1
Introduction
`Ashes to Ashes' is a BBC produced drama series and a spin-off series of `Life on
Mars'. The last episode of season one has been aired a few weeks ago. Some people
may claim `Ashes to Ashes' is a science fiction series others may say it is a police
drama series.
This essay will examine if it is maybe a hybrid of several television genres.
Therefore it will explain first how a genre is defined and will take Steve Neil's and
Graeme Turner's point of view into account. Steve Neil is a professor for Film Studies
at Exeter University and author of several books about genre. Graeme Turner is
Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural
Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia.
Following this discussion this essay will concentrate on `Ashes to Ashes' and
whether it confirms the genre of police series and science-fiction series. In order to
confirm this, the essay will compare both genres and show the similarities and
differences. In addition, it will argue that `Ashes to Ashes' is not only a genre hybrid,
further, it is a hybrid between series and serial.
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Genres and their hybridization
The word genre derives from French and means `type' and `character'. Generally
speaking genres are rank schemata's. Discussions about film genre are applicable to
television genres likewise. The genre term derived from literature and theatre in
approximately 1910, however, it did not establish itself until the end of the sixties. The
development of genres has primarily economical reasons. If a film or television series
has a huge commercial success with a new concept then other producers will adopt
some of its elements to tie in with the success. This imitation of proven and successful
archetypes entailed development of new genres. Steve Neale argues that genres are
best understood as processes
1
. According to him the processlike nature of genres
2
is
a relation between the level of expectation, the level of generic corpus, and the level of
the `rules' or `norms'
3
.
There are some essential features of genres. Firstly, genres assemble a certain rule
type or rather standards to which a director has to abide in order to deliver the viewers
expectations. It also helps the viewers to pre-select programs from which they expect
certain framework and features. So these frameworks, for example, dramaturgy, visual
and acoustical style, actors, costumes, become a firm element of genres. Major-
genres' in film are Western, Melodrama, Comedy and Horror and `sub-genre' are
romantic comedy and slapstick, for example.
If I transfer these categories into television genre it would mean that television
`major-genres' would be drama, comedy, documentary, entertainment and news
programs and `sub-genres' would be police series, action series, western series for
drama programs and reality-tv, music videos and late-night-shows for entertainment
programs, to name only a few. Steve Neale criticizes this genre research. He is
against the classifications of major- and sub-genre. He argues that "conventions of a
genre are always in play rather than being simply replayed" and "each new genre film
constitutes an addition to an existing generic corpus and involves a selection from the
repertoire of generic elements available at any one point in time"
4
.
1
Neale, Steve (1995) Questions of Genre, p. 170.
2
Neale, Steve (1995) Questions of Genre, p. 170.
3
Neale, Steve (1995) Questions of Genre, p. 170
4
Neale, Steve (1995) Questions of Genre, p. 170.
3
I agree with Neale's idea. Movies can not be categorized in straight genres. A movie
always has several elements from different genres in it. The same obliges to television
series. I intentionally concentrate here on television series because to discuss all
television programs here would overload this essay. "Television genres and
programming formats are notoriously hybridized"
5
. There are two kinds of hybrids a
series can be. The first kind is a genre-hybrid. `ER', for example, is a hospital series
which has aspects of reality in it like documentaries and is action filled. Although the
focus of the show lays on the medical treatment itself, with the character
developments and its diversity it is more like "channel surfing without pressing a
button, as scenarios and stories" develop "through the ER room"
6
. The other hybrid is
a hybridization of narrative structures between the series and the serial. Series has an
episodic
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format. Although the characters and settings are the same in each episode,
the story always finishes in each episode.
The advantage for the broadcaster and viewer simultaneously is that one can join in
watching it any time. Broadcasters can show repeats and the viewer does not have to
see the previous episodes to understand the present one. This happens with a serial.
The storyline is ongoing through several episodes up to a whole season. In the
beginning of each episode the viewer finds a short recap of what happened in
previous episodes. In the end of an episode the viewer is hooked through a cliff-
hanger to watch the next show in order to find out what will happen next. One can find
easily examples for serial such as long-running soaps like `Coronation Street' and
`Murder she wrote' for a series. To come back to our previous example, `ER' is also a
hybrid of serial and series. Each episode has several plotlines of casualties which
conclude within the episode. This feature of the show obviously puts it in the tradition
of a series. `ER' also deals with relationships between the pediatricians working at the
County General Hospital, which provides ongoing plots over several episodes and
even throughout seasons and creates so the continuity which is distinctive for a serial.
Over the last two decades, I would imply, the genre of television drama series went
through a specialization by broadcasters to match the interest of the audience.
Broadcasters created channels focusing on one particular genre only, for example, a
`sci-fi-channel' or `crime-channel'. Therefore they can target a specific type of
5
Turner, Graeme (2001) Genre, Hybridity and Mutations, p. 6
6
Lewis, Jon E. And Stempel, Penny (1999) The Ultimate TV Guide, p. 120.
7
Epstein, Alex on
http://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2005/09/episodic-vs-serial.html
, accessed 30.05.08
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audience. Before analyzing the genre of `Ashes to Ashes' and its hybridization this
essay will explain the genre of police series and how it developed and give short
description of the science fiction genre.
Television Police Series
Television police series derives like many other television series from the film, theatre
and literature. With beginning of the 1820s and Edgar Ellen Poe's novels, modern
crime fiction was born. The stories played in cities and were quite complex which
made it characteristic for this time. The stories by Edgar Wallace and Agatha Christie,
to name only a few, established the genre in the twentieth century and portrayed a
more middle class crime in Britain.
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The first television police series was produced by the BBC. `Fabian of Scotland
Yard' was based on real life cases of DCS Robert Fabian. Although the show ran only
for two years (1954-1956), television broadcasters realized the interest of the public in
police series. ITV produced several police series over the next years such as `Murder
Bag' (1957-1959), `Crime Sheet' (1959) and `No Hiding Place' (1959-1967) though the
most successful and longest-running show, so far, was `Dixon of Dock Green'. The
series was produced by the BBC and run from 1955-1976. It was a ground-breaking
series which pictured, in a realistic way to that time, the every day life of police
officers. The main character, George Dixon, was played by Jack Warner. Creator Ted
Willis reincarnated the character Dixon from the movie `The Blue Lamp' (1950). Dixon
was pictured as a good and loyal police officer from the neighborhood. More detailed,
he was "trustworthy, brave, hard-working, punctual, reliable, knowledgeable and
helpful"
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.
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In the beginning of the seventies the BBC realized that `Dixon of Dock Green' does
not represent the modern police force so they created a more bureaucratic,
professional and organized police force which was far less homely than `Dixon of Dock
Green'. `Z cars' (BBC, 1962-1978) was created by Troy Kennedy Martin and reflected
8
See also
http://www.newi.ac.uk/rdover/MED-STUD/represe2.htm
, accessed 01.05.08
9
http://www.newi.ac.uk/rdover/MED-STUD/represe2.htm
, accessed 01.05.08
10
See also
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/445716/index.html
, accessed 01.05.08
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