Jill and Stephanie led way on arresting TV favourites showcasing policewomen
More than 40 years ago the representation of female police officers on British television changed forever with the introduction of two pivotal drama series
The Gentle Touch and Juliet Bravo.
Both featured women occupying positions of authority, trust and responsibility within the police force and paved the way for the portrayal of female senior police officers in subsequent programmes to be challenged and renegotiated, as Steve Cain investigates.
Launched in 1980, both The Gentle Touch and Juliet Bravo showed women in senior police positions dealing with personal and professional problems, whilst also battling sexism, distrust and resentment from their male colleagues – but from differing perspectives.
It is, in all probability, due to these groundbreaking series’ that contemporary policewomen are less likely to be shown only as ministering angels providing tea and sympathy.
In The Gentle Touch, which debuted four months prior to Juliet Bravo, Maggie Forbes, played by Jill Gascoine, who died last year, found herself simultaneously promoted to the rank of Detective Inspector and widowed by the murder of her husband, Ray.
She also had to deal with problems from her elderly father George and her teenage son Steve.
Shown at 9pm on Friday evenings, the ITV series – created by Terence Feely – offered a frank and unflinching depiction of gritty social issues and became compulsive viewing, attracting up to 18 million viewers, and making Gascoine a household name.
In Juliet Bravo, Inspector Jean Darblay, played by Stephanie Turner, took over the patch of Hartley, a small fictional town in Lancashire, and found herself having to earn the respect of the locals and master the skills associated with community policing.
Devised by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had already created The Sweeney, the character of Jean Darblay was based on a real female police inspector, Wynne Darwin.
Whereas The Gentle Touch saw DI Maggie Forbes posted at London’s Seven Dials police station, covering the areas of Soho and Covent Garden, Juliet Bravo was more cosy and reassuring, with an emphasis on human drama rather than sensational crime.
It quickly established itself as one of the most popular Saturday night dramas shown on the BBC.
“I actually auditioned for The Gentle Touch, which I didn’t get,” said Turner. “Shortly after came Juliet Bravo and the character of Jean Darblay, a career policewoman – fair, honest and with good humour.”
Initially, though, there were doubts about the series.
“People weren’t sure of Jean at first or if Juliet Bravo would work,” said Turner. ‘But, with 17 million viewers every Saturday night, popping to the shop for a bag of peas was never the same again for me.”
It was the fear of Juliet Bravo overshadowing the rest of her career that prompted Stephanie Turner to quit at the height of the show’s popularity.
“In those days, you risked being typecast by doing a series,” she said. “I was worried that if I stayed any longer than three series, I wouldn’t work in television again.”
However, Turner’s decision to leave the series didn’t mean its demise – a new female Inspector was simply brought in on promotion. Kate Longton, played by Anna Carteret, was tougher and more ambitious than Jean Darblay, which resulted in frequent clashes with her male seniors.
The change of cast did not diminish the success of
Juliet Bravo and it ran for a further three series, with both Turner and Carteret appearing in 44 episodes each, before ending in December 1985. The Gentle Touch notched-up 56 episodes across a five-series run.
Indeed, the popularity of Jill Gascoine as Maggie Forbes, in The Gentle Touch, resulted in a spin-off series, CATS Eyes. Also conceived by Terence Feely, it saw Forbes leading a female team of Home Office secret agents. Although a ratings success, Gascoine admitted it ‘got a bit silly’ and nicknamed it ‘Charlie’s Angels in Kent’.
Undoubtedly, both Maggie Forbes and Jean Darblay were prototypes that influenced the creation of Sergeant June Ackland, Trudie Goodwin, Sergeant Sheelagh Murphy, Bernie Nolan, and Sergeant Nikki Wright, Gillian Taylforth, in ITV’s The Bill.
They all seemed saintly paragons of virtue and morality and the no-nonsense whiskey-swigging, heavysmoking Inspector Gina Gold, Roberta Taylor, who refused to bow to political correctness and was not averse to using every trick in the book to swing things her way, paled in comparison to Helen Mirren’s tough-talking, hard-drinking DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect.
Tennison had difficulty achieving a balance between her professional and personal life and struggled to maintain stable relationships. Helen Mirren described her character as “extremely direct, ambitious, talented and uncompromising. Therefore she is deeply frustrated by her job; the way her sex is a barrier”.
The character of Jane Tennison was also based on a real detective, Jackie Malton. Author Lynda La Plante who wrote Prime Suspect spent time shadowing Malton and observed: “As officer’s jostle to get to the top, there is certainly prejudice against women. A woman must be stronger than a man to survive in such a world and Jackie gained extraordinary respect from her male colleagues because she ate, slept and breathed the job.”
In their own way, both
The Bill and Prime Suspect played significant roles in further challenging the stereotypical image of a woman in charge. Such characters have remained popular ever since and it is now not uncommon to see police dramas with a woman playing the lead character.
Brenda Blethyn, who portrays the dishevelled and irascible DCI Vera Stanhope, says playing such a strong character is a joy. Set in the North East of England, the drama is inspired by the novels and characters created by crime writer Ann Cleeves.
“Because she’s so well written – Ann has described her so well – and because she’s lived with me for all this time, I feel like I know her well. It’s easy for me to revisit her with joy. I love it.”
Shows including Maisie Raine, Blue Murder, Happy Valley and, of course, Vera have proven to be ratings winners and gave their male counterparts, such as Lewis and DCI Banks, a run for their money.
In the 1980s, serials such as The Gentle Touch and Juliet Bravo may have walked the beat at a gentler pace than some of today’s dramas.
However, without the arresting performances given by Jill Gascoine and Stephanie Turner, as Maggie Forbes and Jean Darblay respectively, justice may not have been done and we may never have seen high-ranking women police officers represented in a way that allows them to be flawed and fallible, yet equally as successful as their male colleagues.