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The Blue Lamp

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    #1

    The Blue Lamp

    TCM is showing this at 7.00 pm CDT tonight.
    So, if you want to know where The Sweeney, The Bill, Z-Cars etc. and most of Shane Ritchie's shaggy dog stories originally came from...
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    #2
    The Blue Lamp

    This was the film where George Dixon, nearing police retirement age, was shot dead.

    Later on he was of course magically resurrected and 25 years later he was still a Desk Sergeant in a series which by then had abandoned all resemblance to a recognisable present-day London and had become "a dangerously naive anachronism" (as is said in a better book than I'll ever write). Still, Dixon of Dock Green says much about post-war society - both about the norms themselves and about the context for the reaction against them - and it's a shame there aren't more episodes in existence (not in itself a rare situation with early British TV, of course).

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      #3
      The Blue Lamp

      But, Adams, does Thief Takers derive from it?

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        #4
        The Blue Lamp

        I don't remember that I ever saw 'Thief Takers' Tubby so I can't really say but 'The Blue Lamp' and a slightly later British movie called 'The Long Arm' (with Jack Hawkins) seem, to me, to have set the template for every British cop show up to and including 'The Bill'. The pilot for 'The Sweeney' was called 'Regan' and took most of its plot from 'The Blue Lamp'.

        As Prodigal said George Dixon was brought back to life to occupy the desk at Dock Green nick for years.

        For a distaff version see 'Juliet Bravo'.

        I don't know what anyone else thinks but British cop shows always seemed so comfortable, give or take 'The Sweeney' which could get a little edgy.

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          #5
          The Blue Lamp

          Thief Takers is absolutely dreadful mid-nineties stuff. One episode I recall kept showing Tower Bridge to tell you it was in London. As in The Rutles, it would have been nice if someone had said "And it's from London we go to Switzerland".

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            #6
            The Blue Lamp

            If you missed it, £3.99 in HMV

            Also, at £2.99, Hell is the City

            More Stanley Baker at £5.99, Robbery

            and at £7.99, Hell Drivers

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              #7
              The Blue Lamp

              Ah! 'Helldrivers'. Blink and you'll miss them parts for Sean Connery, Gordon Jackson amongst others. I have a soft spot for that film.

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