Barlow at Large

infobox television
show_name = Barlow at Large / Barlow
format = Police procedural
runtime = 50 minutes
creator = Troy Kennedy Martin, Elwyn Jones
starring = Stratford Johns
Norman Comer
Neil Stacy
Derek Newark
country = UK
network = BBC
first_aired = 15 September 1971
last_aired = 26 February 1975
num_episodes = 29

Johns had previously played Barlow in the "Z Cars", "Softly, Softly" and "" series on BBC television during the 1960s & early 1970s. "Barlow at Large" began as a three-part self-contained spin-off from "Softly, Softly: Taskforce" in 1971 with Barlow co-opted by the home office to investigate police corruption in Wales. Johns left "Softly" for good in 1972, but returned for a further series of "Barlow at Large" in the following year, Barlow having gone on full-time secondment to the home office. This second series, rather than telling one story in serial form, as the 1971 series had, was instead ten fifty-minute episodes, each with a self-contained story (this would be the format of all subsequent series). In this series, Barlow was supported by Norman Comer as Det. Sgt Rees, who had been helpful to him during the first series. He also had to deal with the political machinations of the senior civil servant Fenton (Neil Stacy).

In 1974 the series was re-named "Barlow" and a further two series of 8 episodes each followed, introducing the character of Det. Insp. Tucker, played by Derek Newark. The final episode was transmitted in February 1975, though the Barlow character was seen again in the series "Second Verdict" in which he, along with his former "Z Cars" colleague John Watt (Frank Windsor), looked into unsolved cases and unsafe convictions from history.