Spend The Night: In the cells.

The Blue Lamp - (1949. Dir. Basil Deardon)

Although it now looks dated and almost twee The Blue Lamp not only caught Britain at a tumultuous time but shaped crime drama for decades to come. The look, feel and subject of the film drilled right to the gritty heart of social problems in Britain, and more specifically London, directly after the Second World War.Although the problems were by no means unique among British cities, London of the late 1940s and early 1950s encapsulated the huge anti-climax of the end of the war after the bunting of VE and VJ night celebrations were put back in the box. Despite the huge sacrifice to make the world a safer place there was little evidence that Britain was the victor. It was a grey and austere time in which huge swathes of the capital lay in bombed ruins, the economy slumped and male soldiers returned to find a competitive job market. Only ‘spivs’ seemed to profit from the ‘New Britain’. The black market in “off the back of the lorry” rationed goods matched that of the legitimate economy. Criminal gangs reconvening after the war also found that the pecking order had changed significantly, their patches taken over by a new breed of mobster, such as the Maltese gangs of London and teenage hoodlums. Exacerbating the fact was that in the immediate post-war period the underworld suddenly became awash with easily available ‘trophy’ firearms and weapons brought home as souvenir by returning service personnel and playing a significant role in a major and bloody crime wave.An entire generation of disaffected youth was beginning to assert itself and make it’s presence felt, questioning the old pre-war order of both the state and society. With a ready supply of weaponry to hand and a devil may care attitude a hard core of young offenders ran wild and were not afraid to dish out violence to anyone who got in their way. The hanging of Derek Bentley, despite being innocent of the shooting of a police office during a bungled robbery (in a rooftop stand off he urged his armed friend to ‘let him have it’ by which he meant ‘give him the gun’ but was interpreted by the jury as ‘shoot him’), was almost certainly an extreme attempt to re-establish justice and send a message to the young that this behaviour was not to be tolerated. For the Police at the time the shift in attitudes towards the establishment came as a shock to the system and policing methods were forced to update quickly. The cosy image of the friendly beat bobby who would turn a crime wave into a trickle with a judicious clip round the ear was shown by The Blue Lamp to be picture of the past. But despite this the film is a homage to the British sense of justice and shows the Metropolitan plod through a rose tinted camera lens. Nonetheless it failed to impress the Metropolitan Police at the time, who thought it a little close to the bone, yet as a piece of PR it eventually proved priceless and . The Blue Lamp follows a rookie copper’s first few weeks on the job in austere and bomb damaged London. His mentor, PC Dixon, played by Jack Warner, is shot and killed by a psychotic youth (brilliantly played by Dirk Bogarde) and the chase is on to catch him. It’s a little dated to eyes accustomed to NYPD Blue or even The Bill, and shows the Metropolitan plod through rose tinted camera. But it still packs a punch and was hugely influential on British police procedural dramas for decades, until The Sweeney turned things upside down. It also did avuncular Jack Warner a few career favours. PC Dixon was miraculously brought back to life for the BBC hit serial Dixon Of Dock Green which ran for over 20 years. Warner was 80 when he finally hung up his truncheon and died a few months after retiring. But Dixon the character was once again resuscitated and was recently revived as a radio play for Radio 4.

The Food: Irish Stew (in the name of the law), Truncheon Meat sandwiches, Just-Ice Cream.

The Drink: Not while I’m on duty, madam.