Harry Hawkins heaven on YouTube

This is a plug for the British Detective Series Of The 50's / 60's / 70's YouTube channel. It has Maigret, Z Cars and Gideon's Way. Above all, it has lots of Softly Softly. It's Harry Hawkins heaven.

It even has episodes of Softly Softly from the pre Task Force days. When I listen to the theme music for those, I am a little boy in bed wishing I could stay up to watch it.

Not everyone saw Harry Hawkins as a hero. Here's Clive James writing in North Face of Soho about his days as a television critic:

My first breakthrough came when I realized that the most fascinating thing about the supposedly realistic police series Softly, Softly was the unreal frequency with which the powerfully built Inspector Harry Hawkins (played by Norman Bowler) opened and closed doors. 

In any given episode, he would open or close every door in the police station. Sometimes he would open and close the same door in rapid succession. He would leave the room just so that he could open the door, close it behind him, open it again, and come back in. He gritted his powerfully built teeth while opening and closing doors, as if opening and closing doors were a feat not just of physical strength, but of mental concentration. 

I wrote all this down in my column, giving him the nickname Harry the Hawk.

Now read Kingsley Amis wrote an episode of Softly Softly: Task Force and it was about his relationship with his son Martin.