175: #175 | Up The Lagan In A Bubble: Line of Duty and the Irish Cop Trope

Motherfoclóir

Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the Wee Donkey.
Everyone is hooked on “Line of Duty” at the moment, the latest reinvention of the cop show genre - and, fittingly, a reinvention of the “Irish cop” trope which is even older than television. But why did this format - a legacy from the era of segregation and McCarthyism - survive when westerns, Elvis movies, and musicals either die off or get resurrected beyond recognition?
More than any other part of the state, policing is understood in the context of police shows. Its shortcomings are explained in the context of the internal conflicts of relatable protagonists while teachers and politicians continue to be antagonists, doctors and lawyers are allowed save the world from the private sector, and nurse/librarian protagonists in mainstream drama are outnumbered by their porno equivalents. The cop show is not going anywhere, absorbing bits of other formats in its path, and the Irish cop is a part of it.
In today’s episode, Darach, Gearóidín and Peadar discuss the evolution of the cop show and the Irish cop trope and consider how Hastings has brought significant chunks of Hiberno-English to a large audience. And as Gearóidín admits to a strange crush, Darach takes a surprising perspective on one of the 20th century’s most notorious criminals.
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