screenman
As with many of the contributors, I'm old enough to remember the age in which Pc George Dixon was set. And I can attest to encountering several rozzers just like him. He was the sort of bloke that made other kids - usually working-class kids - want to join the force when they grew up. Because despite the programme's age, and despite the fact that he represented the establishment through the law; he himself was working-class through and through.A staid and stable geezer with no particular ambition than to sign-off each day, comfortable in the knowledge that he had done his duty and that his little patch of the world was better for it. To coin a line from a popular hymn; 'the trivial round, the common task; should furnish all we ought to ask'.He didn't wield the law like a big stick. He wasn't concerned with crime clear-up statistics or political correctness. He didn't need a companion or a radio. He persuaded and cajoled miscreants, only taking them 'in charge' as a last resort, as that would lead to a criminal record. His was the familiar and trustworthy face of the law.The real charm of this programme was both the simple decency of the man portrayed, and the glamourless, un-sensational presentation of life on the force. How things have changed.Jack Warner made this part his own. Absolutely nobody could have done it better.A few years later came an almost equally plausible copper in slightly more dramatic situations. This was Commander Gideon of 'Gideon's Way'. Another thoroughly nice salt-of-the earth persona was offered by wonderful George Gregson. This program is still available on VHS/DVD and is highly recommended as an alternative piece of nostalgia.
Colin Finch
This was British TV's original police series. I'm not old enough to remember the early days of this show, but I grew up with it in the sixties and seventies. At the time, Dixon of Dock Green already seemed old fashioned compared with Z-cars or US shows like Ironside. It was a cozy and faintly sentimental representation of policing. Despite this, it retained a certain authenticity that other shows lacked. The police officers that I had met had more in common with Dixon than any other TV character. Jack Warner's perennial character George Dixon oozed calm authority and respectable self-assurance. Each programme was introduced by the whistled theme tune after which George Dixon would always begin a spoken introduction direct to camera with the words "Evening all". He would make dry observations about "villains" and the frailties of human nature. The episode's drama would then be played out. By the seventies Dixon himself rarely played a huge part in the story; he was pretty old. The programme would end with Dixon again; this time proposing a moral for the story. He invariably signed off with the words "'Night all". They don't make shows like this any more. Pity.
Big Movie Fan
"Evening All." Dixon of Dock Green-which ran for 21 years and about 429 episodes-was a fine show about a salt of the earth copper called P.C. George Dixon who was played by Jack Warner. He looked far to old to be a police officer but that didn't matter to me.I believe this is the longest running British police show ever (although that record may be beaten by The Bill in a few years time). It was entertaining stuff and I wish someone would release it onto DVD.Watching the show now, you may think Dixon is an old fashioned relic but back when this show was broadcast, that is the way coppers were. The police has evolved since then but I will always have a place in my heart for P.C. Dixon.P.C. Dixon was a good copper-he was honest, he was firm but fair when doing his job and he was a friendly local bobby. The stories were extremely interesting as was the dialogue. And the ending of the episodes were good as Dixon stood beneath the police stations lamp giving his thoughts for the day before walking off and whistling.Eventually, Dixon was promoted to Desk Sergeant and the younger officers did the legwork but the stories were still top-notch.This is probably the best representation of the police force in TV history and I urge anyone to try and get their hands on any of the episodes. It really was good.
uds3
The most beloved of British serials that ran for 430 episodes for an entire generation - and no-one appears to have thought this worth commenting on! No series before or since has generated the viewer affection that PC George Dixon managed.An extension of the tremendously popular Basil Dearden film of 1950 entitled THE BLUE LAMP, brit actor Jack Warner was so typecast in this role, he received truck-loads of fan-mail for almost twenty years addressed simply to "PC Dixon." He was loved and idolised by millions right up until his death from pneumonia in 1981.I remember clearly the first episode in 1955, it was just one week after we got television...a tiny 12" screen in grainy black and white! I watched that show all my childhood. I grew up with the characters in it, yet PC Dixon NEVER changed. The epitome of one's concept of British dignity and decency, PC Dixon had a heart bigger than any. Selfless, tireless, incorruptible and representing pretty much everything that modern society has rid itself of, the stalwart of fictional Dock Green Police Station rode his bike from adventure to adventure. No smart comments, no punch-ups, bad language ANYTHING vaguely indelicate. Yet you KNEW after each episode that crime really does not pay and that we all had a choice in life.I wish more than anything that I could meet PC Dixon today. He alone could re-establish my childhood beliefs and dreams.
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