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In the 1970s and 80s, writer Ian Kennedy Martin helped pave the way for a new
type of police drama, one much more in tune with the changing times. Popular BBC
series like Dixon of Dock Green (1955-76) and Z Cars (1962-78), created by Ian's
older brother Troy Kennedy Martin, and its various spin-offs including Softly,
Softly (1966-69) and Softly, Softly: Task Force (1969-76), had become
increasingly cosy in their depiction of the British police force and its
methods. Ian's dissatisfaction with this approach would eventually lead to the
creation of The Sweeney (ITV, 1975-78), as well as Juliet Bravo (BBC, 1980-85)
and The Chinese Detective (BBC, 1981-82), all of which tried to make the police
genre grittier and more socially relevant.
However, the first stirrings of this can be found in the earlier play
'Detective Waiting', an eccentric yet fascinating edition of Armchair Theatre
(ITV, 1956-74), which imaginatively explores the themes of change and youthful
rebellion. The cherubic Richard Beckinsale plays Lewis, a newly
qualified detective unpopular with his colleagues for his unwillingness to
kowtow to convention and behave like 'one of the boys'. Given the seemingly
impossible task of catching a successful criminal boss with powerful friends in
the community, he decides to stakeout his prey until he cracks or makes a
mistake.
Like much of Kennedy Martin's most personal work, the play revolves around an
intelligent, highly motivated but increasingly isolated individual pitted
against the entrenched value systems of the Establishment. Unusually for the
author, this most favourite and recurring of themes is given an oblique slant by
creating an absurdist atmosphere of menace through anti-naturalistic plotting
and a stylised, even Pinteresque, use of language. There is a strong sense of
generational conflict behind Lewis's verbal exchanges with his superiors, his
gangland quarry and even an elderly road sweeper - full of repetition, mimicry
and strange ellipses, the dialogue gives a sense of ritual reminiscent of
playground sparring. This is reinforced in a scene in which Lewis, annoyed by an
inquisitive teenager, quickly regresses to childish banter.
While Beckinsale's likeable protagonist exudes naiveté and youthful
stubbornness, it's Barry Linehan's increasingly exasperated upscale criminal
Cummins who gets most of the good lines - as when, feeling under pressure from
his young adversary, he exclaims, "We're all getting older... the question
is, which of us is getting wiser?" The point is left ambiguously open right to
the end.
Sergio Angelini
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1. Attitude (3:00)
