''Juliet Bravo'' is a

British television Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transm ...

police procedural The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. The lead role of Inspector Jean Darblay was played by Stephanie Turner in series 1 to 3, but in series 4 to 6 she was replaced by

Anna Carteret Anna Carteret (born 11 December 1942) is a British stage and screen actress. Biography Carteret was born as Annabelle S. Wilkinson on 11 December 1942 in Bangalore, British India, the daughter of Peter John Wilkinson and his wife Patricia Car ...

for the role of Inspector Kate Longton. Carteret remained with the series until its conclusion in 1985. The series was devised by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had already enjoyed success with another police drama series, '' The Sweeney''. Although the genre of police dramas was well-established on British television by 1980, ''Juliet Bravo'' and

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

's ''

The Gentle Touch ''The Gentle Touch'' is a British police procedural drama series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which began on 11 April 1980 and ran until 24 November 1984. The series is notable for being the first British series to feature a fema ...

'', which started a few months earlier, were the first series that saw female officers as lead characters, having to fight both crime and the prejudice of male colleagues. Kennedy Martin based the character of Jean Darblay on a real female police inspector, Wynne Darwin.

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, trading as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through a join ...

’s Drama channel reran all six series in 2018 and again in early 2019. The series had previously been repeated in its entirety on the cable and satellite channel UK Gold from the launch in 1992 until 2001. Bacup Police Station - geograph

Filming locations

Studio scenes for the first two series were recorded at

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC), formerly known as BBC Television Centre, is a building complex in White City, London, White City, West London, which was the headquarters of BBC Television from 1960 to 2013, when BBC Television moved to Broadcasting H ...

, Wood Lane in London. From the third series onward, studio scenes were recorded at the BBC's

Pebble Mill Studios Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne ...

in Birmingham. Exterior scenes were filmed in the

towns of

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. The town is northeast of Nelson, Lancashire, Nelson, northeast of Burnley and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. The ...

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, east ...

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

, Simonstone and

Read Read or READ may refer to: Computing * Read (computer), to retrieve data from a storage device * Read (system call), a low-level IO function on a file descriptor in a computer * Read (Unix), a command in Unix operating systems Places * Read, L ...

. Other locations around east

, West Yorkshire such as

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax. In 2011, it had a popul ...

and the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

(

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It had a population of 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham and southeas ...

and

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

) were also used. The exterior of Hartley Police Station seen throughout the entire series run was in fact the real-life police station on Bank Street in the town of Bacup. When the station closed in 2011, a campaign was mounted by fans of the series to save it from demolition and turn it into a museum dedicated to the series' legacy. In 2012 it was purchased by a local developer and turned into 6 new flats.

Merchandise

All six series of ''Juliet Bravo'' have been released on DVD by 2, Entertain/Cinema Club. Series 1 was released on 12 September 2005. Series 2 was released on 14 November 2005. Series 3 was released on 20 February 2006. Series 4 was released on 22 May 2006. Series 5 was released on 14 August 2006. Series 6 remained unreleased for over two years after the release of Series 5, until a petition created by fans of the series was delivered to 2, Entertain, requesting the sixth and final series be released on DVD. Series 6 was eventually released on 29 September 2008. Series 1 & 2 have also both been released on Region 4 DVD in Australia. Aside from the DVD releases, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

licensed three TV tie-in novelisations of the show. These were authored by Mollie Hardwick. The first two were published by

Pan Books Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. History Pan Books began as an indepe ...

. ''Juliet Bravo 1'' (1980) was a novelisation of the first series episodes ''Shot Gun'', ''Fraudulently Uttered'', ''The Draughtsman'', ''The Runner'' and ''Family Unit''. ''Juliet Bravo 2'' (1980) was a novelisation of the first series episodes ''Cages'', ''The One Who Got Away'', ''Relief'' and ''The Anastasia Syndrome''. A third novel was published by

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Consumer Publishing and BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidia ...

. ''Calling Juliet Bravo: New Arrivals'' (1981) was a novelisation of the second series episode ''New Arrivals'' and the third series episode ''Cause For Complaint''. A script book, containing five TV scripts from the first series compiled by Alison Leake, was issued by Longman Imprint Books in February 1983. The theme tune was also released on 7-inch vinyl via BBC Records in 1980.

Cast

Main

* Stephanie Turner as Inspector Jean Darblay (Series 1–3) *

as Inspector Kate Longton (Series 4–6) *

David Ellison David Ellison (born January 9, 1983) is an American film producer, former actor, and the founder and CEO of Skydance Media. He is the son of multibillionaire and Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison. Early life and education David Ellis ...

as Sergeant Joseph Beck * Noel Collins as Sergeant George Parrish * David Hargreaves as Tom Darblay (Series 1–3) *

Tony Caunter Anthony Patrick Caunter (born 22 September 1937) is a retired English actor best known for his roles as Jack Shepherd in the Yorkshire Television sitcom '' Queenie's Castle'' (1970–72), DCI Jim Logan in the first three seasons of ''Juliet Bra ...

as DCI Jim Logan (Series 1–3) *

Edward Peel Edward Peel is an English television and stage actor. He was described by ''The Times'' in 2010 as a "veteran star of TV dramas" and "a familiar face on television for the past 40 years". Early life and education Peel trained as an actor at R ...

as DCI Mark Perrin (Series 4–6) * Mark Drewry as PC Roland Bentley (Series 1) * Gerard Kelly as PC David Gallagher (Series 2) * David Straun as PC Martin Helmshore (Series 3) * C.J. Allen as PC Brian Kelleher (Series 4–6) * Mark Botham as PC Danny Sparks (Series 4–6) * Tom Georgeson as John Holden (Series 4)

Recurring

* John Ringham as Divisional Supt. Lake (Series 1) * Geoffrey Larder as DS Dave Melchett (Series 1) * Wendy Allnutt as Jennie Randall (Series 1) * Martyn Hesford as PC Ian Skelton (Series 1–2) * James Grout as Divisional Supt. Albert Hallam (Series 2) * Lloyd McGuire as DS Bernie Duckworth (Series 2 & 4) * David Gillies as PC Peter Sims (Series 3) * Sebastian Abineri as DS Dick Maltby (Series 4–6) * Julie Foulds as WPC Sheila Saunders (Series 6)

Guest appearances

A number of famous names, either of the time or of the future, appeared in the show. They included: David Ryall,

Kevin Whately Kevin Whately OBE (born 6 February 1951) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Neville "Nev" Hope in the comedy drama ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''; Robert "Robbie" Lewis in the British crime drama ''Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000) ...

, Eric Richard,

Jeff Rawle Jeffrey Alan Rawle (born 20 July 1951) is a British actor from Birmingham, England. He is known for playing Billy in ''Billy Liar (TV series), Billy Liar'' (1973–1974), and for portraying George Dent in the news-gathering sitcom ''Drop the Dea ...

, Jean Boht, Patricia Hayes,

Peter Jeffrey Peter Jeffrey (18 April 1929 – 25 December 1999) was an English actor. Starting his performing career on stage, he later portrayed many roles in television and film. Early life Jeffrey was born in Bristol, the son of Florence Alice (née ...

, Peter Martin,

Brenda Fricker Brenda Fricker (born 17 February 1945) is an Irish actress, whose career has spanned six decades on stage and screen. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Awar ...

, David Daker,

Andrew Burt Andrew Thomas Hutchison Burt (23 May 1945 – 16 November 2018) was a British actor, voiceover artist, and counsellor. Early life and education Andrew Burt was born on 23 May 1945 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to Hutchison B ...

, Frances White,

Malcolm Terris Malcolm Hope Terris (11 January 1941 – 6 June 2020) was an English actor. He acted in many television programmes, including possibly his best-known role as Matt Headley in ''When the Boat Comes In'', a popular 1970s series. His film career ...

Joe Gladwin Joseph Gladwin (22 January 1906 – 11 March 1987) was an English actor, best known for his roles as Fred Jackson in Coronation Street, Stan Hardman in '' Nearest and Dearest'', and Wally Batty in the world's longest-running sitcom, ''Last o ...

Sara Sugarman Sara Sugarman (born 13 October 1962) is a Welsh actress and filmmaker whose work includes Walt Disney Pictures, Disney's ''Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen'' (2004) and ''Very Annie Mary'' (2001). She has also appeared in films including ''D ...

Tenniel Evans Walter Tenniel Evans (17 May 1926 – 10 June 2009) was a British actor. Family Walter Tenniel Evans was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His middle name derived from the illustrator Sir John Tenniel, a distant relation.Nadim Sawalha Nadim Joakim Sawalha () (born 9 September 1935) is a Jordanian-British actor. He has made over 100 appearances in film and television, in a career spanning more than 40 years, which include two James Bond films, '' The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1977) ...

, Jack Smethurst,

John Savident John Frederick Joseph Savident (21 January 1938 – 21 February 2024) was a British actor, known for his numerous television roles, including his portrayal of Fred Elliott in the soap opera ''Coronation Street'' from 1994 to 2006. He was also ...

William Gaunt William Charles Anthony Gaunt (born 3 April 1937 in Pudsey, West Riding of Yorkshire) is an English actor. He became widely known for television roles such as Richard Barrett in ''The Champions'' (1968–1969), Arthur Crabtree in '' No Place ...

Colin Baker Colin Charles Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor. He played Paul Merroney in the BBC television drama series ''The Brothers (1972 TV series), The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the Sixth Doctor, sixth incarnation of The Doctor (Do ...

Kenneth Waller Kenneth Waller (5 November 1927 – 28 January 2000) was an English actor. He was known for portraying Grandad in ''Bread'' and Old Mr. Grace in ''Are You Being Served?'' Early life Kenneth Waller was born in Lowerhouses Huddersfield, Yorks ...

, Rita May,

Stephen Yardley Stephen Yardley (born 24 March 1942) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1963, he became known for his many roles on UK television between 1964 and 2004. Career In the mid-1960s, Yardley was a perm ...

John Woodvine John Woodvine (born 21 July 1929) is an English actor who has appeared in more than 70 theatre productions, as well as a similar number of television and film roles. Early life Woodvine was born in South Shields, the son of Rose (née Kelly) ...

Stephen McGann Stephen Vincent McGann (born 2 February 1963) is an English actor, best known for portraying Physician, Dr Patrick Turner in the BBC One medical period drama series ''Call the Midwife''. He is one of a family of acting brothers, the others bei ...

, Leslie Schofield, Alan Parnaby,

Shirley Stelfox Shirley Rosemary Stelfox (11 April 1941 – 7 December 2015) was a British actress, known for her portrayal of the character Edna Birch, a moralising busybody in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'', and as Rose, the vampy sister of the snobby an ...

Maggie Ollerenshaw Margaret Ollerenshaw (born 8 October 1949) is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Mavis in the BBC sitcom ''Open All Hours'' (1981–1982) and its sequel ''Still Open All Hours'' (2013–2019). Her other television credits ...

, John Quarmby,

Neil Morrissey Neil Anthony Morrissey (born 4 July 1962) is an English actor, businessman, narrator, and television presenter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Rocky in ''Boon (TV series), Boon'', and Tony in ''Men Behaving Badly''. Other notable acti ...

, Del Henney, Iain Cuthbertson, Leslie Sands,

Hilda Braid Hilda Braid (3 March 1929 – 6 November 2007) was an English actress who had a long career on British television. She became well known in her later years for playing Victoria "Nana" Moon on the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders''. Early life ...

Melanie Hill Melanie Jane Hill is a British actress, known for playing Hazel Redfern in ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' (1985–1986), Aveline in ''Bread'' (1989–1991), Rita Dolan in Kay Mellor drama '' Playing the Field'' (1998–2002), Maggie Budgen in the BB ...

John Challis John Spurley Challis (16 August 1942 – 17 September 2021) was an English actor. He had an extensive theatre and television career but is best known for portraying Boycie, Terrance Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce in the long-running BBC Television sitcom ...

, Paul Chapman, Simon Williams, Christopher Ettridge, George Irving, Bill Wallis,

Carolyn Pickles Carolyn Pickles (born 8 February 1952) is a British actress from Halifax, England, who has appeared in West End theatre and on British television. She is known for playing DCI Kim Reid in ''The Bill'' and Shelley Williams in ''Emmerdale''. ...

, Jonathan Newth,

Kenneth Cope Kenneth Charles Cope (14 April 1931 – 11 September 2024) was an English actor and scriptwriter. He was best known for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in '' Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'', Jed Stone in ''Coronation Street,'' Ray Hilton in '' ...

, Sally Whittaker, Karl Howman,

Diana Coupland Betty Diana Coupland (5 March 1928 – 10 November 2006), billed as Diana Coupland, was an English actress and singer, best remembered for her role, which she played from 1971 to 1976, in the sitcom '' Bless This House'', as Jean Abbott, wife ...

, Martin Jarvis,

Rosalind Ayres Rosalind Ayres (born 7 December 1946) is an English actress, director and producer. Active since 1970, Ayres is well known for her role in the 1997 film ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'', in which she played Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon. Her husband, ...

Yvette Fielding Yvette Paula Fielding (born 23 September 1968) is an English television presenter, producer, actress, writer and paranormal investigator. In 1987, aged 18, she became the youngest presenter on the BBC television programme '' Blue Peter''. With h ...

, Bert Parnaby, Robert Glenister, Mona Hammond, Steve Hodson, Danny O'Dea and Bernard Kay,

Patsy Rowlands Patricia Amy Rowlands (19 January 1931 – 22 January 2005) was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the ''Carry On'' films series, as Betty Lewis in the ITV Thames sitcom '' Bless This House'', and as Alice Meredith ...

, Kenneth Farrington

Episodes

Series 1 (1980)

Series 2 (1981)

Series 3 (1982)

Series 4 (1983)

Series 5 (1984)

Series 6 (1985)

References

External links

* *{{Screenonline TV title, id=976585 1980 British television series debuts 1985 British television series endings 1980s British crime drama television series 1980s British police procedural television series 1980s British workplace drama television series BBC crime drama television shows British English-language television shows Television shows set in Lancashire