Welcome to Downstream. Tonight we're interested in one thing and one thing only, and that's

Copaganda. From Bobby's on the beat, catching baddies of the week to sprawling tales of morally

compromised detectives with dysfunctional personal lives, the police come in all manner of

guises and are a staple of film and television, and I'd probably wager that it's the most dominant

presentation of a workplace or profession on our screens. In the US, shows about the police and

law enforcement make up between a fifth and a quarter of scripted network TV, and the numbers aren't

too different here in Britain. Indeed, the season six finale of Lionel of Duty was the single most

viewed episode of any drama since modern records began back in 2002. So what impact does the

ubiquity of police and law enforcement in our popular culture have on how our criminal justice

system actually works, and how does our own sense of what the police are and what functions they serve

align with what it is that we see on the TV. And more importantly, do we have to cancel super

intended Ted Hastings for being part of an unjust institution? With me to talk about all this

and more are two of my favourite people that the internet has to offer. We've got bad cop Ben Smoke,

the politics editor of Huck magazine, thorn in the side of the home office Ben, thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me. And making his Navara media debut because

fuck it, it's the three hands of tonight. We've got film writer and podcaster and Sergeant

Nice Guy, Casper Salmon. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

We're causing for duty. I don't know why I thought you had to be good cop, but you just sort of came

across as good cop would make me a cup of tea, offer to ring my duty solicitor, that kind of thing.

Maybe Ben and I can swap halfway through, and that will be even more terrifying to you.

Yeah, that would that would be absolutely terrifying. I don't want that to happen.

So just to kick things off, nice, easy question, you do not have a right to silence, by the way,

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