Classic TV Intros 4

Z-Cars

When was it on? January 2 1962 – September 20 1978

What happens? It's not so much what you see, it's what you hear that make this TV intro such a classic. Visually, you see a police car flashing its headlights. Then the graphic 'Z Cars' pops up. Then the screen turns into a map of Liverpool, and the letters 'HQ' pop up, followed by dotted lines which connect 'HQ' with  'ZV1' and 'ZV2'.  These represent the signals being sent between the various 'Z Cars'. Then these fade out and the police car comes back, and drives across the screen, and you hear its engine rev. Finally the title of the episode - 'Four of a Kind', say, - pops up as the car drives into the distance.

Then what? Nothing. It's what was going on with those visuals that is important. The theme tune was based on the traditional folk song Johnny Todd. The Z-Cars theme was arranged by Fritz Spiegl and performed by John Keating and his Orchestra. It reached Number 5 in the UK singles chart in April, 1965.

Our verdict? Genius. The tune is still recognised thirty years after the show stopped being made, and Everton still run out onto the pitch to it for hime games.

Note: Contrary to belief the name does not come from the cars used: Ford Zephyrs and Ford Zodiacs. In fact the Zodiac was never used by British police. The Zephyr was the standard patrol traffic car (not the same as 'crime car') used by Lancashire and other police forces. The term comes from the call signs allocated by Lancashire Constabulary. Lancashire police divisions were lettered from north to the south. A Division (DHQ Ulverston) was the detached part of the county around Barrow-in-Furness (since 1974 part of Cumbria), B was Lancaster and so on. Letters further into the alphabet were in the south around the Manchester and Liverpool areas. The TV series took the non-existent signs Z-Victor 1 and Z-Victor 2.

Have a look and a little whistle!