Rewind: Starsky and Hutch

COP show Starsky & Hutch had a third wheel (and fourth, fifth and six come to that). Not Huggy Bear, the hip informant who was always ready with a tip off but never seemed to fear retribution from his shady sources.

No, it was the car. The iconic Gran Torino that was disdainfully dubbed the striped tomato by Paul Michael Glaser, who played its owner Dave Starsky but in reality had no love for the car, claiming he told his co-star David Soul he was going to do everything in his power to destroy it.

The nickname was incorporated into the series in a scornful comment by Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson.

Not the stealthiest of vehicles, they often relied on Hutch's nondescript and much abused tan Ford Galaxie for undercover work. When Soul first took delivery of his car he decided it didn't look sufficiently beat up so he and Glaser started pounding it with a sledgehammer and a crowbar.

The series ran for four years from '75 to '79. It was set in the fictional Bay City in California though neither cop was from the state. Starsky was a streetwise army veteran from Brooklyn while Hutch hailed from Minnesota.

It started out as a movie of the week with Richard Ward as Captain Dobey, before Bernie Hamilton made it his own. Producer Aaron Spelling had actually recruited Soul after seeing him playing another cop, and vigilante killer, in the Clint Eastwood film Magnum Force.

The selling point of the series was the close relationship between the pair. Both essentially single, they were each other's emotional support as well as professional partners. It was bromance with a badge.

At the time their closeness was criticised as appearing gay. In what could be viewed as a defiant response, the writers often 'had the tecs donning fey disguises to go undercover.

The cardigan-wearing Starsky (a style so popular knitting patterns were produced at the time showing people how to make it) was the more fun-loving and child-like while Hutch was the more intellectual of the two. Hutch also favoured a leather jacket, with shoulder-wide lapels, which might have had an influence on the wardrobe choice John Simm's Sam Tyler in the '70s flashback fantasy Life on Mars.

The first two series were surprisingly gritty, to the extent that Glaser reportedly asked for the violence to be toned down by the third.

The scriptwriters were not above making the characters suffer, as they got shot (Starsky), poisoned (Starsky and Hutch), pinned under a car and left for dead (Hutch). Both had girlfriends (Starsky) and an estranged wife (Hutch) killed.

In one episode, The Fix, Hutch gets forcibly hooked on heroin by one criminal. This was deemed so controversial by the BBC that they actually left it out of the series run. It was eventually broadcast by Channel Four in 1999 as part of a Starsky & Hutch night.

Starsky & Hutch was praised for being one of the first primetime shows to show black characters in a positive light.

Even though Huggy (Antonia Fargas) operated on the fringes of the law, he was regarded as honest and trustworthy by the detectives. Captain Dobey held a position of authority as their immediate boss.

The show ended after four series. Paul Michael Glaser, who actually directed the last episode in which he is the victim of a hitman, although he survives, had wanted to quit for some time.

He pursued acting and directing. He also devoted himself to raising awareness about AIDS after his first wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Airel, died when Elizabeth contracted HIV from a blood transfusion then passed it on through breast-feeding.

Soul, who had gained notoriety as a masked singer in the 60s, returned to music, scoring no 1 hits with Don't Give Up On Us and Silver Lady. Still acting, he is now a British citizen.

Both of them gamely overcame their reservations about having their work mocked by Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in the 2004 film Starsky & Hutch by accepting cameo roles.