Frank Windsor is one of the best-known stalwarts of British police drama serials. having co-starred in several such productions since the 1960s. His career as a television performer started in radically different shows from those with which he was destined to become most closely associated, with appearances in the Shakespearean anthology An Age of Kings and subsequently in the science fiction series A for Andromeda, in which he played scientist Dennis Bridger. In 1962, however. he made his debut in the role with which he became virtually synonymous-that of Newtown's Detective Sergeant John Watt. As one of the crime­ busting team crewing Z Cars, Watt was right-hand man to Detective Inspector Barlow (Stratford Johns) and was often placed in the role of the "nice guy" to Stratford John's more aggressive, often bullying senior officer. The two actors formed a dynamic, absorbing partnership that survived well beyond their departure from the series in 1965.

The two stars resumed the same screen personas in their own follow-up series, Softly, Softly, a year after leaving the Newtown force. With Barlow raised to the rank of detective chief superintendent and Watt detective chief inspector, the pair continued to hunt down criminals in their "nice and nasty" partnership, though now based in the fictional region of Wyvern, which appeared to be somewhere near Bristol. Three years into the series, the pair were relocated to Thamesford Constabulary's CID Task Force, and the program itself was retitled Softly, Softly-Task Force. Barlow disappeared from the series in 1969, when he left for his own series, Barlow at Large, leaving Watt to continue the battle with new partners for another seven years.

     Barlow and Watt were brought together again in 1973, when they disinterred the case files connected with the real-life Jack the Ripper murders of the 1880s. They pored over the various theories concerning the identity of the murderer, including the possibility that he might have been a member of the royal family, but in the end even television's two most celebrated police detectives could draw no firm conclusion. Along similar lines was Second Verdict, another short series in which the two characters investigated unsolved mur­der cases from real life.

     The extent to which Windsor became linked to just one role has subsequently militated against his taking parts that would challenge public perceptions of his original persona. He has, however, appeared as a guest in supporting roles in a number of established series (including All Creatures Great and Small, Boon, and Casualty), participated in quiz shows, and also accu­mulated a number of film and stage credits.