On who can work for the police these days
Today I watched the mystery series Manhunt (2019), featuring Doc Martin’s sour-faced Martin Clunes.
Look at him.
I decided that British TV insidiously promotes the belief – the ideology – that practically anyone could work as a Detective Inspector.
In the halcyon days, detectives in fiction were either private consultants (Sherlock Holmes; Hercule Poirot) or else amateur busybodies (Father Brown; Lord Peter Wimsey; Jane Marple). It was easy enough to accept their quirks. At least those sleuths weren’t representatives of the state. One could keep one’s imagination untainted by bureaucratic matters.
Now, the bureaucracy is almost the main feature. Viewers have come to understand that sleuthing is only feasibly done by the police. Consequently, almost all of today’s detectives are public servants.
In and of itself, this is realistic. The corollary it generates is anything but.
Now we have a parade of crime shows in which every actor who’s made an impression, irrespective of style, in a soap opera, period drama, or comedy gets a turn as a Detective Chief Inspector or Detective Sergeant. (If the actor really, really looks like a goblin, he or she can only rise as high as Medical Examiner.) Yes, some actors are specialists: Douglas Henshell has played a DI on at least five different crime dramas since 2009. But the prevailing attitude seems to be: “You were a valet or a lady’s maid on Downton Abbey. Go on now, take a turn as a DCI.” I can think of at least four Downton servants, and at least four soap stars from Last Tango in Halifax, who’ve switched to policing.
Brenda Blethyn, who, in the fullness of time, might have played Miss Marple, has long investigated murders on Tyneside. Could one such as her character, Vera Stanhope, become a DCI in real life? Yes. Could all these scene-stealers, cumulatively, be DCIs? That is, could Brenda Blethyn and Martin Clunes and Nicola Walker and Kevin Doyle (Mr. Moleseley of Downton Abbey) all struggle with their demons while ordering the lower ranks to comb through the CCTV footage? The system would fall apart.
One suspects that if John Gielgud were still alive, he’d be playing an embattled, semi-retired Superintendent.
Meanwhile, I await the investigations of DCI Richard Ayoade.
Look at him.
I decided that British TV insidiously promotes the belief – the ideology – that practically anyone could work as a Detective Inspector.
In the halcyon days, detectives in fiction were either private consultants (Sherlock Holmes; Hercule Poirot) or else amateur busybodies (Father Brown; Lord Peter Wimsey; Jane Marple). It was easy enough to accept their quirks. At least those sleuths weren’t representatives of the state. One could keep one’s imagination untainted by bureaucratic matters.
Now, the bureaucracy is almost the main feature. Viewers have come to understand that sleuthing is only feasibly done by the police. Consequently, almost all of today’s detectives are public servants.
In and of itself, this is realistic. The corollary it generates is anything but.
Now we have a parade of crime shows in which every actor who’s made an impression, irrespective of style, in a soap opera, period drama, or comedy gets a turn as a Detective Chief Inspector or Detective Sergeant. (If the actor really, really looks like a goblin, he or she can only rise as high as Medical Examiner.) Yes, some actors are specialists: Douglas Henshell has played a DI on at least five different crime dramas since 2009. But the prevailing attitude seems to be: “You were a valet or a lady’s maid on Downton Abbey. Go on now, take a turn as a DCI.” I can think of at least four Downton servants, and at least four soap stars from Last Tango in Halifax, who’ve switched to policing.
Brenda Blethyn, who, in the fullness of time, might have played Miss Marple, has long investigated murders on Tyneside. Could one such as her character, Vera Stanhope, become a DCI in real life? Yes. Could all these scene-stealers, cumulatively, be DCIs? That is, could Brenda Blethyn and Martin Clunes and Nicola Walker and Kevin Doyle (Mr. Moleseley of Downton Abbey) all struggle with their demons while ordering the lower ranks to comb through the CCTV footage? The system would fall apart.
One suspects that if John Gielgud were still alive, he’d be playing an embattled, semi-retired Superintendent.
Meanwhile, I await the investigations of DCI Richard Ayoade.