-
Introduction
- University of Illinois Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction Prime Suspect (Granada Television) is one of the most popular British television exports to the United States and around the globe. The series chronicles the career and personal life of Jane Tennison, initially a detective chief inspector (DCI) and later a detective superintendent (DS) for the London Metropolitan Police. Dame Helen Mirren plays Tennison, a woman officer who solves tough cases that expose complex social injustices , all the while fighting her way up the ranks of the male-dominated organization of British policing. In one Prime Suspect episode, her dad characterizes Tennison’s passionate pursuit of justice: You know, up until the age of twelve you were an angel. You’d light up a room, and then bang—overnight you were a teenager. You ran us ragged, and it got worse, into this, into that, so certain, so bloody-minded, you couldn’t leave anything alone. You terrified me, but you know what? I didn’t mind, I was so proud. You had convictions. Well, I buried mine at that [concentration] camp. All I wanted was your mother, a steady job, children, and nothing to do with the evil I saw at that camp. But here you are, having to deal with it again. But you will. You will. You know what’s right, and you’ll do it. There have been seven Prime Suspect installments. Each episode runs approximately three to four hours, allowing for in-depth character and plot development. The first episode, Prime Suspect 1, aired in 1991 in the United Kingdom on ITV1 on two successive nights and in 1992 in the United States in weekly installments that lasted a month. The seventh and last episode, Cav_Jur RevPgs.indd 1 5/18/12 3:40 PM 2 Introduction Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act, aired in 2006 in the UK and in 2007 in the United States. With more than fourteen million viewers in the UK alone, Prime Suspect was ranked first place in popular British Television Channel 4’s “Top 10 TV Cops” (Jermyn 2003, 61). In the United States the programs were broadcast on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) series Mystery! and indeed Prime Suspect has been the most popular film series in Mystery! program history. It was so popular that PBS relocated Prime Suspect to its flagship venue, Masterpiece Theater, for some of the episodes. A US version of the series premiered in the fall of 2011 on NBC network television. The rights for distribution of this US version were sold to several countries, but the fate of the series for spring 2012 is still uncertain due to low audience ratings. Critical acclaim for Prime Suspect and leading actress Dame Helen Mirren has been abundant. With regard to Prime Suspect 6, the British newsJane Tennison in Prime Suspect is played by Helen Mirren. Cav_Jur RevPgs.indd 2 5/18/12 3:40 PM [18.216.190.167] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 21:55 GMT) Introduction 3 paper the Observer wrote: “Prime Suspect 6 . . . [is] the very rarest sort of television . . ., one of the most worthwhile TV experiences of the year and Mirren is, basically, a goddess” (Flett 2003). Tom Shales of the Washington Post described Prime Suspect 3 as “grippingly suspenseful from the get-go . . ., one of the most absorbing, well-acted, and mercilessly nervewracking dramas. . . . Sensational would not be too strong a word” (1994). A critic with the New York Times wrote about Prime Suspect 5: “Here is a performance that will loom large in television history books” (O’Connor 1997). Prime Suspect is a global phenomenon. The episodes have aired in seventy-eight countries, and worldwide audiences for some episodes have approached two hundred million viewers (commentary from Prime Suspect 6 DVD). The series has won more than twenty-three international awards (Hallam 2005, 64). These have included British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for best drama serial and best television actress for Mirren, US Emmys for outstanding miniseries and outstanding actress for Mirren, Edgar Allan Poe Awards for best television feature or miniseries, Peabody Awards, and the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Miniseries or Special. Prime Suspect’s significance goes well beyond its popularity, however. The series is pathbreaking because it centers a strong woman lead in a gritty portrayal within what had been an otherwise overwhelmingly maledominated police procedural subgenre. Moreover, beyond its significance in terms of gender imagery, Prime Suspect has shaped the police procedural subgenre by setting higher...