Z Cars and I

I had a strange relationship with Z Cars. Loved it, then found it boring, rediscovered it, liked it, read it, hunted down old episodes and ultimately found it boring again. This all took place across the space of sixty years, so let me unpack things a little.

I was much too young to understand Z Cars when it began in January 1962, not yet having reached my first birthday. My earliest memories of the series are of seeing it on Sunday afternoons, probably around 1963 or 64. The BBC had begun repeating telerecordings of earlier episodes on Sunday 23 September 1962 with the episode Found Abandoned (first broadcast on Tuesday 3 April of that year), with the repeat going out at 2.30pm. My recollection is of seeing it rather later in the afternoon, and by the spring of 1964, episodes had been moved to around 4.30, beginning on Sunday 19 April with the episode No Malice at 16.40. During this time, fans of the show were able to catch it twice a week, with brand new episodes at 8pm on Wednesday evenings running alongside the weekend repeats. The repeats were aimed at shift workers who had been unable to see the series in its intended slot, but it also meant that young children like myself were able to watch a programme that, strictly speaking, was not entirely suitable for those of such tender years.

That didn’t make any difference to me. Although I was far too young to follow the storylines, I was still able to enjoy the series’ visuals, especially the patrol cars. MkII Ford Zephyrs had been in use for the first 31 episodes, with the newer MkIIIs introduced at the commencement of series 2 in September 1962. I’m certain I remember seeing both types of Z Car, which means I must have seen some of the first series repeats. Almost nothing of these broadcasts remains in my memory save for an episode in which Z Victor One broke down or crashed and had to be towed back to the station.

I have clearer recollections of the title sequence, because I always wanted a ‘flat ‘at’ like those worn by the Z Car crews as seen in the second and third title sequences. I never got a bona fide Z Cars hat (although such an outfit was produced by Berwick Toys) and I had to make do with a bus conductor’s peaked cap. I seem to remember wearing this hat and gripping my Merit toy steering wheel whilst watching the exciting opening titles of Z Cars on those Sunday afternoons…

As to those title sequences… well, everyone remembers the music from Z Cars, even people who’ve never seen an episode. It was released on record and became a chart hit at the time, and supporters of Everton and Watford football clubs would have heard it played at their home games as both sides adopted it as their theme tune. I knew the music very well, both in its original incarnation from the TV series, as arranged by husband and wife Fritz Spiegl and Bridget Fry, and as Johnny Keating’s commercially released version, which featured a ‘jazzed up’ middle section. The original is still the best – Spiegl and Fry went for a militaristic arrangement featuring fife and rolling snare drums. In later years, it was tinkered with to no good effect, with some particularly awful ‘modernised’ arrangements appearing in the 1970s. I hated these and still do. In fact, the ‘new music’ was one of a number of aspects that helped to put me off the series in later years.

The original main titles featured the Ford Zephyr patrol car – no police officers were seen – and the sequence became something of a classic. When the MkIII cars were brought in at the beginning of series 2, a new title sequence was shot featuring these vehicles in real life and model form (the models were employed for a short animated section). These titles are by far the rarest, and endured for only one series (to date, I’ve been able to find only two examples on YouTube). For the third series in September 1963, yet another set of titles was produced which would see the show through to its demise in December 1965.

Was I still watching at this point in time? I think I was more interested in playing games of International Rescue by late 1965. In any case, I’d hardly been ‘watching’ the series in the accepted sense, merely looking at it and taking an interest whenever the cars appeared. Or, indeed, those flat ‘ats…

Aside from my bus conductor’s cap, I had a couple of other items of Z Cars merchandise bought for me, in the shape of a die-cast model of the Ford Zephyr MkIII, produced by Tri-Ang toys for their ‘Spot-On’ range of vehicles, and packaged with Z Cars graphics and the BBC tv logo. In addition, I had a battery-operated Ford Zephyr MkII motorway patrol car, and its Corgi die-cast equivalent. Neither of the latter two was marketed under the Z Cars banner, but the association must have boosted sales. Also on the merchandising front, Z Cars Annuals were produced by the ever-reliable World Distributors, with the first appearing in time for Christmas 1963. This edition is interesting in that it had been prepared with the original crime car crews featuring in the stories. The trouble was that, some time before the annual was ready to go to print, Jeremy Kemp’s character Bob Steele – controversially depicted as a wife-beater – left the series, to be replaced by the more affable PC David Graham, portrayed by Colin Welland. The artwork was hastily patched up to alter all appearances of Steele to Graham. This made no sense in the final analysis, as Steele’s wife Janey now had to be renamed Janey Graham when no such character appeared in the series! The annuals were typical of World Distributors’ production values, heavy on text stories, but with a few more strips than was the norm. Colour overlays of garish magenta, blue and yellow were added to the line artwork, but they were poorly done and in many cases would have been better omitted. One or two very basic photo pages were included in most editions.

Bob Steele (Jeremy Kemp) has his face patched to look like, er, Bernie Winters –
sorry, I mean Colin Welland – in a panel from the first Z Cars Annual.

I remember spotting a Z Cars Annual in our mum’s mail order catalogue in the autumn of 1965, but I wouldn’t get my hands on a copy of it until the 1970s. When I did, I made the discovery that the catalogue illustration had been a mock-up, with the colours and graphics on the final printed version looking somewhat different. 

The series itself was finished by this time. Barlow and Watt had been spun off into the CID-oriented Softly Softly, which focused on the work of regional crime squads as opposed to crime patrol crews. But in early 1967, in search of a new twice-weekly soap to replace the ailing football serial United!, the BBC chose to revive Z Cars in this new format.

The new ‘soap-style’ Z Cars made its debut on Monday 6 March 1967 (one day before my 6th birthday), with only Jock Weir and Bert Lynch remaining from the original cast. Lynch was now promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and placed in charge of the new Panda car patrols, while Jock remained on the crime cars. The cars themselves got a facelift, with the introduction of new MkIV Zephyrs, but from now on, only one actual 'Z Car' would feature in the stories, with the focus shifting towards the Panda patrols, themselves a means of mobilising the traditional ‘beat bobby’. Another new addition to the show was John Slater as Det. Sgt. Stone, a character who remained with the series until October 1974. Of all the Z Cars actors, it was Stone who became the most familiar to me, which is curious as I didn’t make a point of watching the series much at this time. Nevertheless, as time passed I would become well acquainted with the Z Car crew of Quilley and Skinner, who became the ‘Fancy and Jock’ of the 1970s.

Z Cars returns as a twice-weekly serial, March 1967

World Distributors never revived their Z Cars Annuals, and the only item of merchandising I’ve ever come across from the 1970s era was a ‘Talking Z Victor One’, which bore no resemblance to any of the vehicles seen on screen. Dinky Toys offered a Ford Zodiac MkIV in white motorway patrol livery, and a little later brought out a blue and white Ford Escort patrol car.

This later model reflected a change that had come about on screen and on the streets, with the introduction of the new, smaller Panda cars, so called for their original black and white livery, initiated when one division purchased black and white vehicles and swapped door panels and bonnets. By the early 70s, pale blue and white had been adopted as the colour scheme for such vehicles across the UK, and Z Cars followed suit, with the larger crime cars gradually phased out of the series. This, for me, was a retrograde step: Ford Zephyrs were cool cars with a certain amount of prestige, but the Panda cars tended to be cheaper models: Ford Anglias and Escorts and Hillman Imps. Once the Panda patrols came to the fore, the series no longer deserved its original title, as the old Z Victor cars were no longer in use. Ironically, when Ford set out to revamp its Zephyr/Zodiac range in 1961, they did so under the title of ‘Project Panda’!

1970s Z Cars became drab and suburban, a world away from the gritty feel of the original series. The twice-a-week soap-style production had really taken its toll. Once contemporary, relevant and challenging, Z Cars now became dull and run of the mill, with scripts and direction reflecting this change in values. When the classic theme was replaced by a new arrangement that sounded about as cutting edge as a daytime cookery show, any interest I may still have held for the series went out of the window. Another aspect that set 70s Z Cars apart from its earlier incarnation was a tendency for the stories to take place in daylight. A lot of the 60s stories were set at night, and looked moodily atmospheric in black and white. Now the series assumed a kind of dull, overcast aesthetic. It just wasn't the same any more.

But I wasn’t done with Z Cars just yet. In fact, I was really only getting started. Around 1973, I began to refocus my interest on the earlier series. This all came about when I discovered a Z Cars Annual at the school Christmas bazaar. The last of the World Distributors run (and still the hardest to find), this 1966 edition contained some well-drawn and convincingly written stories, including characters like Charlie Barlow who had by that time departed to Wyvern for Softly Softly. Not long after this, I discovered that there had been paperback novelisations of Z Cars back in the 1960s, when I chanced upon one of them at a second hand bookstall.  Z Cars Again was, as its title suggested, the second such publication, and a mere few minutes after sifting it out of a box, I turned up its predecessor. These books had originally appeared under the Mayflower imprint, but the copies I found were produced for the charity Oxfam, with superior, if austere cover designs. The books novelised various TV scripts, including the first episode, Four of a Kind, and I found them entertaining and surprisingly humorous in places. There were plenty of references to the characters ‘suppin’ too much ale’, eating chips in the cars, and coming up against tearaways who were generically referred to as ‘young toughies’. I later discovered another Z Cars novel, this time an original story, Barlow on Trial, and a couple of true crime books penned by series advisor ex-Detective Sgt William Prendergast. Much later, I chanced upon a copy of Longman books’ collection of Z Cars scripts, produced as a resource for schools, and illustrated with telesnaps of the featured episodes. Of all the Z Cars publications, this one is easily the most interesting, and still turns up now and then on eBay at quite reasonable prices.

Despite my rekindled enthusiasm for the original Z Cars, I couldn’t bring myself to take any interest in the contemporary episodes, although I did get to see odd examples during this era. Simultaneously, I was also ignoring Softly, Softly, which at least preserved some of the original Z Cars DNA in the form of Barlow and Watt (until Barlow was spun off into his own separate series). I did, however, cut the two detectives some slack by tuning into their investigation into the murder spree of Jack the Ripper (1973) and its superior follow-up series, Second Verdict (1976).

A rare opportunity arose to watch an early Z Cars when the BBC repeated John Hopkins’ Police Work in the summer of 1976. The episode, which ended the second series with a bang, saw Fancy and Jock threatened by an unhinged character with a sawn-off shotgun when sent to summon him as a witness. Although the episode is still extant in the BBC’s archive, it remains frustratingly elusive online, and is at the top of my watch list should it ever resurface. It also featured the rare ‘transitional’ title sequence, as mentioned earlier.

I finally caved in and returned to contemporary Z Cars in 1977. By this time, the two episodes a week format had been dropped (rightly so) and the series reverted to its original 50-minute length. I enjoyed most of the series, and stayed with it into its final year of 1978. In recognition of the fact that this series was to be the last, the producers finally ditched the modernised theme music and reverted to the original Spiegl/Fry arrangement, albeit in re-recorded form. The show was still in its time-honoured Wednesday evening slot, but debuted in late June, which hardly speaks volumes about the BBC’s confidence in their product. A Nationwide feature prefaced its return on 28 June with the episode Driver. Original cast member Joseph Brady appeared, albeit as a different character. Lynch had long ago been promoted to Inspector and Quilley was now a Sergeant. John Collin returned as DS Haggar, and regulars PC Render (Alan O’Keefe) and DS Bowker (Brian Grellis) were still on board. My diary records that the episode Quilley on the Spot was the ‘best yet’ (of this particular series).

Z Cars finally came to an end with the episode Pressure (20.09.78), written by series creator Troy Kennedy Martin. Despite its historic significance, I remember this as a dull episode, enlivened only by the comedic reappearance of original cast actors Brian Blessed, Joe Brady, Colin Welland and Jeremy Kemp in cameo roles.

March 1971: a bearded Sgt Stone returns to Z Cars after a 13-week absence while actor John Slater received treatment for a congential heart defect. In his absence, he was covered by DS Haggar (John Collin). From now on, the two Sergeants would have to rub along together...

With the programme now consigned to history, would the BBC recognise its importance and embark on a repeat run? Not a chance. The 20th anniversary was marked in January 1982 with a single Sunday afternoon broadcast of Hide – And Go Seek, offering the chance to see a young John Thaw during his brief tenure on the show. Another episode, Happy Families, was dusted off for a 1986 season commemorating sixty years of the BBC, but this unfortunately became the Corporation’s default episode whenever another repeat was deemed necessary (its reselection almost certainly a result of having been subject to rights clearance).

A glimmer of hope for Z Cars fans emerged during the early 90s with the release of the first four episodes from 1962 on a VHS tape around the time of the 30th anniversary. Sadly, no further releases were forthcoming. It was left, somewhat ironically, to ITV to compile and broadcast the first serious retrospective documentary on the series, Z Cars – Where Are They Now, shown to mark the show’s fortieth anniversary in 2002. The BBC played catch-up with the short documentary series Call the Cops (2008), an episode of which examined Z Cars, but not in any great depth. A couple of vintage editions were shown at the same time and, to date, these screenings mark the series’ last ever appearance on BBC television.

Since then, episodes have been appearing on YouTube, from a variety of sources. Some of these uploads have been rendered worthless by the addition of a distracting union jack watermark, but there are enough clean copies to be going on with. Quality is variable, usually on the poor end of the scale, but all are watchable. For fans of the series’ original and best iteration this may yet be the only chance to see it.

Ten years ago, a handful of 1970s episodes made it onto DVD, but these clearly did not sell in any great number. I got volume one and found it so boring I have yet to watch it all the way through. The releasing company should have done its research better – while there is still a lot of interest in the original series, the same does not apply to its later incarnations. A release of 1962 episodes would have done much better.

The news that Talking Pictures TV was to commence repeats of Z Cars was tempered by the realisation that they were starting in the 70s, at what was arguably the programme’s nadir. Of the episodes shown at time of writing, only Absence (originally broadcast on 07.01.74) showed any promise, with an unusual amount of location work. The others have been dull and beset by the soap-style writing and production values that characterised this era. It’s to be hoped that the channel can move swiftly onwards (or rather, backwards) to the early 60s, but as I understand it, the problem here is one of rights clearance. The 1973-74 episodes we’re getting to see were probably cleared for a DVD release that never happened, but the channel does appear to have the 60s era in its sights, so we may still get to see Fancy and Jock in action in Z Victor One.

One way or another, I've been a fan of Z Cars for over sixty years. Whilst it disappointed in its later years, it is rightly remembered for the ground-breaking drama it once was. The real life police didn't much care for the way they were depicted on screen, but times were changing, and the cosy world of Dixon of Dock Green was no longer relevant. Z Cars was the first police series in Britain to aim at a semblance of reality, but you can take a good idea too far. Reality for many people is drab and pedestrian, which is what Z Cars became. If anyone from TPTV is reading this, take heed. Skip the 70s and go back to the 60s. Proper music, black and white, Barlow, Watt, Fancy & Jock. That's how Z Cars should be remembered...