Friday, 19 March 2021

Z Cars Annual 1963 (World Distributors)




























One of the programmes that I remember from my childhood was Z Cars based on the adventures of of a Lancashire Police force unit designated "Z" to deal with rising crime. Starting in 1962 Z Cars ran for no less than 801 episodes until 1978 when the show finally ended.  Obviously the later shows stick in my mind better but the opening black & white versions credits does bring back memories.

This was the programme that featured the young (and relatively less eccentric) Brian Blessed along with a number of other stars from the sixties including James Ellis (Bert Lynch), Stratford John (DI Barlow) and Frank Windsor (DS Watt). The latter two became the central figures of the spin-off programme Softly, Softly another childhood favourite.

Z Cars was popular enough to have an annual published as early as 1963 and was followed by three more from World Publishers who seemed to dominate the TV related annuals market in the UK.  This edition contained a mixture of text and comic strip adventures featuring our favourite police men. There were also photos of the four main stars and a feature on how police cars were called to the scene.



This clip features the opening segment of the very first programme.


1 comment:

  1. I have the original cover artwork for that first annual Howie, it's huge!!

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