Sergeant Cork

I used to enjoy 'Sergeant Cork' on Saturday evenings in the mid-1960s, not least with a fish and chip supper. Freddie Fowler's character Chalky was something of a scene stealer: 'Here's your tea, Sergeant - it's just how you like it: as hot as Hell and as strong as the Devil'. I paraphrase the quote today still, on occasion. Towards the end of the series, production standards seemed to slip - certainly it seemed like live television. I never found Charlie Rodway particularly convincing - sorry. Bruce Forsyth paid tribute to the show's two main characters in one of his Sunday Night shows around 1964.

Sergeant Cork is a police procedural set in the 1890's, that ran between 1963 and 1968 on ITV in the UK. It is based on the Criminal Investigation Department of Scotland Yard, which was a new department focused on introducing new techniques in the detection of crime. It stars John Barrie as Sergeant Cork and William Gaunt as Detective Constable Bob Marriott.

The first two series depict a do-good police sergeant tackling crime in a grimy and impoverished class based system in London and makes telling points about the treatment of people in society at the time. In the later series, the type of cases is more varied and less focused on the under privileged. In the later series, Marriott sometimes takes a major role in solving the cases. It is possible that John Barrie was over committed as he was also involved in Z-Cars at the same time.

In many ways the series was ground breaking with its moralising and technique - it had one of the first portrayals of a siege on TV. The cases were predictable and there was not much tension, however I found the show quite watchable. The quality was OK, however, there were not enough re-takes - quite a few stumbles with the dialog and there was the odd moving wall and stray boom microphone in the shot. Shot in black and white, all 66 episodes have survived.

This series doesn't shy away from any of the Victorian virtues and vices from social reform, the rise in the unions, the Church, Child poverty, baby farming, prostitution, military matters, Empiricism and high political intrigue. A fantastic regular cast of John Barrie, William Gaunt and later Charles Morgan gel marvelously as detectives working in the newly set up CID and the chemistry between them is a joy to watch. The atmosphere and sets are first class for the early 60's and the series has been preserved in its entirety. It's also fun to spot famous actors who would go on to star in TV for years to come. I hope one of the many satellite and cable channels decide to show this again to show that strong hard hitting police drama isn't a modern phenomenon. A must watch TV gem.

John Barrie stars as Sergeant Cork in this wonderful crime drama series from the 1960's. I can't help but wonder if this was one of the shows that laid the foundations for shows we would all know and love, shows like Z Cars, The Bill etc.

There is a real quality to this series, it has an air of grandeur about it, Cork really does mix with the affluent Society, as well as the less fortunate.

It's the great variety that makes it so watchable, one episode you'll watch a murder mystery, the next could be a fraud, followed by a grand theft. Personally I like the mysteries best, but then I am a whodunnit addict.

Barrie and Gaunt are both wonderful, you'll see several well known faced pop up throughout the run.

The episodes do change as the show progresses, I like the somewhat more raw earlier episodes, it does become a little more slick, a bit sharper with time.

It seems one of those shows that has been easily forgotten, nobody seems to know about it, I found it just by chance, but I'm so glad I did.

Really enjoyed it, 8/10.