Z-Cars Creator Dies

 

Troy Kennedy Martin, the creator of Iconic Police series Z-Cars, has passed away at the age of 77. Aside from writing and creating the iconic BBC cop-series Kennedy also wrote The Italian Job, Edge of Darkness and Reilly, Ace of Spades.

Novelist, television and film writer Troy Martin Kennedy has passed away at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer. The writer is probably best known for creating and writing the iconic BBC cop-drama series Z-Cars. The police drama was set in Liverpool and ran for 15 years and also spawned spin-off series, Softly Softly. Despite its long run on the BBC Kennedy was only involved in the first two seasons of the drama. The BBC originally axed it before reviving it several years later for which Kennedy was not involved with.

 

Following Z-Cars Kennedy moved into script-writing for films writing the screen-plays for The Italian Job, The Jerusalem Film and Kelly’s Heroes. Kennedy also wrote the screen-play for Sweeney 2 which was based on the popular television series which was created by his brother, Ian Kennedy Martin. Later screen-plays included co-writing Red Heat and Red Dust. In the 1980s he returned to television writing working on shows such as Edge of Darkness, Reilly Ace of Spades and adapting Bravo Two Zero for BBC television.