First broadcast: 1967-75 in the UK and US
Starring: Raymond Burr, Don Galloway, Don Mitchell
Episodes: 195
The low-down: Chief Detective Robert T Ironside (Burr) was paralysed when a would-be killer’s bullet cut his spinal cord.
He is aided in his fight against crime in San Francisco by Sergeant Ed Brown (Galloway), officer Eve Whitfield (Anderson) and Mark Sanger (Mitchell).
Sanger drives his customised van equipped with a tape recorder, mobile phone and hydraulic lift.
Burr was so convincing in the role that viewers wrongly thought he was paraplegic in real life. They enjoyed the fact that he used his intelligence and initiative to solve crimes and acted as a mentor to his bodyguard Sanger.
It was originally intended as a one-off TV movie but Burr impressed so much in the role that US network NBC and Universal TV backed it for eight years.
Best moments: Former tearaway Mark Sanger went on to graduate in law at the start of the 1974 season and got married.
Trivia: A very young and fresh faced Harrison Ford appeared in Ironside.
Raymond Burr had personal experience of injury having been wounded in the Second World War.
Quincy Jones, the composer of the show’s famous theme tune, appeared in an episode.
The show was known as A Man Called Ironside in the UK, but called simply Ironside in the US.
