I am a great fan of watching old British television series from my youth in the late 1950s and 1960s. I am currently viewing a DVD box set of a 1958 series made in Borehamwood called William Tell and it is fun to spot character actors who I later got to meet, as well as newcomers like Michael Caine in bit parts. Ok, it is black and white but the stories are quick and nobody mumbled as they do in some dramas these days. In those days such series were shot with 35mm cameras, but a lot of television was shot live.

Another favourite of mine in those days was a police drama series called No Hiding Place, which aired from 1959 to 1967 and had a great opening score. Alas, only a few episodes have survived. It was that long-past, gentle era of policing when we had Dr Who police boxes and constables went along their beat equipped with a whistle if needed to summon help. They also wore striped armbands to show if they were off duty or not by removing it. Now officers are not allowed to wear their uniforms on the way to and from work for fear of being targeted.

The star of No Hiding Place was Raymond Francis, and at one time his assistant was played by the late Johnny Briggs, who is best remembered now for his long running role as Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street from 1974 until 2006. Johnny once told me that Raymond sometimes had a problem on live television recalling his lines, so would paste them in a drawer when the scene required him to sit behind it and would pull out the drawer as if looking for a pen or something. On one particular occasion the prop boys had replaced his script with a note saying 'this is where you dry on air old timer'. Johnny had been warned so he covered, ad-libbing the instructions that Raymond was supposed to say to him.

Another series of that era was Dixon Of Dock Green, with an equally memorable theme tune. I had the pleasure to meet the star of that series towards the end of his life and of course I refer to the wonderful Jack Warner. He told me "I had played a copper in a film called The Blue Lamp but was killed by Dirk Bogarde. Years later I was offered this television role when my film career was declining. I was over the retirement age of a copper but accepted and it ran for many years."

He would start each episode by saying 'evening all' . Okay, it all sounds stupid today when we live in an era of assaults on police officers, knife crimes, burglars getting away with it and so on.

I spent several years in the 1980s helping the Met Police as a volunteer appropriate adult and lay visitor. I met some 'interesting' characters in police cells . As a thank you for my services I was invited to lunch at the Met training academy at Hendon as I had also been doing 'role plays' with the cadets. It was their graduation day and as I was walking towards the saluting platform for the march pass with this senior police officer a cadet fainted in front of us. We simply walked around the poor lad and in shock all I could think to say "is this what you mean by a passing out parade?" True story.

  • Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios