Old-Fashioned Copper: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:tom-smith-
{{quote|''Smooths the bumps from Justice's path with 'is truncheon, does 'e?''|'''Inspector Abberline''' on Sgt. William Thick, ''[[From Hell]]''.}}
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The [[British Coppers|PC]] who's not so [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|PC]].
A British police officer who entered the force before the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. There is something of a spectrum within this trope, with the unifying theme being a hankering for direct policing methods unhampered by such niceties as paperwork and the rights of suspects. Or, come to that, the feelings of victims.
At the one extreme are those with a tendency to favour "old fashioned" methods of policing, which usually involve beating up suspects, fabricating confessions (a process known as "verballing") and planting evidence. Being corrupt, [[Noble Bigot
At the other end is the ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'' trope, an [[Cyclic Trope|even
British cop shows found many intermediates between these extremes and often had characters representing different versions within the same show.
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May make use of the [[Gene Hunt Interrogation Technique]].
See also [[Officer O'Hara]], [[Noble Bigot
{{examples}}
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* DCI Gene Hunt from ''[[Life On Mars]]''. In some respects, he underplays reality- there were quite a few coppers like him.
* George Dixon, of ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'', is generally taken as the canonical example of the 'old fashioned bobby', firm but scrupulously fair, and the source of the [[Catch Phrase]] "Evening, all".
* ''Hamish Macbeth'' ([[Hamish Macbeth (
* Jack Halford, Gerry Standing and Brian Lane in ''[[New Tricks]]'', although they cheerfully excuse their flagrant bending of the rules with the (reasonable) justification that technically they aren't ''actually'' police officers any more.
* Although the show was made when the "old-fashioned copper" technically wasn't old-fashioned, since the values represented were alive and well in the '70s, the cops on ''[[The Sweeney]]'' are pretty much the archetypal characters who represent this trope.
{{quote|
'''Carter''': (to the perps girlfriend) Have a lie in, luv. }}
* The 1983 sketch series ''Alfresco'' had a sketch in which a policeman in Victorian uniform walked into a modern police station, prompting another bobby to remark, "That's what I like to see - a good old fashioned copper."
* Jack in ''[[A Touch of Frost]]'', but not too badly and he only does it to get the right people convicted. He does have standards though, in one of the books he says that whilst he has planted evidence at crimes to point to the killer, he has never "lost" unfortunate evidence.
** Although David Jason's cuddly TV Frost is a very different proposition from the obnoxious Frost of R D Wingfield's books.
* ''[[The Last Detective]]'' has its hero, Dangerous Davies, as the "Dixon of Dock Green" type, but his DCI as one of these. The two were originally partners.
* Several appear over the course of ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]''. Rumpole disapproves, and not just because it's his job to defend the suspects they've stitched up. Special mention goes to Detective Inspector Brush, a recurring antagonist over the years.
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== Literature ==
* These stereotypes appear in China Miéville's ''[[Kraken (
* On the [[Discworld]] (specifically, Ankh-Morpork), "Mayonnaise" Quirke.
** With arguably Vimes and most definitely Carrot as the Dixon of Dock Green-types.
*** Fred and Nobby skirt the edge; in Night Watch they were definitely headed that way, but in the later novels seem to realize that sort of thing just isn't done anymore, though they do seem a bit vague on exactly ''why'' (other than that if they do it and Vimes finds out... and Vimes ''will'' find out... he'll go ''spare'' - or ''librarian poo'' in the vernacular).
* DCI Alexander Seawoll in ''[[Rivers of London]]'', big, brawny, likes to swear a lot, hates paperwork and coppers who do magic. Also a policeman to his bones and knows exactly what to say and what not to say in a cover-up or witch-hunt.
* ''Hamish Macbeth'' ([[Hamish Macbeth (
* [[
{{reflist}}
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