Review for Z-Cars - Collection One

Watching these 1972 episodes of classic Z-Cars was a real blast for me. I vaguely recall seeing the show in the sixties in black and white though distinctly remember the distinctive theme tune – different from the version on these first colour episodes in that it featured a penny whistle as the main instrument if memory serves me correctly. It was over 40 years ago so who knows! But I moved to the US for a while as a kid and didn't get back till 1974 so wouldn't have seen these first time round. 

Watching them now is like clambering into a time machine and landing back into everyday life during the bleak early 70’s. According to the pub prices in the show, cigarettes were 17p a packet of 20, a pint of beer was 15p, a ‘good suit’ was less than a fiver and a policeman’s salary was around £1000 a year. Oh – and everyone smoked and even policemen drank pints of beer before driving.


It’s claimed that Z-Cars really heralded a new, grittier style police show, much harder than ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ for example. Playing more like a gritty soap than a ‘whodunit’ police show, Z-Cars set the mould for many other police procedurals that followed in its wake. 


The ‘coppers’ in Z-Cars made their way around ‘Newtown’ in fast cars and spoke to crooks with the kind of street-wise aggression later associated with ‘The Sweeney’. No ‘evening all’ to be heard here as realistic coppers with real problems of their own did their best to outwit the criminal classes.


Though many episodes of this long running series are ‘missing presumed wiped’ enough survive to warrant a release programme from Acorn so I’m hopeful that, if Collection 1 sells enough copies, that we’ll see a whole bunch make their way to DVD. 


This 2 disc set houses 12 x 30 minute episodes (generally 2 per story) all from 1972 when the series went to colour. The episodes cover a whole host of social issues including the plight of pensioners (we see one poverty stricken pensioner resort to burglary to supplement his income after another pensioner commits suicide after receiving a heating bill they are unable to pay); domestic violence where the vows of marriage appear to be stronger than the will to leave.



The police themselves are generally likable if flawed individuals trying to do a good job with limited manpower and resources. All that typing and filing in the days before computers!


The series was rumoured to have been created as the result of writer Troy Kennedy Martin’s bout of mumps in 1962. Whilst recovering he tuned in to the local police radio (I remember the days when that was possible using a standard transistor radio) and realised that real police life was very different to the cozy world of TV police shows. 


Set in Merseyside at a time when unemployment was rising fast and crime rates even faster, it paralleled the real world where men were being taken off the beat and put into police cars; usually Ford Zephyrs (hence ‘Z’ cars).


Though the Police authorities complained about the content and the portrayal of the police, it proved incredibly popular with the public, drawing a regular audience of over 14 million (even the X-Factor struggles to get more than 8 million viewers today). 


Many of the shows stars became household names (Brian Blessed, Colin Welland, Leonard Rossiter etc) but most viewers will remember one of the real stars of the show in Stratford Johns as Charlie Barlow, and Frank Windsor as his sidekick John Watt, who were given their own series in 1966, 'Softly, Softly,' which saw them head off to form the Regional Crime Squad.



By the time these episodes were airing the remaining stars were grouchy looking John Slater (the and Irish cop James Ellis, for me the real memorable faces of Z-Cars, ably abetted by Geoffrey Hayes (yep – ‘Jeffwee’ from Rainbow fame); Douglas Fielding, Geoffrey Whitehead, Gary Watson, John Swindells, and Ian Cullen.



The picture quality is exceptionally good throughout, far better than we deserve to expect and probably far superior to the version you may have seen when originally aired.
Anyone with even a remotely nostalgic interest in the series will find much here to enjoy, even if it’s just the sheer magic of arriving back in a bygone era. Fantastic!




Episode Guide

Disc One
1. Loyalties - Parts 1 and 2: First Broadcast 31st July 1972 and 1st August 1972
2. Relative Values - Parts 1 and 2: First Broadcast 7th and 8th August 1972
3. Not Good Enough - Parts 1 and 2: First Broadcast 14th and 15th August 1972

Disc Two
1. Breakage - Parts 1 and 2: First Broadcast 21st and 22nd August 1972
2. Connor: First Broadcast 11th September 1972
3. Team: First Broadcast 18th September 1972



DVD Extras
Selected Cast Filmographies
Image gallery