There has been some bizarre on-line criticism of the latest Luther series on BBC One. Of course, all criticism is a matter of opinion and my opinion is that the first two episodes have been brilliant. The acting is flawless, the storylines clever without being over-complicated and I find it utterly compelling. But, I read in cyberspace, it’s not realistic. John Luther would not exist in real life. Police work is usually more drab and mundane than that. All of this is true. Which is why so many of us watch it.
I do not sit there watching Luther and pointing out errors in police procedure, or how he would never get away with half of the things he does. It’s very unlikely he would have such close dealings with George, the mob leader, or the wonderful Alice. It’s fiction. You have to suspend your disbelief and with a good storyteller, it’s great to do that.
No one ever thought Dixon of Dock Green (one for the kids there) was real life, as Jack Warner’s elderly character Sgt George Dixon could barely walk across the screen, never mind catch a dodgy criminal. The old boy was a reassuring presence but only in the sense that he was surrounded by younger, fitter coppers who could do the work he plainly couldn’t.
Or roly-poly Frank Cannon, a morbidly obese American copper, who implausibly not only ran after some criminals, he could still breathe when he caught them.
And no one pretended the BBC’s magnificent series Bodyguard bore any resemblance to real life. These shows were entertainment.
No one seriously pretends It Ain’t Half Hot Mum was an accurate representation of India under the Raj or that the A team were as difficult to catch given their very obvious characteristics, their inability to kill anyone in a firefight and their highly distinctive van. And so it goes on. Highway to Heaven, a story about an angel who goes around doing nice things and stopping people doing bad ones. Or Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) where the latter of two detectives is actually dead, yet can be seen only by his former partner.
There are even more outlandish shows out there. Good grief: some people even thought the road trip scenes in Top Gear were improvised, instead of being carefully planned. And for decades, people believed professional wrestling was probably not real, but they chose to ignore their suspicions, not to mention the regular Sunday newspaper scandals they put out about it being fixed.
It was always thus. If the BBC made a TV series about coppers doing their often mundane jobs, like putting evidence in bags, taking endless statements from witnesses, interviewing suspects and attending court, who would want to watch that? We’d rather watch Idris Elba solve an impossible crime involving the worst and maddest criminal who ever lived, wouldn’t we?
I love Luther, like I loved Columbo, Quincy, Kojak, the Rockford Files and all the other made-up copper shows. It’s our era’s version of cowboys and indians. Bloody hell, someone will be saying James Bond’s fake, next.
