Shot in 1977 and first broadcast the following year, Law and Order is now available again on the BBC iPlayer and it is a gripping, unmissable bit of social and linguistic history. More than that, it can be seen a precursor to series like The Wire. It offers multiple perspectives on crime, and it draws you in without rushing the storytelling. 

It caused quite fuss when it was first broadcast and some MPs called for its writer GF Newman to be arrested for sedition. It is hard to think of a higher accolade. His view was that 90% of police officers were corrupt at the time and almost all of them are shown variously taking bribes, planting evidence or beating up prisoners. The BBC’s director-general was called into the Home Office for a bollocking and was told not to allow the four episodes to be sold abroad because of the damage they would do to the reputation of the British justice system. 

Given what we know now about cops battering confessions out of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four and the collusion of the judiciary, press and politicians in the process the series has a prophetic quality. Things were so bad that Robert Mark, the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner said it was his ambition to arrest more criminals than he employed.

The structure makes a nod to Chaucer and the episodes are “A Detective’s Tale”, “A Villain’s Tale”, “A Brief’s Tale”, “A Prisoner’s Tale”. They tell the story of a crime, the investigation, the trial and time in prison.

The judge, solicitor, cops, screws and criminals are all as bent and vicious as each other in their own way. It’s as if Newman set out to show that they were all part of the same brutalising weapon of class war. This was at a time when most viewers saw prison life as source material for the series Porridge in which sternly hapless warders were outwitted every week by lovable villains.  

There is no music to tell you what you are supposed to be feeling and all the performances have an intense, natural quality. It also reminds you of how dreadful things were back then. In one scene the character has an overflowing ashtray by his bed, a habit shared by an aunt of mine and good luck if you wanted anywhere smoke free. Then there is the food!  

It’s a depiction of a London that has largely vanished now. The city’s dialects have evolved beyond recognition, you’re not given a glass of whiskey when you go into a work meeting and the food has improved. And if we are to thank Blair for anything, it’s for banning smoking in public places.