The appeal of TV police drama Essay Example for Free

The appeal of TV police drama Essay Discuss the appeal of TV police drama with particular reference to The Bill and In Deep The Bill, shown on ITV1 at around 8.00, and In Deep shown on BBC1 at around 9.00, and after the news, are both police dramas. Therefore, they both are targeted to police drama fans. However, there are differences between two. In The Bill, there are lots of different codes and conventions found in typical police dramas. For example, there is a police station, panda cars, uniformed and plain clothed police, who carry out everyday tasks, such as dealing with burglary, assault, and racial abuse. In In Deep, there are also lots of codes and conventions of police drama, but they are different to that found in The Bill. For example, the policemen are plain clothed undercover policemen, there is a secret operation, cover stories, involvement in drugs, and 24 hour surveillance on a potential bad guy, which gives the program more of a gangster police drama feel about it. In The Bill, the narrative structure is very different to that in In Deep. It has very quick scene changes, and lots of intertwining storylines, very like a soap opera, in that there are many storylines going on throughout the episode. This is probably the reason that it is put onto our screens at a primetime slot, and therefore appeals to audiences who prefer the soap genre. Because the episodes are on every week, the budget is lower, so thats why the mainly the same locations are used, and thats why it develops more of a soap formula, as they cannot do really big scenes. In Deep has the narrative structure of a film, rather than a soap. The storyline is focused around one main storyline, with lots of twists coincided with it. It also shows a lot more violence, and more brutal scenes, because it is a series, therefore has a higher budget to film and construct these scenes. The Bill and In Deep has lots of enigma codes. For example, in The Bill, whether a beaten up man will tell on the police man that beat him up, and is a suspect off work with somebody, or is she, likes she says, ill, and in In Deep, will the coppers covering as drug dealers killer the supplys wife. These enigma codes keep up the audience interest in watching to the end of the episode. There is also a fair representation of policemen in both. In The Bill, you get to see more of the policemens personal life, and the question on how much personal life should be brought into the work place. In In Deep, the question is whether them acting as criminals is any better then the actually criminals themselves. All these points keep the watcher interested, and keeps audiences coming back to watch other episodes.