GCSE STUDENT SUPPORT BOOKLET 1 Key Dates 14Th May = Pre Released Material

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TV Crime DRAMA

GCSE STUDENT SUPPORT BOOKLET 1 Key Dates 14th May = Pre Released Material

Thursday 14th June pm = TV Crime Drama Exam 90 minutes

This booklet is designed to support you with the examination for TV Crime Drama.

We are going to start by looking at the design of What is Preliminary the examination. Material? This will help you see the kind of information, How does it help me and preparation that you will need to do, in order to get a good grade in the exam. prepare for the exam?

Preliminary Material This is an imaginary ‘brief’ from a media company - the best way to understand this, is to look at the one that I have made up below.

Dear Student,

At PCDR Productions we are dedicated to producing quality television crime dramas. Our series have been popular with audiences due to their strong lead characters.

We are currently in the process of commissioning a new series which we hope to sell to a major broadcaster. We would also like it to have an international appeal and are hoping to sell to American channels.

In the past we have specialised in traditional TV crime dramas targeted at an older audience. However, we are inter- ested in reaching a younger target audience. Whilst we would like to keep some of the successful elements of crime drama, we would also like to enliven this genre with some fresh ideas.

At the moment we would are looking at producing something for the pre watershed market, so it needs to be appropriate for all the family.

Given the growth in digital media, we would also like to look at how we can utilise this growing sector of the market.

We would like you to pitch your ideas in four weeks time. • Keep your responses short and focused • Use diagrams/illustrations were appropriate • Provide examples to support your ideas

We look forward to receiving your ideas

You will get 4 exam questions based on the preliminary material, you will not see them until you open the exam on 14th June.

2 Possible Questions You should be prepared to answer questions that focus on the key ideas in Media:

Media Language - this includes all the codes and conventions of the genre, choosing the correct shot types and sound for your storyboard, making sure that you have a name for your TV crime drama that is connotative of the genre that you are attempting to pitch.

You need major characters that are in keeping with the crime drama format. It also means that if they ask you to draw a teaser trailer, an opening sequence, an extract from the series you know the differences between these three.

Audience - You need to know why audiences enjoy watching crime dramas, how popular they are and have a clear sense of how you address the target audience in your own production

Institution - You will need to have an understanding of the type of stars and actors that are in Crime dramas, you will need to know about TV scheduling and should also have some research into the audience figures for different dramas. It is really important that you understand how Crime dramas promote themselves across a range of media in their attempt to win audiences.

Representation - You will need to be able to analyse the types of Representations on offer in TV Crime dramas and be able to give specific examples. You will also need to have a clear idea of the representations that are signified in your own TV Crime Drama Here is some questions based on the brief: Complete all tasks You should spend 45minutes on Task 1 and 2 and 45minutes 3 and 4.

Task 1 Outline three key features of television crime and drama and provide examples to support your ideas. (15 Marks)

Task 2 Some critics of television crime drama claim that the genre is made up of tired old storylines that are constantly recy- cled and reused. To what extent do you agree with this? Provide examples to support your views. (15 Marks)

Task 3 Outline your pitch for a television crime drama series. You need to talk about: • Character • Setting • An appropriate title • What will make it appealing to your target audience (15 marks)

Task 4

We intend to make use of the internet to promote the commissioned series. Design the home page of a website for your TV drama programme. You should use the A3 design sheet provided. OR The website will feature a short trailer for the series. Plot a 30 second trailer to the target audience. You should use the 10-frame storyboard provided. (15 marks)

For each question decide which key idea in Media they focus on, sometimes it will be more than one .

3 Here are another set of questions for the same Advise to examiners - This is what AQA tell examiners brief. As you can see you need to be able to apply When you are marking your scripts your aim should be: your research and planning to the question asked. 1. to identify and reward the achievement of all candidates Complete all tasks 2. to ensure compatibility of assessment for all candidates, regardless of task or examiner. You should spend 45 minutes on Task 1 and 2 and 45 minutes on 3 and 4.

Task 1 From the research that you have conducted, what would you say are the features of TV crime drama? Examiners should reward any of the following: Provide evidence to support your ideas. (15 marks) • in role response

Task 2 • reference to the brief Some people argue that the crime drama genre relies on stereotypes dominated by ‘old men in trench coats’. What have you discovered about the representations of men and women in television crime drama? What are the male and • evidence of research and independent learning female roles and suggest reasons for these, referring to storylines and audiences. (15 marks) • understanding of technological or sociological influences on the genre

Task 3 • a range of examples Present your pitch for scrutiny. Give us your ideas for: • Main characters • originality of thought • Setting • How it will appeal to your target audience (15 marks) The preparation period should be reflected in the candidates’ responses. Task 4 When we look at the mark scheme, you will see how important it is to prepare for Either this examination, beyond what you do in lessons. Design a one-page advert to run in a national newspaper promoting the series Scrutiny. Use the A3 design sheet enclosed Or The highest grades are given for original ideas and independent research and We plan to use the internet to promote the new series. A sequence of the show will appear on our website. thought. Storyboard a 30-second extract of the programme which introduces two main characters. You should use storyboard sheets enclosed. (15 marks)

I have started this booklet with exam questions as I wanted to show you what you are aiming to achieve and what the exam will look like.

The next section will outline the mark scheme.

It will also look at what examiners are told to reward.

4 Advise to examiners - This is what AQA tell examiners

When you are marking your scripts your aim should be:

1. to identify and reward the achievement of all candidates

2. to ensure compatibility of assessment for all candidates, regardless of task or examiner.

Examiners should reward any of the following:

• in role response

• reference to the brief

• evidence of research and independent learning

• understanding of technological or sociological influences on the genre

• a range of examples

• originality of thought

The preparation period should be reflected in the candidates’ responses.

When we look at the mark scheme, you will see how important it is to prepare for this examination, beyond what you do in lessons.

The highest grades are given for original ideas and independent research and thought. nt objectives th sme at y ses ou as a AO3 re he t This tests the ability of te e candidates to demonstrate s r te a research, planning and d e r o e n

5 6 How do I get a C or above?

Write in role for example – As part of my research for the pitch I decided to look at TV Crime dramas that are already popular with audiences. I found out the following:

They usually follow the solving of a crime by either ...... TV crime dramas are often whodunits that follow the ………….for example in Lewis ……………

Keep referring to the brief – If they have asked you to create a female detective for a prime time Sunday schedule on a major channel – refer to this. Create what they want!

Know your key terminology – make sure that you know the terminology for all aspects of the exam. Some examples follow just to get you thinking, I will put a glossary at the back of the book

* Words about visual style – pull focus, mise en scene, low key lighting, jump cut, parallel editing, connotation

* Words about genre – signifier, iconography, mise en scene, hybridization, star image, connotation

* Words about narrative – binary opposition, disequilibrium, protagonist, antagonist, enigma code, enclosed narrative

* Words about audience – demographic, profiling, uses and gratifications, target audience, preferred reading, dominant reading, viewing figures, prosumer, fragmentation, niche audience, star image, watershed

* Words about Institution – broadcaster, production company, scheduling, commissioning, branding, synergy, unique selling point, inheritance factor, hammocking, marketing, franchise, spin off, watershed, public service broadcaster

* Words about impact of technology and cross media promotion – interactivity, virtuality, augmented reality, synergy, convergence, proliferation, QR code, high speed, stream, download, hyperlink, navigate user created content, prosumer, fansite, dynamic content

* Words about representation – stereotype, atypical, subvert, dominant ideology, polysemic reading, patriarchy

Make sure that you have a range of examples to back up what you say- * This may be examples of the narrative structure in a particular series/programme. * Examples about characters/locations in a particular series and how they are represented. * Examples of the popularity of different programmes with audiences, ratings for particular programmes. * Examples of how a programme monetizes (makes money from) its franchise – think about Sherlock, CSI – and its spin offs. * Examples of how the audience has responded to a particular porgramme or episode.

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Let’s start by dividing up conventions into the following:

• Narrative • Characters • Setting • Visual Style • Themes and Ideas

Narrative - you should learn the following narrative theories, then apply them to the texts that you watch at school and at home.

Binary opposition - Levi - Strauss

This is the idea that we understand one idea or word through its opposite and that many narratives are constructed around such oppositions. Levi Strauss thought that these oppositions kept narrative moving forward and maintained the interest of the audience. He also pointed out that within any binary opposition there is one that is perceived as having positive qualities.

Here is a list of oppositions that can be seen in Crime drama

• Authority/society versus the criminal and their underworld - there is usually a tension in TV crime drama between the enforcers of law and the criminals. • Power versus vulnerability - often narratives explore those who are strong exploiting those that are weaker. • Criminal deviance versus decency - the criminal world is often portrayed as ‘other’ and a threat to the stable world of decent citizens. In crime dramas that focus on the sociopathic killer or criminal, the audience seem to get some pleasure out of trying to understand their deviant behaviour. In these types of crime drama the detectives or team of detectives may be in a ‘race against time’ to stop the criminal from murdering again. • Justice versus injustice - significantly this is not always based on what is legal, often detectives in crime drama will make their own judgements about how to exact punishment even allowing some criminals to walk free. They will also turn a blind eye to offences such as drug dealing in order to catch a murderer. 8 In some crime dramas the detective is set in opposition to a nemesis who often has similar characteristics to themselves, e.g. Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and Alice Morgan in Luther.

Roland Barthes came up with the idea that narratives interest us by giving us a series of codes that we enjoy looking out for and ‘reading’.

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Equilibrium - this means when everything in the narrative world is normal and as it should be. In Crime Drama we may not see the equilibrium at the beginning, although the ‘banter’ between the main characters before they know that a crime has been commited fits in with the idea of an equlibrium.

Stage 2 Disruption - A crime is committed. Sometimes this may be seen in a pre title sequence, to hook in the audience - although this is now seen as a bit hackneyed and overused. However, there will definitely be a disruption to the equilibrium.

Stage 3 Recogntion - The investigator (s) become (s) aware of the crime and sets out to solve it.

Stage 4 Attempt to repair - The major part of the narrative in crime drama - this is were we watch the detective or crime team try and solve the crime

Stage 5 New Equilibrium - the crime is solved and the criminal caught - this is known as the denouement of a narrative

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10 Genre conventions of TV drama

Here is a list of TV drama conventions

Every time you watch a TV drama you need to refer to this list and make notes about the conventions that it uses. You will need to give specific examples in the examination to support what you say.

This is a mainstream genre that enjoys great popularity and ratings. There is hybridisation of the genre e.g. sci– fi police procedural Life on Mars, legal drama – Law and Order, period drama Garrow’s Law (legal, period crime drama) – however traditional crime dramas are still made. The scale of tone and mood for crime drama ranges from comedy drama (Dirk Gently/New Tricks) to very dark e.g. Whitechapel/ The Wire

Characters and relationships • Eccentric or maverick (unconventional/eccentric) protagonists who often have non-standard investigation techniques. E.g. Dirk Gently, Sherlock • Flawed or brooding protagonists with personal and problems and dark pasts – e.g. Cracker, Inspector Morse • Conflict filled relationships between protagonist and authority e.g. Dirk Gently, Sherlock, Luther • Sometimes feature disposable secondary characters as well as transient characters • Sidekicks who provide a stable ‘norm’ for comparison with the protagonist, often in a ‘buddy’ role. • Actors who feature in TV Crime drama will often be ‘household names’, they may even be famous in other genres of TV programme, for example David Jason is famous as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses (a sitcom) and Jack Frost in the crime drama A Touch of Frost • Professions – many crime dramas feature police officers and are known as Police Procedural. Some police procedurals will focus on one or two detectives, some will have an ensemble cast and a whole team solving the crime. Other professions can be used e.g. Lawyers (Garrow’s Law, Kavanagh QC), forensic pathologists (Waking the Dead, Silent Witness, Bones) are also regularly seen. Crime Writers e.g. Murder She Wrote, Castle. Or even more unusual professions e.g. magic show designer Jonathon Creek, criminal psychologists – Cracker, Lie to Me. Of course the other popular profession is the Private detective or investigator.

Narrative

• May be based on contemporary moral panics e.g. knife crime, date rape, paedophilia. • Often feature a moral dimension or problem – e.g. Dirk Gently episode with Max the artificial intelligence. • Intricate and complex plotting is a feature – as one of the pleasures that the audience get from the genre is trying to solve the crime. • Many TV Crime Dramas are adaptions of literary works e.g. Miss Marple, Sherlock, Dirk Gently, Midsummer Murders, Wallander – it is always worth checking whether a detective series is an adaption of a novel. Clearly adapting a crime novel, particularly if it is popular means that you already have an audience for the programme. • Mystery centred narratives which usually contains an enigma or puzzle that needs solving • May contain narratives around dangerous or taboo subjects. • Usually enclosed narratives that are resolved at the end of the programme or series – when a narrative runs across episodes there will be a round up montage at the beginning of each episode to remind the audience what happened as well as making the series understandable to a new viewer. • Many crime dramas have ‘serial’ aspects that reward the loyal viewers. For example Sherlock’s run ins with Moriarty, or DCI Luther’s ongoing battle/relationship with Alice Morgan. • Flashbacks, denouement (the final resolution of the plot, following the climax), confessions and revelations feature heavily in the narrative structure.

11 Representation

Traditionally this is a patriarchal genre where men are shown to have power and are often the protagonist. However there have been famous female detectives e.g. Miss Marple, Jane Tennison in Silent Witness, Cagney and Lacey, Sandra Pullman in New Tricks.

• Often when women are the protagonists their gender will be part of the focus of the story, particularly in Silent Witness were a key part of the narrative is Jane Tennison’s struggle to succeed and be taken seriously in a male dominated profession. They may also be shown struggling to maintain family relationships and balance this with their professional role.

• More recent moves towards diversity in the casting of the protagonist e.g. Luther and DS Nicky Cole in 55 Degrees North.

• Often uses stereotypes as create a quick way into the story for the audience. However, will sometimes subvert our expectation of a stereotype to create surprise for the audience. For example a character that appears shifty or evil may not be the killer/criminal.

• In this way stereotypes may be used as a ‘Mc Guffin’ e.g. Using a negative stereotype could make us think that the person is the criminal, this is then found out to be a ‘false lead’.

Setting • Distinct regional and national settings – e.g. London, provincial cities, small country town or village

• Locations within the drama may also be significant e.g. the police station in the bill, the laboratory and autopsy room in Silent Witness CSI, 221B Baker Street in Sherlock Holmes

• These settings may tell us more about the detective protagonist e.g. 221B Baker Street which is almost part of the narrative exposition (start of the story). Holmes and Watson are usually relaxing in Baker Street when a caller to the house disrupts the equilibrium and sets the narrative on its course ‘the games afoot’ as Holmes says.

• Dirk Gently’s detective offices, which are untidy, dilapidated and in need of some TLC – what does this tell you about Dirk?

• Settings may also fetishes (obsess about) the whole process of crime fighting. For example in Prime Suspect and CSI there will be many close ups of laboratory equipment used to solve the crime. In programmes such as Whitechapel the police station looks strangely old fashioned and intimidating, there is a focus on the research element of solving crime and the library is featured heavily in this drama.

Visual Style and Sound – this includes mise en scene and lighting/shot types and angles/camera movements/editing/sound/graphics and special effects

• Distinctive theme tunes set tone and hint at the atmosphere/sub genre/ setting

• Iconography of crime scene e.g. police tape, forensic team, crime board, in vehicle sequences

• Most traditional crime dramas use continuity editing, this is ‘seamless’ editing where we are drawn into the reality on offer. It does not draw attention to the construction of the programme. • Some newer crime dramas use a more experimental style. E.g. Sherlock uses SFX and graphics to suggest the mental processing of Sherlock’s mind as he solves the crime. Luther uses jump cuts and focus pulls to disorientate the audience and create an edgy feel, which is reflective of the character of Luther.

• Whip pans, focus pulls, steadicam shots could be said to attract a younger audience to a TV crime drama, as they are more associated with dramas such as Skins. TV Crime dramas such as Whitechapel create a film thriller feel through their lighting and mood enhancing fast cut abstract shots that are placed throughout the narrative.

12 Media Language

Visual Style

TV crime dramas will often have their own visual style. However some will have common features.

You need to be able to comment on:

• Mise en scene (what’s in shot), - this includes – props/setting/costumes/gestures/lighting

• Cinematography – camera movements/framing and angles • Editing – the pace of editing, how the story is put together e.g. you may see cross cutting between the detectives racing to save the victim and the victim dying.

• Sound – think about how this is used to create tension or accent chase sequences etc

Lighting – Important in crime drama. Many crime dramas feature filming at night and use spot lighting contrasted with shadow. Depending on the series, there may be use of noir-influenced chiaroscuro (high contrast or low key lighting).

Positioning of actors within the frame can often be used to show power relationships, particularly when used with certain angles – low or high – which can place characters in dominant or submissive positions.

Dress codes – the quickest and most powerful way of quickly establishing character. This is particularly true for transient characters (only in one episode as costume can convey a lot of information quickly).

Props and Décor – may be used to convey important information and clues. Crime scenes are significant in solving the crime. Important as one of the audience’s pleasures is attempting to solve the crime. We subconsciously make judgments about the homes that people live in and work, this helps to give us information about their possible lifestyle/motive.

The locations were the detectives live/work can also be of significance – e.g Dirk Gently’s offices look untidy and disorganised, similarly Luther’s flat has peeling wallpaper and it seems that he has no interest in his surroundings. If you watch Sherlock season 1 episode 1 – 221B Baker Street is shown to be messy and disorganised until Watson sorts it out. Here it can be seen that setting and location are genre signifiers as they are connoting that the detectives only care about solving crime, they are obsessive and attach no importance to their living/working surroundings.

13 Iconography in crime dramas – the following could be seen as genre signifiers

Police tape, microscopes, sample bottles/bag for evidence, lab reports, crime scene suits so that evidence is not contaminated, police cars and sirens, body bags, morgues, computer research/location maps e.g. tracking devices, incident boards (those things with all the clues on), guns, knives, ropes; improbably isolated places where tortures take place – Silent Witness episode – paradise lost; prisons, mental hospitals etc etc

Remember that the location of the crime drama may also affect the choice of cinematography:

A drama set on the city streets might use the following:

• Shaky hand‐held camera work or steadicam to copy the movement of people walking or running in the streets, giving a documentary feel – can be used to make the audience feel that they are there, increasingly use whip pans and focus pulls. This visual style also appeals to a younger more contemporary audience who are used to the stylistic qualities of Skins. These techniques draw attention to the construction of the crime drama; this is taken a step further in shows such as Sherlock, which uses graphic overlay/special effects to mirror Sherlock’s thought processes. Whitechapel also features montage inserts, which usually show violent images along with scary noises.

• Pace of editing ‐ fast – although steadicam/handheld shots may use long takes with few edits

• Slick dialogue using street jargon and slang

• Urgent ‐ up beat contemporary music – however if crime drama set in the past – the music will reflect this period.

• Grey colours and low‐key lighting to reflect the grim city life. Good examples would be Hill Street Blues, Homicide, The Wire, Luther, WhitechapelA rural drama could have:

A rural drama could have:

• Panning shots to show the beauty of the landscape and pretty rural locations • Slow editing • Rich colours and warm lighting • Polite dialogue of the middle‐class village dwellers • Orchestral music. • More likely to consistently use a continuity form of editing – this is invisible and seamless to the audience and does not draw attention to the construction of the crime drama

14 Special Effects

As the crime drama genre has progressed, the use of SFX and make‐up has become increasingly important. From realistic injuries of victims to the almost horror film gore of CSI autopsies, crime dramas try to give an authentic view of the results of murder and bodily harm.

Cinematography and editing

• Mainstream crime dramas usually use continuity editing

• Selective focus and pull focus used to draw the audiences’ eyes to important details.

• Lingering reaction shots – are used so that the audience can read the expressions on suspects’ faces

• Action sequences will feature faster cuts and greater use of sound effects

• Some contemporary crime dramas deliberately draw attention to their visual style e.g. Luther with its accelerated and decelerated sections, which heighten the drama and emphasise the power and emotional volatility (explosive nature) of Luther. It also uses jump cuts (edits that cuts two shots together that are less than 30 degrees apart – you can recognise them as they seem to jump) They are usually used to show disorientation or madness.

• Garrow’s Law, which is set in the 19th century uses sepia tones and vignettes (circles around an image that blur it – like an old photo). It also uses images of handwritten documents in old script.

It is worth analysing the visual style of any crime drama that you are going to refer to in the examination. It is also something that you need to think about when designing your own crime drama.

Sound

Signature tune creates a brand identity and alerts the audience to the fact that the programme is about to start – they are known as aural signifiers

Hyper real sounds – which amplify sounds such as crying, breathing etc are often used to create tension

Sound effects may be accents or pads – accents are cut with a visual edit often in chase sequences or violent scenes – pads are the menacing sounds that you can hear underneath the diegetic sound – these are used to make a shot such as opening a door tense and frightening for the audience.

Incidental music and motifs – music may be used during the drama to make a scene tense, sad – or suggest loneliness etc. A music motif may be used to signify the presence of the detective, criminal or danger – see if you can spot any of these uses of sound in the crime dramas that you watch.

15 Audiences

• Crime dramas make up about 20% of prime time programming • Audiences seem to have an endless appetite for TV crime drama • Key question why are they so popular?

When we investigate audiences in media we are looking at

1. Who is the audience? 2. How are they targeted? 3. Why do they enjoy the text – in this case TV crime drama? 4. Where and when do they view the TV crime drama? 5. Are they affected negatively or positively by TV crime drama?

We will start with why we enjoy watching TV crime drama.

There is a theory in Media Studies called Uses and Gratifications that suggests that audiences enjoy media texts based on what they can do with it and/or the type of feeling or gratification they get from the text. These are

• Diversion – getting rid of boredom • Personal relationships – the audience becomes familiar with certain characters • Social relationships – we like to view programmes with family and friends or discuss them with friends and colleagues – think how this is further developed by the use of hash tags in Twitter. • Surveillance – Audiences often use TV as a way of getting information.

This is a theory from the 1970s formulated by theorists Mc Quail, Brown, Blumer and Katz.

There is another more recent theory (1994) called Dyer’s Utopian Solutions that is a development of Uses and Gratifications. Utopian Solutions suggests that audiences consume media products to make up for five things that might be missing from their daily lives.

Transparency – the desire to see thinks made clear for us – this is definitely true of crime drama as it allows us to see the process of catching the criminal.

Energy – Our everyday lives are tiring and consist of routines, by using media texts we can live more interesting lives vicariously, when we watch TV Crime drama we have heightened feelings of fear and excitement, they move us away from the hum drum.

16 Community – many people live lives where they feel a long way from their community, family or where they grew up. Many people don’t know the people who live around them. Watching a TV programme can give people this sense of community as they usually have regular characters who the audience builds up a relationship with.

Intensity – the majority of people living in a stable country may only experience the extreme highs and lows of life occasionally. Crime Drama is all about the extremes of existence and often will give us heightened feelings of tension and fear as well as relief when the criminal is caught.

Abundance – this is the desire for consumption of material wealth beyond our own means, it is probably more applicable to shows such as MTV Cribs, however it may be present in some TV crime dramas where criminals are enjoying great wealth, or the location of the series is exotic. Some TV crime drama always feature wealthy people and places e.g. Agatha Christie.

If they ask you about why audiences enjoy TV drama in the examination the list below if you also give examples form TV dramas that you have seen – will help. An A/A* response might also link these reasons to the theories above.

Some reasons why audiences may enjoy TV crime drama are: LEARN THESE – CAN YOU GIVE EXAMPLES FROM CRIME DRAMAS WHICH FIT THE PLEASURES LISTED.

1. They like to try and solve the crime – they enjoy the enigmas – this is called cognitive pleasure.

2. To see villains in action

3. To explore taboo subjects such as drugs, prostitution, incest – many of these are not discussed in society

4. Our fear of crime is explored in a fictional setting. This allows us to explore our fears of real crime safely.

5. We are reassured by the criminal being caught and order being restored at the end of the series or episode.

6. We enjoy the voyeurism of the drama – looking into the seedier aspects of human existence

7. We are familiar with or like the main character or the actor playing them. Think here about the cult status of Sherlock Holmes and the audience reaction to the latest adaption with the cult like status of Benedict Cumberbatch with fans.

8. We enjoy watching the flawed but loveable and familiar characters that are dedicated to preserving law and order and making the world safe

9. Crime drama can often contain an escapist element – the very fact that all the crimes are solved is remarkable in itself as this is not reflected in the real world.

Both of the above theories presume that the audience is active in its response to media texts.

The next theories suggest the audience is passive, and that they can be deeply affected in a negative way by TV Crime Drama.

The Effects debate Some theorists think that there is a direct causal link between violence in the media and violence in the real world.

They believe that watching violence desensitises the audience to violence

Hypodermic syringe – this is an early idea – it said that the audience passively took in what ever the Media offered them. It suggested that the audience could be easily influenced and affected by what they saw and heard on the Media

Social Learning theory ‐ This is a development of the hypodermic syringe model, it says that repeated exposure to violent behaviours or acts encourages a copy cat effect where people – especially those considered vulnerable –(children) may seek to emulate (copy) violence or other offences seen on TV

Cultivation Theory Repeated exposure to violence in mass media leads to ‘desensitisation’. We see it so often we become immune to it in real life. Crime drama clearly open to the accusations of influencing us as features sometimes horrific violent crime, fear/suffering of the victim, troubling for the audience, graphic scenes of violence

Effects debate and TV crime drama

• Some crime dramas do have disturbing narratives with lingering shots of violence and dead bodies. • This is part of the appeal of the text – as it allows the audience to explore some of our darkest fears. • However, there are fears about the increasing levels of violence that are seen as acceptable to portray on TV.

18 What arguments could be put against these theories?

• If it affected us in this way – why isn’t everyone affected and going out committing crime?

• Crime Dramas are often highly moral – the perpetrators of crime are caught and punished

• Crime (as shown in tv crime dramas) never pays in the long term

• Crimes are contextualised and shown to be wrong

• Gruesome sequences are meant to repulse viewer – they are apparently not shown for sadistic pleasure

• There are other social factors that can turn people into murderers

Use the Internet to research the murders that have been attributed to fictional killing on film and TV. Natural Born Killers (Film) has been cited as causing many copycat killings.

What do you think ‐ do violent Media products have this effect?

19 Now we will look at points 1 and 2

1. Who is the audience? 2. How are they targeted?

Attracting an audience is extremely important for any television programme.

1. PSB (public service) broadcasters such as the BBC need to attract audiences to justify the license fee and fund future programming.

2. Independent broadcasters e.g. ITV need to attract audiences so that they can sell advertising space to companies – this may be in the form of an advert in the ad break, sponsorship idents before the show starts or product placement within the show itself.

3. Successful series can also be sold to US channels, as well as the international market, or reworked for these markets. (needs improvement)

4. If a series has a loyal audience base it will often be broadcast on cable channels such as Alibi, which specialise in showing repeats to a niche audience who seek out TV crime drama.

5. There is also a market for DVD sales and pay for download from stores such as itunes. I have noticed that current popular crime series such as Luther or Sherlock are not available on YouTube – apart from endorsed videos such as trailers, excerpts etc. The older the series – the less likely they are to be removed from YouTube. This indicates that broadcasters are keen to protect their interests within the first two years of broadcast, so that they can capitalize on the popularity of the programme and make money from it.

6. Series may also be available on streaming websites such as Netflix.

TV CRIME DRAMA IS EXPENSIVE TO PRODUCE – ESPECIALLY SERIES SUCH AS SHERLOCK, LUTHER, WHITECHAPEL WHICH HAVE HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES/COSTS –

IT IS THEREFORE ESSENTIAL THAT BROADCASTERS AND PRODUCTION COMPANIES RECOUP THEIR INVESTMENT (MAKE MONEY !!!)

Marketing/Advertising – getting the audience to watch

• What can appear a ‘mass’ audience is often different niche audiences who desire and will watch/listen to or buy different products.

• By recognising this broadcasters can produce a range of programming that will appeal to different groups.

• Audiences are often divided in the following ways

21 Psychographic Segmentation/Profiling

Increasingly audiences are targeted through lifestyle‐based approaches – this is known as psychographics.

• Activities • Interests • Opinions • Attitudes • Values

Behavioural segmentation

This is based on actual customer behaviour towards products. Some behavioural variables include:

• Benefits sought • Usage rate • Brand loyalty • User status: potential, first‐time, regular, etc. • Readiness to buy • Occasions: holidays and events that stimulate purchases

22 How will this help in the examination? As part of your pitch you will probably have to say how you target your audience. This will be based on the brief – e.g. do they ask you to target a specific age group? Or is it meant to target the whole family?

Demographics could be applied in terms the target income and education bracket you are aiming for. For example Wallander and other Scandinavian crime dramas are more likely to be viewed by A and B groups as they require the audience to read subtitles and have complex plotting.

You can see that behavioural segmentation could be applied in terms of when you release your show (schedule). E.g. Christmas holidays, Halloween, Spring etc. You may try to identify your drama with another popular series so that the audience recognise the style and brand, or choose a popular actor to play the lead – so that you have capitalise on brand loyalty.

In terms of psychographics a traditional crime drama e.g. Inspector Morse is more likely to appeal to Mainstreamers than The Wire – which is more likely to appeal to Aspirers, Reformers and Explorers

23 Institution – Key questions to ask

1. Who made the Crime Drama – PSB/independent director/production company? 2. Does it feature ‘stars’ from other TV programmes or films? 3. Where will I see the Crime Drama – what channel? 4. When will it be shown? – This is known as scheduling 5. How is the crime drama marketed?

TV Crime dramas make are a reliable, tried and tested genre – they are popular with audiences.

Usually a production company will be commissioned to produce a one off ‘pilot’ – this is used to evaluate ratings before commissioning a multi – episode series. Many crime dramas are based on popular bestselling novels, with a pre – existing audience and a proven track record in the fiction market e.g. Sherlock, Wallander, Dirk Gently. Many of these crime novels have a global appeal – this widens the market for the crime drama itself.

This makes them highly suitable for mainstream scheduling.

Scheduling You need to know the following key terms, so that when you investigate crime dramas you can analyse how they are being marketed through their scheduling, or how they are used to promote less popular programming. Knowing about scheduling will also help you to tell the examiner when your crime drama will be shown.

Hammocking Is a technique used in Broadcast programming whereby an unpopular television programme is scheduled between two popular ones in the hope that viewers will watch it. Public broadcasting use this as a way of promoting serious but valuable content. For example a popular show will be followed by a weak show, which then is followed by a less popular show. This is especially used for new shows. Hammocking may lead to situations where even if programs remain weak, audience rating will be high.

Hotswitching A hot switch or hotswitching is where the ending of one television show leads directly into the start of the show in the next time slot without a television commercial break. The concept is used to reduce the chances that people will switch to another TV network during the commercial break and allow the cold open of the new show to attract viewers; sometimes however, this will cause a commercial break right after the opening credits. It can also be called "seamless" broadcasting.

Block Programming Block programming occurs when the television network schedules similar programs back‐to‐back. The concept is to provide similar programming to retain viewership.

24 Stacking Stacking is a technique used to develop audience flow by grouping together programs with similar appeals to "Sweep" the viewer along from one program to the next

Stripping Stripping is running a syndicated television series every day of the week. It is commonly restricted to describing the airing of shows which were weekly in their first run; The West Wing could be stripped, but not Jeopardy!, as the latter is already a daily show. Shows that are syndicated in this way generally have to have run for several seasons (the rule of thumb is usually 100 episodes) in order to have enough episodes to run without significant repeats.

Tentpoling ‐ Tent pole programming In tent pole programming the programmers bank on a well‐known series having so much audience appeal that they can place two unknown series on either side, and it is the strength of the central program that will bring the others along to victory. The opposite of hammocking.

Theming Having special theming days (such as for a holiday), or theme weeks such as Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

Counterprogramming Counterprogramming is used when a time period is filled with a program whose appeal is different from the opponent program because it is a different genre or appeals to a different demographic. Often major channels are seen as being in ‘battle’ to gain audience share. If a highly popular series such as Sherlock is airing – the opposing channels may look at how they can offer a similarly popular show that has a slightly different audience demographic.

Dayparting Dayparting is the practice of dividing the day into several parts, during each of which a different type of television programming appropriate for the time that it is aired. Daytime television programs are most often geared toward a particular demographic, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time.

Daypart (Weekday) UK (GMT)

Early morning 7:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Daytime 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Late morning 9.30 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunchtime news 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Early afternoon 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Late afternoon 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Early evening 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Evening news 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

National prime time – note this is split into pre watershed and post- 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM watershed

Late news 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Late night 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM

Postnight fringe/graveyard slot 1:00 AM – 3:30 AM

Closedown 3:30 AM – 6:00 AM

Pre watershed and post watershed In a way this links to the audience effects debate as it is an attempt to control what is suitable for children to watch. Pre watershed programmes need to be suitable for all the family – this means that violence, profanity (swearing), disturbing storylines and sexual content are minimal as it needs to be suitable for family viewing. Increasingly crime dramas are shown during primetime post‐ watershed, this reflects the inclusion of increasingly graphic scenes of violence and its aftermath

Activities around Institution Your teacher will have shown you how to use BARB – for each TV crime drama that you are going to discuss in the examination – make sure that you know what its viewing figures are. Go to the Alibi channel website (they broadcast to a niche audience of TV crime lovers), look at their scheduling for a day. Which programmes do they show during primetime? They recently purchased Castle from

26 Representation

In the examination you may get a question where the focus is Representation. This is a key idea in Media Studies and I have tried to define it below.

Representation

Representation refers to the construction in all media forms of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts e.g. law, love, evil.

Analysis of representation will often focus on how gender (male/female), class, age, ethnicity, sexuality, ability/disability are portrayed by a text.

This is because these are seen as areas of portrayal that are contested (argued about) and that they are most likely to be represented in a hegemonic way.

What is hegemony?

This is not just a media term; you will come across it in all social sciences.

In Media Studies it is the idea that society works by controlling us into thinking in certain ways – this is known as hegemony or you can call it dominant ideologies. One of the ways that we are controlled is by the way the Media construct or comment on reality.

These dominant ideologies are often taken for granted and they seem ‘invisible’ unless we analyse them.

In Media studies today, people look at how the media support power structures such as government, capitalism/corporations, and patriarchy. For example:

• A news report that shows strong support for a controversial foreign policy decision can be said to hegemonically support the government.

• A game show that shows scantily‐clad women passively standing still until the host tells her to "open the case" can be seen as hegemonically promoting patriarchy.

Sometimes Media texts can also be seen as being counter hegemonic. An episode of TV crime drama that questions traditional women's roles, for example, might be seen as counter‐hegemonic. So might a documentary that questions the government's involvement in a war.

27 Representation made EASY

The Simplest way to analyse Representation is to imagine that you have travelled from a distant planet and have no idea about what life on planet earth is like.

After watching, listening or looking at a media text what would you think about?

Men, women, religion, different ethnic groups, the city, the countryside, middle class people, the working class, single mothers, hoodies, teenagers, the government, London etc etc ‐ the list is endless.

If you noticed that men in a TV show or film were often shown as heroic, strong, risk takers who couldn’t control their sexual desires and found showing their feelings difficult – then the representation would be STEREOTYPICAL.

If you were shown men at home caring for their children, sharing their feelings and crying over a film then the representation would be ATYPICAL. Or it could be said to subvert our expectations.

Why are these police officers stereotypes?

Media texts will often use stereotypes as a short hand for the audience so that they can get lots of information over quickly. These kind of characters are known as ‘stock characters’

An example of a stereotype in a crime drama would be the white working class girl with a conscience, who is protecting her hardhearted criminal boyfriend and ends up dead.

Representation in TV Crime DRAMA Gender

• In the past majority of investigators men – still the case today despite the presence of more female characters.

• Female detectives have existed for along time however their gender usually makes them a curiosity e.g. Miss Marple, or ‘eye candy’ for the male viewer e.g. Dr Temperance in Bones, Allison Dubois in Medium and Jane Tennison in Silent Witness

• Female investigators will often be shown to exploit their femininity in dealing with suspects or gaining access to information. They may flirt with suspects or other colleagues in order to gain privileges. This also stereotypes men as being stupid enough to be taken in if sex is involved.

28 • Sexist and chauvinist behaviour towards female detectives is shown to be normal or ‘institutionalised’ and most female characters deal with this with dignity. However are the programmes ‘normalising’ such behavior and showing that it is something that just has to be got on with.

• They may be shown as acting on ‘female intuition’ or be more aware of the emotional aspects of the case.

• They may struggle to balance work and personal /family life – although this us usually true of male detectives as well.

• Other roles for women in TV Crime drama are

o Prostitutes, mothers, wives, virginal teens – they are often shown as being incapable of defending themselves against male aggressors or think their way out of a situation o When they are criminals they are deviant and dangerous and often use their sexuality to manipulate men against their will.

Ethnicity

• Most lead detectives are white men.

• Some change with series such as Luther and 55 Degrees North.

• US Crime dramas with bigger casts usually show greater ethnic diversity.

• In the UK it could be argued that the genre is quite conservative and mainstream, meaning that representations are often stereotypical and changes in representation may be slow.

Notable examples of crime dramas that have had a non white lead detective • Luther ‐ 2010 – present – features John Luther a talented, sometimes violent CID officer with a troubled personal life.

• The Chinese Detective – 1981‐ 3 on the BBC featured UK actor John Yip as DC John Ho – the series also dealt with the racist behaviour of the police and UK society at the time.

• Chopratown – one off BBC comedy crime drama broadcast in 2005 featured actor comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar as private detective Vik Chopra. Written as a pilot – the series was not commissioned.

• 55 Degrees North ‐ 55 Degrees North is a BBC television drama series starring Don Gilet as DS Nicky Cole, a London detective relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne after exposing police corruption. Dervla Kirwan co‐stars as Claire Maxwell, an ambitious solicitor.

29 • The No1 Ladies Detective Agency is taken from a famous series of novels and set in Botswana. The series starred Jill Scott (famous American actress/singer poet) as Mama Precious Ramotswe the first female detective in Botswana. Shown on the BBC and in America.

Region and Era

Most crime dramas will be set in a particular district or region, city, town or even village.

The people who live there will often be represented in a particular way – often using stereotypes that the audience can relate to quickly and easily.

The setting will often dictate the types of crimes and the role of the investigator for example:

• Morse’s cases are in Oxford and often revolve around upper class students or academics

• Wycliffe – set in Cornwall often deals with fishermen and second home owners

• Scotland has been popular as a location with –Rebus, Taggart and Hamish Macbeth

• London is popular in crime drama probably because it is seen as being a place where many crimes take place. Whitechapel represents London almost as a quasiEdwardian nightmare. It draws heavily on the idea of Jack the Ripper and although it is set in modern London, the feel is almost timeless as if criminal activity is eternal and always present. This is achieved for the cinematography – focus pulls, low key lighting and sepia/rich browns of the filters that have been applied.

There are also examples of crime dramas set in different time periods. These are often used to add interest to the format. Variations like this prevent it from becoming stale.

These programmes can also seek to show how much better policing/human rights are in the modern age and how much better off we are than in the past

Examples are:

• Foyles War – set in world war 2 Foyle fights crime as the war rages in Europe

• Cadfael – set in the medieval times where there is no formal policing the solving of crimes is carried out by the clever monk Brother Cadfael.

• Garrow’s Law (2009 – present) Set in the early 19th century, Garrow is a lawyer who seems to have a knack of taking on cases that champion inequalities of the time: the rights of slaves, poor people, women and homosexuals.

• Life on Mars – (2006‐7) really popular series in which Sam Tyler is a time traveling coma victim sent back to police the Manchester of the 1970s.

Disability and Mental Illness

• Disability or mental illness given negative connotations in crime dramas

• Sometimes it will be linked to a motive for the crime. E.g. jealousy, impaired thinking, lack of morality, bitterness caused by the disability

• The Representation of disability has historically been linked with deviance from the norm and criminality sadly this is still reflected in crime drama.

• It is rare for the main character to have a disability Ironside, Monk and Mike Longstreet in Longstreet are notable exceptions – it seems that it is more acceptable for them to disabilities inflicted in the line of duty, this is sometimes shown to give them special powers and the criminals underestimate them.

Some questions to ask when analysing a TV crime drama for Representation

1. What is being represented?

2. How is it represented? Using what codes?

3. How is the representation made to seem 'true', 'commonsense' or 'natural'?

4. What is foregrounded and what is backgrounded? Are there any notable absences?

5. Whose representation is it?

6. Whose interests does it reflect? How do you know?

31 7. At whom is this representation targeted? How do you know?

8. What does the representation mean to you?

9. What does the representation mean to others?

10. How do you account for the differences?

In 2011 there was a huge debate around the comments by Brian True May about why he thought that there shouldn’t be any ethnic minorities featured in Midsomer Murders. Here is a copy of an article from the Guardian. It is interesting to note that no one had really noticed that there were no other ethnic groups until he said so. Also it is interesting that it is unpopular series with ethnic minorities, which links to questions 4, 7, 8 and 9 above

Midsomer Murders producer suspended over diversity remarks – John Plunkett Tuesday 15th March 2011 Cocreator Brian TrueMay said ITV crime drama 'wouldn't be English village' if it featured minority groups. Midsomer is 'the last bastion of Englishness' and 'wouldn't work' if ethnic minorities were involved, said Brian TrueMay.

The producer of one of ITV1's best‐known crime dramas, Midsomer Murders, has been suspended from his job after he suggested in an interview that there was no place in the programme for ethnic minorities and it was the "last bastion of Englishness".

Brian True‐May, the co‐creator of the show, which began on ITV in 1997, said the series "wouldn't work" if there was any racial diversity portrayed in the sleepy village life of the fictional county of Midsomer.

32 Production company All3Media has suspended True‐May while it conducts an inquiry and an ITV spokesman said the broadcaster was "shocked and appalled" by his comments.

"We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them," True‐May said in an interview with the Radio Times. "It just wouldn't work. Suddenly we might be in Slough ... We're the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way."

An ITV spokesman said: "We are shocked and appalled at these personal comments by Brian True‐May which are absolutely not shared by anyone at ITV.

"We are in urgent discussions with All3Media, the producer of Midsomer Murders, who have informed us that they have launched an immediate investigation into the matter and have suspended Mr True‐May pending the outcome."

True‐May was speaking to the Radio Times in advance of the new series of the drama, which returns to ITV1 next week. Originally based on the books by Caroline Graham, Midsomer Murders has so far featured 251 deaths, 222 of which were murder.

The show's original star, John Nettles, previously best‐known for his title role in another long‐running crime drama, BBC1's Bergerac, appeared in the last of his 82 episodes last month. He will be replaced in the leading role by Neil Dudgeon playing John Barnaby, the cousin of Nettles' original inspector Tom Barnaby.

Perhaps anticipating criticism of his comments, True‐May admitted: "Maybe I'm not politically correct ... I'm trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don't want to change it."

The race equality think‐tank the Runnymede Trust said True‐May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.

"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."

True‐May has also banned swearing, graphic violence and sex scenes from the show, but his idyllic formula does not stop challenging storylines or other elements of diversity, which do not involve ethnicity.

"If it's incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality ... terrific, put it in, because people can believe that people can murder for any of those reasons," he said.

Not all of the programme's cast appeared to agree with the programme's producer. Actor Jason Hughes, who plays sidekick DS Jones and starred as Warren in BBC2's This Life, said: "This isn't an urban drama and it isn't about multiculturalism. That's not to say that there isn't a place for multiculturalism in the show.

33 "But that's really not up to me to decide. I don't think that we would all suddenly go, 'a black gardener in Midsomer? You can't have that'. I think we'd all go, 'great, fantastic'.

The following article also outlines how there is a change in the Representation of women in series such as Scott and Bailey.

Women on the case: the new winning formula for primetime TV drama Series like Call the Midwife and Scott & Bailey are attracting record audiences with a mix of strong female characters Maggie Brown guardian.co.uk, Saturday 25 February 2012 13.51 GMT

Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp as the detective constables in Scott & Bailey. Call the Midwife has been crowned as the BBC's most successful new drama of the past decade, thanks to its mix of strong female characters and a realistic portrayal of childbirth. Now ITV is poised to strike back, with a female detective series also entirely shaped by women.

34 Industry figures believe these programmes represent a tipping point, with women now producing, writing, directing and acting in more television drama than ever before – and their efforts are proving hugely successful.

Pippa Harris, executive producer of Call the Midwife, said: "It is an interesting moment. We have always had women producers and drama executives, but now we are seeing women directors and writers taking centre stage. It does make a tonal difference and it is leading to a shift in the dramas we are seeing."

It was Heidi Thomas who adapted Jennifer Worth's book, Call the Midwife, for television. But, Harris said, the director Philippa Lowthorpe "was instrumental in setting that mixture of grit and warmth from the first episode. It could have been a different show if directed by a man. I was a big, big fan of Scott & Bailey last year because it was so well written and has such wonderful, strong female characters."

The first episode of Scott & Bailey, starring Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp as detectives, slipped into ITV's schedules a year ago without anyone paying it much attention. It sprang a surprise by becoming the most highly rated new drama of the year, with 9.4 million viewers. It returns next week for an extended eightpart run.

Paula Milne, whose new BBC2 epic, White Heat – about sexual politics and feminism, starring Claire Foy, Juliet Stevenson and Sam Claflin – also starts next week, said: "It is much better mainly because there are more women writers. It is so different from the 1970s, when I wrote Angels for BBC1. Our default position as women writers is that we give women equal weight to men. I think we also write male characters differently, as husbands, lovers, sons. I disagree, though, about the influence of women directors. Directors tend to come to productions late and do not influence the content as much as they could."

One of the distinguishing features of Scott & Bailey, which can be tracked back to the composition of its female team, is that, while based in a fictional downbeat police station in Oldham, it deliberately avoids graphic depictions of murder and depicts the humdrum reality of policewomen's lives. In last year's opening episode, a shot of a hanged woman lasted just two seconds. This is because the key influence on the show's tone and plot is its cocreator, a retired detective inspector of 30 years' experience, Diana Taylor, who is resolutely opposed to showing, and lingering on, graphic details.

The detective constables are portrayed by the writer, Sally Wainwright – best known for the comedy drama At Home with the Braithwaites – as women doing their jobs conscientiously and well, but also juggling personal lives. She said: "I have never written a crime series before, and I find it distasteful making a drama out of crime. I tell myself it's about interesting women."

Nonetheless, Scott and Bailey are put on the toughest cases. The new series opens with three murders where people are tortured to death by a team of

35 downandouts: one killing is sparked by a debt of £5 over a dog. But while you see shots of feet stabbed by a screwdriver, a burned body and a bloodied victim, the detail of suffering, such as anal rape and the loss of teeth, is relayed by words.

Unlike the typical portrayal of detectives as lone and damaged people – such as Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect – Sharp's character, DC Janet Scott, goes home to two schoolchildren wanting attention and packed lunches, a disgruntled husband and a visiting elderly mother.

Taylor said: "Detectives on TV tend to be abnormal. But to police the community you have to be normal. There have been times I was queueing in Tesco after being at a postmortem for six hours, and I'd think as I looked at the other women in the queue, 'If you only knew'."

Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, said he was proud of being able to follow the success of Downton Abbey with a contemporary detective series that is so completely different.

"The pitch for this series was not the most exciting in the world. It is not the stylised world of the police. It is in the wrong bit of Manchester, not the centre everyone knows. And it sets out to do the hardest thing, a drama set in the real world. But it is all in the execution. I like the fact that you expect the two detectives to report back to a boss who is a man. But the boss in Scott & Bailey is awoman!"

Taylor says writers such as Wainwright do not need to rely on gore to suggest the horror of murder. "When TV producers want to show a disembowelled body, they go to the butcher's and get a pig's innards. I personally don't think it is necessary. If someone is battered to death, the public don't need to see it, especially if children might be around watching.

"People think showing gore, exploding organs, relays the horror. But I know from my work that the real horror is for parents being told you will never see your son or daughter again. They think of all the things they wish they had said, not being able to touch them again." There is an emphasis on the way the detective constables break bad news to the families or partners affected and on how easy it is to get it wrong.

Taylor hates watching most TV crime series, dubbing them "eye candy for weirdos". She added: "Yes, being a woman, part of a team of women, does have a cumulative effect."

Suranne Jones came up with the idea for Scott & Bailey with Sally Lindsay, one of its guest stars, because they wanted to create better roles for women, and writer Wainwright was introduced to Taylor. The producer is Nicola Shindler, who runs the Red Production Company in Manchester. Two of the three directors are women.

36 Fincham, however, believes that television drama is a broad church and cautions: "It never all trends in one direction. Gore is a feature of detective dramas. We are also running Whitechapel – crime meets horror in a very stylised manner."

Veteran Ted Childs, producer of The Sweeney and the creative force behind Inspector Morse, added: "It all depends on how good the script is, and characterisation, so you don't have to depict dismembered bodies. But there is, on the other hand, a cultural change that seems to demand you depict more and more."

37 10 - Easy tips for success

1. Watch crime dramas and note down episode etc

2. Does the narrative follow any of the theories that you have looked at

3. Do you think the episode has too much violence – effects theory

4. How does it Represent people and places

5. Learn names of main characters – otherwise how will you talk about

it in the exam?

6. Research the audience for the crime drama on the web and BARB

7. Look at their trailer and posters

8. What is the dramas visual style – does it use genre signifiers etc/ is it

traditional or contemporary?

9. What Institution makes the TV drama and where can I view it?

10. Who do you think the target audience is – how do you know (type adverts in between programmes, time shown, type of narrative or visual style, amount of violence etc) – look at the section on audiences – can you match the crime drama to a demographic or psychographic profile?