Has there ever been any profession more negatively depicted on television than that of the humble copper? If we have learned anything over the years, from The Sweeney through to The Professional s, from Happy Valley to Line of Duty , it’s that a career in the police force takes a heavy toll on the individual who carries its badge. These people arrive home each night after a marathon shift like empty husks, craving only the bottle and a swift oblivion. “It definitely does take a toll, yes,” says Richard Rankin, star of the police procedural Rebus , which has just returned to our screens 16 years after ITV’s grittily authentic version ended.
Adapted from the series of crime novels by Ian Rankin, Rebus is in many ways classic cop show fare, focusing, as it does, on Rebus, a crumpled law enforcer – this one Scottish – with ostensibly good intentions, but whose enthusiasm for life has been snuffed out by having to deal with so many malcontents on a daily basis. The show has been greeted with mostly enthusiastic reviews. What makes the revival work so well is that it manages to feel tangibly real, and emotionally affecting.
In among all the police work here, DI John Rebus struggles with a dysfunctional family life – ex-wife, estranged brother turning to crime – and largely flails. When he orders whiskey in pubs, they come served in double measures. “My dad was an ex-cop, and I have hundreds of stories from him about how bloody hard the job was,” says Rankin, who.