OMG - A COP DRAMA SET IN BRIGHTON - Wasn't that supposed to be my line with North to South!
I'm writing this blog real time, with a stiff measure of whisky which I suddenly felt the need for, so please bear with me. My initial reaction is that I hate it, the programme of course, not the whisky. I know that is knee jerk annoyance, so try to be objective. Wait and listen. I'm watching and listening....
Okay. Ten minutes on. I'm being rational and listening. First impressions are actually favourable regards the cases the cops are dealing with. I overheard a conversation on the streets a few days ago. A visitor asking a cop what the biggest policing problems were in the city. Drugs and mental health was the easy answer. Honesty! How refreshing... And welcome to Brighton, because that cop got it spot on. Anyone who has lived here and got underneath the tourist veneer will know the truth of it. And Cuffs are going straight in there, with a bit on drugs and heavy on the mental health. Trust me - they have got that right. Well done the BBC and whoever is behind this, for getting that part right at least... Now let me watch and listen some more, because somehow I'm not convinced. There is a taste in my mouth which I don't like, and it isn't resentment, jealousy or whisky. I know those flavours all to well, and this is different ...
Time has moved on. I've watched and listened for a bit. It's sort of fly on the wall style, pseudo documentary with loads of cops as the central characters and their personal dramas coming though. It sits beside some police investigation stuff, a range of seemingly unrelated cases that is a bit of an overload with not much in the way of main plot line. It's too much coming at me and I'm getting confused. I would change channels now if it was set anywhere else. Honest comment there. Not helping that they are portraying Brighton as a shithole where it isn't safe to walk along the streets, which is a whole load of bollocks. This is a beautiful city, and few can compare with it, and the ones that might challenge, I doubt are as anywhere near safe. Sceptical now, very very sceptical, because that was such a big mistake. I guess the aim is to be gritty, but grit goes with a sandy beach and Brighton has pebbles, or didn't they notice when filming the opening scene where a nice married couple were on the nudist beach alongside other heterosexual couples. The nudist beach in Kemptown is predominantly gay, so I'm not buying the reality here. I continue to watch and listen...
Okay, I've seen enough. It's all about the police up their own ass, licking so deep it beggar's belief. The boss's son, who they all resented at the start of the programme, has just saved the day in typical fashion. It was so corny, and hardly a challenge for Mistic Meg to predict. The programme is very police centred, all about the cops and not about the people of Brighton. I suppose that's what a lot of viewers want, and that's fine. I would have preferred it the other way round.
Brighton is a city of people. Incredible people of such rich diversity it makes it the city's greatest asset. It is also a city of incredible design, which the programme to its credit showed to a degree, but it was caricature in nature. I suppose I'm being overly critical, and perhaps the same could be said of my book. I hope not. I hope I show Brighton in a truer way, but will go back and check with yet another read through.
A busman's holiday indeed.
Jack