A Case Study of Production Processes on Television Police Drama “The Bill”
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The London School of Economics and Political Science Watching the Cops: a case study of production processes on television police drama “The Bill” Marianne Colbran A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, September 2011 Page 1 of 312 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 88,000 words. Page 2 of 312 Abstract This thesis examines the process of storytelling on television police drama, The Bill. It explores how factors such as commercial imperatives, working processes and artistic constraints affected representation of the police. The study argues that, in the early days of the show, stories originated with the freelance writers and were based on research and observation of police work. Representation of the police was favourable, partly due to the ideological views of the makers and partly due to the format: stories had to be resolved within a half-hour timeslot, which militated against writers being able to tell stories about issues such as racism, sexism and corruption. However, due to changing market forces in the television industry, the show reinvented itself as a serial in 2001. The exigencies of the new schedule meant less time for research. There was also pressure on the makers to attract a younger audience demographic. Stories were now originated by an in-house team and based on other media sources, setting up “media loops” (Manning 2003) and a recycling of ideas current in media culture about policing and law and order politics. Story-lines became inaccurate and controversial. Findings from focus groups with officers from the Metropolitan Police Service and the Greater Manchester Police also showed that, on occasion, story-lines concerning the handling of witnesses on the show and interview procedures had hampered officers when carrying out investigations. The study concludes that, to echo Silverstone (1985), there is an arbitrariness at the heart of making any television show – that whether the Page 3 of 312 police are depicted favourably or unfavourably is determined as much by the need to attract a certain audience demographic and restrictions in the format as by any ideological intent on the part of the programme-makers. Page 4 of 312 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to all those staff and writers from The Bill, from throughout its history, who gave up so much of their time to talk to me and answer my questions. I would also like to thank all those from other shows, who also helped me with my fieldwork and were equally generous with their time. Secondly, I would like to express huge thanks to my wonderful supervisors at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor Paul Rock, Professor Robert Reiner and Dr. Janet Foster. They were, throughout the process, and particularly in the last few months when I bombarded them with endless rewritten chapters, a source of huge support and wisdom and gave me the confidence to think that I could attempt a career change. I really can‟t thank them enough for all their kindness, help and endless patience. I would also like to say thank you to my good friends and fellow students, Peter Dunn and Roxana Bratu, for their encouragement throughout the process – and making me laugh along the way – and indeed to all my other non-criminologist friends, especially Helen, Ruth, Martin, Ali and Cathy who‟ve also kept me going and were so kind when my husband, Phil, had a serious accident halfway through finishing my thesis. An especial thanks also has to go to my dear friend, Gareth, for opening doors and making a number of interviews possible for me. Last but not least, I owe a huge debt of thanks to my husband, Phil, who went over and above the call of duty in helping me pull this together and without whose love and support, this would not have been possible. I‟d also Page 5 of 312 like to reserve one last thought for my very wonderful mum and I wish she were still here to see me finish this thesis. Page 6 of 312 Table of contents List of diagrams and figures 10 Outline of chapters 11 Outline of chapters 11 Chapter One: Introduction 15 1. Background to the study 15 1.1 Research questions 18 2. The importance of mass media images of policing in society 19 3. Reasons for choosing The Bill as a case study 21 4. Literature review 21 4.1 Representation of the police, crime and criminals 22 4.2 The development of the police procedural 25 4.3 Production research 37 5. Theoretical framework for the thesis 51 6. The “circuit of culture” 52 7. Conclusion 57 Chapter Two: Research methods 59 1. Introduction 59 2. Research design 59 3. Reasons for choosing ethnography and other methodologies as a research approach 60 3.1 The practice of ethnography: strengths and weaknesses as a research approach 61 3.2 Reasons for choosing mixed methods approach 62 4. Gaining access: advantages and disadvantages of being an “insider” 65 5. The experience of being in “the field” 70 6. Interviews 73 6.1 Selecting informants 74 6.2 Interviews with creative personnel on The Bill: February – July 2007 75 6.3 Interviews with former production staff on The Bill: July 2007 – March 2008 77 6.4 Interviews with personnel on other police shows: July 2007 – June 2008 79 6.5 Focus groups 81 7. Analysis 82 8. Ethics 86 9. Conclusion 88 Chapter Three: Inside the world of The Bill 89 1. Introduction 89 2. History of The Bill 89 Page 7 of 312 3. Inside the studio: The process of creating and developing stories 91 3.1 Major decision makers on the show 1983 – 2001 92 3.2 Changes in the story production team 2001 – 2010 97 3.3 In the studio: the working culture of The Bill 101 3.4 The world of the cultural bureaucracy 103 3.5 The world of the commercial bureaucracy 114 4. Conclusion 124 Chapter Four: The origins of story ideas 126 1. Introduction 126 2. Finding Stories on The Bill 1983 – 2001 129 2.1 Internal sources 129 2.2 Source origins 134 2.3 Media origins 140 2.4 Why working practices changed 142 3. Finding stories on The Bill 2001 – 2010 144 3.1 Media origins 144 3.2 Internal sources 152 3.3 Source origins 154 4. Conclusion 157 Chapter Five: Influences on the story-line 160 1. Introduction 160 2. Commercial imperatives and how these affected the storytelling process 162 2.1 Phase 1 1983 – 1998 162 2.2 Phase 2 1998 – 2005 173 2.3 Phase 3 2005 – 2010 181 3. Working processes on The Bill 185 3.1 Phase 1 1983 – 2001 185 3.2 Phase 2 2001 – 2010 187 4. Artistic considerations 191 4.1 Phase 1 1983 – 2001 191 4.2 Phase 2 2001 – 2010 195 5. Conclusion 198 Chapter Six: Creating the story 200 1. Introduction 200 2. Overview of the story creation process 201 3. Creating the story-line 205 4. The origins of the idea 206 5. Stage one: Brainstorming 209 5.1 Preparation 209 5.2 The brainstorming meeting 210 Page 8 of 312 6. Stage two: The planning meeting 219 6.1 Developments prior to the planning meeting 220 6.2 The planning meeting 225 7. Stage three: The commissioning meeting 230 8. Stage four: The final scripts 233 9. Conclusion 234 Chapter Seven: The ‘old Bill’ on The Bill 238 1. Introduction 238 2. The research 239 3. Do police officers perceive that mass media images of policing have an impact on police work and interaction with the public? 241 4. How do police officers perceive representations of policing might affect public perceptions and expectations of policing? 250 5. How might police officers wish to see themselves portrayed in television drama? 256 6. Conclusion 265 Chapter Eight: The function and importance of the television police show in shaping public understanding 267 1. Introduction 267 2. Being an insider: fielding familiarity 268 2.1 Representation of the police on The Bill 1983 – 2001: “the small change of policing” 270 2.2 Representation of the police on The Bill 2001 – 2010: “a cast of murderers, psychopaths, child molesters and arsonists, all of them in police uniform” 275 3. The lifecycle of the police drama 281 4. The function of the police procedural 287 5. The haphazard nature of television production and the ramifications for audiences 293 Bibliography 300 Page 9 of 312 List of diagrams and figures Diagram 1.1 Johnson’s (1986) “circuit of culture” 54 Diagram 1.2 Du Gay et al.’s (1997) “circuit of culture” 55 Figure 2.1 Timetable of research 74 Figure 3.1 Roles in the story development process 92 Figure 3.2 Chain of command in the story production team 98 Figure 4.1 Theoretical framework for my thesis, based on Du Gay et al.’s (1997) interpretation of the “circuit of culture” 127 Figure 4.2 Origins of stories for the show 129 Figure 4.3 Viewing figures 142 Figure 5.1 Sets of factors affecting the development of story-lines on The Bill 161 Figure 5.2 The development of story-lines on The Bill based on Du Gay et al.’s (1997) interpretation of the “circuit of culture” 184 Figure 6.1 Influences on the development of the story-line 201 Figure 6.2 Process of creating story-lines 202 Page 10 of 312 Outline of chapters In Chapter One, I outline my research and reasons for choosing to study production processes on a popular television drama.