CALL FOR PAPERS: The Female Detective on TV

MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture (maifeminism.com) invites academic authors with expertise in television studies and other related disciplines to contribute to our upcoming special issue on female detectives on TV. 

For decades now, the female detective has occupied space within a genre that has been all-too-often reserved for the celebratory storylines of self-sacrificial men. She has served to break down sexist barriers placed before women within professional and personal frameworks, acting as an on-screen surrogate and inspiration for (female) spectators. The popularity of female-led TV crime drama across the world points to her success in captivating widespread audience attention. 

The topic of women in TV crime drama has inspired a range of significant feminist scholarship (see for example, Pinedo 2019; Coulthard, Horeck, Klinger, McHugh 2018; Greer 2017; Buonanno 2017; Moorti and Cuklanz 2017; Steenberg 2017, 2012; Jermyn 2017; Weissman (2016; 2010; 2007); McCabe 2015; Turnbull 2014; Brunsdon 2013; D’Acci 1994). This work has examined female-led TV crime drama from a variety of angles, including transnational cultural exchanges and currencies, serial form and narrative, gender, class, sexual and racial politics, and postfeminist identities and logics. 

Certain series such as The Killing (Denmark 2007-2012, US 2011-2014), The Bridge (Sweden 2011-2018, US 2013-2014), The Fall (UK 2013-2016), and Top of the Lake (NZ/Australia 2013/2017), have been singled out for how their female protagonists (Sarah Lund/Sarah Linden; Saga Noren; Stella Gibson, and Robin Griffin) resonate with viewers across transnational borders. Meanwhile, on primetime episodic US TV crime drama, Mariska Hargitay’s 21-year stint as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (US 1999-present) – the longest running live-action TV series in American history – has turned her into a ‘touchstone figure’ (Moorti and Cuklanz 2017). Hargitay’s real-life activism, and her dedication to fighting sexual violence against women, has attained important cultural recognition, as Law & Order: SVU itself has received renewed critical consideration in the wake of the #MeToo movement. 

Notably, though, the female detectives mentioned in the above paragraph are overwhelmingly white. What shifts occur in the genre when a non-white female actor helms the main role as detective? What new possibilities, for example, are opened up by the emergence of black female legal investigators and detectives on network series such as ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder (US 2014-2019) and online TV series such as Netflix’s Seven Seconds (US 2018)? And to what extent is TV crime drama able to meaningfully engage with issues of intersectionality and the precariousness of social justice in twenty-first century society? 

This special issue seeks to build on the existing body of feminist writing on women in TV crime drama, through a further investigation of the figure of the female detective at this critical juncture for feminist television studies.  What new feminist visions of the female detective have emerged with changes in industrial practices and the growth of online streaming and niche television? How does the female detective of streaming TV compare to the images of the female detective found in the middlebrow crime dramas of linear TV? In an era of networked media in which popular feminism and popular misogyny (Banet-Weiser 2018) are more intertwined than ever before, what notions of empowerment are articulated through the figure of the female detective? To what extent does the female detective enable an exploration of central issues regarding female subjectivity and political resistance against systemic forms of violence? 

We hope to open further debate on the subject of the female detective in all her guises. Staying true to MAI spirit, we are seeking papers written from intersectional and multivalent feminist perspectives. We hope this issue not only examines the figures and representations of women crime investigators on the screen, but also situates their work in related social, cultural and political contexts.  

Our definition of the female detective is broad and inclusive. She can, but doesn't have to be a private eye or a police professional, just as long as she pursues social justice or truth. 

While analyses of current and recent examples seem to be an obvious priority as far as contribution to the field knowledge of visual culture analysis, we also welcome papers on female detectives from the past. 

In particular, we would like to encourage authors to consider submitting articles on the following titles: 

Seven Seconds How to Get Away with Murder Marcella Spiral Unbelievable  Killing Eve Safe  Top of the Lake  The Fall The Bridge  Veronica Mars Southland Fargo Prime Suspect  La Mante  Castle

The Killing Broadchurch Lucifer Elementary  The Wire The Closer  Happy Valley  Jessica Jones Absentia Tatort  The Bletchley Circle Collateral Suspects Witnesses Loch Ness Cagney and Lacey

We recognise that there are many more titles of interests, and the list could run quite long. If you wish to propose a paper on any other TV title, please get in touch with the editors to discuss your suggestion: contact@maifeminism.com

We plan to publish this issue in the first half of 2021. 

The editorial team includes: 

Tanya Horeck (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

Jessica Ford (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Anna Backman Rogers (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

Anna Misiak (Falmouth University, UK)

300-word Abstracts due: 30 May 2020

4000-6000 word Full Papers due: 1 December 2020

Please consult the MAI submission guidelines before submitting: https://maifeminism.com/submissions/

Please send your abstracts and forward responses to this call to contact@maifeminism.com    

Dr Anna Misiak 
MA Film & Television Course Leader

School of Film and TV
Falmouth University
United Kingdom
Tel: 0132637057
https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/content/dr-anna-misiak

http://womenundercommunism.com/author/

@AnnaMisiakFal

Founding Editor/Editor-in-Chief

MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture

https://maifeminism.com/

@MAI_JOURNAL

Killer Women Festival for Crime Writing & Drama - 15 March 2020

The Killer Women Festival for Crime Writing & Drama takes place on 15th March 2020 at Brown’s Courtrooms, 82-84 St Martin’s Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4AG.

Now in its fourth year, London’s only author-led, boutique crime festival opens its doors to women and men with a packed programme – old favourites and new discoveries from fiction and TV drama, and many festival firsts, plus world experts in policing, forensics and criminology.

Exclusive early bird day tickets go on sale at £65 (plus booking fee) on 1 January 2020. Early bird tickets are available only to Killer Women Club members. Anyone can join the club for free  here. Full price tickets will be available to all from 1 February 2020 for £75 (plus booking fee).

9-10am

REGISTRATION

Sign up for the Nutshell Challenge (teams will be drawn up on a first come, first served basis) and read and discuss the Sunday Papers with Killer Women Alison Joseph (author of the Sister Agnes series) and Kate Rhodes (author of the Hell Bay and Alice Quentin series).

10.15-11.15am

Judges Court

JUSTICE ON TRIAL

Britain’s only black chief constable and Chief Inspector of the CPS Michael Fuller (Kill the Black One First); Alison Levitt QC, chief counsel to the CPS during the Savile Enquiry, and England and Wales Commissioner for Victims Dame Vera Baird discuss whether the criminal justice system is fit for purpose.

Chaired by N.J. Cooper (author and former Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.)

10.15-11.15am

Barristers Court

PEAKY BLINDERS TO COUNTY LINES: GANGS

Professor Carl Chinn (expert in the real Peaky Blinders) with Tracey Miller (former gang member and anti-gang activist, author of Sour) and Jason Farrell (home editor for Sky News, author of County Lines) talk about gang culture, past and present.

10.15-11.15am

Judges Chamber

MY FIRST MURDER: WRITING CRIME FOR KIDS

Featuring YA novelists Karen M McManus (NY Times bestselling author of One of Us is Lying) and Holly Jackson (author of bestseller A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder) and middle-grade novelists Elly Griffiths (bestselling crime novelist for adults, whose first novel for children is A Girl Called Justice) and Robin Stevens (Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries).

Chaired by Laura Wilson (crime novelist and Guardian crime fiction reviewer).

11.30-12.30pm

Judges Court

LIVE PODCAST

Live Podcast with Ann Cleeves: in conversation with the author of Shetland and Vera

11.30-12.30pm

Barristers Court

TOXIC MASCULINITY

Rebecca Wait (Our Fathers), Lucy Foley (The Hunting Party), Mel McGrath (The Guilty Party) and Marnie Riches (Tightrope) discuss social stereotypes and dangerous behaviour.

Chaired by William Shaw (Deadland).

11.30-12.30pm

Judges Chamber

DRINKING THE KOOL AID: CULTS

Louise Jensen (The Family), Alex Marwood (The Poison Garden), Will Carver (Nothing Important Happened Today) and Lisa Jewell (The Family Upstairs) discuss the appeal of cults in fiction.

Chaired by Claire McGlasson (The Rapture).

12.30-2pm 

LUNCH

1.30pm

Coffee and cookies with Helen Monks Takhar, author of sensational summer debut ‘Precious You’

2-3pm

Judges Court

K9: LIVE POLICE DOG DEMONSTRATION

Sniffer pups Bob and Bert and general police dog Titan are put through their paces by handlers Ruth and Chris Bond, 

2-3pm

Barristers Court

FACT TO FICTION: TRUE CRIME ON TV 

Exclusive insights into the making of ITV’s landmark 2020 drama WHITE HOUSE FARM, based on the Jeremy Bamber case.

Sponsored by ALL3MEDIA

2-3pm

Judges Chamber

SECRETS & LIES

Erin Kelly (Stone Mothers), Dorothy Koomson (Tell Me Your Secret), Kia Abdullah (Take it Back) and Trisha Saklecha (Your Truth or Mine?) explore the drivers of the psychological thriller.

Chaired by Julia Crouch (Her Husband’s Lover).

3.15-4.15pm

Judges Court

PSYCHOPATHS: MAD OR BAD?

Discussion of the psychopathic mind with TV criminologist Professor David Wilson (My Life with Murderers) and Dr Shubulade Smith, Head of Acute Forensic Psychiatry at the Maudsley, and Kerry Daynes, forensic psychologist and author  of The Dark Side of the Mind.

Chaired by Sharon Bolton (The Craftsman).

3.15-4.15pm

Barristers Court

FRESH BLOOD

Discover the most exciting new crime writers of the year: Bella Ellis (The Vanishing Bride), Trevor Wood (The Man on the Street), Russ Thomas (Firewatching) and Kate Bradley (To Keep You Safe), and hear about their journey to publication and their accomplished debuts.

Chaired by Sarah Hilary (crime author of the DI Marnie Rome series).

3.15-4.15pm

Judges Chamber

GETTING AN EARFUL: AUDIO CRIME

What makes a great crime listen? Why is audio true crime so popular? An insider’s guide to all things audio with some of the best producers, writers and voice talent in the business.

4.30-5.30pm

Judges Court

THE FORENSIC FRONT LINE

Ground-breaking forensic scientist Professor Angela Gallop (When the Dogs Don’t Bark) discusses her life and work with Lin Anderson (bestselling author of the Dr Rhona MacLeod series).

4.30-5.30pm

Barristers Court

BANGED UP: IS PRISON WORKING?

Former inmates Carl Cattermole (Prison: A Survival Guide) and Michaela Booth explore the issues.

Chaired by HMP Grendon Writer-in-Residence Simon Booker (Kill Me Twice).

4.30-5.30pm

Judges Chamber

CRITICAL INCIDENT TRAINING

Former police and military psychologist Emma Kavanagh explains what it takes to survive an attack.

5.45-6.30pm

Barristers Court

THE NUTSHELL CHALLENGE.

Devised exclusively for Killer Women and sponsored by Endeavour, this competition is in honour of CSI pioneer and mother of forensic science Frances Glessner Lee. Lee created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death: 20 miniature crime scene dioramas made for the purpose of training homicide detectives, most of which are still in use today. Competitors will work in teams to briefs by top crime writers to create the best doll’s house style crime scene using miniature furniture, figures and weapons.

Sign up at morning registration to join a team. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis on the day.

5.45-6.30pm

Barristers Court

KILLER WOMEN MENTORING SCHEME

Showcasing Kahlia Bakosi, Louise Cannon, Laura Mace and Veena Muthuraman, the winners of the scheme launched this year to find and encourage new female voices in crime fiction from BAME and low income or working-class backgrounds.

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

6.30-8.00pm

DRINKS PARTY

Please join us for a free glass of prosecco courtesy of Simon and Schuster

Innocent - A Gripping New ITV Drama Series from M.J. Arlidge and Chris Lang

Bestselling thriller writer and creator of the Helen Grace series M.J. Arlidge returns to his screenwriting roots to pen a four-part ITV drama series with Chris Lang.

Innocent will be broadcast across four nights from 14-17 May on ITV 1 and stars Hermione Norris and Lee Ingleby.

The four-part drama series tells the compelling story of David Collins (Lee Ingleby) who is living a nightmare. Convicted of murdering his wife Tara, David has served seven years in prison. He’s lost everything he held dear: his wife, his two children and even the house he owned. He’s always protested his innocence and faces the rest of his life behind bars. His situation couldn’t be more desperate. 

Despised by his wife’s family and friends, his only support has been his faithful brother Phil (Daniel Ryan) who has stood by him, sacrificing his own career and livelihood to mount a tireless campaign to prove his brother’s innocence. 

Convinced of his guilt, Tara’s childless sister Alice (Hemione Norris) and her husband Rob (Adrian Rowlins) are now parents to David’s children. For Alice there’s no doubt of his guilt and she’s utterly devastated by the prospect of David’s Appeal and Re-trial.

M.J. Arlidge

Innocent was written by M.J. Arlidge and Chris Lang of TXTV. M.J. Arlidge has worked in television for the last fifteen years, specializing in high-end drama production, including the prime-time crime serials Torn, The Little House and Silent Witness. Arlidge is also piloting original crime series for both UK and US networks. In 2015 his audio exclusive SIX DEGREES OF ASSASSINATION was a No. 1 bestseller.

Arlidge’s debut thriller, EENY MEENY, was the UK's bestselling crime debut of 2014 – and every book since has hit the bestsellers’ lists. His bestselling Helen Grace series includes POP GOES THE WEASEL, THE DOLL'S HOUSE, LIAR LIAR, LITTLE BOY BLUE, HIDE AND SEEK and LOVE ME NOT. Helen Grace was recently voted the ‘Kathy Reichs Award for Best Female Character’ in the 2017 Dead Good Readers awards.

Innocent stars Hermione Norris (Cold Feet, A Mother’s Son) and Lee Ingleby (The A Word, Inspector George Gently) and they will be joined by Daniel Ryan (Home Fires, Mount Pleasant), Angel Coulby (Merlin, The Tunnel), Nigel Lindsay (Victoria, Foyle’s War), Elliot Cowan (Da Vinci’s Demons, Frankenstein Chronicles) and Adrian Rowlins (Harry Potter, Dickensian).

Innocent starts Monday 14 May at 9pm on ITV. Continues Tuesday, Wednesday and concludes Thursday same week.

Eleanor Moran on How I wrote A Daughter’s Secret…

Today's guest blog is by author Eleanor Moran who when not writing moonlights as a TV Drama Executive In a previous life she also worked as a TV Executive. Her latest novel is A Daughter's Secret and she has been persuaded to tell Shots how the story came about.

I was running so fast down the grimy North London street that it almost felt like my heart could burst out of my chest, Alien style. I was no athlete - the only reason I was pelting down Archway’s Junction Road was because the much older man I’d been seeing - been obsessed with - liked to jog and lived nearby. He’d disappeared on me, ghosted his way out of my life, and I was so desperate to find out what had gone wrong that I was left here, chasing after a stranger who bore little resemblance to him, almost mad with grief.

I was eighteen years old at the time, and the man I was searching for was the latest in a string of older flames who should’ve come with health warnings stamped across their grizzled faces. This one, fortunately, was the last. The man who pushed me over the edge, and into therapy, where I learned that it wasn’t about any of them: it was all an attempt to understand the most painful relationship of all. The one with my complex, mercurial father.

A Daughter’s Secret, my latest novel, is about how this relationship can define so much of a woman’s life, for good or ill. My heroine, Mia, is a thirty something psychotherapist who looks from the outside like she’s got it all sussed. She’s got a string of letters after her name, a silver fox of a boyfriend - but when thirteen-year-old Gemma Vine walks through the door of her treatment room her stage-managed life starts to fall apart. Gemma was the last person to see her father before he went on the run, fleeing from a major criminal trial. Mia’s there to provide support, but soon the police come knocking, wanting her to secretly elicit information and feed it back. Mia’s past means she’s either the perfect person to help Gemma or the absolute opposite. As the memories of her relationship with her own father start to plague and torment her, she puts herself in terrible danger, prepared to do whatever it takes to help her troubled and manipulative client.

For me, psychotherapy was a lifesaver. I grew up adoring my unpredictable father, and forgiving him his long, painful absences from my life. He was someone who struggled to live a normal life, never marrying or holding down a job. The school holidays I spent with him were precious to me, but his behaviour was erratic and dangerous. When I was ten, he burnt the house down, leaving us to escape from a top floor window, minutes away from asphyxiation. With no home to visit him in, our relationship became even more fractured and complicated. The scars were deep, and psychotherapy gave me the courage to take a time out and give myself the space to heal rather than keep perpetuating the past like it was a choose your own adventure book, always hoping that this time I’d discover a happier ending.

Wrapping up these themes in a muscular crime thriller was a whole new challenge. My earlier novels have had mysteries contained in them, but ones that have largely been driven by emotion. Now I had to work out how a police investigation could push the story forward. Luckily my second job is as an executive producer for TV drama. I was at the BBC for many years, working on everything from Rome to New Tricks to Spooks. Much of my work involves coming up with ideas for new shows, or spotting books to adapt, and I’m experienced in helping screen writers craft a taut plot.

I’d made a legal thriller with Suranne Jones in 2013, Lawless, and met the most extraordinary criminal barrister in the process. Caroline Haughey is a leading expert on people trafficking, leading multi-million pound trials and putting away criminals who have committed sickening crimes. On the side, she offers her services as a story consultant (Mark Billingham’s latest book is dedicated to her). She directed me towards the case of a crime lord who is hiding in plain sight. Despite numerous trials and repeated Sunday Times investigations, he’s still walking the streets. I was even more interested in the people who give such criminals a veneer of respectability, so I made Gemma’s dad a top flight accountant (as Caroline pointed out, the police ultimately snared Al Capone for his dodgy financial dealings). I didn’t want Gemma’s dad to be an out and out villain - I wanted to create a more complicated character that no-one - not the police, not Mia - could get a handle on. These are the characters I want to watch or read about, whether it’s Don Draper or Walter White.

Both Gemma and Mia have to lose their illusions about their fathers to make it to the other side. The same was true for me, and I did ultimately find a fragile kind of peace with my father (he died when I was in my mid-twenties). I hope that creating Mia out of my experiences might demystify therapy for a few of my readers, and help them to befriend the ghosts which can haunt us from deep in our distant pasts. I’m using her for my next book, publishing next summer: bringing that kind of psychological intensity to a crime plot hopefully makes for a compelling mix.

A Daughter’s Secret by Eleanor Moran is published 6th August by Simon & Schuster, price £7.99 in paperback.

You can find more information about Eleanor Moran on her website.  You can also follow her on Twitter @eleanorkmoran or find her on Facebook.

Wire in the Blood

In her latest newsletter Val McDermid has revealed the sad news that ITV will not be commissioning a seventh television series of Wire in the Blood . As she states in her Winter newsletter and I quote

“All of us involved with the show have been in a state of shock since we got the news. It’s inexplicable to me. In spite of the fact that ITV have never given us a regular slot – the show has gone out at varying times of the year, on different nights and in at least three formats in terms of length – we have consistently delivered some of the highest audiences for any ITV drama. We have consistently been the most-watched show on any channel. According to official ratings figures, well over 90% of our viewers regard the show as an ‘appointment’ with the TV – ie, they don’t just watch because there’s nothing else on. The show is seen on 120 channels world-wide. It’s won awards – it’s just been shortlisted for an Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America. Year after year, Coastal have produced fantastic quality on a shoestring budget that has diminished in real terms. They’ve brought millions of pounds into the economy of the North East of England and because they’re the only company in the region producing network drama, this axing means a loss of skills and a loss of voice that goes way beyond our personal interests.”

This is extremely sad news for all of us who has enjoyed the series. More information about the demise of this series can be found here.