New Tricks

Beth Maggs and Brogan Mitchell

Brief background

New Tricks is a British television drama series which follows the work of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). Led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes. The series title is taken from the popular expression "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". It is broadcasted on BBC 1.

Background to our clip

At the beginning of clip, Brian and his son are in the pub after a football match. Also there is non-diagetic sound used

in the background for the cockney who approaches Brian and his son to create some form of tension. They bump into

an old friend of Brian’s son who is a cockney, and that’s how the investigation starts. The UCOS team investigates

the death of Eric Trimble, a soldier who was beaten to death in 1991. Their informant tells them that he and Eric, while still in the Army, were part of secret medical experiments that left the survivors paranoid. They meet Eric’s mother and sister. The fact that he is black also makes race a

possible motive.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDUfaFzgMwM

How New Tricks represents age?At the start of the clip, age is represented by Brian who is apart of the retired policemen. He is like how old Yorkshire men are represented as he complaining and seems grumpy due to the fact that his football team lost. As the retired policemen work on the case they show that they are very knowledgeable and because they are old doesn’t mean they are incapable of working as they clearly can solve past cases.

The series title is taken from the popular expression "You can't teach an old dog new tricks The "old dogs" are successful in adapting their skills and experience to modern policing, with their knowledge of past cases proving especially useful.

How New Tricks represents ethnicity?

Starting with the pub scene ethnicity is represented by Brian who is showing his typical Yorkshire behaviour. After watching the match he is criticising the other team and uses the word ‘bloody’ which is a very English term and says it in a Yorkshire manner.

Ethnicity is shown by the cockney spurs supporter as he is very loud in the pub and sings his teams anthem which shows he is not afraid to show love for his team. He acts quite cocky and isn’t bothered about his behaviour.

The fact that men are stood in the pub after a football match is a very traditional British thing to do.

Sandra (retired policewoman) suddenly is aware that the soldier that had been killed in 1991 was black compared to the other three white soldiers. This automatically points out that he could have been killed due to racist conflict during that time.