New Tricks TV Serial

Being big fans of Netflix and BBC Television, the better half found a BBC television series called New Tricks.  The link from Wikipedia is here.  It gives a rundown of the stars, background of the show, etc.

The most interesting parts of the show IMHO (we saw just the first one hr. premier) were: 1) all the characters were at LEAST sixty years old; 2) the main character, Amanda Redman, is a woman with a few extra pounds on here, quite bright without being too cynical; and 3) the catchy lyrics in the theme song.

Take a look and listen:



The lyrics go something like this:

It's alright, it's OK, doesn't really matter if you're old and grey.
It's alright, it's OK, listen to what I say.
It's alright, doing fine, doesn't really matter if the sun don't shine.
It's alright, it's OK, make it the end of the day.
Hi-tech, low-tech take your pick, you can't teach an old dog a brand new trick.
I don't care what anybody says.  (Dennis Waterman)

This BBC series is a testament to all invisible older women:

Aside from the recent Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, there is a general absence of older women used in advertising, signifying a cultural obsession with youth and beauty, and reflecting a societal contempt for older women, affecting their self-esteem, and encouraging younger women to become petrified of ageing.

This is the finding of research by Dr Lauren Rosewarne of the University of Melbourne which looks at the portrayal of older people, and especially older women, in advertising. Her research will be presented on Thursday 6 July 2006, at the Annual Conference for Psychology Specialists Working with Older People (PSIGE) - part of The British Psychological Society - at the University of Sussex.

After analysing 177 outdoor advertisements, Dr Rosewarne found that less than four percent of the female characters that appeared were portrayed as being over 30 years old, and none were portrayed as being over 66 years of age. It was also noted that when older women are portrayed in advertising, their presentation is vastly different from that of younger women, with older women often being cast in stereotypical and negative roles such as the nagging mother-in-law, or brothel madam.

The research suggests that instead of being due to aspirational marketing strategies that don’t deem the older woman a figure of ambition, the absence is actually demonstrating the function of advertising as a mirror to society. While the mirror fails to be reflective of real age distribution in society, it is successful at reflecting contemporary societal contempt for older women more broadly.

Detective Chief Superintendant Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) is my new hero.