EPISODE 1

• • Opening is very similar to Shameless content - after a night at the pub, Dinah is annoyed at her ‘boyfriend???’ Bob for apparently flirting with a woman and ignoring her. She says she would rather go home and ‘have a wank’. Females not needing men, and using the crude language and humour expected by Abbott. 
  • Genre Crime conventions = chase scene after a murderer. Powerful female officer keeping up with a murderer. Shock tactics and fast paced = he has his head run over by a bus.
• • Non-white officers are minor characters in the station in ep1 
  • Male police officers are seen as unprofessional, singing about a murderer’s death. Spike demonstrates the death by smashing a jam donut. 
  • Joy Freers and Dinah Kowalska are Detective Constables applying for Detective Sergeant. Viv Deering in Detective Inspector. 
  • Spike calls Dinah ‘bird’. Viv Deering calls the males ‘gormless prostates’ = internalised sexism.
• • Viv Deering imitates a masculine style in the work force, e.g. walking into the male toilets, swearing, her husband comes to her work place and she has to try and make time for him. 
  • Joy is overly emotional and nervous = more typical of traditional females. Femininity is framed as a weakness in the workforce, she is less confident, more emotion, but she is very clever. 
• • Miller (older male officer) mixes up chinese and vietnamese, referring to the chinese woman as Miss Saigon. Dinah corrects him >>> Older white male = ignorant, careless of culture/nationalities. Younger female = knowledgeable and culturally sensitive
  • ‘Dog semen’ found in dead woman’s digestive system = shocking, sick comedy typical of Paul Abbott
  • Criminal case revolves around victims with Down Syndrome = No Offence is progressive by including representation of people often seen as ‘less able’ or ‘other’. 
• • Joy is promoted above male officers, female empowerment in the police force through Joy as sergeant and Viv Deering as the Detective Inspector. Unrealistic for its time, many male officers held more positions of power contextually.
  • Crime enigma = talk of patterns and other victims suggests there could be a serial killer = more interesting to the audience. 
• • Cathy’s homelife is neglectful. Parents have left children alone at home and they are seemingly using drugs. Similar homelife to Shameless - working class representation. 
  • Darren is Detective Superintendent = males still in power with his higher role over Viv Deering. But she ignores him and is correct. He has status, but she’s a better detective. Some progressive representation for black people. 
• • Dinah automatically assumes that the murderer is male = she says ‘he could too’ as in mistake Cathy as having Down Sydrome. 
  • Down Syndrome people are shown as high functioning and independent. Jocelyn is the ringleader of her friendship group and is acting as pimp for finance. Mikey and Jocelyn marry and live independently without help. 
  • Crime genre conventions = search and detective work to track the murderer. It is littered with humour (Abbott style) like the child driving a different white van with his drunk grandad. This fits Steve Neale’s Genre theory - repetition and differences.
• • Non diegetic sound of country theme motif mixed with ticking clock rhythm = tension, suspense >> will the police find Cathy before she is dead?
  • Dinah is the hero jumping into the river after Cathy - progressive female representation
  • Viv supports and encourages Joy to be more confident - nurturing side of Viv.
  • Dinah is Polish and lives with her daughter and mum - positive representation for single mothers and immigrants/multicultural people. 
  • Dinah also takes Cathy into her home showing the nurturing side of women can exists alongside the brave and independent side
• The episode takes on the role of a multi-protagonist show, as audiences are then given the option to pick their favorite character between Viv Deering, Dinah Kowalska and Joy Freers.