Review for Dixon Of Dock Green (2 Discs)

Those extolling the virtues of slow-moving, slightly melancholic Nordic police procedural TV series take note. Been there, done that - albeit 40 years ago. I remember 'Dixon of Dock Green' being on TV forever. Right through my earliest years in the sixties through to the mid-seventies when it suddenly stopped - poor old Jack Warner now so old as to be slightly ridiculous as a bobby.

In fact, the series ran from the mid-1950's as a TV spin-off from the popular bobby-on-the-beat movie, 'The Blue Lamp' from a few years previous. Dixon was an old school bobby - friendly and helpful most the time, but stern when it mattered. It was seen as a suitable replacement to 'Fabian of the Yard' which petered out at about the same time this began.


But by the time the series got to the 70's (and into colour) the tone changed to become a little grittier, bridging the gap between 'The Blue Lamp' and 'The Sweeney', with Jack Warner opening and closing each episode (as he always had) but playing increasingly minor roles, often in a slightly awkward 'what am I still doing here' kind of a way. Z-Cars and other police shows seemed a world away from the cosy world of Dock Green with its comforting blue lamp and the show was beginning to show its age.


But before we move onto this welcome release, I would like to quickly highlight an unspeakably heinous crime which relates directly to the series. 432 episodes were made (going from an original 30 minute slot on the BBC to a heftier 45 minute slot) and yet only a handful of episodes survive - the remainder MPW ('Missing, presumed wiped').


In a digital age it's difficult to comprehend the mass-wiping that took hold in the early seventies at the BBC. This was pre-video days and the potential market for old shows weighed up against the prudent re-use of expensive tape drove the worst cull in Britain's cultural history. Indeed it now seems as barbaric a period as 'burning books' might have done in yesteryear. But what's done is done and although the odd snippet still turns up from time to time (usually some film stock of exterior scenes) there are acres of series (including Dr. Who) which we will never see again.


So when a distribution company like Acorn sees fit to rally what remains together for us (this time the presumed more marketable colour episodes) we should be grateful.


For those who may be interested (and thanks to 'The Mausoleum Club') here is all that is known to remain of the 420 episodes made. (Well, complete episodes any way).

B/W
15: Postman's Knock
16: The Rotten Apple
17: The Roaring Boy
18: Pound Of Flesh
19: Father In Law
Christmas Night With The Stars insert 1958
120: The Hot Seat
184: A Home Of One's Own
190: Green Wedding
200: Before The Ball (first of a two-part story)
233: A Scrap Of Paint
306: The Team


COLOUR
351: Waste Land
368: Jig-Saw
374: Molenzicht
395: Eye Witness
397: Harry's Back
410: Sounds
411: Firearms Were Issued
412: Target


Six of these colour episodes are included in the Acorn set, though I only received a single disc so can only really comment on three of these. Here's what you'll get with comments where I am able to make them.

Waste Land (1970)
Set amongst a bleak industrial estate, backing on to a river, a policeman has gone missing. There is little sign of foul play and what follows is a classic police procedural - door-stop questioning, multi-man search parties and so on. Though the final conclusion is obvious to all, we see that the police have no wish to report it the policeman's death (once his body has been found) as anything other than an accident. Even Jack Warner fails to bring any positivity or light into this depressing tale.

Jig-Saw (1971)
Once again set on industrial wasteland (cheap exterior filming), this investigation is about the disappearance of a man's wife. When it transpires that the man has been having an affair suspicion falls to him, but a reconstruction down a bleak canal path soon puts pay to that. The episode features a pre-'It ain't half hot mum' Windsor Davies.



Eye Witness (1973)
The most enjoyable of the three episodes on disc one in my view; a young woman witnesses the gangland killing of her boyfriend, a cheating croupier who is trying to pull one over on his bosses. As the only witness to the crime, various attempts on her life mean she has to go into police protection - on a remote Cornish island with Jack Warner for company. But it's not long before the hit-men are on her trail. A genuinely exciting cat and mouse game ensues!

Harry's Back (1974)
Sounds (1974)
Firearms Were Issued (1974)


Special features include a gallery and filmographies. In other words, not that 'special' after all!

The resulting hybrid of old school Dixon and new-school grittiness is what you'll witness in this set; not entirely representative of the 15 years of programmes that preceded them and as a result, some fans may be disappointed. Not only that, these episodes (which may account for their survival) were all shot on film, like the gritty Euston police series that followed, and this was untypical for probably 400 of the 420 original shows.


It seems odd that, given the list of surviving episodes, that Acorn should choose to start with latter episodes rather than the first existing thirteen black and white episodes which I feel sure fans would have preferred. I guess it might come down to decision making by someone from a younger generation who sees black and white as unmarketable - a lamentable point of view. Of course, it may be nothing of the sort and could well be a licencing issue, plain and simple.

Fingers crossed for the remaining episodes.