There is limited technology for the police to work from, limited use of cars which could be a potential problem but due to the fact that there is not much violence, hardly ever a chase and minimal use of weapons the don’t really need the technology and the cars as they hardly ever use them.
The police are trust worthy and always get their man; they have a close relationship with the villagers and call each other by their first and last name. So due to the fact that there is not much crime and when there is, it is similar the police of Aidensfield are very effective.
So from the opening the viewer of this program can expect to see friendliness and good overcoming evil.
Pop music is also a big feature of this ongoing series because it captures the mood and actions of the people while they are going about there daily routine e.g. ‘My Generation’ is used when showing the teenagers in a bad light.
The audience expect to see a battle between good and bad and they expect to see victory by the good, they expect to see dramatic flowery wallpaper as this was the décor of that time, they would expect to see a bobby on the beat etc.
Whereas in total contrast the opening titles of In Deep gives us a kaleidoscope of images, the colours are dark which have connotations of mystery suspense and aggression.
In Deep is set in the present time and is concerned with undercover police. It opens with lots of images flashing up, first with the main characters and their names and screen names embedded in cut paper that is shown at the bottom of the screen. Then we see the two main characters undercover going into a prison doing lots of dodgy talking. There is lots of action, police chases etc so straight from the outset we can expect to see lots of action, corruption within the police force and we expect to see the characters personal lives delved into. The methods of the police in ‘In Deep’ include violence, which reflects the change in culture and ideology changes in society. Also the way the police go about ding there job in ‘In Deep’ uses many devices such as computers, lap tops, mobile device trackers to go about piecing all the information they have to catch there man. Women are seen as in powerful positions in police force which again reflects the change in culture as you wouldn’t expect to even see a woman in the police force at all back in the 60’s but now due to equal rights women deservedly have a vital role to play in the police force.
The police go undercover to get a taste of what its like to live like a criminal and eventually get there man, this can only be shown because crimes these days have dramatically changed. These sorts of crimes that we see in ‘In Deep’ were unheard of in the 60’s.
Finally the viewer of this program can there fore expect to see guns, murders, fights, blood clues etc because sadly this is what we have come to expect in this day and age.
So we can see that realism has a vital role to play in how effective a crime drama is. If the props etc didn’t fit in you wouldn’t have a crime drama at all, you would most likely have a comedy. Also the fact that culture and ideology has changed has played the biggest part in the way crime dramas are made. We’ve gone from Dixon of Docks Green in the 50’s where a bobby patrols the beat to In Deep now where there are mastermind criminals performing brutal/fatal acts.
