Detectives? Ever feel insulted?
Discussion
A question for any real detectives.
Do you feel insulted that TV and films, show your job being done by various other professions in their spare time?
There’s priests and assorted clergy , doctors, pathologists, magicians,judges, kids, dogs , upper class twits, and worst of all, busy body old ladies.
Do you feel insulted that TV and films, show your job being done by various other professions in their spare time?
There’s priests and assorted clergy , doctors, pathologists, magicians,judges, kids, dogs , upper class twits, and worst of all, busy body old ladies.
I’ve never thought about it like that. Even the average police drama is often very far from what I recognise as an average day, but then it has to be in order to keep anyone’s interest. No one wants to watch the endless bureaucracy that comprises the bulk of the hours spent on any decent investigation.
One example is senior officers conducting enquiries and interviews. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone other than DCs interviewing suspects for serious offences. Sergeants are supervisors, inspectors/chief inspectors are managers and superintendents are executives in my force - it may be different elsewhere.
When I see programmes showing DIs and DCIs running round doing basic enquiries, nicking suspects and so on it destroys any sense of reality for me.
My experience may be different to others; there could be DIs in other forces who still like to do their DCs work - the only example I can recall hearing about was a senior officer conducting an urgent interview with a murder suspect in order to find the body of a further victim. I’ve forgotten his name, but it was dramatised a few years ago.
The shows you’re referring to are complete fantasy and I approach them as such (and tend to avoid them).
One example is senior officers conducting enquiries and interviews. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone other than DCs interviewing suspects for serious offences. Sergeants are supervisors, inspectors/chief inspectors are managers and superintendents are executives in my force - it may be different elsewhere.
When I see programmes showing DIs and DCIs running round doing basic enquiries, nicking suspects and so on it destroys any sense of reality for me.
My experience may be different to others; there could be DIs in other forces who still like to do their DCs work - the only example I can recall hearing about was a senior officer conducting an urgent interview with a murder suspect in order to find the body of a further victim. I’ve forgotten his name, but it was dramatised a few years ago.
The shows you’re referring to are complete fantasy and I approach them as such (and tend to avoid them).
Isn't it a literary device with bugger all basis in actual fact ?
The amateur sleuths, Holmes, Miss Marple, Poirot, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, Jessica Fletcher.
Any real life instances of an amateur investigator actually solving a long unsolved crime where the
official authorities have drawn a blank ?
The amateur sleuths, Holmes, Miss Marple, Poirot, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, Jessica Fletcher.
Any real life instances of an amateur investigator actually solving a long unsolved crime where the
official authorities have drawn a blank ?
Is it any more or less silly than a tv detective show where every serious case seemingly involves at least one car chase?
Which reminds me, in the exciting world of wonderfully arbitrary covid-compliance measures one of the electrical wholesalers I use has set up huge rows of large empty cardboard boxes which should stop covid, and as I pointed out, are a bit of a magnet for out-of-control mk2 jags trying to outrun the special branch so look sharp.
Which reminds me, in the exciting world of wonderfully arbitrary covid-compliance measures one of the electrical wholesalers I use has set up huge rows of large empty cardboard boxes which should stop covid, and as I pointed out, are a bit of a magnet for out-of-control mk2 jags trying to outrun the special branch so look sharp.
I do realise that Miss Marple et al are fictitious.
I was just saying that there is no other profession portrayed as having their job by as many others.
I mean there’s no medical series where a doctor says “ agreed everyone , time of death ....”, then a policeman rushes in and the patient recovers.
I was just saying that there is no other profession portrayed as having their job by as many others.
I mean there’s no medical series where a doctor says “ agreed everyone , time of death ....”, then a policeman rushes in and the patient recovers.
Falconer said:
A question for any real detectives.
Do you feel insulted that TV and films, show your job being done by various other professions in their spare time?
There’s priests and assorted clergy , doctors, pathologists, magicians,judges, kids, dogs , upper class twits, and worst of all, busy body old ladies.
I always found them amusing, and would annoy the wife no end by telling her what they were doing wrong. Do you feel insulted that TV and films, show your job being done by various other professions in their spare time?
There’s priests and assorted clergy , doctors, pathologists, magicians,judges, kids, dogs , upper class twits, and worst of all, busy body old ladies.
Most of the concepts - especially the Agatha Christie type ones - work much better if you consider that the poor unlucky amateur detective surrounded by death wherever they go is really a serial killer fitting up poor innocents.
'Murder, She Wrote' is actually the chronicles of America's most prolific murderer.
'Murder, She Wrote' is actually the chronicles of America's most prolific murderer.
It has to be done by vicars and old ladies as all the real ones are mavericks who are emotionally screwed up, divorced, have dysfunctional relationships with their adult children, are always late, never play by the rules, are haunted by the case they never solved,and are always being knocked out by bad guys when they go into old factories with no back up
pquinn said:
Most of the concepts - especially the Agatha Christie type ones - work much better if you consider that the poor unlucky amateur detective surrounded by death wherever they go is really a serial killer fitting up poor innocents.
'Murder, She Wrote' is actually the chronicles of America's most prolific murderer.
That would have made a pretty awesome twist for the final episode 'Murder, She Wrote' is actually the chronicles of America's most prolific murderer.
Big Red Cat said:
Or Silent Witness where pathologists run around interviewing witnesses & solving crimes, they don't seem to do many autopsies.
At least Waking the Dead made more sense as it was a police team working with the boffins.
Same with CSI - for some reason the CSI detectives would be assisting police with raids and chasing suspectsAt least Waking the Dead made more sense as it was a police team working with the boffins.
There I was thinking ‘The Sweeney’ was a documentary!
NB : producer Ted Child’s took on the services of a Flying Squad officer as an advisor when pre production began in 1974. In the pilot film ‘Reagan’ John Thaw is seen driving himself round in the Mk1 Consul, but in the series proper he has his own dedicated drivers, so at least they got that part right. As I understand it though, most of the squad’s real activities took place at night, but in the show it’ s mostly during office hours.
NB : producer Ted Child’s took on the services of a Flying Squad officer as an advisor when pre production began in 1974. In the pilot film ‘Reagan’ John Thaw is seen driving himself round in the Mk1 Consul, but in the series proper he has his own dedicated drivers, so at least they got that part right. As I understand it though, most of the squad’s real activities took place at night, but in the show it’ s mostly during office hours.
P5BNij said:
There I was thinking ‘The Sweeney’ was a documentary!
NB : producer Ted Child’s took on the services of a Flying Squad officer as an advisor when pre production began in 1974. In the pilot film ‘Reagan’ John Thaw is seen driving himself round in the Mk1 Consul, but in the series proper he has his own dedicated drivers, so at least they got that part right. As I understand it though, most of the squad’s real activities took place at night, but in the show it’ s mostly during office hours.
A relative, long retired from one of the regional crime squads, reckons The Sweeney was quite realistic of its time, apart from over-use of guns. The baddies often never got to Court due to the evidence being dodgy.NB : producer Ted Child’s took on the services of a Flying Squad officer as an advisor when pre production began in 1974. In the pilot film ‘Reagan’ John Thaw is seen driving himself round in the Mk1 Consul, but in the series proper he has his own dedicated drivers, so at least they got that part right. As I understand it though, most of the squad’s real activities took place at night, but in the show it’ s mostly during office hours.
LeadFarmer said:
On TV when the suspects solicitor sits with them in the interview and doesn't say anything other than look with disapprovement when the cops questions become oppressive!!
There's a solicitor played in Jason Watkins in a Life on Mars episode (might be the very last one) who takes a different approach.What impresses me is the way detectives suspended as a result of getting too close to the truth are always filling the time by doing some useful DIY instead of sitting on the sofa feeling sorry for themselves like anyone else would.
I think it's the the detective's bosses that should fell insulted. In police shows, the detective is always on the right lines, but it's his or her boss that's the idiot, cannot see it, tells them to drop it, etc. Haskins in the Sweeny, Strange in Morse, all utter idiots.
How did they ever rise to that rank in the first place if they are so useless.
How did they ever rise to that rank in the first place if they are so useless.
LeadFarmer said:
On TV when the suspects solicitor sits with them in the interview and doesn't say anything other than look with disapprovement when the cops questions become oppressive!!
I dunno, I watched a documentary series called "Suits" which was about the legal system in the US, and they were constantly objecting to everything said.TwigtheWonderkid said:
I think it's the the detective's bosses that should fell insulted. In police shows, the detective is always on the right lines, but it's his or her boss that's the idiot, cannot see it, tells them to drop it, etc. Haskins in the Sweeny, Strange in Morse, all utter idiots.
How did they ever rise to that rank in the first place if they are so useless.
A question we often asked about our 'leadership'How did they ever rise to that rank in the first place if they are so useless.
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