September's TV crime wave begs some big questions

We absolutely love crime. Crime writers such as Agatha Christie made a fortune creating “whodunnits?” which still enthral millions of us. Her play ‘The Mousetrap’ has run continuously in London since 1952. After each bank holiday break, the TV schedulers launch their latest bloody offerings; our taste for crime hasn’t changed.

But crime is not about clever plots or even brilliant detectives. It is about real people facing difficult, life-changing, and often, fatal endings. We still find it fascinating, and entertaining. Goodness knows why.

Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime (BBC 4) takes us far away from Christie’s country houses. Based on real events, the perpetrator is revealed early in the first episode. He was a rapist with a very precise technique for entrapping and abusing his victims. Like some of the more recent celebrity sexual predators, he was able to hide in plain sight.

The story is set in a declining industrial town in northern France, straddling the River Sambre. The first episode depicts an attack on Christine, a hairdresser, who is attacked from behind and sexually assaulted as she makes her way to work one dark morning. We are also introduced to the local police force. All men, the station feels like a boys' club, where reports are kept short, and everyone agrees to do the basics, and not look for problems. During the 1980s it probably wasn't that different from police stations in the UK.

Christine seeks the help of the police, as does another victim. The police undertake a desultory investigation, their interest only piqued when they wanted to know if the perpetrator had a North African accent. The second victim is ridiculed behind her back as she makes her report. The police's default position is that the attacks were carried out by a passing outsider. Case closed. Christine's marriage is on the rocks as she tries to understand what has happened to her. She receives little support.

More than ten years later a second episode introduces a woman judge in the provincial prosecutors’ office. She notes the cluster of cases around the Sambre and starts asking some basic questions, which the local police regard as a waste of time. We clearly see  the impact on the victims, but the seriousness of the crime is not appreciated. The judge is shuffled off to a new job.

By the third episode the local Mayor becomes aware that there is a rapist loose in the community. She is exactly the sort of person every country needs in local politics. Her determination is undermined by the police and political rivals. Women understand the severity of the attacks, but not male police officers, male prosecutors, male  politicians, or even loving husbands.

It is in French with subtitles, but well worth a watch if you want to understand rape and sexual assault from the victim's point of view.

Two new series of established crime thrillers make their debut this month. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace (ITV1) is back on the beat in Brighton. He has to follow up on a case of a woman who was beaten up and tortured by a couple of men posing as water workers who steal her  valuable antiques and a rare watch. The story goes through some interesting twists and turns, which at times seem a bit fanciful. It all comes to a dramatic and tense conclusion.

Grace has his issues which are mentioned, but these don't intrude into the narrative. However, in the very last recap scene where we would normally expect a reassuring few moments of relaxation we are in for a shock. Even if there is an underlying thread, each episode is a story in itself.

A third series of The Tower (ITV1) opens with a snatched recap from the previous, which will only serve to confuse the new viewer. Unless you want to spend several hours catching up on ITVX, there are some parts of the story which will always be a mystery. Set in South London the new series begins with the stabbing of a fifteen-year-old boy. Those who live in our big cities know that once the phrase "gang-related" is used,  it is about ethnic minorities and drugs.

An off-duty paramedic who tried to save the boy, asks Detective Superintendent Sarah Collins, "When are you going to stop this", a question that permeates our communities. Collins wants to run a press conference to circumvent the wall of silence she meets. Her seniors are hesitant, but she points out that were the victim a white girl the crime would be treated differently.

It is a gritty drama but has several complex threads, and the story is continuous with no conclusion in each episode.

If you want more crime, I notice that  BBC iPLayer now has a 'box set' entitled UK True Crime Documentaries.

There are two programmes which depict real police  officers doing their job.

Forensics: the Real CSI (BBC 2) and Suspect No 1 (Channel 5) both show very ordinary people, just like members of our own family, meticulously working through physical evidence and CCTV footage, to find the truth behind some horrific crimes and get those responsible locked up.  They are not actors, but people who have developed the skills, and have the courage, to keep us safe.  Crime on TV may be entertaining, but in our homes and neighbourhoods, it is terrifying. Let us be grateful for our police service.

This article first appeared in the Methodist Recorder, 13 September 2024