The Cops

The Cops is a British television police procedural drama series created by Jimmy Gardner, Robert Jones, and Anita J. Pandolfo, that first broadcast on BBC Two on 19 October 1998. Produced by World Productions, the series follows the lives of one shift of uniform officers based at Christie Road Police Station in the fictional town of Stanton, Greater Manchester. Billed as another attempt by the BBC to rival The Bill, the series was notable for its documentary-style camerawork and uncompromising portrayal of the police force. Although the series featured a number of notable actors across three series, Katy Cavanagh, Rob Dixon, and John Henshaw remained as the principal cast throughout. The series was primarily filmed in Bolton, Greater Manchester. The first series was so controversial in its depiction of the police force that official police advice was withdrawn before the second series went into production. A total of twenty-four episodes were broadcast across three series, although the third series saw a slight change in the series format, featuring three two-part episodes each loosely tied together with an ongoing story arc. Although the second series attracted strong viewing figures and critical acclaim, resulting in the commission of a third series, creator Robert Jones later confirmed that the third series was written as a way of 'bringing The Cops to a close', with the final episode broadcast on 11 April 2001. The first series was released on VHS on 24 January 2000, available as four individual volumes or as a complete box set. Both the second and third series remain commercially unreleased. All three series received a single re-run on UKTV Drama in the early 2000s, although have not been repeated since. Reception The programme won back-to-back British Academy Television Awards in the Best Drama Series category in 1999 and 2000, and was nominated for a third time in 2001, narrowly losing out to Clocking Off. Gordon Beverage, writing for the official 2000 BAFTA magazine, wrote; "All it took was a line of coke and the nation was hooked. It was a masterstroke from one of British television’s most successful directors, but then that’s what we’ve come to expect from Tony Garnett."