Ben Lamb 
You’re nicked 
Investigating British television police series

You’re nicked is the first comprehensive study of television police series in the UK. It shows how British television’s most popular genre has developed stylistically, politically and philosophically from 1955 to the present. Each chapter focuses on a particular decade, investigating how the most-watched series represent the inner workings of the police station, the civilian life of criminals and the private lives of police officers. This new methodological approach unearths the complex ideology underpinning each series and discerns the key insights the genre can provide into the breakdown of the post-war settlement. A must-have for scholars and students of British history, television, sociology and criminology, the book will also be of interest to crime-drama enthusiasts worldwide.

Table of Content

Introduction: defining a genre
1 The 1950s and 1960s: a genre comes into its own
2 The 1970s: an action-fuelled filmic decade?
3 The 1980s: emergent feminist thought and resurgent video cameras
4 The 1990s: transitioning from film to digital
5 The 2000s: looking to the past
6 The 2010s: looking to pastures new
Conclusion: good evening, all
Index

About the author

Jonathan Bignell is Reader in Television and Film at the University of Reading, and Director of the Centre for Television Drama Studies