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Is there really life on Mars?
A former Wigan detective has lifted the lid on the kind of policing that made Gene Hunt a household name.
Steve Crimmins, one-time boss of the borough's CID department, was a consultant on the hit retro cop series Life on Mars.
And last night he featured in a documentary comparing it with genuine law enforcement practices on the 1970s.
The truth behind Det Chief Insp Hunt and his non-PC style of work was explored in new TV documentary The Real Life On Mars, screened as part of BBC4's Britcop season.
Gene, played by Philip Glenister, became an iconic figure after appearing in two series of the BBC1 hit.
He has now moved on to London and the 1980s in Ashes To Ashes, with filming for a second series starting next month.
Co-creator Matthew Graham sent the first draft of Life On Mars to former Det Chief Insp Steve Crimmins who acted as an advisor on the series.
"He was a DC in Manchester in the early seventies," said Matthew. "And I was pretty sure his reaction would be 'I can see why you've pushed Gene Hunt into a sort of caricature for dramatic effect. But, of course, it wasn't really like that'."
But Steve said: "My response to that was 'No, it isn't over the top at all. In fact, if anything, it's rather toned down by comparison with real life'. All these things happened. They just didn't all happen in one hour."
So, was there really life on Mars? Robert Reiner, professor of criminology at the London School of Economics, certainly believes so.
He said: "I think Gene Hunt is very typical of CID before the mid-1980s when a variety of reforms kicked in slowly, but which transformed the whole world of criminal investigation and the way suspects are handled."
Click next page for more ...Former police detective Dick Kirby, author of The Real Sweeney, thinks the role of Gene was underwritten.
He said: "I knew some of the Detective Chief Inspectors who were so tough that they would have regarded a Gene Hunt character as being a 22-carat nancy boy."
Ex-criminal turned journalist Eric Allison said: "There are many aspects of the programme Life On Mars, and certainly revolving around police tactics, that absolutely ring true."
Some 1970s rogue detectives like Gene bent the rules, or broke them completely. Determined to get a result after an arrest, they simply created false confessions for suspects which were later presented as hard evidence in court.
Steve said: "The officers who did that kind of thing were almost considered pariahs by other officers who didn't. Those officers were generally seen to be buffoons, the ones who couldn't do the job properly."
As also seen in Life On Mars, violence could be used against prisoners.
Steve added: "There was a lot of pressure on the detectives then to get a person to admit to being guilty of a criminal offence.
"In some cases, and I would stress this is a few cases now, that would lead to violence."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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