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 Smith (actor) James Smith (actor) James Smith (born 1948) who trained at LAMDA, is an English actor well known for his part in the BBC's "The Thick of It" (22 episodes) as senior special adviser Glenn Cullen and as Michael Rodgers, Director of Diplomacy at the Foreign Office in "In the Loop", the film spin off of "The Thick of It". From 9 August 2010 Smith plays Clive in the BBC comedy "Grandma's House". He also took a minor non-speaking role as Lord Carrington in the 2011 film "The Iron Lady". In 2014 he appeared in "Boomers" as Trevor. He played Graham