I’d like to nominate the cliche ridden British TV crime drama. Stock characters :
1) Tough, no nonsense, female head of the squad.
2) Wimpy stay-at-home husband of above. Looks after the kids, as top cop is too busy furthering her career by brown-nosing the commander and shitting on everyone else.
3)Veteran detective, white, male, alcoholic, divorced. Disliked by female boss, who sees him as a dinosaur, misogynist etc…(even though he gets the job done).
4) Ex wife of veteran detective, now with a new husband (a smarmy, arrogant git). She plays no real part in the story, but is included for whatever reason the producer can think of.
5) Rebellious teenage daughter of veteran detective, possibly involved with an anarchist group, or an older man who is just using her for his own nefarious purposes.
6) Drug addict son of veteran detective, in hock to drug dealers or loan shark. Either that or he’s suffering from mental problems.
7) Two smart arse newly promoted young detectives, one male, one female. Probably both ethnic minority. One or both will have a white spouse or partner (most likely one will be a same-sex partnership, almost a certainty if BBC, although ITV aren’t too far behind).
8) Smart arse young WPC who does all the hard work on her own, in the background – the engine who keeps everything going.
9) Geeky IT expert who fancies number 8 above.
10) At least one gay character – could be anyone, has to be included somewhere in the storyline.
All of the above thrown into a tedious eight part series, encompassing a load of red herrings, tedious sub plots about relationships and family situations, of no relevance to the main story, which will usually be the disappearance of a teenage girl and its effect on a community, seen from a load of different viewpoints.
Take out all the shite and it could be pared down to two episodes at the most. But it would still be crap. Thank heavens for ITV4. I can watch Sweeney and The Professionals till the cows come home.
Nominated by Mystic Maven



