'' was a popular
BBC Television Series , which ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's
Light Entertainment department.
The main character,
PC George Dixon, played by
Jack Warner , was an old-style
British "bobby" (
Policeman ). The character had first appeared in a
1950 British film, ''
The Blue Lamp '', in which he was shot and killed by a criminal played by
Dirk Bogarde . However, it was decided to bring him back to life for a television series, written by
Ted Willis .
Each episode started with Dixon speaking directly to the camera. He always began with a salute and the greeting "Evening all!" (good evening, everyone), which has lived on in Britain as a jocular greeting to a group of people. In similar fashion, episodes finished with a few words from Dixon, often in the form of
Philosophy on the evils of crime.
Initially, Dixon continued in the same role as in the film ''The Blue Lamp'', a constable based at the fictitious Dock Green police station, somewhere in the
East End Of London . The character of Andy Mitchell (played by
Jimmy Hanley ), the young constable in the film, became a detective named Andy Crawford (played by
Peter Byrne ), in the
CID at Dock Green, and he was married to Dixon's daughter Mary (who did not appear in the film).
By the end of the series, Jack Warner was quite elderly, and George Dixon had been promoted to
Station Sergeant and given a desk job. In the final series, made when Warner was eighty, Dixon had retired from the police.
In 2005, the series was revived for BBC
Radio , with
David Calder as George Dixon,
David Tennant as Andy Crawford, and
Charlie Brooks as Mary Dixon.
