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Old-Fashioned Copper: Difference between revisions
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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 with a Badge|misogynist, racist etc.]] is optional. Basically, the British version of the [[Cowboy Cop]].
At the other end is the [[Dixon of Dock Green]] trope, an [[Cyclic Trope|even ]]''[[Cyclic Trope|more]]'' [[Cyclic Trope|old-fashioned police officer]] from the days when (at least on television) policemen wouldn't even ''think'' about doing the illegal or corrupt, but were ''permitted'' to use much more force (both physical and psychological) than is perceived to be acceptable today. Such an [[Old-Fashioned Copper]] will likely be [[The Cape (trope)]] (or one of them) of the franchise -- with such a deeply-ingrained sense of fair play, there are few other possibilities for such a person. But he may also take thinly disguised glee in the bad guys getting their comeuppance. Nor would he be above giving (say) a ten-year-old a "clip round the ear", sure in the knowledge that if the child's parents found out they would face much worse.
British cop shows found many intermediates between these extremes and often had characters representing different versions within the same show.
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== [[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 (novel)|books]] and [[Hamish Macbeth (TV series)|TV series]]) gently spoofs the [[Old-Fashioned Copper]].
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* 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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