Stryker of the Yard

Stryker of the Yard

1961 - United Kingdom

Stryker of the Yard featured "The plain clothed men of the C.I.D." the TV Times of 1964 informs us. 

The series did in fact start out as a number of early 1950s b-movies, originally made for the cinema and was distributed throughout the UK by British Lion Films. These were then cut down for US television where the 35-minute films were condensed to a 25-minute format and shown on NBC in 1957. In November 1961 the first of a series of 15 episodes was shown in some ITV regions in a late night slot. 

All the episodes were titled The Case of... starting with The Case of The Black Falcon and ending with The Case of Uncle Henry in January 1962. The series was repeated in 1964 then occasionally between 1966 and 1972 with a final complete run on Channel Television. 

Welsh actor Clifford Evans played the lead, his first major television role, before playing a major part in The Power Game, as building tycoon Caswell Bligh. He is also notable for having been among several British actors to play the character of Number Two in the sixties cult TV series The Prisoner.

Published on February 4th, 2019. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Softly Softly

Spin-off from Z Cars in which two leading detectives are seconded to the Regional Crime Squad.

Also tagged Copsonthebox

Jacks and Knaves TV series

Short police procedural series; the forerunner to the highly successful Z-Cars (and sometimes cited as the inspiration for it).

Also released in 1961

John Thaw as Inspector Morse

Arguably the world's, and certainly Britain's, finest entry in the long and distinguished history of the television/detective fiction genre.

Also tagged Police Series

Dial 999

Police series made with the cooperation of Scotland Yard, which threw a spotlight on real police methods of the time.

Also tagged Police Series

The Jo Stafford Show

Music and light entertainment show starring the 25 million plus record selling artiste

Also released in 1961

The Sweeney

Cops of Scotland Yard's Flying Squad tackle big crime in the capital city.

Also tagged Copsonthebox

Special Branch

Special division at Scotland Yard investigates high profile crimes.

Also tagged Copsonthebox

Family Solicitor

Naylor and Freeman is the name of a firm of solicitors. There are five partners and each handles a variety of cases.

Also released in 1961