You're nicked conducts a forensic investigation of British television police series from 1955 to the present. In an analysis ranging from Dixon of Dock Green to Happy Valley via The Sweeney, The Bill and Cracker it examines how this homegrown genre has evolved and how different production technologies have affected its thematic development. It also looks at how police series have commented on criminological issues and intervened in sociological debates concerning class and gender identities.

Over the years British police series have borrowed elements from social realism, melodrama, the soap opera, sci-fi and action series to probe the social disintegration of British society following the end of the Second World War. To chart the development of the genre as a whole each chapter of the book focuses on a particular decade and provides a snapshot of British society at that time. It then analyses how the representation of the police station, domestic scenes of criminals and the private lives of police officials can unearth the complex ideology underpinning each series and determine how the genre has developed alongside modern British society.

As the first dedicated study of one of British television's most popular genres, this book is a must-have for scholars and students of British history, television, culture, sociology and criminology. It will also appeal to crime-drama enthusiasts the world over.