Thin Blue Line, The (BBC-1 1995-1997, Rowan Atkinson, David Haig)

Sitcom The Thin Blue Line followed Inspector Raymond Fowler as he tries to keep his unruly bunch of police officers under control. Chief amongst his officers is Sergeant Patricia Dawkins who been Fowler’s live-in lover for ten years. The other constables include Constable Gladstone (Rudolph Walker), Constable Habib (Mina Anwar) and Constable Kevin Goody (James Dreyfus).

Meanwhile CID is headed by DI Grim, who’s constantly depressing about having to spend his time dealing with hooligans, yobboes and foul-mouthed delinquents – and that’s just his CID officers! In the first season Grim was assisted by DC Kray and the second by DC Gary Boyle.

The series was created and written by Ben Elton, a self professed fan of Dad’s Army, and he tried to capture the ensemble feel of that show. Whilst his show was often very funny it didn’t quite manage to scale the heights of that iconic show.

production details
UK / BBC1 – Tiger Aspect / 14×30 minute episodes / 13 November 1995 – 23 December 1996

Writer: Ben Elton / Music: Howard Goodall / Executive Producer: Peter Bennett-Jones / Producers: Geoff Perkins, Ben Elton

cast
ROWAN ATKINSON as Insp Raymond Fowler
SERENA EVANS as Sgt Dawkins
JAMES DREYFUS as PC Goody
MINA ANWAR as PC Habib
DAVID HAIG as Det Insp Grim
RUDOLPH WALKER as PC Gladstone
KEVIN ALLEN as Detective Constable Kray (season 1)
MARK ADDY as Detective Constable Gary Boyle (season 2)

THE EPISODES
SEASON ONE 13 November – 26 December 1995
1. THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY PRESENT (13 Nov 95)
2. FIRE AND TERROR (20 Nov 95)
3. HONEY TRAP (27 Nov 95)
4. RAG WEEK (4 Dec 95)
5. NIGHT SHIFT (11 Dec 95)
6. KIDS TODAY (18 Dec 95)
7. YULETIDE SPIRIT (26 Dec 95)

SEASON TWO 14 November – 23 December 1996
1. COURT IN THE ACT (14 Nov 96)
2. ISM ISM ISM (21 Nov 96)
3. FLY ON THE WALL (28 Nov 96)
4. ALTERNATIVE CULTURE (5 Dec 96)
5. COME ON YOU BLUES (12 Dec 96)
6. ROAD RAGE (19 Dec 96)
7. THE GREEN EYED MONSTER (23 Dec 96)