Crime Watching

Annotation Real-crime TV is one of the most significant and ubiquitous television genres to emerge on our screens over the last two decades. In this welcome investigation of the genre, Deborah Jermyn shows how analysis of real crime TV lets us engage with the enduring nature of our fascination with crime stories and criminality. She also addresses more modern concerns about how television operates, and performs as a cultural marker of our times. Drawing on many and varied sources, the book's analysis encompasses both real-crime and crime drama. It explores contemporary tv ethics and places the genre in its many contexts. It examines real-crime TV's ideological and aesthetic frameworks and establishes the relationship between real-crime and crime drama. Crimewatch UK-the most popular, long running real-crime programme on British TV - is the book's seminal text. It is analysed in depth and in comparison with such rivals as Crime Monthly and Britain's Most Wanted, using original interviews with production staff on all these programmes.