Probation Officer (TV series)

Probation Officer was a British TV series that ran from 1959–1962 about probation officers. It was made by Associated Television and starred John Paul, Jessica Spencer, David Davies and John Scott. Other actors who appeared in the series include Henry Oscar, Honor Blackman, Windsor Davies and Billy Milton.

It was created by Julian Bond and was the first ever one-hour TV drama to screen on ITV. Bond spent months researching the show from real life cases.

Cast

 * John Paul as Philip Main (53 episodes, 1959-1961)
 * John Scott as	 Bert Bellman (33 episodes, 1959-1962)
 * Jessica Spencer as Maggie Weston (32 episodes, 1960-1962)
 * David Davies as Jim Blake (20 episodes, 1959-1960)
 * Henry Oscar as Magistrate (15 episodes, 1960-1961)
 * A.J. Brown as Judge (12 episodes, 1959-1961)
 * Jack Stewart as Andrew Wallace (10 episodes, 1959-1960)
 * Honor Blackman as Iris Cope (9 episodes, 1959)
 * Humphrey Heathcote as Jailer (9 episodes, 1959-1961)
 * Windsor Davies as Bill Morgan (8 episodes, 1962)
 * Bernard Brown as Stephen Ryder (8 episodes, 1961-1962)
 * Betty Hardy as Miss Randell (7 episodes, 1959)
 * John Barrett as Clerk of Court (6 episodes, 1960-1962)
 * Derek Benfield as George Cooper (1 episode, 1960)

Archive status and home media
Like many British TV series of the same vintage, the archive holdings of Probation Officer are incomplete, with approximately three-quarters of the episodes missing.

In 2017 Network DVD release "Volume One" containing twelve extant episodes from the first series (1-3, 5-8, 13-16 & 22 - #8 is missing one courtroom scene) as a three DVD boxset. No further releases followed.