File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2004/postcolonial.0404, message 55


Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 12:35:06 -0400
From: "Anthony McCann" <mccannat-AT-si.edu>
Subject: Re: law and order in Ireland


Hi Yvonne,

Be careful about your assertions. Local police drama has happened in Ireland, but like so many issues the continued lack of a certain type/any type of local programming often comes down to a lack of budget. TV drama costs a lot of money, particularly high quality police/law drama.  You might want to interview the makers of "Making the Cut" (see below) to see what they think. It might be better to take a positive outlook and assume there are such representations and try to find them ... I'm guessing there are plenty. What becomes important is how influential they may have been. It also depends on what you mean by 'positive representations'. Do you mean non-stereotypical, smilie-smilie, realistic ...?

I'm guessing you are probably being supervised by ...
http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/itvd.htm

Ballykissangel eventually had positive representations of police. 

The following quotation is from a website at DCU about an Irish police drama ...

"I want to take this opportunity to put in a few words about a drama which I think is the best thing that has come out of RTE in recent times. It's an Irish detective drama featuring the brilliant Sean McGinley, called Making the Cut. The new series is called DDU and it started tonight. DDU, (District Detective Unit) is a perfect continuation of the original series. As far as I can remember, Making the Cut took the form of three two-part programmes. It's set in a fictional inner city area in Waterford. The acting is amazing and the core group of five or six actors should be commended for this. The storylines are real and gritty. They hold no favours with anyone as each episode reveals something about the crime scene in Dublin and occasionally other parts of the country aswell. As far as I am aware this is the first show of its kind. I don't think that there is any other programme that deals with Irish detectives in any way, let alone in the hard-hitting style of this programme. 

DDU, deals with drugs and prostitute killings in the latest episode. It gives somewhat of an insight into the sordid Dublin night scene and I don't think any of the details are fictional. As far as the script is concerned there is nothing rosy about the plot or the language. The language used is real and the writers aren't afraid to use swear words. Sometimes I find that scriptwriters use curses to make their scripts more 'real' but that is not the case with Making the Cut/ DDU. Swear words are used as the characters would naturally use them in ordinary speech. What I find great about this drama is its realism. There is no padding, no exaggeration, no falsities. It's all real. It may be ugly and hard to accept, but it's all real." 

The site: http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/tv/tvd99/perry1.htm

The work I have done looks a little at issues of law and regulation in Ireland
http://www.beyondthecommons.com

All the best,

Anthony McCann


>>> yvonne.hogan-AT-dcu.ie 04/29/04 07:47 AM >>>
Hi All,

I am doing a PhD in communications in which I am trying to ascertain as
to why Ireland does not have/has not had police drama on TV or even
positive representations of police in film.

Would anybody be able to suggest texts dealing with law and order in
Ireland from a postcolonial perspective?

regards,

Yvonne Hogan


     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005