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Abstract
In the wake of the much discussed phenomenon of so-called ‘Nordic Noir’, the significance of landscape in relation to the police procedural has had something of a small-screen renaissance. In this paper, I discuss this with specific reference to recent productions set and filmed in Britain. Broadchurch (ITV, 2013–present) shot in West Dorset, Southcliffe (Channel 4, 2013) filmed in and around Faversham and the North Kent marshes, and Y Gwyll/Hinterland (S4C/BBC, 2013) filmed in and around the Welsh coastal resort of Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, all share something of a ‘post-Nordic-noir’ family resemblance insofar as landscape and location are themselves presented as central characters, prompting reflection on what these narratives reveal about ideas of place and the role of topography and landscape in the cultural imaginary of the British procedural drama.
Acknowledgements
I owe a debt of thanks to Yannis Tzioumakis for inviting me to talk at the symposium where ideas presented in this paper were first road-tested: ‘TV is the New Cinema: Exploring the Erosion of Boundaries Between Two Media’, Liverpool John Moores University and University of Liverpool, 22 May 2014. I am also grateful to the delegates at the symposium for their helpful and constructive feedback.
Notes
1. Indeed, from a Marxist perspective, one of Lefebvre’s considerable theoretical legacies has been to extend the temporal dialectics of Hegelian historical materialism to geography and spatiality.
2. For a selection of film and cultural studies texts that have drawn on Henri Lefebvre’s work, see Dimendberg (Citation2004), Highmore (Citation2005), Roberts (Citation2012, Citation2014b), Fraser (Citation2015).
3. See Carter’s study of representations of landscape on Australian television (Citation1998, 125).
4. For a more in-depth discussion of Nordic noir conventions and industrial practices, see Eva Novrup Redvall in this issue.
5. According to Jensen and Waade (Citation2013, 262), this style can be characterised by the use of colours ‘in the blue and grey end of the scale, climatic elements such as rainy cold autumn days, and bleak urban cityscapes, reminiscent of the film noir genre’.
6. Broadcast (2013), ‘Behind the Scenes: Broadchurch, ITV’. Accessed 17 November 2015. www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/broadchurch-itv/5052431.article.
7. ‘Southcliffe: Behind the Scenes’, DVD extras, Southcliffe (Channel 4, 2013).
8. Nordic Noir is discussed in greater detail in Eva Novrup Redvall’s article in this issue. Likewise, Bull also contextualises Sherlock against certain elements of Nordic noir.
9. BBC Wales (2013), ‘Hinterland: creating stories out of the landscape’. Accessed 17 November 2015. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/85b0ac24-e7bc-3486-8240-8e899e63d2c5?sortBy=HighestRating&sortOrder=Descending&filter=none.
10. Jensen and Waade (Citation2013, 262) cite the importance of gender – single mothers leading successful careers, women in power, fathers taking maternity leave – as one of the contributory factors by which to account for the popularity of dramas such as The Killing and The Bridge in the UK. However, in terms of influence, this translates less seamlessly to the UK examples under discussion here (with the possible exception of Broadchurch).
11. ‘‘Broadchurch effect’ sees tourist interest in Devon and Somerset soar’, The Telegraph, 12 January 2015. Accessed 4 November 2015.
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/southwestengland/11340128/Broadchurch-effect-sees-tourist-interest-in-Devon-and-Somerset-soar.html; ‘Broadchurch – ITV’s gripping drama filmed on location in West Bay’, Visit-Dorset.com, January 2015. Accessed 4 November 2015. www.visit-dorset.com/dbimgs/Broadchurch%20Trail%202015%20version.pdf.
12. The length of each episode varied depending on which network it was being broadcast. Series one, which was produced in 2013, was filmed back-to-back in both Welsh and English. The Welsh version was broadcast on the Welsh-language channel S4C in eight parts. The bilingual version was broadcast on BBC Wales (and, later, on BBC4) in four parts. At the time of writing, a second series is receiving its first airing on S4C in autumn 2015. See https://www.s4c.co.uk/ygwyll/e_index.shtml (accessed 13 November 2015).
13. See: www.discoverceredigion.co.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Y%20Gwyll%20Hinterland.pdf (accessed 13 November 2015); www.aberystwyth.org.uk/more/hinterland-filming-locations.shtml (accessed 13 November 2015).
14. This refers to the shooting dead of 16 people in the Berkshire town of Hungerford in 1987 by gunman Michael Ryan, who then turned the gun on himself. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre (accessed 13 November 2015).
15. See Daily Mail, 27 July 2013: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2,379,985/Southcliffe-We-wanted-Midsomer-Murders-Hungerford-massacre-Town-uproar-serial-killer-TV-series-filmed-doorstep.html (accessed 13 November 2015).