Synopsis

This British series challenged traditional ideas of what policemen were really like. As Liverpool faced social change in the 1960’s and police used fast Ford Zephyrs or Z-Cars to travel around, writer Troy Martin created a fact-based cop show that took a deeper look into the lives of fictitious police characters.

The show, based on what Martin heard on police radio waves, also portrayed police like nobody had every dared before – as gamblers, as heavy drinkers, as household abusers, as law breakers. Many of the almost fifteen million that tuned into the program said that this daring show accurately reflected the true events of the era, although the Police Federation denied it entirely.