Between the Lines is a television police drama series created by J. C. Wilsher and produced by World Productions for the BBC. It was first shown on BBC1 between 4 September 1992 and 21 December 1994, running for three series.
Premise
The show centred on the eventful life of Detective Superintendent Tony Clark, played by Neil Pearson. Clark was an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau (CIB), an internal organisation of the Metropolitan Police that investigates complaints against officers and claims of corruption within the police force. Along the way Clark had to overcome strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean (Lesley Vickerage). Throughout the series, Clark was assisted by colleagues Harry Naylor (Tom Georgeson) and Maureen 'Mo' Connell (Siobhan Redmond).
The show became a surprise hit for the BBC, winning a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Drama Series in 1994. In 2000, it was voted into the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes by the British Film Institute. The series was reviewed in an episode of the BBC documentary series Call the Cops, which stated the series had "found a way of getting to grips with the corruption scandals of the 1990s".
Wilsher had already written episodes of The Bill, while Executive producer Tony Garnett had begun his career as an actor before becoming a producer in the late 1960s. His credits included The Wednesday Play and Play for Today. Following Between the Lines, he went on to produce several popular and notable series including This Life (1996–97), Ballykissangel and The Cops (1998–2001).
Plot
Clark's work as a lead officer in CIB was the focus of the first two series. In the first series, his boss was Deakin, a tough ex-RUC Northern Irish policeman. At the end of the first series, Deakin was revealed to be a corrupt officer himself. He left the force but remained a recurring character, working freelance for security services and others, sometimes in conflict with Clark, sometimes assisting him. At the start of the third series (after a dramatic shoot-out at the end of the second), Clark, Naylor and Connell leave the police force and work in the murky world of private security, far-right political groups and espionage.
The third series ends with the betrayal of Clark and Naylor, who had been masquerading as mercenaries. The betrayal is made by Connell in league with Deakin, their former boss and nemesis. It is unclear whether Clark and Naylor have died, as the show ended on a cliffhanger. Rumours of a remake did circulate for some years, but Pearson confirmed in 'Watching the Detectives' that he had wanted a "final" ending at the time and would never return to the role.
Between The Lines was one of the first British TV dramas to include a bisexual character (whose sexual orientation is incidental rather than central to the plot). Maureen (Mo) Connell (Siobhan Redmond) has two significant romantic partners over the course of the series: a serious boyfriend in season 2 and, later, a long-term girlfriend. While some other police officers are briefly shown making disapproving comments (e.g. when she brings her girlfriend as a plus-one to a police social), her bisexuality is shown as completely accepted by close colleagues, if a subject of occasional friendly banter (e.g. Mo mentions having a date that night, Tony asks "girl or boy?" and she replies sarcastically "one of each").
Background
Until the 1970s, complaints against the police in Britain were dealt with internally, with no outside oversight, leading to public dissatisfaction amid allegations that misconduct and corruption were not being effectively dealt with. The 1976 Police Act established the Police Complaints Board, an independent review body, but following the Scarman Report in 1982 this was replaced by the more effective Police Complaints Authority, creating the background of the series. However, even today, under the current Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the majority of complaints against the police are dealt with internally. The IPCC investigates the most serious cases and deals with appeals. At the time of the series in the 1990s, the department of the Metropolitan Police responsible for internal investigations was the Complaints Investigation Bureau (CIB); it has subsequently been replaced by the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS).
The first two series of Between the Lines is a dramatisation of the work of the CIB. In the third series, the focus shifts more towards the secret services, with MI5 in particular. John Deakin, whose shadow is present throughout all three series, has a past in the Ulster police. He is the "fireproof" high-ranking detective who decides which other high-ranking detectives may use which methods. Tony manages to discover who he really is, but not good enough. Deakin also has contacts in the secret services. And the final two episodes ("The End User" 1 & 2) deal with a story of illegal weapon smuggling to Northern Ireland. Although set primarily in London, one episode was filmed partly in Bolton, with the Town Hall appearing in several scenes.
Guest stars in the series included many well-known British actors who have gone on to star in other major television dramas and/or movies, including Daniel Craig, James Nesbitt, Jerome Flynn, Bernard Hill, David Morrissey, Jaye Griffiths, Paul Brooke, Francesca Annis, Sylvestra Le Touzel, John Hannah, Michael Kitchen, David Hayman, Hermione Norris, Edward Tudor-Pole, Ray Winstone, Larry Lamb, Hugh Bonneville, Marc Warren, Ben Chaplin and Jonny Lee Miller. Most of them were unknown or less known, prior to their appearances in this series.
Overview
Between the Lines comprised three series broadcast annually between 1992 and 1994. Each focusing on Superintendent Clark, Inspector Naylor, Sergeant Connell and Chief Superintendent Deakin, although the premise changes over time; by the end of the last series, none of them is employed by the Metropolitan Police. The first series is primarily concerned with the overarching question of whether the police can investigate themselves , as well as with Clarke's increasingly complex private life. Many of the plot lines in the first series reflected contemporary UK news items, for instance, the killing of a man with an imitation firearm ('"Out of the Game'), the death of a black man while in police custody ('Nothing Personal'), drugs, sink estates, gun crime or recent miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. The second series broadens from just looking at the police to looking at their relationship with the intelligence services, while the third—the first to feature overseas location filming—looks at the connections between the state and terrorism. The show was part of a tradition in British crime programming of looking not just at a crime, or a series of crimes, for amusement, but of broader themes, often related to current affairs.
Cast
- Neil Pearson as Detective Superintendent Tony Clark
- Tom Georgeson as Detective Inspector Harry Naylor
- Siobhan Redmond as Detective Sergeant Maureen "Mo" Connell
- Tony Doyle as Chief Superintendent John Deakin
- Robin Lermitte as Detective Superintendent David Graves
- David Lyon as Commander Brian Huxtable
- Lesley Vickerage as WPC Jenny Dean
- Hugh Ross as Commander Graham Sullivan
- John Shrapnel as Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
- Jerome Flynn as Detective Sergeant Eddie Hargreaves
Episodes
The show is a hybrid of individual stories and an overarching plot, with character development. The first episode, "Private Enterprise", set the scene for the rest of the first series, exploring the theme of the relationship between police and their informants, with the non-CBI officers being "clearly represented within the British macho culture of The Sweeney". It introduces a raft of female characters, both in the police and outside, including Clarke's wife, whom he effectively recruits as his assistant on the case; he subsequently does the same with his lover. In the early episodes, Clark's training in CID is still a strong influence, and he often attempts to solve the crime for which CIB has been called in. Both Naylor and Connell remind him that that is no longer his job, as does Deakin—with the first episode's last line—"you're not CID anymore, you're CIB".
The cinematography often used close-ups and low-key lighting effects, which combined with a fast edit, creates an impression for the viewer of "grubby realism", allowing the show to therefore "stake out a new generic terrain for itself, in which the ethics of police practices move into higher relief than the pursuit of villains," argues Brunsdon.
Series 1 (1992)
Series 2 (1993)
Series 3 (1994)
Themes
Equal opportunities
Noted for its approach to sexuality and gender, Between the Lines was one of several programmes that directly addressed equal opportunities for women in the police. It also addressed equal opportunities as portrayed in the media, notes Brunsdon, particularly the contrasting attitudes within the force to those presented to the media.
Conversely, this attitude is not reflected among ordinary police "in the pub, but even there, change is recognised". Later in the episode, Naylor is vehemently critical of the station commander's original handling of the case, arguing that he should have "promised her everything [and done] her legs later", to which Deakin reminds him "those days are gone, Harry".
"Canteen culture"
The program highlights the role of a "canteen culture" within the police, an organisation—notwithstanding the 1974 Equal Opportunities Act—still at the time of broadcast dominated by men, and Between the Lines draws a link between masculinity and corruption, with the former underpinning the latter. Masonic dinners and heavy drinking sessions are common. The theme of not "grassing" on colleagues runs through the first two series, for example, in episode four ("Lies and Damned Lies"). Here, a sergeant helps cover up the errors of a senior officer—who is also Master of their Masonic Lodge—and eventually reveals this to CIB. In response, he is ostracised, the Masonic oath is used to threaten him, and he commits suicide as a result. To some extent Clarke epitomises this culture: "He attracts, and is attracted to, women. He drinks, swears, loses his temper and has no time for the refined courtesies of polite exchange... Personally flawed, with a chaotic private life, Clarke is presented as a likeable rogue."
Policing and criminality
The program is self-conscious, argues media studies professor Charlotte Brunsdon, of its position within the classic police procedural genre, being based as it is in the fictional Complaints Investigation Bureau, investigating "bent coppers". Whereas most such shows have an exclusive cast of the police force generally, that of BTL is even more exclusive, comprising a subset of three.
The programme's fundamental premise, argues Brunsdon, is the question of 'who can police'. It is a question, he suggests, that it approaches with ambiguity. Between the Lines asks whether policing can be effective without a blurring of the boundaries between policing and criminality. Leishman and Mason argue that
Deakin, for example, notes at the end of the first series that "the Met has never been cleaner. I can tell you that for a fact. It's also a fact that our clean-up rate is at an all-time low. What conclusion you draw...is entirely up to you."
Loyalty
Clark says in the first episode, "my cover's fireproof at Mulbery Street. No one's going to think I'm a grass in my own nick."
"Who guards the guards?"
Brings up to date, in the context of a late 1980s-1990s understanding of poloicing methods, the dictum, quis custodiet ipsos custodes? ('Who will guard the guards'?).
Reception
The first series averaged 6-8 million viewers per week. Between the Lines was described by academic Annette Hill as the "finally paranoid" police drama of the 1990s. Chris Dunkley, writing in the Financial Times—and had praised the first series' originality—wrote of his disppointment by the third, saying 'how quickliy things change", while White commented that it went from "the classiest, sharpest, most convincing police drama ever produced in this country into a conspiracy-thon". Brunsdon argues that it was because the series ceased to possess a tight focus—for instance, on police corruption—and loosened its plotlines that it became a "rootless narrative".
Broadcast
In Ontario, Canada, the program was retitled Inside the Line because the broadcaster TVOntario already had a current affairs program called Between the Lines and did not want them confused.
DVD release
The complete series of Between The Lines has been released on DVD (Region 2) by 2 Entertain/Cinema Club with music edits.