| Genre: | Police procedural |
| Creator: | Phil Redmond |
| Director: | Various |
| Starring: | John Ashton Rupert Frazer Geoffrey Leesley Denis Lill Brian McCardie Helena Little Stuart Golland Jane Hazlegrove Bruce Alexander Ray Polhill Damien Walker |
| Theme Music Composer: | Steve Wright |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 2 |
| Num Episodes: | 16 |
| List Episodes: |
|
| Producer: | Phil Redmond |
| Location: | Liverpool, England |
| Cinematography: | Graham Brown |
| Runtime: | 50 minutes |
| Company: | BBC Studios |
| Channel: | BBC1 |
Waterfront Beat is a BBC television police procedural drama series, broadcast between 6 January 1990 and 20 February 1991. The series follows the work of a group of police detectives stationed in the Liverpool docks. The series was created by writer Phil Redmond, famed for his work on Channel 4 soap Brookside.[1] The series was highly regarded as the BBC's first attempt to rival The Bill, following a similar weekly format to the ITV counterpart. A total of sixteen episodes were broadcast over the course of two series. The programme featured a large ensemble cast, with John Ashton, Rupert Frazer, Geoffrey Leesley, Denis Lill and Brian McCardie leading the cast throughout both series.[2]
BBC executives stated that the series would "look at the way one non-metropolitan, urban police force comes to terms with economic regeneration by reorganising its City Division, in turn creating a separate Inner City Waterfront Division", and that the series would explore "aspects of police work not normally featured and disabuse us of the notion that TV crime is always cracked in 50 minutes."[3] However, despite initial acclaim, Waterfront Beat was axed after just two series. The series has never officially been released on DVD.[4]