New episode out now! We cover the first episode of Prime Suspect 1973 (or Prime Suspect: Tennison if you’re American), a 2017 prequel series about the early days of Jane Tennison’s law enforcement career. We enjoyed the more nuanced take it had regarding many things, including how the detectives treated drug users, how they presented the autopsy scene, and the time the show spent on the grief of the family. We discuss the differences in how the women of the police force are treated versus the men, talk about how they establish “good cop” Len Bradfield and the “bad cops” of the other detectives, love the character of Morgan and how competent she is, and continue to not understand London police organization. We love the 1970s setting and think it really adds a whole other level to the show; the costumes, set decoration, and especially the excellent music selection really enhanced the vibe. Katy points out multiple obvious things, Carrie was not impressed by the wigs, Maddy leads a moment of silence, and Mack thought there were too many greasy white boys. We also discuss the trope of a quirky medical examiner and how shows try to deal with the reality of a dead body, get excited about radios and ticker tape, learn Carrie was right about London buildings being cleaner, and do not approve of puking on screen. Listen to hear more about bleached Henry Cavill, British accents, Scone Palace, Night Court, and more! Plus, try to figure out which one of us had Covid while recording, which one was hungover, and which one had a few audio dropouts fixed in post! Enjoy!

TW: Drug addiction, sex work, sex work of a minor, murder of a sex worker, police abuse, misogyny, quality of low income housing, Grenfell Tower fire

Show Notes:

It should be noted that one theory as to why the police force seemed to be more delicate/nonchalant about the drug use and methadone clinic is that this does take place both in the UK and pre-Reagan and the “War On Drugs”, which very much criminalized and villainized drug use, especially in communities of lower income. The focus shifted to criminalization and prison rather than any sort of addiction treatment or rehabilitation.
One possible origin of the quirky coroner/medical examiner is the Canadian show Wojeck that aired from 1966-1968, about a “coroner who regularly fights moral injustices raised by the deaths he investigated”. According to Wikipedia this was the first Western TV series to feature forensic pathology as the main investigative resource for crime solving. This show then inspired Quincy, M.E., a popular American show that aired from 1976-1983 about a LA County medical examiner, who was more quirky than the coroner character in Wojeck.
About the Grenfell Tower fire from Wikipedia: “On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. Seventy people died at the scene, and two people died later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 escaping”. More details here from Wikipedia and here from the BBC.

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