Notes 1 Introduction 1. Maxwell Confait was a male prostitute found asphyxiated after a house fire in Catford in 1972. Three youths were arrested, two of whom confessed to arson and one of whom confessed to Confait’s murder. However, subsequent evidence revealed that Confait had died some time prior to the house fire and the youths’ convictions were overturned. 2. However, as Reiner (2007a) argues, the officially recorded profile of offend- ers is likely to be biased misleadingly towards lower-status groups on whom police activity tends to bear most heavily (Reiner 2010). In this respect, the socio-economic characteristics of offenders in media stories may actually be closer to what Reiner describes as the ‘ultimately unknowable – “real” pattern’ (Reiner 2007a, p. 309) of offending. 3. The first film was released in 1971 and the most recent of the four sequels in 1988. 4. By comparison, it is worth noting that, although there had been some changes to police patrol work in terms of the introduction of radios and the patrol car in the 1960s, contemporary criminological studies still repre- sented the police as contending mainly with rain, boredom and tired feet (Cain 1973). 5. The consultant for Prime Suspect was a then serving Detective Inspector, Jackie Malton, whose real-life vicissitudes, I was told in a personal interview, formed the basis of many of the incidents in the first series written by Lynda La Plante. 6. Messiah is a British television drama series broadcast on BBC1 and made up of a series of occasional serials. It follows the investigations of DCI Red Metcalfe. 7. Wire in The Blood follows the Major Incident Team (MIT) of Bradfield Metropolitan Police’s CID and the work of clinical psychologist and serial offender profiler Dr Tony Hill. 8. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (referred to as CSI and also known as CSI: Las Vegas) is an American crime drama television series, which follows Las Vegas ‘Crime Scene Investigators’ as they use physical evidence to solve murders. Two spin-offs followed, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, and at the time of writing a further spin-off is being considered, tentatively titled CSI: Cyber. 9. Known as Forbrydelsen in Denmark. 10. I was also a staff writer on Brookside between 1999 and 2001. 2 Research Methods 11. See Chapters 4 and 5 for a discussion of working practices on the show. 238 Notes 239 3 Inside the World of The Bill 12. Geoff McQueen (1947–94), best known for creating The Bill, but also creator of two other drama series, Big Deal and Give Us a Break, for the BBC. 13. According to the then executive producer, although ratings had reached a high point in 2002 of nine million, thereafter viewing figures fell steadily to a then low of five million in 2005, which prompted the decision by the ITV Network to relaunch the show. 14. See Waddington (1999), who argues the importance of police ‘storytelling’ as a way of giving purpose and meaning to inherently problematic occupa- tional experiences. 15. Similarly, as Loftus (2009) comments, new public management (NPM) has also had an impact on policing. New practices introduced by NPM include performance management and the concept of the public as ‘customers’ (McLaughlin et al. 2001). 4 The Origins of Story Ideas 16. The reasons behind the introduction of the ‘soap’ element are discussed in Chapter 5. 17. ‘PC’ is an abbreviation for ‘political correctness’, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as ‘the careful avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against’. 5 Influences on the Storyline 18. Greg Dyke, a British media executive who held Chief Executive positions at London Weekend Television, Pearson Television and Channel 5 during the 1990s and was Director-General of the BBC between 2000 and 2004. 19. ‘Scrote’: a contemptible person (from the Oxford English Dictionary). 20. See Fielding (1995) for a slightly different account. 21. The ‘Guildford Four’ were three men and a woman who were sentenced in 1974 to life imprisonment for the Guildford and Woolwich pub bomb- ings. However, evidence gathered by the Avon and Somerset Constabulary showed, in the words of the Lord Chief Justice, Judge Lane, that some of the Surrey officers investigating the bombings ‘must have lied’ at the trial of the four. The ‘Birmingham Six’ had been convicted in 1975 for the Birmingham pub bombings and were released in 1991. The ‘Tottenham Three’ had been convicted of the murder of a police officer, PC Blakelock, during riots on the Broadwater Farm estate in North London in 1986. How- ever, their appeal against their conviction was upheld on the basis of forensic evidence that the accused’s statements had not been recorded contempora- neously (as PACE requires). These investigations had supposedly taken place under PACE procedures (Reiner 2010, pp. 84–5). 22. However, Loader and Mulcahy (2003) take an opposing view and suggest that such changes in society, including the decline of deference, have triggered ‘growing or at least sustained identification with the police, particularly 240 Notes among those who turn to it as a symbol of stability ...in an increasingly disorienting and threatening world’. 23. Waking the Dead is a BBC police procedural drama series featuring a fictional Cold Case unit, first screened in 2000. The most recent series was broadcast in 2011. 24. Trial & Retribution is an ITV police procedural drama series devised by Lynda LaPlante, first screened in 2007. The most recent series was broadcast in 2009. 25. NYPD Blue is an American police drama set in Manhattan, which ran from 1993 to 2005. 26. Tony Garnett is a television producer and screenwriter, well-known for his involvement with politically radical drama. Some of his most famous work includes Up The Junction (1965), which dealt with the subject of backstreet abortion, Cathy Come Home (1967), which dealt with homelessness, and Law and Order (1979), which examined the British judicial system. Other work includes Between the Lines, which is discussed elsewhere in this book. 27. However, while The Cops was a critical success, winning a BAFTA (British Academy of Film Television Awards) for Best Drama series in 1999 and 2000, it was not a success with audiences and was axed after three series. 28. ASBOs, or Antisocial Behaviour Orders, are civil orders made against some- one who has been seen to have engaged in anti-social behaviour. They were introduced in 1998 to correct incidents that would not normally have warranted criminal prosecution. 29. However, as I discussed in Chapter 1, Reiner (2007b) suggests that the pattern of offending represented in ‘official’ statistics may reflect the fact that police activity tends to bear most heavily upon ‘a relatively restricted group at the base of the social hierarchy’ (Reiner 2010, p. 177). 6 Creating the Story 30. Detective Vic Mackey, portrayed by Michael Chiklis, the main protagonist of the American police drama The Shield. Mackey was a corrupt detective in the Los Angeles Police Department who routinely beat suspects and committed murders. 7 Looking Beyond The Bill 31. Tony Blair, a Labour Party politician who served as British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. 32. The Police Staff College at Bramshill in Hampshire was the principal police staff training establishment for England and Wales, prior to the establish- ment of the College of Policing in 2012. 33. Jamshid Ali Dizaei (born 1962) is a former Commander in London’s Metropolitan Police Service and was formerly one of Britain’s more senior Muslim police officers. He was jailed for perverting the course of justice in February 2010. 34. Blue Peter is a British children’s television programme. It first aired in 1958. Notes 241 35. Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, with plots often based on real cases. 36. ‘Sarah’s Law’ was named after Sarah Payne, who was murdered by a sex offender in 2000. The law allows parents to check if someone in contact with their child is a sex offender. In the US, ‘Megan’s Law’ required law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regard- ing registered sex offenders following the rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka. 37. Joanna Yeates was a 25-year-old architect who was murdered in December 2010. 38. Law & Order UK (2009–present) is a police procedural and legal drama set in the UK and following the format of the US version. 39. Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama, It was screened in 1990 and follows an investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper into the murder of Laura Palmer. The show was notable for its strong sense of surrealism. 40. Mad Men is a US television period drama series set in the world of advertising in New York. It was first shown in 2007 and the final series will air in 2015. The Wire is an American crime drama television series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. It premiered in 2002 and ended in 2008. 8 The Function and Importance of the Television Police Show in Shaping Public Understanding 41. This refers to the incident at Hillsborough Football Stadium on 15 April 1989, in which 96 people were crushed to death. 42. The ‘Plebgate’ scandal related to an incident in which police officers on duty at Downing Street alleged that Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, the Gov- ernment Chief Whip at the time (who later resigned because of the incident), called them ‘plebs’ (a pejorative word signifying someone of low social class).