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
James Ellis (actor) James Ellis (actor) James Ellis (15 March 1931 – 8 March 2014) was a Northern Irish actor and stage director with a career stretching over sixty years. Originally a stage actor and director in Northern Ireland, he moved to London in the early 1960s. After gaining recognition in Great Britain through the "Z-Cars" (1962–78) police series on BBC1, he appeared in many other television and film roles. He was also a translator. Ellis was born in Belfast and attended the Methodist College Belfast and later studied at Queen's University Belfast and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He