User:Serial Number 54129/BTL

Wilsher had already written episodes of The Bill.

Parties—both in the office and externally—are used to show case the camaraderie of the job.

'"The series stake[s] out a new generic terrain for itself, in which the ethics of police practices move into higher relief than the pursuit of villains."

Overview
Comprised three series broadcast annually between 1992 and 1994. Each focussing on Clark, Naylor, Connell and Deakin, although the premis changes over time, and by the end of the last series, none of them is employed by the Metropolitan Police. The first series is most concerned with the overarching question of whether the police can investigate themselves, as well as the increasingly complex private like of DS Clark. Many of the plot lines in the first series refected contemporary UK news items, for instance the killing of a man with an imitation firearm ('"Out of the Game') and the death of a black man while in police custody ('Nothing Personal').

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 connctions between the state and terrorism.

Part of a tradition in Btitish 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.

Described by Michael Tracey as the "finally paranoid" police drama of the 1990s.

Tony Clark
Clark—clearly ambitious— greets the news of his possible transfer to the Flying Squad with a smirk.

In the early episodes Clark's training in CID is still a string influence, and he often attempts to solve the crime over which CIB has been called in about. Both Naylor and Connell remind him that that is no longer his job, and Deakin—with the episode's last line—"you're not CID anymore, you're CIB".

Equal opportunities
Noted for its approach to sexuality and gender, BTL was one of a numbe of programmes that diectly addressed equal opportunities for women in the police. It also addressed equal opportunities as portrayed in the media, notes Tracey, partucularly the contrasting attitudes within the force to those presented to the media. "Thus the initial response by a senior officer of the investigating team in Between the Lines to a sexual harassment case brought by a white female officer against a black male officer is: 'Since the commissioner's been parading his equal opportunities policy all over the Met., I'd appreciate a fairly sensitive handling of the case'" Conversely, this attitide is not reflected among ordinary police "in the pub, but even there, change is recognized". Later in the episode, Naylor is vehemently critical of the sttaion 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".

Policing and criminality
The program is self-conscious, argues Tracey, of its position within the classic police procedural genre, being based as it is in the fictional Complaints Investigation Bureau, investgating "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 premis, argues Tracey, is the question of 'who can police'. It is a question, he suggests, that it approaches with ambiguity. BTL asks whether policing can be effcetive without a bluring of the boundaries between policing and criminality. 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'?).

Filming and style
Often used close ups and low-key lighting effects. combined with a fast edit, this creates an impression for the viewer of "grubby realism".

Episodes
The show is a hybrid of both infividual stories with an overarching plot and character development. First series recieved between 6 and 8 million vewers per week.

Private Entrprise': Explores 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". Effectively recruits both his wife and his lover to assist him in the case.

Reception
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'. Tracey argues that it was because the series ceased to possess a tight focus—for instance on police corruption—and loosened its plotlines that it beca,e a "rootless narrative".