| Prime Suspect | |
|---|---|
Prime Suspect title |
|
| Format | Police procedural |
| Created by | Lynda La Plante |
| Starring | Helen Mirren |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 15 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Granada Television/ ITV Productions |
| Running time | 101–207 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 (1991–1996) 16:9 (2003–2006) |
| Original run | 7 April 1991 – 22 October 2006 |
Prime Suspect is a British police procedural television drama series directed by Christopher Menaul and starring Helen Mirren and made by Granada Television for the ITV network in the 1990s and 2000s. The teleplays for the first and third serials (and the story for the second) were written by Lynda La Plante, and in 1993 she received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best TV Feature or Miniseries for her work. The following year, Allan Cubitt's teleplay for Prime Suspect 2 brought the series a second Edgar (in the same category). Prime Suspect was voted 68th in the list of 100 Greatest British Television Programmes as compiled by a poll given by the British Film Institute, and in 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."[1] The series has garnered multiple Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards and a Peabody Award.
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The series focuses on a no-nonsense female British Detective Chief Inspector (DCI), Jane Tennison (played by Helen Mirren), who is attached to the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard). It is set mostly in London and the outer areas, with series 5 being set in Manchester. In later series, she is promoted to Detective Superintendent. The series shows how she survives and thrives in a male-dominated profession. As mentioned in the behind-the-scenes documentary that accompanies "The Final Act" DVD, Jackie Malton, who was one of only four female DCIs at the time this series began, acted as an advisor to the writers.
The programme was part of a trend for programmes/films with women both in leading roles and holding senior authority positions. One UK television example is MIT, a spinoff from The Bill on ITV.
The first series features sexism in the workplace as a significant subplot and a barrier to the investigation. Sequels have tended to downplay this theme, relying on straight procedure or on other subplots—for example, institutional racism in Prime Suspect 2 and paedophilia, child abuse, and prostitution in Prime Suspect 3. Tennison's difficulty in achieving a balance between her work and her life outside the job and her difficulty in maintaining stable relationships are recurring issues within the series. Toward the end of Prime Suspect 3 she arranges to have her pregnancy terminated. As the series progresses, she increasingly relies upon alcohol to help her cope; this culminates in the final episode of the series in her attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, where she finally acknowledges and confronts her addiction.
Prime Suspect's format is multiple episodes; each case runs around 3½ hours (excluding commercials), usually aired in two parts or four parts. Prime Suspect 4 was an exception at slightly over 5 hours in three separate cases.
The first five series were produced at a steady pace of one roughly every eighteen months until Helen Mirren left the role, supposedly to avoid typecasting (according to a PBS interview). She returned to the character after a seven-year gap.
The music score for the first five series was done by Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Warbeck, who was nominated for a BAFTA for "Prime Suspect" series one.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect |
Part 1: 7 April 1991, Part 2: 8 April 1991 (UK) [1] |
207 min. |
DCI Jane Tennison (played by Mirren) gets her first chance to lead a major murder investigation while confronting DS Bill Otley (Tom Bell) and other sexist officers on her squad who attempt to get her replaced. The case involves the rape-murder of a young woman. She eventually gets the suspect, George Marlow (John Bowe) and earns the respect of her team.
This case was reopened in Prime Suspect 4, Scent of Darkness, when similar murders occur while Marlow is in prison.
This series also features Tom Wilkinson, who plays Tennison's love interest, Zoë Wanamaker, who plays the domestic partner of the suspect, and Ralph Fiennes, who plays a victim's boyfriend in a very minor role.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect 2 |
Part 1: 15 December 1992, Part 2: 16 December 1992 (UK) |
203 min. |
When a body is found in the backyard of a home in an Afro-Caribbean neighborhood of London, DCI Tennison has to tread carefully in her investigation because of the racial tension surrounding unsolved crimes in the region.
This series features many of the same characters that appeared in the first series.
It co-stars Colin Salmon as a black officer with whom Tennison has an affair; when the affair is disclosed in the media, it threatens Tennison's position.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect 3 |
Part 1: 19 December 1993, Part 2: 20 December 1993 (UK) |
207 min. |
Now working in the vice squad targeting Soho, DCI Tennison's investigation takes her into a child prostitution and pornography ring following the death of a rent boy.
Tom Bell, who played Tennison's adversary Sgt. Bill Otley in the first series, returns to the series. Also starring David Thewlis, Ciarán Hinds, Peter Capaldi, Mark Strong, James Frain and Jonny Lee Miller.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect 4: The Lost Child |
30 April 1995 (UK) |
102 min. |
| Prime Suspect 4: Inner Circles |
7 May 1995 (UK) |
102 min. |
| Prime Suspect 4: Scent of Darkness |
15 May 1995 (UK) |
102 min. |
Prime Suspect 4 was the only split series, divided into three separate stories. This series also promotes Tennison to Detective Superintendent.
The Lost Child: A child's death points to a convicted child molester, who has completed his prison sentence and lives with a woman and her two young daughters, keeping his dark past a secret from them. However, the man's counselor believes that he would not have done it because of his preference in victims. This episode introduces Dr. Schofield (Stuart Wilson). Also starring Beatie Edney, Robert Glenister and Lesley Sharp.
Inner Circles: Tennison uncovers a possible political scandal when investigates the murder of a country club manager. Also starring Kelly Reilly.
Scent of Darkness: A series of murders resembling those by George Marlow, investigated in the original Prime Suspect, have encouraged Tennison's subordinates to reopen the case, given that Marlow is stuck in prison when the new crimes took place.
Tennison is reluctant, however, as she is sure Marlow is guilty. In the end she is vindicated when a prison guard who knows Marlow confesses to the crimes. Dr. Schofield returns for this episode as Tennison's love interest.
Also starring Stuart Wilson, David Ryall, Marc Warren, Joyce Redman replacing Maxine Audley (who died in 1992) as Mrs. Marlow and Tim Woodward replacing John Bowe as serial killer George Marlow.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement |
20 October 1996 (UK) |
200 min. |
Tennison investigates the murder of a drug dealer in Manchester and becomes determined to charge a local gang leader nicknamed "The Street" (Steven Mackintosh) with the crime. Also starring David O'Hara and Marsha Thomason. Written by Guy Andrews. Directed by Philip Davis, an actor best known for his work in the films of Mike Leigh.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness |
Part 1: 9 November 2003, Part 2: 10 November 2003 (UK) |
200 min. |
Tennison, under pressure to retire, investigates the murder of a Bosnian refugee and ends up digging into the past war crimes of recent immigrants. The series returns after a seven-year hiatus. It also relocates the story back to London after being set in Manchester in series 5. Also starring Ben Miles, Clare Holman, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, Frank Finlay, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Phoebe Nicholls, Valentine Pelka, and Oleg Menshikov. Directed by Tom Hooper.
| Title | Air date | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Suspect: The Final Act |
Part 1: 15 October 2006, Part 2: 22 October 2006 (UK) |
200 min. |
While dealing with her alcoholism and the death of her father (Frank Finlay) Tennison solves the case of a murdered teenage girl before retiring.
Prime Suspect: The Final Act was an ITV and WGBH coproduction.
It also starred Tom Bell, Gary Lewis, Stephen Tompkinson, and Laura Greenwood.
Many observers have viewed Prime Suspect as the inspiration for female characters in American TV series, particularly noting strong similarities between this series in general—and the character of Jane Tennison in particular—and the later American series The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick in the role of Deputy Chief of Police Brenda Leigh Johnson. Critics noted the similarities between the series in a stronger way during the first seasons of The Closer, with one 2006 article in USA Today calling The Closer "an unofficial Americanization" of the British series,[2] and a later reviewer noting that, "When The Closer was first shown, critics were quick to compare it to Prime Suspect...[and] there's something in that...."[3]
In interviews, Sedgwick has acknowledged that the show owes "a debt" to the British crime drama, and that her admiration for that show and for Mirren were factors that first interested her in the role.[4] According to Sedgwick, Prime Suspect was one of the shows that "paved the way" for The Closer,[5] and her manager got her interested in the series by saying that it was "a little bit like Prime Suspect."[6][7] Sedgwick is quoted as saying that the Tennison character did become her inspiration in some ways for her portrayal of Brenda Leigh Johnson.[8]
Reviewers in American papers, including the Christian Science Monitor, have noted that The Closer, while not a direct remake of the British series, "owes" much to it,[9] or that it "echoes many of the elements" of it.[10] One The New York Times article refers to The Closer as a "direct descendant" of Prime Suspect, although it is less hard-hitting than the original:
Other reviewers have also made the point that the differences between the Tennison and Johnson characters are as important as their similarities:
NBC has picked up an American adaptation of the British series for the 2011–2012 season.[13]
In 1997 a short spoof episode Prime Cracker was produced for the BBC's biennial Red Nose Day charity telethon in aid of Comic Relief. A crossover with ITV stablemate crime drama Cracker, the spoof starred Mirren and Cracker lead Robbie Coltrane as their characters from the respective series, sending up the perceived ultra-seriousness of both shows.
Dead Ringers featured a parody with Queen Elizabeth II in the lead role (as a reaction to Helen Mirren's portrayal of her in The Queen).
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