Dixon of Dock Green (TV Series) Sounds (1974) User Reviews

Not a whodunnit, more a wheredunnit.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 30 June 2022]

A woman is killed as she tries to get a message to The Police, leaving behind a scared five year old daughter.

First off, it's so easy to romanticise about life back in 1974, very different, you see a simpler life as it were, the fabulous cars, less obesity, less junk food, but one thing I'd never give up, today's technology, can you imagine trying to make a story like this in this day and age, we have almost instant location ID.

It's such an unusual episode, I thought instantly that the focus would be on the hunt for the killer, but in fact it's more a case of where's the body.

It is gentle, we don't see any violence, we're not subjected to any of the unpleasantness.

The accent of Richard Parry's Erickson was quite funny, maybe the boat veered off course somewhere between Norway and Namibia, that accent would have been perfect for Allo Allo.

Overall, it's a good watch, 7/10.

Sounds

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 12 May 2024]

By this time the era of the all filmed episodes was over. We are back to the police station scenes in Dock Green. All the interior scenes are shot in video.

The exterior scenes are on 16mm film. Video cameras were still too cumbersome for outdoor location shooting.

The return of the police station scenes might have been due to budget cuts. Also to accommodate Jack Warner's age and health.

The police receive an urgent phone call. A small girl tells them that her mother has had an accident and she then puts the phone down.

Sergeant Dixon is sure that the child might be in danger and her mother has been attacked. Without a phone trace. They only have got the background noise to pinpoint the location.

A sound expert is brought in. They could hear a ship's horn and later the noise of a printing machine.

The story is reminiscent of these weekly American cop shows. The story where the police need to find a place solely in the background sounds and it is a race against time.

Although this story morphs into the issue of domestic violence. The injured woman was avoiding her husband. That too goes to the roots of Dixon of Dock Green under creator Ted Willis. Where it would often deal with social issues.