CJM CRDfiNALJUSnCEMAITEKS CRIMINAL USE OF THE CLICHE

TV's missed opportunities Juvenile crime is, of Professional TV reviewer and broad- caster Victor Lewis-Smith has a reputa- course, a serious issue, tion for praise where praise is due and and one that seems to hard criticism tempered with humour where a programme falls short of its offer a problem for every promise. solution. On 22nd March this year, ITV broad- cast a World in Action documentary they learn from their cell mates how to be entitled Britain's Untouchables. This better criminals; let them go, and they promised to be an important programme carry on doing it anyway, birch them, dealing with rising public concern over and someone, somewhere, gets an erec- juvenile crime. Victor Lewis-Smith's re- pressure soaring in the nursing homes of tion. view of this programme, originally pub- Eastbourne. Whatever the answer might be, this lished in the Evening Standard on Tues- We had it all. Fifteen-year-old feeble programme was quite unable to day 23rd March 1993* speaks volumes drunken robbers defecating in bedrooms, come to terms with its subject matter, regarding the media's representation of sheds broken into, joyriders, ramraiders, and the scene where the local Cardiff crime in general as well as the specific suspected assault, affray, drug dealing, constabulary apprehended some local role of documentary programmes such and even illegal possession of strimmers. ruffians proved to be nothing short of as World in Action in particular. When the kids were stoned on this estate, pantomime: "Why lads, you was taunt- * Reproduced by kind permission of then so were the adults; literally, since ing us! You stuck your fingers up at us... the Editor and Pictures Desk of the small children happily carried buckets of anyway, run along now." Evening Standard. rocks for gangs of big kids to lob through The total lack of police sarcasm was the grown-ups' windows. astounding. Television cameras nowadays can faith- A sombre voice intoned endless facts This trivial documentary has done fully record almost anything - from the and figures -100,000 offences each year precious little to raise the level of debate smallest insect to the most massive con- committed by the under-17s, a fifth of all about an important concern. If World in stellation - but, when it comes to crime, crime caused by children - proving be- Action continues to treat serious prob- something peculiar happens to the pic- yond doubt that documentary makers are lems in such an anodyne way, perhaps its ture, and all verisimilitude inexplicably the biggest single cause of statistics. executive producer Charles Tremayne vanishes. Inspector Knacker told us: "We want should consider renaming it World Inac- Tell a camera crew to start following more powers to deal with these chil- tion. a policeman? Hey presto, he'll immedi- dren... to detain them from society at The shows seems to have lost its teeth ately tilt his hat and start dancing in the large." The Social Worker said: "They and, regrettably, they were not kicked street with the nearest black person. Film need more activities." Then we had the out in the cells in the noble pursuit of a criminal in silhouette? Lo and behold, voice of reason from the man in the journalistic excellence; no, they have he'll instantly become a reformed soul: street. "They nicked me strimmer ... decayed and rotted due to an unrelieved "Cor blimee guv'nor, it wuz society wot they're not much better than animals." diet of bland pap. did it to me, gawd luv the dar old Queen Between sad shots of police cars pur- mum, I'm bang-to-rights." suing Honda 50 mopeds, on came a suc- Victor Lewis-Smith is television critic During Granada's heyday, World In cession of chattering heads, attempting for the London Evening Standard Action (ITV) acquired a formidable repu- to reduce the complex problems of juve- tation for uncompromising and original nile delinquency to a few hackneyed investigative journalism, but now all that phrases. seems to remain of that glorious period A voice-over asked whether unem- are the perennial opening titles, with Da ployment was to blame for the rise in Vinci's geometric man revolving grace- crime. The social worker said that the fully in 1960s Doors-style Hammond kids "needed some stock-car racing", organ. although it was pretty clear that they had learned to make their own amusements. I could almost hear the Finally, to make sure that the blood- pressure in Eastbourne went clean cries of "bring back the through the roof, a young prisoner told birch" us that "detention centres are good... lots of activities, Nintendo". Britain's Untouchables, followed I could almost hear the cries of "bring members of the Cardiff police around a back the birch" and "it all comes out of local estate and succeeded in cramming our taxes" wending their way inland. every last uninspired media cliche about Juvenile crime is, of course, a serious juvenile crime into a mere 28 minutes. issue, and one that seems to offer a prob- Just the sort of stuff to get the blood- lem for every solution. Lock them up and

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