So, as you will remember from last week's post about Prime Suspect, I was keen to watch the next instalment -- Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness -- to see how mobile phone technology had changed since the last one.
Prime Suspect 6 -- the best one so far, I have to say, excellent plot and super-high production values -- was made in 2003. Now pretty much all the characters have access to a mobile phone, and these are small, compact devices, half the size of the ones spotted in the previous instalment, Prime Suspect 5, which was made in 1996.
Interestingly, Tennison is now so contactable by mobile that she sometimes deliberately switches it off, whereas in previous episodes she's struggled to get it to work -- either because of short battery life or poor signals.
Text messaging also plays a vital role in police work. In one scene, Tennison's deputy receives important information about a suspect via SMS and simply holds up the phone's screen to show her what it says.
Other technological changes include the use of video when interviewing suspects (as opposed to simple audio tape) and the prevalence of email (Tennison's computer continually "pings" with messages arriving in her in-box).
I wonder if the next episode, made in 2006, will include references to Google, blogs or the Home Office's DNA database?!
