Just saw this last night, minor spoilers I guess:
In the wake of a burgulary, the theif is traced through a blood stain he left at the scene. They just plugged the DNA into the computer and out popped the name of a 14 year old juvenile offender. Now in the US they keep DNA records of sex offenders and (I believe) that’s it. Was this dramatic hyperbole or does the UK criminal justice system routinely record the DNA of everyone it houses?
Yes. DNA samples are routinely taken from suspects or even from neighbourhood residents in some murder investigations.
At the risk of taking this thread in a different direction, I have a question. I got home last Tuesday all ready for MI-5 and A&E had Cold Case Files on instead. Have they run out of episodes already? Does anybody know if A&E plans on airing new episodes any time soon?
Minor spoilers about the last episode:
Yes, the episode about the assassion from the US that ended
with Tom breaking down and shooting Harry, then running away and swimming off into the ocean was the last new one. Hell of a cliffhanger, wasn’t it?
AFAIK, new episodes are being shot now and A&E damn well better air them eventually.
I read on the TWoP board that the 16 shows we saw here (6 in the first season and 10 in the second) will soon be available (after the first of the year, I think) on DVD, uncut and with lots of extras. What we saw was heavily edited for commercials, and lots of key scenes were removed. It airs commercial-free in the UK.
I think this long wait that starts now is just payback for not having any wait at all between what were two completely different seasons in the UK.
Plus you have to remember that (generally) our “Seasons” are much shorter than yours anyway.