Fritz Spiegl Fritz Spiegl died suddenly during a Sunday lunch in Liverpool with his wife, Ingrid Frances Spiegl, and some friends. As a composer, Spiegl scored a popular success with the original theme from the TV series "Z-Cars", based on "Johnny Todd", a Liverpool sea shanty. He also composed the original theme for the "Z Cars" spin-off series "Softly, Softly"; the song was also released as a single on Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate record label in 1966. His BBC Radio 4 "UK Theme", in which national songs from each of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom are combined, was heard
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground and his inspired guitar playing". Johnson's music experienced a revival in the 1960s thanks in large part to the efforts of blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis. A highly regarded figure within the burgeoning New York folk scene, Davis gave copies of Johnson's records to young musicians and taught them to play his songs. The Soul Stirrers, Staples Singers, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Peter, Paul & Mary all covered Johnson. In 1969, the English folk-rock band Fairport Convention released the album "What We Did on Our Holidays" which included a song inspired by "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" called