Turn on, tune in ... turn back the clock
1950s
Before every copper had to be quirky or troubled, there was Dixon Of Dock Green. Jack Warner was the bobby whose “Evening all” and formal salutes were watched by generations from 1955 right up until 1976. By that time Warner was in his eighties and ridiculously past retiral age.
Audiences were chilled by the first adult sci-fi series The Quatermass Experiment (left) and also The Invisible Man. There was plenty of swashbuckling in The Count of Monte Cristo as well as The Adventures Of Robin Hood with Richard Greene leading the merry men. Sunday evenings were the time to settle down to Armchair Theatre and Sherlock Holmes made his small-screen debut.
1960s
The Swinging Sixties was the perfect era for The Avengers, with Patrick Macnee assisted by Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg, and The Prisoner was another psychedelic hit with most having no idea what was going on. Steve Forrest was the undercover agent in The Baron and Edward Woodward made his bow as Callan.
We really liked our agents, with Patrick McGoohan’s Danger Man another must-see. Doctor Who first stepped into his TARDIS and another very different doc was a huge draw as the medical ailments of the inhabitants of Tannochbrae were dealt with in Doctor Finlay’s Casebook (above).
1970s
Guns, punch-ups and great lines like “Get yer trousers on, you’re nicked” made The Sweeney one of the biggest hits of the decade while Barry Foster policed Amsterdam in Van der Valk.
Much more gentle was Black Beauty, featuring the Galloping Home theme tune named as one of the greatest of all time. Just as gentle was All Creatures Great And Small, with Christopher Timothy’s vet sorting out poorly animals.
The original Poldark in 1975 was one of the most successful adaptations of all time and maritime matters gripped us in The Onedin Line. Meanwhile, the pairing of George Cole (right) and Dennis Waterman in Minder also proved irresistible.
1980s
The little grey cells were first put to use by David Suchet in Agatha Christie’s Poirot and the Geordie brickies and sparks headed to the muddy German building site in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Before heading to Midsomer, John Nettles practised his sleuthing as Channel Islands detective Bergerac, the coppers of The Bill started pounding the beat and Dempsey and Makepeace were the bickering duo who loved each other in real life.
Bridehead Revisited was one of our classy period treats with Jeremy Irons and Anthony
Andrews, with Art Malik’s Jewel In The Crown another lush and lavish spectacle. This was also the decade when Mark McManus’s Taggart (below left) solved his very first murdurrr in STV’s hit series.
1990s
Bad Girls was a guilty pleasure for more than seven million. The original Cold Feet made its six leads some of the biggest stars in the country.
And, long before Robbie Coltrane had us gripped in National Treasure, he was the boozy, chainsmoking criminal psychologist in Cracker.
We couldn’t get enough of grisly crime with Helen Mirren’s first case in Prime Suspect. Robert Carlyle’s Hamish Macbeth was a very different kind of crimecracker and Jonathan Creek started solving his impossible locked room mysteries.
Peak Practice was a scenic delight and Heartbeat (below left) began an amazing run that was to last 18 series and pull in more than 15 million viewers. It spawned a medical spin-off called The Royal which was another Sunday comforter.
2000s
We were introduced to the medical world’s grumpiest GP, Doc Martin.
Foyle’s War proved its popularity when ITV axed it only for viewer power to bring it back. For eight years we lapped up the cons pulled off by Robert Vaughn and his fellow scammers in Hustle.
Larkrise to Candleford was perfect Sunday night fare for seven million, as were the seven series of Monarch Of The Glen. A huge American hit got a British remake in Law & Order: UK and the ghost of Morse lived on in spin-off Lewis.
Life On Mars (below) was a time-switching puzzler of a delight, with John Simm as the modern cop trapped in the 1970s. And Spooks killed off its
spies with ruthless glee.
2010s
From the very first episode with the telegram about the sinking of the Titanic, we just couldn’t get
enough of Downton Abbey. But Upstairs Downstairs, with its similar toffs and servants, showed it should have stayed in the 1970s.
David Tennant and Olivia Coleman were the best mismatched police pairing for ages in Broadchurch. But if there was one cop not to mess with it was Sarah Lancashire (left) in Happy Valley.
Tom Hiddlestone’s performance got us all talking about The Night Manager at the start of this year.
The brilliant Sherlock is back at the beginning of next year, Christmas will herald a new series of Call The Midwife and Suranne Jones is filming Doctor Foster again – after the most toe-curling dinner party bust-up ever.