Crime dramas such as Better, The Capture and Karen Pirie increasingly depict officers as corrupt. Given the scandals that have eroded confidence in British police, it’s no wonder
When I was recovering at home after a brief stint in hospital in 2021, I spent weeks watching British crime dramas. I became adept at telling the red-herrings from the genuine clues, and the wrong ’uns from the unfairly accused. I didn’t care that these shows were often formulaic. In fact, that was part of the appeal.
Increasingly, that formula includes the bent copper. This week, BBC One aired the finale of Better, its latest contribution to the medium-budget crime mini-drama canon. Leila Farzad stars as DI Lou Slack, a corrupt Yorkshire detective in search of redemption after becoming involved in the world of organised crime. The Capture, another BBC One offering that is now on iPlayer, follows DI Rachel Carey (Holly Grainger), who finds herself battling corrupt police, politicians and MI5 agents, as she tries to bring the dystopian practice of “correction” – a deep-fake technology used to convict potentially innocent people – into the public realm. Last year, ITV’s Karen Pirie ended with a Fife police chief being unmasked as the murderer of a St Andrews barmaid.
