Waking the Dead: not convincing enough. Photograph: BBC
I have a problem with violence on TV. My problem used to be that there was not enough of it. My problem now is that there is too much of it. And for the most part, it's the wrong sort of violence. Take BBC1's prime time Waking the Dead, which concluded earlier this week. Over the course of the series we've had drownings, hangings and even a crucifixion. The last two episodes were somewhat sedate in comparison, merely boasting the murder of four children (or was it five?) - but, trust me, other than that, it has been pretty nasty.
A week earlier the equally gruesome, but infinitely superior, Trial and Retribution ended. Scripted by Lynda La Plant, Trial at least has the virtue of feeling convincingly squalid, not something that could ever be said of Waking The Dead, given that it stars the daftly debonair Trevor Eve and the all-too-mumsy Sue Johnston. Still, in both cases, the body count, and the grotesque ways in which the bodies pile up, is more than just over top. It is, like the tabloid headlines these shows are inspired by, prurience masquerading as moral outrage. And yet both these programmes go out at 9pm and are flagship titles for the BBC and ITV respectively. Equally the CSI franchise - which made its name with the deliberately surgical detail with which it filmed decapitations, strangulations and general human pain - is a huge, huge show. No doubt Mary Whitehouse is spinning in her grave, but that is really not my problem.
My problem is that all this violence leaves me utterly unconvinced. And, more to the point, unmoved. (Though, to give Trial and Retribution the crude credit it so clearly seeks, I will admit to having left the room when Lynda Losta La Plot decided to treat us to a baby's autopsy). This feeling, that however sordid and explicit the violence, it is not that bothersome, is clearly shared by the vast bulk of the viewing public, and also by our moral guardians, the BBFC. All of the above shows, when they invariably turn up as DVD box sets, are rated as 15 or below. So child murder, torture and the slaughter of prostitutes is just peachy as long as someone (the crime lab, DCI Walker, Dr Gil Grissom, Trevor bloody Eve) sorts things out in time for bed.
Meanwhile we have shows such as The Wire, The Sopranos and The Shield relegated to late night slots and awarded 18 certificates on DVD release. The violence in these is undoubtedly more disturbing. The beatings meted out in The Sopranos are horribly cruel and convincingly crunchy. Just last week in The Wire a 14-year-old girl was seen giggling as a man twice her age was executed behind a plastic curtain. The idea that these criminals might be brought to justice is, given the moral ambivalence of the writing, almost comically optimistic. So here is my idea. Let's lower the viewing times and certificates of series like The Wire. Let's show them at schools. Primary schools even. Meanwhile, can we please keep the likes of CSI and Waking The Dead away from children? Violence on TV, if it is to serve any purpose, should look and feel like it hurts. And at the moment, it does quite the reverse.
