Believe it or not. The BBC used to be good. They were not always a virtue signalling leftist shit pump who can be guaranteed to back any cause that is anti-British or to denigrate the nation’s culture. The BBC were once an organisation that produced inventive and challenging drama and did stuff that the commercial channels (or rather commercial channel at this time) might not have taken a punt on. Yes it produced an awful lot of dross when trying out new stuff and new writers and new formats, but it also produced some real gems. Because the BBC did not have to rely on advertising revenue to fund its programme making it could take risks, sometimes these risks didn’t pay off but sometimes, as with something like Monty Python, they were a massive success.

I’ve been digging around in BBC stuff, where I can find it that is, that was produced between the late fifties through to the late seventies and some of it has really stood the test of time. One example of something that has lasted is this episode of the police procedural Z Cars entitled ‘People’s Property’ which was transmitted in May 1962.

This episode is centred around two young boys one from a family that is obviously in distress financially and in its interpersonal relationships. The two boys come to the attention of the police because of their activities and this episode follows the officers at the fictional Newtown police station set in the equally fictional area of Newtown that is in the North West of England. What’s fascinating about this particular episode is not just the incredibly well done dialogue heavy writing but also how it shows the clash between traditionalism and modernity. On this last matter here’s some pretty good character twists such as characters who you would expect to be traditionalists turn out not to be but who are reacting to what they see as the failed policies of the past.

I will not write any more about this episode as I don’t want to give too many spoilers but what I will say is that it’s well worth watching. I will however warn you that this is not the best possible print of this broadcast. It has been cleaned up a bit but it is still showing in places the heavy and stark contrasts that are produced when one analogue source is copied onto another analogue medium. However it’s worth bearing with the poor visual quality just to experience some very very good writing and for its time some quite ambitious camerawork that must have been difficult to pull off with the type of equipment available at the time.