PC Parfitt (Mark Griffith) believes that more bookings mean quicker promotion, but his ambitions create further problems for Det. Sgt. Smith (Ewan Hooper) in ‘Reprisals’. ATV
The third series of ATV's popular police series Hunters Walk comes to ITV screens early in 1976. The original intention of the series was to show a side of police work away from the Metropolitan area on which so many police senes have concentrated in the past. The petty crimes of a close-knit community as opposed to the big city murder hunt. The majority of the time the stories would centre around a small community area where most of the police work is concentrated on keeping the peace and therefore preventing the commission of serious crimes.
The hour-long stories involve the community of Broadstone, based on the area of Rushden in Northamptonshire. The research into the series meant that it was necessary to visit the area and speak to the local people. The police were contacted and openly discussed the type of work their normal everyday life involved them in - this being closer to the truth in many cases than the police crime series often seen on television. From the start a close relationship with the police at Rushden has been necessary in order to maintain the realism of storylines and the checking of facts concerning the correct phraseology, procedure and when a policeman should or should not remove his jacket or helmet.
Realism extends to when a policeman should or should not remove his cap. Duncan Preston as PC Fred Pooley is a regular character in the series, seen here with Carole Heyman and Frederick Ridley. ATV
The first series established the characters and showed them dealing with the type of crime so common in such an area. When it came to the second series, the reaction of the characters could therefore be slightly different in so far as they knew how to deal with a situation when it arose - their knowledge of the area, where the local troublemakers gathered and the general everyday running of a rural part of the country. In fact, all the writers on the series have walked the streets of Rushden in order to create as realistic an atmosphere as possible when writing their stories. They have also full local knowledge of the area and its people.
The type of crime that takes place in Broadstone is more likely to make headlines in the local papers than find itself splashed across a national for all to see. But occasionally something out of the ordinary happens to disturb the tranquillity.
The third series introduces a running serial element based on the police at home and at work. Although it is intended to keep the same basic format with a main storyline each week, there will be a sub-plot showing the policeman with the same problems as anyone else - the fact that he too has to go home and face the traumas of his personal life.