Target

Target was developed as the BBC's answer to ITV's popular series The Sweeney, aiming to bring similar gritty police action drama to BBC1.

The series was originally developed under the title 'Hackett' by former Z-Cars script editor Graham Williams, but he was asked to swap roles with outgoing Doctor Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe, who then renamed the show Target.

Philip Hinchcliffe persuaded the BBC to shoot the series entirely on film, breaking from the era's usual practice of mixing video studio scenes with filmed location work.

The show was heavily criticised for its violence, with the BBC's Director of Programmes Alasdair Milne reportedly receiving 5,000 letters of complaint from Mary Whitehouse's League of Light.

The series' release coincided with the publication of the Belson Report on television violence and adolescent boys, leading the first series to be curtailed and the second series to tone down its violence.

When Robert Banks Stewart briefly took over as producer for a planned third series, he wanted James Bolam as the new lead, but Bolam chose to finish one final series of When the Boat Comes In instead.

Lead actor Patrick Mower said he made it a personal policy never to appear in a series for more than two years, wanting to avoid the fate of The Professionals' Lewis Collins, who became almost permanently typecast as an action hero.

After considering scrapping Target for a new show, producer Robert Banks Stewart went on to devise the private eye drama Shoestring instead.

Although the police used Ford Cortinas and Granadas like in The Sweeney, lead character Hackett's personal car featured in several episodes was a 1969 Mercury Cougar.

Two novels based on the series were published, adapted from scripts by writers Michael Feeney Callan and Simon Masters so the BBC could market tie-in books.