Juliet Bravo

Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.

Programme name

Despite popular misunderstanding, there never was any character named "Juliet Bravo" in the show. The name of the show is the inspector's radio call sign, "J-B", or "Juliet Bravo" in the phonetic alphabet as practised in European NATO states. The working title of the programme employed by series creator Ian Kennedy Martin was "Inspector, Ma'am", a reference to the lead character's rank and title—a title whose use she was forced to insist upon from one of her Sergeants in the first episode of series 1, due to his preference for the informal, and possibly derogatory, "Boss". However, "Inspector, Ma'am" was dropped during filming of the first series.<!--This still doesn't explain the title. Why should "JB" be the call sign for either Jean Darbly or Kate Longton?-->

Concept

The series was devised by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had already enjoyed success with another police drama series, The Sweeney. The genre of police/crime dramas was well established on British television by 1980, however the BBC's Juliet Bravo, along with London Weekend Television's The Gentle Touch which started a few months earlier, dealt with female officers as lead characters...
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