Softly, Softly (TV series) Alexis Kanner as DC Matt Stone. Although popular with audiences, Kanner appears to have alienated cast and crew with erratic behaviour during live recordings, and the character was dropped after only nine episodes. He later played the recalcitrant Number 48 in the final episode of "The Prisoner". The first two series continued the trend set by producer David Rose with "Z-Cars", and transmitted the majority of episodes live. This was one of the last long-running British TV series to do this. From series three onwards all episodes were pre-recorded. The original theme music was, like "Z-Cars", a folk-song arrangement by
Johnny Coppin they even collaborated on the album "Edge of Day". Coppin's subsequent work has included completely original work as well as further albums based on the Gloucestershire theme. Most albums have at least one song where Coppin has taken lyrical content and added his musical interpretation. Johnny's TV appearances include his own programme "Song of Gloucestershire" for the BBC, "Stars in a Dark Night" for Channel 4, and "Music Writers on TV" for HTV, while his radio work includes "Kaleidoscope" for Radio 4, "West Country Christmas", the Arts Programme and "Folk on Two" for Radio 2, as well as many appearances