TV drama has a duty to cover police misogyny, but this just doesn't work: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS' scathing review of ITV's The Blame
- See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source
By CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, TV CRITIC
Published: | Updated:
The Blame (ITV)
Rating:
Rating: Two stars
Police corruption is a serious issue, obviously. Institutional racism, sexism and a culture of abuse and cover-up have tarred the reputation of the entire force.
But there's one aspect of the six-part, anti-copper harangue The Blame that needs to be addressed at the outset.
Who on earth has four heaped teaspoons of sugar in their coffee these days?
Surely not former Corrie star Michelle Keegan, who plays lone crusader DI Emma Crane.
The first time I saw Emma shovelling granulated into her morning brew at Wakestead police station, I assumed the drama was making a point about how women in CID are expected to start the day by bringing a mug of something hot and oversweet to the boss's office. How else can they expect to earn promotion?
But no, that's the way she likes her caffeine fix, saturated with Silver Spoon. Emma must have teeth like bad tarmac — black and full of potholes.
There's one aspect of the six-part, anti-copper harangue The Blame that needs to be addresses.... who on earth has four heaped teaspoons of sugar in their coffee these days?
She's investigating the murder of a 16-year-old girl who was battered to death in woodland, after making a 999 call.
Detectives who play back the recording are baffled by the electronic interference and static in the background, though anyone who has ever overheard a police radio will have recognised it instantly.
That's the problem with The Blame, and with any drama that puts its social message above its intention to entertain.
Every plot twist arrives with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, a complete surprise to no one at all.
A series of truly shocking tragedies and scandals involving police, in particular the appalling murder of Sarah Everard by PC Wayne Couzens in 2021, make it important for TV to shine a light on misogyny in the ranks.
Reports of officers sharing photos of murdered women are sickening, and drama has a duty not to turn away.
But this would be far better tackled by a story that focuses on women, for example the victims of domestic abuse, who are let down or betrayed by police.
The Blame gives us a heroine who has tolerated her chauvinist colleagues for years before deciding to take a stand, and it doesn't really work.
The problem with The Blame, is that it puts its social message above its intention to entertain, and every plot twist arrives with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing
In a CID room where most of the coppers are beery, lairy louts, Emma has one 'ally' — the dashing, square-jawed DI Tom Radley (Douglas Booth).
He spends most of his shift gazing soppily at Emma and, since they're both single, it's a miracle they managed to keep their relationship professional for so long.
The inevitable happened at the end of episode one, and no sooner had they fallen into bed than Emma saw what the rest of us knew in the first ten minutes: DI Tom ought to be her chief suspect.
One day after she denounced him, she changed her mind. Too late... he's in nick, and it will need more than four sugars to take the taste of that away.
Pointless op of the night: Stacey Dooley, probing online health trends in Clickbait Clinic (BBC1), met Brett in Miami, who had his legs surgically extended by five inches.
How did this improve his life? 'I don't know,' he said, 'I can, like, see over the refrigerator now.'
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.