Z-Cars Watt), James Ellis (Bert Lynch) and Brian Blessed ("Fancy" Smith). Barlow and Watt were later spun into a separate series "Softly, Softly". The title comes from the radio call signs allocated by Lancashire Constabulary. Lancashire police divisions were lettered from north to the south: "A" Division (based in Ulverston) was the detached part of Lancashire at the time around Barrow-in-Furness, "B" Division was Lancaster, and so on. Letters further into the alphabet were in the south around the Manchester and Liverpool areas. (See also the Wikipedia page about Home Office radio.) The TV series took the non-existent signs Z-Victor 1
Neville Smith (actor) wrote his first screenplay, "The Golden Vision", for the BBC TV series "The Wednesday Play". In the following years he appeared in episodes of "Cluff", "Z-Cars", "Thirty-Minute Theatre", "Softly Softly", "Her Majesty's Pleasure" and "The Wednesday Play". In 1971 the film "Gumshoe", based on Smith's novel of the same title, was the first major film-directlng assignment for Stephen Frears. Smith also played a small role in the film, as Arthur, a character whom Eddie Ginley ( played by Albert Finney) consults about the gun before entering L:iverpool Docks. In 1977 Smith wrote the screenplay for "Apaches", a short public information