Chapter three is here, where 21st Century DCI Gene Hunt whom is a slightly brash fun loving and mullet wearing copper tries to understand his purpose in the world of the old school police officer, going back in time to 1973 Manchester. He was a young police constable in 1982 - Gene could remember the Eighties and Nineties - not the fifties to sixties! This chapter also includes DCI Gene Hunt's profile from the present day.
The hospital notes read: Eugene Hunt is in a medically induced coma after his elderly former Detective Chief Inspector; Mr. Raymond Carling viciously assaulted him near his blue 2013 Ford Mondeo Titanium X business edition leaving him for dead near street onlookers.
Flashback to 1982: Hunt heard a noise from abandoned boarded up blocks of council flats and presumed that some young people had broken in so he decided to investigate. In order to enter the property, he kicked the door open and it was some squatters playing their ghetto boxes at full blast, taking crack cocaine; who were determined to harm the teenage police officer; where, as a young Manchester constable, he worked with DCI Harry Outhwaite — a legendary D-Day veteran who was accepting bribes from a local gangster Stephen Warren. Seeing it was the right thing to do, Hunt reported Outhwaite to his superior officers.
DCI EUGENE HUNT. DOB: 10th of February 1963. Height 6 ft 11 ins.
But during the 1980s and early 1990s decade was convinced that old-school policing methods were on their way to being excised from the force, along with the officers who still practice them for good reason; in which he was part of the Operation Countrymen assignments as an aspiring teen police officer, designed to expose corruption in the Police Force during which a super young Hunt begins to notice that files and evidence have gone missing and/or were tampered with. It is revealed that Rose is the code name for an upcoming robbery of a van carrying gold-bullion, masterminded by corrupt old school police officers who were eventually retired during this decade; due to their questionable practises and old age. Gene Hunt, despite his very young age at the time, brings them down as this would set the seeds for the Police and Criminal Evidence Act in 1984 plus the 1994 updating of the police caution with various others inbetween.
Carling is described by Hunt as "a bent copper's right-hand man when it comes to downright illegal fighting, shooting, gambling, banned policing techniques; dated as The Sweeney and their horrifying disrespect to ladies!" when he recalls his early days in Greater Manchester Police's Stopford House station during 1982-1987 before transferring to 'A' Division as a Detective Inspector in '88.
Gene Hunt characterises his younger self as "skinny," occasionally headstrong, and full of childish boyish bravado. Hunt's former Guvs have been described as "not being scared of throwing a few punches to get a result"; whereas Sam Tyler, Gene Hunt and Alex Drake are present day detectives who value forensic evidence and thorough investigative techniques rather than corruption and violence. Sam Tyler, has stated that both he and Hunt have an enormous respect for the other's approach to policing as well as Hunt seeing much of his younger self in Tyler circa 1988.
Alex and Gene danced in her apartment along to Spandu Ballet's 'True'. She rest her head on his shoulders; the pair then look up into each other's eyes before nearly kiss but are rudely interrupted by Keats. At the end of their first date, Alex and Gene share a kiss.
He demonstrates his willingness to report corrupt officers who accept bribes from criminals — a practice which he continues after the local Manchester crime boss, murdered a girl for helping him on one of his very first cases in GMP Criminal Investigations Department. He was initially slightly disdainful of female police officers as a young teen; however since WPC Annie Cartwright's promotion to CID in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and accepts her as a part of the team. Since then Gene Hunt's been smitten with the women on his team - especially one DI Alexandra "Alex" Drake (nee Price) when she first joined Metropolitan Police in 2004 from training as a police psychologist. Hunt's major rivals in the police force are DCI Derek Litton of the Greater Manchester Police CID (since he transferred to London after nearly 22 years at Greater Manchester Police). By then Hunt transferred out of the Greater Manchester Police, to the Metropolitan Police Service, alongside DC Chris Skelton, DC Annie Cartwright and DI Sam Tyler who grew up with him in Manchester as children in the 1970s-1980s.
In 1988, when Greater Manchester Police CID was struggling, Hunt was promoted to Detective Inspector and transferred to "A" Division, CID of the Stopford House police station under DCI Harry Woolf who became his mentor (two and a bit years before demoted ex DCI Ray Carling retires); he continued this position until 1997; staying in Manchester to 2004 when he transferred to London Metropolitan Police Fenchurch East CID at the age of nearly forty one.
As the Detective Chief Inspector of London Metropolitan Police's Fenchurch East CID, Hunt is respected by the faithful and subordinate members of his team.
He has embraced many aspects of modern policing, in fact Gene hasn't lost an ounce of passion - he's only seen it flourish since being that lanky police constable in 1982 determined to nab that crafty house breaker or find a lost dog. It later appears that Hunt was the very young officer who took Drake's hand when she was a child, following her parents death from a Ford Escort MkIII Ghia car bomb explosion, she was only eight and he was nineteen with eleven years between them.
DI Gene Hunt tells the Woman's Police Constable "I was ten in 1973, Anna. I was still playing with me Corgi Ford Cortina GXL, listening to my glam rock records and wanting sweets with me mates after school." Gene was flabbergasted at how he could be a police officer, ten years from his birth in 1963!
"Don't be silly, you've just had an accident; come off with that nonsense." said WPC Anna Cartwright, who would have Annie five and a half or six years later in 1979.
"This isn't the CID I remember; that flowery wallpaper was fading, this filing cabinet your psycho DCI shoved me into never worked properly since 1988 when I first became a Detective Inspector, eight years on the trot before being DCI!" Over the course of this fan-fiction, Gene Hunt faces various culture clashes, most frequently regarding the differences between his modern approach to policing and the more traditional methods of his colleagues. He could see two ashtrays per desk, typewriters and rotary telephones with stacks of incomplete messy paper work with cigarette smoke hanging on the ceilings.
"Shall I get a chair and you better get started; Genie glam boy!" threatened DCI Ray Carling who stamped on his cigarette into the carpet, not bothering to stub it out into a bin. "You look like that cross dressing poofter David Bowie with your hairstyle! And your manicured nails smell of fruitcake bubblegum!"
Gene's strait-laced and modern manner, however, brings him into constant conflict with Ray and his team, who prefer old-fashioned methods of policing. Raymond Carling is an old style cop, not scared of throwing a few punches to get a result. He is also happy to frame people regardless of whether the evidence points to them or not, to manufacture or destroy evidence in pursuit of a result and to accept bribes. Gene Hunt describes him as "overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding" (Ray's reply: "You make that sound like a bad thing.") Ray is supported by the team of DS and DC Collin Skelton. Ray, although loyal to the force, is portrayed as a misogynistic bully and serves as an antagonist towards Gene throughout this storyline.
The WPC can only explain it as psychological trauma from his car crash. The character's presence and eventual promotion provide a way for this fan-fiction to explore the extent to which female officers of the time were undermined, underused, and harassed.
Gene also occasionally encounters people in 1973 whom he knows in the 21st Century including suspects, friends and his own parents.
DCI Gene Hunt is from a more politically correct era, where suspects' rights and the preservation of forensic evidence are more stringently observed. This frequently leads to clashes with his counterparts in 1973, when sexism, racism, police brutality and institutionalised minor corruption are casually regarded as routine parts of the job.
Gene is indeed in a medically induced coma, and that we are seeing his imaginary idea of 1973, filtered through 1970s cop shows and being ten at the time.
He notices a familiar bronze Ford Cortina MkIII GXL in the car park wearing a distinctive black vinyl roof and Rostyle alloys "That will eventually wind up seven years later as my very first executive Ford as a 17 year old kid in 1980; brought second hand!" remarked DCI Gene Hunt still in shock.
"What d' y' mean second 'and?" sniggered DCI Ray Carling "That's a brand new K reg car! Cortinas were only around for eleven years since 1962!" loudly laughing at his modern Detective Inspector. "Anyway I'm going to get cracking on the admin; those files won't write themselves. Yer nothing than a dinosaur bully; just wait until the 1980s and early 1990s where I stamp you out of the Police Force, bye-bye bullies in blue!" remarked DI Gene Hunt who is wearing an open necked collared t-shirt, leather jacket and red flared trousers with white platform shoes. A remarked difference from his usual formal clothing he wore in the 21st Century as DCI of London's Met Police in Fenchurch East.
"Susie looks like a Christmas turkey in the cells." said one of the male Detective Constables sat at an aisle desk eating a bacon sarnie, with ketchup ending on a magazine of topless girls and a topaz necklace which was supposed to be bagged up as evidence, but he didn't do so before his sloppy snack tampers with DNA traces.
Gene follows a series of crimes which have been committed with the same modus operandi in both 2013 and 1973. The clash of cultures between Hunt and others relates mainly to the lack of importance placed on forensic science in 1973.
Gene Hunt, driving back from the crime scene (the song 'Life On Mars' playing), stricken with grief, pulls over and steps out of his Ford Mondeo Titanium X to compose himself, and is hit by a speeding car. When he wakes up, he's now living in the Manchester of 1973. He is now a detective inspector transferred from 'C' Division in Hyde and his new boss, DCI Ray Carling is a living representation of everything the police force has tried to stop itself being in the 21st Century. Ray is a sexist, pompous and arrogant man who uses his weight in the station to great effect. He takes the attitude of "shoot first, then ask questions." The rest of Gene's colleagues, including DC Collin Skelton and DS Carter Waterman are of the same vein. They all think the new boy is a little strange because of his frequent outbursts and what appears to them as erratic behaviour.
DC Skelton unearths from records a forgotten complaint from Beryl Raimes (Colin Raimes's grandmother) about a noisy neighbour. Re-questioning Mrs Raimes, they discover that the noise from his records stopped after her complaint. Putting two and two together, Gene races to the neighbour's address. Annie's mother realises it is the house next door to where Colin Raimes lives in the present day with an Atomic Rooster record blaring at high volume. They arrest the long-haired neighbour when he returns to the room.
Back at the station, Gene and WPC Cartwright discuss what will happen to the serial killer. Gene believes he will go down for life, but Cartwright (Annie's mother) knows that because of a psychiatrist report found at the house, he will be sent to an institution and be back on the streets in about 30 years. Gene struggles with his conscience, but finally follows her advice and puts the report in the bin, which will mean the killer will receive a life sentence. Ray reluctantly welcomes him to the team.
"Welcome to the team, Gene." said DCI Ray Carling stood near his dartboard.
