''Second Verdict'' is a six-part BBC television series from 1976. It combines the genres of

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eit ...

and

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

, with dramatised documentaries in which classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history were re-appraised by fictional police officers. In ''Second Verdict'',

Stratford Johns Alan Edgar Stratford Johns (22 September 1925 – 29 January 2002), known as Stratford Johns, was a British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the long-running ...

and

Frank Windsor Frank Windsor Higgins (12 July 1928 – 30 September 2020), known professionally as Frank Windsor, was an English actor, primarily known for his roles on television, especially policeman John Watt in ''Z-Cars'' and its spin-offs. Biography Win ...

reprised for a final time their double-act as Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt, hugely popular with TV audiences from the long-running series ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it deb ...

'', '' Softly, Softly'' and ''

Barlow at Large ''Barlow at Large'', later ''Barlow'', is a British police procedural television programme broadcast in the 1970s, starring Stratford Johns in the title role. Johns had previously played Barlow in the ''Z-Cars'', '' Softly, Softly'' and '' So ...

''. ''Second Verdict'' built on the formula of their 1973 series ''

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer w ...

'' in which dramatised documentary was drawn together with a discussion between the two police officers which formed the narrative. ''Second Verdict'' also allowed for some location filming and, when the case being re-appraised was within living memory, interviews with real witnesses. The episodes were: * "The

Lindbergh Kidnapping On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (born June 22, 1930), the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields, in East Am ...

" (27 May 1976) * "Who Killed the Princes in the Tower?" (3 June 1976) * "The French Bluebeard" (10 June 1976) * " Murder on the 10.27" (17 June 1976) * "

Lizzie Borden Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was charged in the murders, and despite ost ...

" (24 June 1976) * "Who Burned the Reichstag?" (1 July 1976). Although this was the last time Barlow and Watt would be seen together on British TV (and the last time Barlow would be seen at all), the Watt character would make one final appearance, in the last episode of ''

'' in September 1978.

Cast

- (DCS Charlie Barlow) *

- (DCS John Watt)

External links

* {{Z-Cars 1976 British television series debuts 1976 British television series endings 1970s British police procedural television series 1970s British television miniseries BBC television docudramas English-language television shows British television spin-offs

Cast

See also

External links