By way of clarifying the enigmatic title, the backstory in the series' opening episode informs us that when burglar William "Spider" Scott emerged from prison he knew something about himself that he had been unaware of before. His body chemistry bore an extra male chromosome. The normal chromosome structure is known as XY, but Scott was an XYY man, which often marks a genetic compulsion toward crime. 

     This short-lived cops-crooks-spies series had its antecedents in the 1960s British espionage-escapist genre of such series as The Avengers, The Man in Room 17 (ITV, 1965-66), and The Corridor People (ITV, 1966). It would have passed by without great interest if not for the presence of a secondary character, Scott's sinister police adversary, Sergeant George Bul­ man, a tough bullying cop determined to nail him as a common criminal. Rather surprisingly, the obnoxious Bulman (with a penchant for constantly wearing wool gloves) became something of an overnight favorite with both viewers and critics. Perhaps it was because Bulman was clearly the most interesting character in the series and was someone the viewer could associate with amid the complex, serialized plotting. The craft in developing the characterization belonged to actor Don Henderson, a former Royal Shakespeare Company player who had appeared in such television productions as Warship (BBC, 1973-77; in which he was a regular), Poldark, Ripping Yarns, and The Onedin Line before being signed by Granada for The XYY Man.

     In view of the Bulman character's sudden popularity, XYY Man producers Granada Television decided to develop a completely new series based around this most unexpected of characters. The police drama Strangers saw Detective Sergeant Bulman and his colleague Detective Constable Willis (actor Dennis Blanch continuing his role from the previous series) transferred from London's Metropolitan Police to a northern city as part of a new racket-busting squad. Bulman was made noticeably less menacing here and was provided with a set of characteristic peculiarities: he always wore a pair of worn string gloves (something of a carryover from The XYY Man). carried a plastic carrier-bag stuffed with Open University papers, constantly used a nasal inhaler, and was often given to literary quotations and classical allusions.

     At a time when tough, violent  British  cop  series such as The Sweeney (ITV, 1975-78) and Target (BBC, 1977-78) had reached the peak of their popularity. Strangers, as a slightly less aggressive alterna­tive, presented a singular police  detective  drama,  full of quirky, often humorous characters and colorful dialogue ("Johnny thinks you are as genuine as a nun in a tartan hat"), and taking an unorthodox  approach  to its storylines . Midway through the series, Bulman was promoted to the rank of detective  chief  inspector  and his energetic Inter-City Squad, as they were known, fought crime around different parts of Britain, spanning the underworld milieus from London to Edinburgh.

     While producer Richard Everitt (who had also produced Man in Room 17 and Corridor People) was responsible for the overall style and visual texture  of Strangers, at times employing some very unusual camera angles for a prime-time British television series (which was also a visual characteristic of The XYY Man), it was Murray Smith, the principal author of the scripts, who fashioned the offbeat, scruffy Bulman character into a figure attaining cult status. However, much of the credit for the character's popularity and celebrity was due still to Henderson's delightfully idiosyncratic performance.

     Henderson and Bulman returned in 1985,  this time  in his own series, Bulman. The character had  retired from the police force and had established his  own south London antiques-cum-junk shop as a repairer of antique clocks. Much to his  reluctance,  he  is  coerced by new colleague Lucy  McGinty  (Siobhan  Redmond}, a university dropout-turned-criminologist, to try his hand at the private detective business. Granada Televi­sion, hoping that the character  was  still  something  of an appealing enigma, decided to extend Bulman's eccentricities into virtual caricature. Acquiring now the affectionate nickname "Old GBH" (for Grievous  Bodily Harm) and sporting an ankle-length wool scarf, he also wears a t-shirt bearing a head of Shakespeare and the slogan “Will Power.”

     While the first series of Bulman (13 episodes) en­joyed the interest of observing the outlandish character as, basically, one-half of a male - female private eye team, the program contributed very little to the small­ screen gumshoe genre. Inexplicably, the second series was not broadcast until some two years later and, of an anticipated 13-episode run, only seven stories were transmitted. Despite the acceptable ratings (by U. K. standards) and with an average of 14 million viewers, Granada Television had lost interest in  Bulman  and was now focusing its production energies (and budgets) on the drug-running  thriller  serial  Floodtide (ITV, 1987 - 88) and the comedy-drama series Small World (ITV, 1988).

     Nevertheless,  George  Bulman  remains  one  of   the few fascinating British television characters to  have spanned three different  series.  From  his  first  appearance in The XYY Man as  the  grim  detective sergeant  to the chief  inspector  of  the  crime-busting  unit  in Strangers, and finally as eccentric private investigator Bulman, Don Henderson's  quirky  character  creation was hailed as a national  TV  favorite.  At  the  height  of his  fame  there  were  fan  clubs  and  fanzines  idolizing the character, and even a pop  song  was  written  about him. Henderson himself recorded  a  song  called "Strangers" in 1982.