John Watt and Charlie Barlow

I see that Frank Windsor has died age 92. His most remembered role would be as John Watt who first appeared as a Det Sgt in Z Cars with Stratford Johns as Insp Barlow.

Then they had a spin off series called Softly Softly and Softly Softly Task Force, with appropriate promotions. These were all good series, well scripted and plotted and very well acted. Not easy to be the number 2 for all those years.

The Z Cars cast is pretty well known as a quiz question and we used to love those camera shots through the windscreen of a cut off Ford Zodiac. Other good actors in Softly Softly were John Barron who played the Chief Constable and was well known for serious roles until he joined with Leonard Rossiter as CJ in Reggie Perrin, "I did not get where I am today by ...".There was Norman Bowler who played Harry “the hawk” Hawkins and was a TV regular even going into Emmerdale for a long stint.

Stratford Johns left Softly Softly Task Force half way through its run so Frank Windsor was the number one for the last four years. Another very well known TV actor in this was Terence Rigby as dog handler PC Snow with his alsation Radar. He went on to play a lot of decent parts in things like the Beiderbecke Tapes with James Bolam and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Alec Guinness.

Funny how one memory leads to another. Just wondered if anyone else remembered these blasts from the past.