Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Saturdays felt safer with Dixon on the beat
We look at how friendly bobby Dixon Of Dock Green first made his mark on TV 65 years ago
PC GEORGE DIXON rose from the dead to star in the BBC’s long-running police series.
His character was originally killed by a bullet in the 1950 British movie The Blue Lamp, with Dirk Bogarde playing the young shooter Tom Riley, but the honest bobby proved so popular with the public that he was back on his feet five years later and catching criminals in the BBC’s police series.
It was the first television series in the UK to be based on a film.
The drama was created by Ted Willis and launched 65 years ago on July 9, 1955, with Jack Warner as PC Dixon – he was later promoted to desk sergeant – pointing out to viewers that crime does not pay.
The opening episode saw him showing a young recruit called Andrew Crawford around his police patch. Crawford later married George’s daughter Mary and became his son-in-law.
The old-fashioned copper got the job done without any fuss and would emerge from the fog-covered London streets at the start of each episode whistling “Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner.”
Guest stars over the years on the Saturday night series included Sir Michael Caine, A Clockwork Orange actor Malcolm McDowell, Game Of Thrones actor Peter Vaughan and Miriam Margolyes. Future James Bond star Sir Sean Connery appeared as a villain in a 1956 episode called Ladies Of The Manor.
The episode The Night Of The Fog famously featured an elephant and George Dixon was shot again in Touch And Go.
The black and white police drama switched over to colour in 1969 and Jack Warner was 80 when he filmed his final episodes.
He published his autobiography, Jack Of All Trades in 1975, and once advised young actors: “Never turn anything down. Stars come and go, but as a character actor, you’ll work until you’re 90.”