Softly Softly: Task Force

This seventies BBC Police series takes the careers of Messrs Barlow and Watts, originally in Z Cars and then Softly Softly a stage further. Chief Superintendent Barlow becomes head of C.I.D. in a fictional area of south east England, with John Watt as his assistant. The series deals with a variety of criminal activity. It is not all major crime - some of crimes are quite trivial, so if you are looking for non-stop excitement, you won't find it here Where the series does excel is in portraying the relationship between the regular characters. The series also treats the police as normal human beings, they are flawed, but not excessively so. Their personal lives are almost entirely ignored. Superintendent Watt has a wife who is a G.P. and who appears in the occasional episode, but that is as much as we learn of their private lives. Despite the leisurely pace of many of the episodes, I found the program (the first two series are available on DVD) enjoyable, and generally of a high standard.