Episode description

The sad story of the hunt for the lone gunman Raoul Moat had many of the ingredients of classic crime fiction: a countryside location; an outsider against the law and an extraordinary set of tragic circumstances that unfolded over time. In this edition of Thinking Allowed Laurie Taylor speaks to Michael Rowe, a criminologist at the centre of the crisis. He gave countless media interviews at the time and has now conducted a study of how 24 hour news media used the rubric of crime fiction to present events in a gripping way. He argues, however, that it was a method in which truth and understanding seem to have been amongst the victims. Also on the programme Prabha Kotiswaran discusses her ethnographic study of the daily and nightly life of prostitutes in two of India's cities.

Producer: Charlie Taylor.