Prime Suspect

Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison,was a grim UK police drama that becameone of the most talked about programs in recent memory. Deborah Jermyn's study of the series examines exactly what made Prime Suspect so distinctive, so controversial and, ultimately, so influential, its innovations transforming the tv crime drama. Jermyn places the series in the context of tv crime fictions that had gone before it, particularly those featuring female detectives, such as Cagney and Lacey.Jermyn also addresses the institutionalized sexism and misogyny that Tennison confronts to real-life discrimation and prejudice that has dogged British policing and attitudes to women, whether as investigators or victims. Jermyn highlights the formal and aesthetic innovations of Prime Suspect, in its attention to the detail of forensic work; its unflinching portrayal of the dead bodies of its murder victims and the cinematic shooting style with frequent use of deep focus and bravura camera angles. Her close analysis of key scenes demonstrates how the program adopted an intricate camera style to differentiate and isolate Tennison from her colleagues.