Softly Softly - Task Force (1966)
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Debuting in 1966, this spin-off of the long-running British crime series Z Cars focused on two of that series' most popular characters, Deputy Chief Superintendent Charlie Barlow (Stratford Johns) and Deputy Chief Inspector John Watt (Frank Windsor). Like its predecessor, Softly Softly -- Task Force (titled simply Softly Softly for its first 69 episodes) was set in Liverpool, where Barlow and Watts headed up a special squad to fight the most scurrilous of crimes and solve the most baffling of mysteries. Although Johns left the series in 1972 to head up his own spin-off, Barlow at Large, Windsor continued soldiering on until the final episode in 1976. Created by Elwyn Jones and telecast by the BBC, Softly Softly -- Task Force ultimately toted up 200 50-minute episodes.