The appeal to people in the Hemel Hempstead area comes after the author discovered pictures of the series being filmed in Hemel in our local history section.

Hemel was chosen for several episodes as it was a new town, and the series was set in New Town

The man compiling the book, David Blunt told us: "The books we're currently working on cover the entire run of "Z Cars", plus the various spin-off series, "Softly Softly", "Barlow at Large", etc. Over
a thousand hours of Drama programmes from the days of Live TV in 1962
through to 1978.

"The first book, covering the first five years of ZC is currently in the latter stages of completion. We've interviewed virtually all the surviving regular cast, writers and production staff over a number of years, and are
accessing the contemporary BBC paperwork and scripts to ensure that the background information is as accurate as possible.

"Sadly, around 400 episodes of "Z Cars" and 85 of the first 120 "Softly Softly" episodes have been wiped by the BBC, so only some photographs, scripts and fading memories survive for what was frequently ground-breaking
drama television rarely seen since.

"With the 45th anniversary of the start of Z Cars" coming up in January 2007, the book will act as a tribute to those people who worked on the series, and as a permanent record to those who thought that gritty police drama started
with "The Sweeney". "Z Cars" did it first, and did it live."

YOUR MEMORIES:

Lesley Cheale in Cyprus tells us: "I was reading your history piece of Z Cars filming, I remember that they were going to use our house in Briery Way but the side entrance was not what they wanted so they used a house 3 down from us. They wanted people to stand at a bus stop outside our house, I was about 7yrs, with out neighbours. I will never forget this even though I am hundreds of miles away. I was then known as Lesley Castle. "


Name: Alan French
Address:Bullace Close
Hemel Hempstead Herts.
Views: Regarding the location setting in Bank Court for Z Cars. It is fact that this incident is not the only association that Hemel Hempstead has with this programme or its spin offs.

According to your report, someone is writing a book about this series, so the following may be of interest to the author, if they are not already acquainted with the following set of information.

During the series, Inspector Barlow was portrayed by Stratford Johns. Both he and his wife were invited to a dinner hosted by the then Hemel Hempstead Operatic Society.

Something to do with his visit,went wrong on the night. As a result, I gather the actor turned up late and then left.

During the spin off series, Softly Softly and possibly Task Force, Shendish House was used as the police station.By now, we were well into the 1960's. Shendish House was at the time the sports and social club for the employees of John Dickinson & Co. Ltd. This company had either merged, or was in the process of merging with The Robinson Group. The background for the titles relating to one of these spin offs, I gather, was filmed from the Dickinson Robinson building in Bristol. Trusting this information is useful.

Name: Linda Krause
Address: Leicester Forest East Leicester
Views: My Mother was shopping in Bridge Street, in Hemel when Z cars was being filmed, she was with my small cousin and as she came out of the Butchers which used to there she was just in shot of the cameras she got quite a few autographs on a packet of woodbine cigerettes she came home very excited that day and as l was only young at the time we waited for the epiode to be shown


Name: David Felmingham
Address: Turners Road South
Luton
Views: Hi your search for people who remember the filming of Z Cars in the town,I remember it well as a friend and my self actualy appeared in the episode. As young boys then we were totaly unaware that filming was taking place and my friend decided to phone his dad to see if he would pick us up and take us back home to boxmoor where we both lived.

At the time,I remember a crowd across the road from us near the Market (oposite the water gardens) and seeing a boom and camera's. There was a lady in the phone box that we were waiting to use ,she was an actress and the phone box was a prop.

As in the 1960's money was tight they continued the shoot and only days later there we were on the tv,so that was my 15 minutes of fame happy day,s

Name|: Tony Rogers
Address: Ebberns road
Hemel Hempstead Herts
Views: I well remember this episode of Z Cars being filmed in bank court. I was one of a small crowd and I chatted to the Director of Photography when he wasn't organising the lights, it was a very cold day and he handed me a steaming cup of coffee that was heavily laced with rum, evidently this was standard issue for BBC crews.

They overun their time in bank court and had to shoot another scene in Briery Way and I went there with the sound crew. As the light was fading fast they used a "Sun Gun" as the only form of lighting. The double decker bus they had intended to use

And more memories came into our office

Pat with the stars

Former Gazette reporter Pat Jones was quick to come down to our offices with photographs taken when she was covering the location filming in Bank Court.

Pat, now named Edhouse, was only 18 at the time, but she still lives locally, in Long John, Bennetts End.
She tells us how excited she was at meeting the stars during filming. “After all they were the Coronation Street or EastEnders of the day,” she said.

And Derek Howard, of St Agnells Lane, Hemel Hempstead rang to tell us he was a policeman at the time of the filming.

He remembered the occasion well and had a picture of himself and a colleague taken in Bank Court at the time.
The statue in Bank Court originally wore a fig leaf but it was regularly stolen.

“We  had been attending a bank raid at the time. We just posed for the picture with Jeremy Kemp. Later they sent us a copy - it was by Graphics Photos of Watford.

“I was the town centre man in those days. We used to walk everywhere. And often the film people came up to the nick to the canteen when they had finished filming.”
Now retired, he remembers his colleague on the day as another PC, Ken Godfrey who is also retired.