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From reel to ideal: the Blue Lamp and the popular cultural construction of the English ‘bobby’

From reel to ideal: the Blue Lamp and the popular cultural construction of the English ‘bobby’
From reel to ideal: the Blue Lamp and the popular cultural construction of the English ‘bobby’
Using the Ealing Studios film The Blue Lamp (1950) this article considers the shifting portrayal of the English police officer within the popular cultural imagination and how this has impacted upon attitudes to the police and their place within notions of ‘Englishness’. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, I extend Clive Emsley’s (1992) seminal work on ‘the indulgent tradition’ of the English police by analysing how, in the immediate post-war period, a convergence of circumstances enabled The Blue Lamp to break with previous popular cultural representations. The article offers a series of insights into the deep cultural and interpretive work that had to be undertaken by Ealing Studios to produce PC George Dixon, the iconic image of the English ‘bobby on the beat’. It also suggests that despite this ‘Ealingization’ of the English ‘bobby’, for box office reasons audiences were also offered the metropolitan spectacle, glamour and turmoil of the chaotic life of the violent young ‘cop killer’ played by Dirk Bogarde.
englishness, bobby on the beat, cultural constructions, ealingization, spectacle of criminality, spiv, welfare policing
1741-6590
11-30
McLaughlin, Eugene
06b690de-55d8-4167-9b81-3564463e40bc
McLaughlin, Eugene
06b690de-55d8-4167-9b81-3564463e40bc

McLaughlin, Eugene (2005) From reel to ideal: the Blue Lamp and the popular cultural construction of the English ‘bobby’. Crime, Media, Culture, 1 (1), 11-30. (doi:10.1177/1741659005050241).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Using the Ealing Studios film The Blue Lamp (1950) this article considers the shifting portrayal of the English police officer within the popular cultural imagination and how this has impacted upon attitudes to the police and their place within notions of ‘Englishness’. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, I extend Clive Emsley’s (1992) seminal work on ‘the indulgent tradition’ of the English police by analysing how, in the immediate post-war period, a convergence of circumstances enabled The Blue Lamp to break with previous popular cultural representations. The article offers a series of insights into the deep cultural and interpretive work that had to be undertaken by Ealing Studios to produce PC George Dixon, the iconic image of the English ‘bobby on the beat’. It also suggests that despite this ‘Ealingization’ of the English ‘bobby’, for box office reasons audiences were also offered the metropolitan spectacle, glamour and turmoil of the chaotic life of the violent young ‘cop killer’ played by Dirk Bogarde.

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More information

Published date: March 2005
Keywords: englishness, bobby on the beat, cultural constructions, ealingization, spectacle of criminality, spiv, welfare policing
Organisations: Social Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 340125
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/340125
ISSN: 1741-6590
PURE UUID: 8a498f13-7597-4ede-ac46-9b1d8e0a7b7e

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Date deposited: 12 Jun 2012 09:08
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:19

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Author: Eugene McLaughlin

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