character present throughout the entire run (though not in every episode) was Bert Lynch, played by James Ellis (though John Phillips as Det.

Blackitt), Joseph Brady (PC "Jock" Weir), Brian Blessed ("Fancy" Smith) and Jeremy Kemp (Bob Steele).

Although he played no regular role in the series, future Monkee Davy Jones appeared in three episodes,[vague] and 1963 saw two future well-known faces join the regulars – Leonard Rossiter played DI Bamber in eight episodes, and John Thaw, later known for his roles in The Sweeney and Inspector Morse, appeared in four as a detective constable who had to leave the force because he had a "glass head" – he could not drink alcohol when socialising and mixing with the criminal fraternity, very much part of a detective's job.

The revival was produced by the BBC's serials department in a twice-weekly soap opera format of 25-minute episodes, and only James Ellis and Joseph Brady remained from the original show's run.

Going out "live" was a preference of the series' producer David Rose, who felt it helped immediacy and pace and gave it an edge.

The return of the 50-minute format into regular use coincided with an increase in the survival rate, and all episodes from the 1975–1978 period are preserved in the archives.

The Z-Cars theme tune was arranged by Fritz Spiegl[7] and his then wife, composer Bridget Fry, from the traditional Liverpool folk song "Johnny Todd".

A vocal version of the theme, using the original ballad's words, was released by cast member James Ellis on Philips Records PB 1230; this missed the charts.

[8][citation needed] The song in Spiegl and Fry's arrangement is used as an anthem by English football clubs Everton and Watford, playing as the teams enter the pitch for their home games, at Goodison Park and Vicarage Road respectively.

The serial's success led to a further spin-off titled Second Verdict in which Barlow and Watt looked into unsolved cases and unsafe convictions.

[13] It was also included in television critic Alison Graham's alphabetical list of 40 "all-time great" TV shows published in Radio Times in August 2003.