"Good evening all"
Sergeant George Dixon (first words of each episode)
Dixon of Dock Green was a long-running
Police Procedural from
The BBC. It ran from 1955 to 1976. Set in the fictional Dock Green police station and area of London, the series focused on Sgt. George Dixon,
Old Fashioned Copper in every sense of the word that doesn't involve
Gene Hunt and
The Sweeney-style shenanigans. In short: a British Bobby.
Although it occasionally dealt with corruption and
"bent coppers", the portrayal of the police was overwhelmingly sympathetic (and the criminals usually caught and 'banged up'). This niceness left the show open to criticism and its supremacy as top UK cop show was eventually challenged by the altogether grittier
ZCars and downright violent
The Sweeney.
A key feature of the show was the
Framing Device of an opening to-camera narration by Dixon which always began, "Good evening, all," (shortened in popular usage to "Evening, all,") and a closing narration-cum-homily which nearly always ended, "Goodnight, all."
The character of George Dixon was originally encountered in the 1950 movie
The Blue Lamp, in which he was shot to death (by Dirk Bogarde's young tough). The final moments of the
Ashes to Ashes finale (after the end credits have rolled) feature a Dixon homily,
so a show in which the coppers were in afterlife limbo paid homage to a show that brought a copper back from the dead.
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