| Created by | Ted Willis Jan Reid |
| Producers include: | Douglas Moodie Ronald Marsh Joe Waters |
The main regular cast was:
| Actor | Character |
| Jack Warner | PC George Dixon |
| Peter Byrne | Detective Sergeant Andy Crawford |
| Billie Whitelaw, Jeannette Hutchinson, Anna Dawson |
Mary Crawford |
| Geoffrey Adams | Detective Constable Lauderdale |
| Arthur Rigby | Desk Sergeant Flint |
| Nicholas Donnelly | PC Willis |
| Anthony Parker | PC Bob Penney |
| Jocelyne Rhodes | WPC Kay Shaw |
Alec Bray
As I recall, “Dixon of Dock Green” was a Light Entertainment production, not Drama – I never did know why. But that meant that “Dixon” had Light Entertainment directors, one who I remember being Robin Nash – I can see him now, hurrying across the set to sort out some issue or other. Robin also worked on “proper” Light Entertainment programmes – comedy series and so on: I can’t remember which ones, though.
Another thing about Dixon during my time was that, I seem to recall, the opening and closing pieces to camera were TK inserts.
Tony Grant
I certainly recall doing “Dixon of Dock Green” with Robin Nash directing, and wondering why he had skipped over from “Top Of The Pops”. Also, when I started, I’m fairly sure the opening and closing PTCs were live, but poor old Jack Warner often had trouble with the lines, and so once 2″ VTR came on the scene, the programme was soon recorded, and we often had to do several takes of the PTCs. Since Jack had to speak directly to camera, ‘idiot cards’ were no use, as even a slight movement of the eyes off camera made someone look shifty, and hardly a dependable copper. But, a nicer man you couldn’t wish to meet
Whilst we’re playing BOFs, I recall one live “Dixon” where I was swinging the mole and we had to clear from one set to another at the end of the studio before the first scene had finished, and there were two booms across the set. So, we had to track behind the cameras, but in front of the booms, flat out, whilst I craned up and down twice to get under the boom arms, and set up on the next set in order to start the scene, with about 5 secs to spare. Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
Louis Barfe
According to ‘young’ Bill Cotton, the reason why “Dixon…” was an LE production was that Jack Warner was on a variety contract.
Thinking about it, I suspect that drama had no mechanism for paying Warner as much as he was used to getting, and that’s why it was done through LE.
Alec Bray
On one episode, Andy Crawford (Peter Byrne) had been shot, and spent the whole episode in bed. The trouble was, there were two beds (hospital and home), but they were at opposite ends of TC4, so Peter had to traipse from one to the other!
On another episode (I think “Dixon…” (but may have been another famous cop programme!)) we had a Bedford OB bus in the studio – it had some of the side ripped off for the camera view inside. After the recording, the plan that BBC LE had was to take it way, set it on fire and record it/film it for library use. Some of the cast were horrified at this, and wanted to buy it to preserve the bus. I never did know what happened in the end.
David Brunt
I wonder if the bus programme was the January 1965 “Z Cars” episode “Think On”, which was mostly set on a bus in studio. The passengers had been robbed, but they were refusing to say who robbed them.Dudley Sutton and Tom Adams were the villains of the week.
John Hays
Wonderful memories of “Dixon” . Do you remember Jack’s habit of sniffing, so the episodes I did always started with “cue the sniff” then “cue Jack”.
Alan Machin
I remember working on some of the later “Dixon…”s when Jack Warner was in his 70s and a little unsteady. He delivered the opening (sniff) ‘Evening all’ and closing ‘Goodnight all’ monologues in front of a painted backcloth which would swing slightly in the breeze if the studio ventilation was not diverted, giving the impression on camera that Jack himself was swaying! He was a perfect gentleman and professional – if he forgot a line he would apologise to all, get the prompt and carry on.
In contrast I recall working with his contemporary William Hartnell. When he dried he would often complain that he could hear talkback, resulting in an unnecessary delay while we went through the talkback check routine. Happy days running round Riverside (I think it was) or the Grove with a fishing rod being chased by Daleks or Zarbies!
David Brunt
“Dixon” was an LE (Light Entertainment) show and not Drama. The BBC were looking for a starring vehicle for Jack Warner, who was already under long-term contract to the LE department in 1955. They chose a comedy-drama (as “Dixon…” was seen at the start).It just carried on under LE until the late 1960s when it was absorbed into Drama, I think when Ronnie Marsh left as producer.
Bill Jenkin
It was still LE, I think, in the 1970s when Robin Nash was directing.
I was working on one of those late ones in the 1970s and it was some sort of special, the umpteenth episode. They brought back the old set of Dixon’s home which hadn’t been seen for many years.
I remember Jack wandering round it muttering “..this is what they liked, all the family stuff, they should bring it back..” or words to that effect. He was quite sentimental about it, well I suppose you would be.
It was on one of those episodes that they had made up one of those books of faces of suspects for the story line. All the faces other than the guilty party were actually members of the production team. Jack opened the book, did a brief double take and then said “..look at this lot, a right load of villains…”
John Henshall
“Eve’nin’ all.”
Actor Jack Warner (1895-1981) played PC George Dixon in the BBC police drama series “Dixon of Dock Green”. Warner revived the character he had played in the film “The Blue Lamp”. The show was the only drama produced by the light entertainment department of BBC Television.
Warner was quite old by the late 1960s when I worked on “Dixon of Dock Green” and was said to be a little cantankerous because he had so much pain in his legs. I was warned to be careful and not do anything to offend him.
My mother-in-law, the singer Margaret Eaves, was good friends with Jack and his sisters Elsie and Doris Waters, comediennes who played Gert and Daisy. They had all worked and lived together when working for BBC radio during the war. They were stationed in Bristol and Evesham, Worcestershire.
One day, my mother-in-law asked me to give Jack her regards.
“Mr Warner, my mother-in-law has asked me to give you her regards.”
“Oh yeah, and who’s your mother-in-law?” he asked gruffly.
“She’s Margaret Eaves, Mr Warner.”
“Margaret Eaves.” he said brightly, “You’re her son-in-law? What’s your name? Come and have a cup of tea with me in my dressing room.”
Thereafter, Jack was always very friendly towards me. My colleagues could not understand why.
Michael Cotton
Dixon in R2
Robin Luxford and Alan Fogg had gone sick and I, as the SA2, was left to mix the live show. Cyril Wilkins told Dougie I was up to it and despite 2 inexperienced boom ops we got through it OK with help from Derek Saunders on grams.
I didn’t mix again for 20 years, is there a moral there?
Then the junior members of crews mixed schools programmes etc but the new regime changed all that until it was deemed that when SA1s got an upgrade we were thus deemed able to mix all sorts of shows such as “Grandstand” and “Juke Box Jury”. Then the interregnum until Pres B gave us an opportunity to do music with “Colour Me Pop” etc. The person who ran the Jazz Club pulled rank at the last moment when Humph was due to play. I forgot to tell him that the pads for the capacitor mics were out the back in the bays…
Naughty me.
Mike Giles
Were the pads out in the bays to keep them dry? I recall keeping C28 capsules on the handgrip of nice warm monitors to reduce the risk of condensation causing motor-boating.
As one of the young upstarts who pinched your sound mixing function, can I say to you and all the other SA1’s I worked with, especially in the early days before I’d earned my spurs, (did I ever?) thank you for the excellent reception I received when I came up from the sticks ~ you could justifiably have made life hell, but no-one showed anything other than kindness and great cooperation.
I had the ignominious distinction of working on the last of the Dixons, “The Liver Birds”, “The Good Life” (apart from the Royal Command Performance, which Mike McC did), “When The Boat Comes In” and probably others. I was always hopeful that my contribution was not instrumental in bringing the shows to an end!
Roger Bunce, Bill Jenkin, David Brunt
A trivia question : in his screen persona, what was the highest police rank that Jack Warner achieved?
Sergeant. George Dixon got promoted to Sergeant in 1964, when Jack Warner was 68 and already well past police retirement age, and he was Desk Sergeant by the start of the 1970s. However, Jack Warner played an unnamed Superintendent in “The Ladykillers” movie. He also played Detective Inspector Lomax in “The Quatermass Xperiment” (the Hammer Film version).
As for PC Dixon, other than the obvious problem that he got killed in his first screen outing, in “The Blue Lamp”, he was promoted to Desk Sergeant when Jack became a bit doddery for beat pounding. But in the last series I did (Roger Bunce), he had become a backroom “Collator” – I assume that’s a job title rather than a rank – but it allowed him to get out of uniform and wear a sports jacket (and slippers, I think). The collator was the job usually taken by an old hand on the brink of retirement (or even post retirement). Basically custodian of all the old files on criminals.On “Z Cars”, they were planning on making John Slater the Newtown collator after he retired from the force but he died before that took place.
Alex Thomas
I worked as a cameraman on “Dixon of Dock Green”.
I can remember Jack Warner being moved between scenes right across the studio standing upright on a sort of sack truck.
Paul Kay
I worked on “Dixon of Dock Green” virtually from the start in 1955 through to the last show in 1976. I did the usual tasks from Cable clearing, Tracking Camera 2 then Camera 1 and then working through the cameras from Camera 4 untill I became Senior Cameraman (Apart fron 1959/1960 when I was working in Manchester).
It was whilst tracking Dave Hammond on Camera 1 that the set (the Dixon living room) collapsed. I was blamed – I believe that the cable had moved the stage weight. There was only one which was a serious issue There was an autocation between the Crew and Scene crew. It nearly came to blows. Suddenly Douglas Moodie’s (Director/Producer) laser voice rang out above the hub-hub: “If you don’t mind I`d like to get on with the ******* rehearsal, if the Basher will allow me.”
The name Basher followed me throughout my career, The cast of Dixon all wrote Basher in the gift book which was the custom in those days as a wedding present. Some of our old colleagues still call me Bash or Basher. I used to get Christmas cards from Jack Warner: ” … best wishes to Basher … etc”.
