Forget all those fictional coppers, this was the real face of policing
Pity the fictional copper. Since the Victorian era when poor old inspector Lestrade was bumbling around Baker Street after Sherlock Holmes, storybook policemen have had a rough ride.
But too many dramas today portray Britain’s detectives as not merely dim, but corrupt and bigoted. Gone is the forgiving era of the Sweeney, when the force cut corners but always nicked their villains.
Now every chief constable, in shows from Unforgiven to Line Of Duty, is intent on covering up murder — either for their public image or to placate gang lords.
in itV’s execrable Monday night serial, Fearless, we see police falsify confessions, harass lawyers, misuse anti-terror legislation and allow vigilante mobs to attack suspects.
it feels as though some writers are pursuing a vendetta to cast the forces of law and order as agents of oppression. thankfully, The Met: Policing London (BBC1) has been redressing the balance, by allowing real coppers to show us how they do their jobs.
PC Paul Molyneux, who knows every sidestreet of Ealing after 30 years on patrol, is approaching retirement and seems long resigned to the reality that there will always be toerag criminals — the kind who steal cars, burgle houses, get caught and do it again.
the law has little sanction against the PPO or ‘prolific persistent offender’. ‘the police run themselves ragged trying to catch them, and then the courts let them go,’ says Paul.
He claims the frustration has made him ‘cynical and twisted’, but that’s not true — like many old hands, Paul protects himself with healthy doses of sarcasm.
After a 60mph night-time car chase through the capital’s streets, he clapped the suspect on the shoulder as he slapped the handcuffs on, and told him: ‘Nice to meet you.’
A lifetime on the beat might wear you down, but it gives experience that can never be learned in the lecture hall. Spotting a man talking on his mobile phone by lock-up garages, Paul knew instantly that a drug handover was imminent. No one else would have given the scene a second glance — but Paul was right.
you won’t see policing as assured and knowledgable as that on any drama. And you’re unlikely to see murder detectives use such a cheesy trick as the one that wrapped up an inquiry after a disabled man was beaten to death with a golf club.
the police knew who had done it, but they couldn’t extract a confession — until they told the killer that his own mum had shopped him.
the murderer’s face crumpled, like a child who’d dropped his ice cream.
the police weren’t the only heroes of the evening: a wounded Afghanistan veteran, raising funds to help injured comrades while preparing for the invictus Games, got a well-deserved visit from Alan titchmarsh’s team on Love Your Garden (itV).
Ex-Royal Marine Mark Ormrod, who lost both legs and an arm serving with 40 Commando nine years ago, could tackle just about everything — including a 3,530 mile run across the U.S.
But his battered back garden was more than he could manage. Alan’s solution had a military feel, with plenty of battleship grey paint and a 4ft-high replica of the Marines’ cap badge for a lawn ornament.
Since this was south Devon, there was even a palm tree. the transformation was effective rather than stupendous, but the real pleasure was in seeing a British hero getting some small reward — and, like the underappreciated coppers, a bit of overdue recognition.
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT: Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the duo who revived and then ruined Sherlock Holmes, are now turning their attention to Dracula. Please don’t do it, chaps. Some things are better left undead.