Z Cars theme

Opening sequence from the first edition of Z Cars featuring Stratford Johns. Z Cars was broadcast on British television from 1962 until 1978.

[@derekstephen329]

I think that this show was primarily responsible for my becoming a police officer and a dedicated police driver.

[@obsidiandwarf]

I used to play z cars with my great gran. She was Bert, I was jock. Sadly I had to 'park the car' for good in 1967. Rock nanny Fitz.

[@alecsuchi6620]

A most rousing and memorable signature tune which I recall fondly from childhood.

[@fionanorris7761]

Me too. Used to hum it (I was 3!)

[@Claymor621]

When I hear that music I'm immediately transported back to being a kid sitting on the floor leaning back against the settee watching this.

[@jimduffy1967]

My thoughts exactly claymor,such wonderful times in the sixties or maybe I'm looking through nostalgic tinted glasses,but I used to love this tune coming on.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

that's what music does. isn't it great? :-)

[@jaynekennedy686]

I remember always having a ‘thing’ for Fancy Smith - Brian Blessed ..... I ALWAYS wanted to meet him. Happy days of childhood when life seemed so simpler ..... sigh xxxs

[@Krzyszczynski]

@@jaynekennedy686 The banter between Fancy and Jock was one of the best things in that show. All respect to James Ellis and Colin Welland, but we were always a bit disappointed whenever it was PCs Lynch and Graham the episode was focused on.

[@67lionsoflisbon37]

Similar, in grandmothers with extended family, cousins etc getting fed on Saturday evening with this on the telly plus Dr Who plus the Generation Game. Good times.

[@GrahamLondonUK]

Z Cars was a contemporary police drama series which was broadcast in Britain from 1962 to 1978. It reached its greatest popularity in the late sixties when it was essential early evening television viewing!

[@philippacleghorne3950]

Loved "Z Cars"...that theme music took me right back to my childhood. Brilliant

[@colinbezant4709]

When the Z-cars theme came on, it was time to go to bed. So evocative

[@matthewabercrombie736]

I vividly remember our 1st television being delivered & set up in 1964? A man in an Alpaca coat fiddling & muttering for what seemed like hours. Then that weedy, grey picture & slightly ethereal sound, TV at last! The first programme I ever saw? Z Cars, and that theme tune has been with me for my whole life. Even now, it's a ring tone on my mobile, only 50 odd years on. We'll miss you Jimmy.

[@barbaraannecortina7899]

I remember me granddad watching the very last episode of this mother of all police dramas back in 1978, which was rather fitting really...given that just over a decade earlier he was a sergeant in the Dock Board Police. What's more is that I've got the first three episodes on a VHS to celebrate 40 years since the series started.

[@kawasaki5187]

They play this tune at Everton FC

[@rederic2004]

Amazing. I used to have a single with this theme tune. And I remember the very last episode of Z Cars as a kid. It seemed like such as historic moment.

[@GrahamLondonUK]

Thanks for your kind comment. The good thing about KZbin is that there is plenty of stuff for all ages!

[@Londonfogey]

The cynic in me says this series was predictive-programming to get British people used to the idea that from now on the police would sitting in cars most of the time rather than on the beat as they used to be.

[@steveforster9764]

Oh my childhood

[@GrahamLondonUK]

I have to rely on the episodes being broadcast by the BBC, which is done very rarely. Fortunately, most episodes from the 1970s survive in the BBC archives.

[@lexo30]

I just realised that I'm old enough to remember the later episodes of Z Cars. Damn. And I'd thought they were repeats.

[@rjjcms1]

I remember this being on the television in our living room in the early 70s (Softly Softly Taskforce seemed be on around the same time),but I didn't realise it was still going as far on as 1978.

[@CiaranMcVeigh]

Good luck to Everton tomorrow.

[@nicfewer8393]

Rest in Peace, James "JImmy" Ellis.

[@Dallas-Nyberg]

Such a long time ago..... it was a good show!

[@LANBritain1]

@GrahamLondonUK also it was one of the first 'gritty' police dramas the predecessor to many classics such as: The Sweeney, The Wire, The Bill and many American cop shows. But broke the boundaries for british television. I remember it well....although i was only 2 when it started, I remember it when I was 15

[@LeonTrotsky6782]

Should be our national anthem ❤️

[@GrahamLondonUK]

Z Cars finished its sixteen year run in 1978, long before you were born! Older family and friends should remember it.

[@cliffjg]

Don't channel idents spoil everything! They should be banned. A classic bit of film and teh spoil it with a BBC Four logo!

[@cleetorres1351]

2022 13 years later can't believe i saw this . Man u united fam but you have the best tune ever

[@therealDannyVasquez]

It's cold outside There's no kind of atmosphere I'm all alone More or less Let me fly far away from here Fun fun fun In the sun sun sun

[@mascha47]

the intro was enough to scare me half to death as a kid.

[@RichyO1977]

I thought this was only associated with Everton yet they played it before a Watford game..?? I'm a bit confused. Anyone know why?

[@darrellmonks]

+Richard Olde Everton were the first club to use it, however dozens of clubs do. Firstly, it is very inspiring music, a bit like marching music, to give heart to soldiers. The whistles at the beginning sometimes give me goosebumps. Secondly, this song is basically a rendition of an old folk song called "Johnny Todd" which was very popular in Liverpool and Belfast in the 19th century.

[@neilinely]

I don't think dozens do - just Everton and Watford. Apparently it was used by Watford because their then manager, Bill McGarry, liked it, and they promptly went on a 29-match, 14-month unbeaten home run, so kept it as a lucky omen.

[@klausstock8020]

The theme is...kind of lame, and I kind of live out for that. Yup, it's just in the style of "back in the days", so, yeah, right on spot. Born in 1968, German, I've never ever heard of "Z Cars". WTF, like, idk, 800 episodes, and never on German television? Shame on German TV.

[@davidchorley9219]

the first TV show I remember where one of the characters died

[@schweizergoth]

Damn, I thought this video was about "Z Cars" like the Datsun 280ZX. not some TV show :P

[@sarahmoorin4673]

Z cars series is coming on talking pictures TV in September 2024

[@BigDon62]

Thinking encrypted digital for those RT's now boys !

[@loontheklown1]

its evertons theme tune!

[@iabuddoofhtlaeh7979]

EEEEVERTONNNNNNNN!

[@Makaveli175]

Watford !!!

[@GrahamLondonUK]

Though around 800 episodes were made, none have been issued on DVD.

[@Andrew1233527]

RIP Jimmy

[@rexgeorg7324]

made in England

[@ossyrefugee]

When we had PROPER police

[@Krzyszczynski]

Not sure about that .... to my mind, having them tooling around in cars instead of patrolling the beat on foot was the first step to the current situation, where much of the regular day-to-day contact with the public - and hence the public's trust in them - has been severely eroded.

[@TheMrjake88]

Everton song now

[@aaronf.186]

This shit makes my ears bleed

[@jackthegamer4019]

That was Barlow wasn’t it !

[@TheMightOfTheEnglish]

Come on you blue boys!!!!!!!

[@GrahamLondonUK]

@LANBritain1 Z Cars reflected the changing society of the sixties, whereas Dixon Of Dock Green had a lot of the gentleness of the fifties, and, as you say, police drama was taken further by The Sweeney in the seventies. Incidentally, if you were two years old when Z Cars started (1962), why does your KZbin profile state that you are 21?!!

[@Maxmulham]

Sounds great!!

[@simoncoolhand]

Blue forever

[@judithlomas6320]

A friend told me that this was used at a funeral she went to earlier this year, trying to explain to my daughter the tune.... How best to portray it? The tracing paper over a comb! Happy childhood memories x

[@GrahamLondonUK]

Yes, I agree! Last night I watched a black & white episode of On The Buses which was ruined by a large ITV3 coloured ident in the corner!

[@michaelpike2276]

I used to remember this tune at Millwall when the copperswer walking round the pitch and supporters were either whistling or just going da da da da da da da 😂

[@Yanmotion]

I'm not really often watch Z-cars TV series, but I only watch 3 of them like "Friday night" on BFI website, I would like to watch more of this TV programme, especially the 1970s episodes.

[@GrahamLondonUK]

@Feisty1967 Z Cars was made in colour from 1970, though many episodes made over the next five years were wiped or lost from the BBC archives. All episodes from 1975 exist, so it's a BBC decision whether to release the episodes.

[@GrahamLondonUK]

@saskabush2006 This was one of my first uploads to KZbin and I had difficulty in adjusting the volume, as you might have gathered! My sincere apologies for deafening you. I hope that your left eardrum is now reattached and wasn't squashed by the bus!

[@gordonS1942]

poffy8888 is mistaken as Z Cars was screened in OZ on ABCTV very soon after it was made in the UK and was a very popular series not unlike the Bill.

[@johnboytd]

In answer to Fiesty 1967, Yes I'm sure there were colour versions of Z cars because they were filmed in Liverpool using Merseyside Pasenger Transport MCW Metropolitain double decker buses, and I think a Liverpool Corp' AEC Regent puts in an appearance in the opening shots when a dreadful early synthasizer version of this Sig tune was used.

[@LANBritain1]

@GrahamLondonUK haha - my son set that up for me :) keep me in the peak of my youth ;) and i totally agree

[@Maxmulham]

I don't live in Britain (and born in '92) but can someone tell me what this show was about?

[@lynnmarieparkin6841]

Great production from the Year I was born. How many saw that and wanted in the Police force like I did? Sadly because I became epileptic it wasn't to be.

[@candymintz]

known as Zed Cars when I was a kid....

[@themanknownaslfcj2788]

In memory of Mr Howard Kendall

[@jimincairns]

The tune is called 'Johnny Todd'.

[@craigb4719]

Arise sir tint bellew does it again against David the so called haymaker

[@jrg135]

Filming switched to Southall in West London around 1963 as many of the actors lived in London , the are looked like Liverpool and was near a BBC studio - I know cos I used to watch the filming

[@Krzyszczynski]

They filmed parts of one episode a couple of streets away from my gran's old house in Dartmouth Park. Around 1969 that would have been. The area was all demolished and redeveloped a year or two later.

[@Yanmotion]

Wot did u mean?

[@paulhooper5655]

is it a zephr or a zodiac

[@malcolmmarshall4371]

I think it was a Ford zypher

[@richH1625]

0:28 pretty sure they were Zephyrs, Zodiacs were the posh ones and had extra chrome on the boot! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Zephyr#Zodiac_Mark_III scroll down for Zodiac pics,,, up for the Zephyr.

[@stephenwalker850]

Four of a kind indeed

[@manchild3479]

back in the day.

[@bernehalligan]

@ihaf2cthis yes i can!!!

[@Bongoincongo]

Come on you 'ORNS!

[@Stemax1960]

ZVICTOR ONE TO CONTROL!

[@thethinker8805]

Memories

[@TheLadmeister]

And Watford

[@NZWolf]

@schweizergoth Ignorent

[@cfcboyz1]

WATFORD

[@poffy8888]

We never got this in Oz...............

[@theobserver2309]

We got this in Enzed..........

[@mountfields]

BD to Z victor 1...

[@humandugong630]

This series was reliably boring. The theme music signalled going into the kitchen to look for food.

[@carolebarker2195]

Same here. Plus the eardrum-splitting intro instilled a vague kind of fear of the adult world into my childhood brain I could have well done without. Probably deliberate.

[@schweizergoth]

@NZWolf2 : "Ignorant" Is the proper way to spell this word, and the common definition of Ignorant is used for A person who is relatively Uneducated. Do I need to break this down any further for you?

[@alan24362]

I once saw Stratford Johns in London picking his nose then he ate it ! Ugh

[@ch921]

my mom in nz loved this show can anyone find this show on dvd russell

[@jmewhyte]

lord have mercy, that is one awful drone