Softly, Softly
The work of the Regional Crime Squad was the subject of this
spin-off from Z Cars featuring Stratford Johns as Charlie
Barlow.
Also featured were Garfield Morgan as Detective Chief
Inspector Lewis, Norman Bowler as Detective Sergeant Hawkins and
Alexis Kanner as Detective Constable Stone. They were later joined
by Frank Windsor as John Watt.
Barlow had moved from Liverpool (the location of Z Cars)
to the South-West Midlands and earned a promotion to Detective
Chief Superintendent, while Watt had become a Detective Chief
Inspector.
They were joined in time by Norman Bowler as West Country
pin-up Inspector Harry Hawkins, and by Terence Rigby as dour
dog-handler PC Snow - a man who seemed to think that smiling was
liable to get him drummed out of the force.
One of his Alsatians
was Inky, which had been sacked as a real police dog when it went
AWOL over a wall. When Inky was shot in the program, angry letters
poured into the BBC so the dog had to appear on Blue Peter
to show that it was only acting.
In 1970, Softly Softly : Task Force followed with Barlow
made head of Thamesford Constabulary CID and supervising officer
of the Constabulary's Task Force. He was assisted by Watt and
Hawkins again, under Chief Constable Cullen (William Gotell).
In yet another spin-off (Barlow At Large), Barlow was
eventually promoted to the Home Office.
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