No Offence

Language:

No Offence is a mainstream television series in which the codes and conventions of the police
procedural crime drama are intertwined with aspects of social realism. Detailed analysis of this
media form including the process through which media language develops as genre will
provide students with an opportunity to understand and reflect on the dynamic nature of genre.

Narrative:

• Which narrative techniques are used to engage the audience in the opening episode of No
Offence?
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
restricted narration etc. – position the audience?
• The ways in which the narrative structure of No Offence offers a range of gratification to the
audience.
• Narratology including Todorov

Genre:

Conventions of the TV drama series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to
audiences.
• Definition of the series as a hybrid genre, belonging to the drama, social realism and crime
genres
• Genre theory including Neale

Representations:

No Offence provides a wide range of representational areas to explore; gender, place, class,
ethnicity, race etc.
• Negative and positive use – or subversion – of stereotypes, particularly around the
representation of women and the police.
• No Offence is unusual in popular television series due to the dominance of female
characters.
• Representation of place – Manchester – by implication the nation?
• Representation of issues – series 1 deals with the disappearance and murder of children with
Down’s Syndrome and raises questions about attitudes to and treatment of people with
disabilities.

Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world
• Theories of representation including Hall

Industries:

The central way into an institutional approach is to consider No Offence as a Channel 4
programme and to examine how it can be seen to fulfil the demands of its Public Service remit.
No Offence can be studied in the context of Channel 4’s commitment to be innovative and
distinctive.
• No Offence is an AbbottVision production, an independent company founded by the writer Paul
Abbott who also wrote Shameless.
• No Offence was a critical and commercial success in the UK, it was also a ratings success in
France where it was shown on the national broadcast channel, France2.
• Channel 4 uses series such as No Offence to add value to the channel through the availability
of the ‘box set’ on All4.

Audience:

The production, distribution and circulation of No Offence shows how audiences can be
reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and
platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies.
• No Offence was broadcast on Channel 4, can still be accessed on All4, it was also broadcast in
France.
• The way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical
circumstances is evident in the analysis of No Offence which is explicitly linked to contemporary
issues.
• Audience positioning through the construction of characters who are morally ambiguous.
• The advertising campaigns (trailers, websites at home and abroad) for the series demonstrate
how media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences.
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner
• Reception theory including Hall

Social, Economic, Political and Cultural contexts:

No Offence deals with a range of social, cultural and political issues arising from contemporary
contexts. The Manchester police force is used as a microcosm of society through which to
examine changing gender roles, the focus of the case which features children and adults with
Down’s syndrome examines the position of people with disabilities in the wider society. Political
contexts are evident in the nature of the approach to police work which refers to a history of
corruption and the role of police power in society. The economic context can be explored through
patterns of ownership and production and how the product is marketed nationally and globally