Abstract
This chapter begins with a recognition of an important lineage of North-East film and television texts with a relation to crime. Firstly, the gangster films Get Carter (Hodges, 1971) and Stormy Monday (Figgis, 1988), and then secondly the later police shows Spender (BBC, 1991–1993) and 55 Degrees North (BBC, 2004–2005) are examined in relation to broader developments in the reputation, cityscapes and industries of the region; taken together, they encapsulate the region’s shift towards a post-industrial identity. The chapter then identifies the complex relationship of Vera (ITV, 2011–) to this tradition, and identifies how some non-fictional representations of crime in the North East have been responsive to how the area has been stereotyped in some quarters as a place of deprivation and lawlessness.
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Notes
- 1.
Hodges speaking in the 2020 episode ‘Get Carter’ of BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking series (first broadcast 22 September 2020).
- 2.
An example of a genre-based programme, albeit not a crime one, that bucks this trend for ‘post-industrial’ representation is the formulaic Teesside-set firefighting drama Steel River Blues (ITV, 2004) which ran for one series (seven episodes). It begins with the familiar trope of the arrival of a new station officer (from Belfast) who seems taken by the spectacle of Teesside’s heavy petrochemical industries, as well as their potential for fire-related catastrophe; as one review noted, the series did its best to ‘to make Middlesbrough seem sexy’ (Joseph 2004).
- 3.
Figgis speaking on the DVD commentary for Stormy Monday.
- 4.
Curiously, an inverse of sorts to the plot of Get Carter can be found in Pete Walker’s exploitation/slasher film Schizo (1976), which begins with a sign indicating a setting of ‘North East England’ over establishing shots of the Transporter Bridge on the River Tees, and then has a brief Newcastle-set sequence showing a troubled-seeming man getting a train south to London. The film then encourages the viewer to assume this is the violent ‘schizophrenic’ (Jack Watson) coming to stalk and terrify a young woman (Lynne Frederick), although a twist reveals that she was responsible for a past murder that he was wrongly accused of. Like Get Carter, the film exploits an association between the North East and excessive criminality for its plotting and characterisation.
- 5.
Matthew Sweet speaking in ‘Get Carter’, Free Thinking.
- 6.
Hodges cited in Chiball (2003: 24).
- 7.
The brutalist multi-storey car park featured in the film was part of the Trinity Square shopping and leisure complex in Gateshead, constructed in 1967. Its fame by association led it being known locally as the ‘Get Carter car park’, and there were fan campaigns to prevent its demolition, which eventually happened in 2010, to make way for another leisure/cinema complex (also named Trinity).
- 8.
Hodges speaking on the DVD commentary for Get Carter.
- 9.
Figgis cited in Minson (1989: 21).
- 10.
Figgis speaking on the DVD commentary for Stormy Monday.
- 11.
For a more detailed account of Nail’s career, see Leggott (2017). Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (otherwise known as Ant and Dec), both from Newcastle, began their careers as actors in Byker Grove (BBC, 1989–2006), quickly becoming famous as a presenting duo on a number of popular light entertainment shows on British television.
- 12.
This was an episode of the long-running series The Comic Strip Presents…(Channel 4, 1982–2000; BBC, 1990–1993; Channel 4, 1998–2011; Gold 2012–2016).
- 13.
The name of DI Carter is a clear nod to Get Carter. It may or not be coincidental that he is eventually shot, in an echo of the fate that befell Michael Caine’s character in Mike Hodges’s film.
- 14.
It is difficult to identity a coherent tradition of North-East horror film/television, despite the region being the birthplace of some important figures such as Ridley Scott, Paul W. S. Anderson and Neil Marshall, who have all made significant contributions to the genre. The reader interested in low-budget productions is encouraged to investigate North East-based producers of horror such as Rob Burrows, S. N. Sibley and Jonathon Ash.
- 15.
See, for example Webb (2015).
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Leggott, J. (2021). Crime Film and Television. In: The North East of England on Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69146-2_7
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