Watching the dead.

Date:
2009
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About this work

Description

This entertaining and topical documentary looks at how scientific advances in DNA testing have affected the way crimes are solved in television dramas. Footage of a large range of tv shows are shown, including: Waking the Dead, Z Cars, The Expert, Quincy M.E., Silent Witness, Cracker, Wire in the Blood, Sherlock Holmes, Murder Rooms and the internationially successful CSI. Taking a chronological approach to the gradual leaning of crime drama towards forensics, screenwriters, actors, barristers, and forensic pathologists help to illuminate what it is that is so fascinating to the viewer about cold case investigations. However, in the current crime-solving world in which scientific fact is frequently prioritised over other forms of investigation, such as conversation with victims and suspects, is the world of fictional tv crime drama in danger of becoming, at worst, forensic pornography?

Publication/Creation

UK : BBC 4, 2009.

Physical description

1 DVD (60 min.) : sound, color, PAL

Notes

Broadcast on 24 September, 2009

Creator/production credits

Produced and directed by John Moulson.

Copyright note

Crocodile Media for BBC

Type/Technique

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores
    4535D

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