Looking Back: Haven’t we always had a secret crush on the boys, or girls, in blue?
We’ve always loved the boys in blue on our television screens. I expect I’m showing my age when I say I remember Fabian of Scotland Yard, the first policeman to appear in a series although only lasting for two years between 1954 and 1956. After that we just couldn’t get enough of anything crime related.
Possibly the most famous television cop of all was Jack Warner playing Dixon of Dock Green, an on the beat sort of bobby. It was an essential part of Saturday night viewing, although there wasn’t much else on. His ‘evenin’ all’ whilst stood under a blue lamp lasted for 21 years, passing to television folklore. Even the Queen when visiting the studio said that it was part of the British way of life.
However it did come in for increasing criticism being described as a dangerous anachronism. It was seen in some quarters as much irresponsible to show the police as always chasing murderers and big-time criminals as it was to show them depicted as big boy scouts like George Dixon.
However, crime dramas soon caught the British public’s imagination. One very popular one was No Hiding Place starring Raymond Francis as Superintendent Tom Lockhart, but the really big one as far as most of us were concerned, Z Cars started in 1962 and lasted for 16 years with the theme music being one of the most instantly recognisable of all time.
There was every boys dream with the Professionals between 1977 and 1983 although Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw figured largely in many of their mums dreams also!
After that cop dramas came in thick and fast. Bergerac, Taggart, Inspector Morse, The Bill, Prime Suspect, Luther, Sherlock, Poirot, Frost, George Gently, Midsomer Murders, Broadchurch, Rebus, Heartbeat and Line of Duty.
Eventually women played a bigger role in detective and police series. One of the earliest was Angie Dickinson who was Policewoman in 1974, whilst Tyne Daly and Sharon Glass were Cagney and Lacey throughout the 1980s.
Emelia Fox was a Forensic Scientist in Silent Witness. Sarah Lancashire a dour, often unhappy cop in Happy Valley, and Vera played by one of our much-loved actresses Brenda Blethyn who certainly gave hope to people wanting to work past retirement age!