Crimewatch UK - and no, I didn't have nightmares either

[George 1978]

Why did it go off air? Crime is still occurring.

Excellent point - I thought the same when Shaw Taylor retired from Police 5.

Of course, it would have to be on air 24/7 to cope with the demand of crime continuing to be committed.

[Richard1978]

I remember starting to watch it in the early 1990s, & stuck with it for a few years.

[Moonraker]

Why did it go off air? Crime is still occurring.

[George 1978]

There was something different to late 1980s Thursdays evenings compared to other weekdays; Thursday evenings on TV for example circa 1989: Top of the Pops in NICAM digital stereo in association with Radio 1 so we could both hear and see boybands such as New Kids on the Block; Stock Aitken and Waterman groups and Jive Bunny in pure concert surroundings, and the was followed by Tomorrow's World which was still speculating on the Year 2000. Anyone with an interest in crime had a choice as well: The Bill turned up in its regular slot of 8.00 pm, and for Central region viewers, a taste of things to come that evening with Shaw Taylor inviting viewers to "keep 'em peeled" and asking us to solve armed robberies and frauds in Walsall and Solihull courtesy of Police 5. And then we got the national version of that (although Crimewatch did a regional BBC 2 Midlands version around the same time in which "Blue Peter Purves" in a Tarby's Frame Game "frame" was one of the presenters).

It was a real treat to stay up late when we were younger and watch Crimewatch, sometimes on the bedroom portable, even though it was still "school in the morning" territory and we had not quite reached the weekend just yet; this was a chance to almost get almost frightened at our wits' end at seeing an almost "fly on the wall" feel of crime being committed before our very eyes. Certainly during the late 1980s and early 1990s Crimewatch UK (during the Nick Ross and Sue "changing her hair style each month" Cook era), was usually once a month on Thursday (except during the summer months), roughly after the Nine O'clock News on BBC 1. After getting past Rob Curling reading the late Newsroom South East news headlines (other regions are available for non-Londoners) and a misleading weather forecast from Michael Fish, it's around 9.30 pm and we reach our monthly fest of crime-solving, mostly as a warm-up to Question Time with Sir Robin Day (aka Queshton [sic] Time); and that was the warm-up to the Crimewatch Update as well. I have seen some old editions on YouTube as a form of revision for this thread and they look really fascinating to look back on 30 years on.

An average episode starts with various things happening such as flashing blue police lights, police officers knocking on doors and young men running away from their mischief. We then meet presenters Nick Ross (seen as looking sub-Ken Barlow-ish as ever) and Sue Cook who comes into her own. Just a few minutes in, we get our first reconstruction, usually narrated by the same presenter who introduces it - (Cook and later Jill Dando often narrated the female victim cases featured). Some actors are incognito in reconstructions, but I did see Stephen Boxer from Get Up & Go! in one from around 1985. Murder cases can be shocking, and even as a viewer it feels that the reconstruction makes one feel not a million miles away. Number plates are removed or taped up to avoid confusion (unless it really matched the one that was used in the crime), and we spend around five minutes with each reconstruction. Then we go to a senior CID (hardly-ever uniformed) officer in charge of the case - I spied future Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair as one of them, before he became "famous" doing one investigation. There were usually three reconstructions in a programme, and one is also usually a robbery or burglary and also one for rape or sexual assault where the victim is female an suspect is male.

Ross or Cook introduces us to the Incident Desk and Photo Call a usually 2 x 2 montage of people on the run that various police forces around the country want to catch up with, so they can be arrested and taken into custody. We are introduced to some regular police insiders in uniform i.e. police "ambassadors" to the programme such as David Hatcher and Jacqui Hames. "Have you seen this man?" or "do you know the whereabouts of this woman?" one of them says in response to some monochrome CCTV footage from a bank where our "suspect" tries to rob the cashier while using a lethal weapon and a Millets carrier bag to store it in (even though there wasn't even a Millets store in the town that he did the robbery). Everyone except the robber is pixelated out. We have two lots of four faces in an average programme and then move onto the next case. A crime can be committed in Cornwall and the offender can be caught, arrested and charged in Caithness - the beauty of Crimewatch as a national programme.

And then, every two or three months we have Aladdin's Cave, presented originally by John Bly of Anglia TV regional programmes fame, and later by John Kettley lookalike and BBC antiques expert Eric Knowles, displaying ornaments, Constable paintings (no pun intended), and Mr and Mrs-esque carriage clocks to see whether any viewers can identify them as their own from recent Operation Bumblebee raids. (And no, I don't think that David Dickenson would have been suitable for the Aladdin's Cave segment either). It feels lighter in comparison with the violent reconstructions and the severe nature of the main parts of the evening's programme. And that's the crux of an average programme. Ross usually reminds us of the Update in an hour's time on the other side of Question Time, but just in case you have school or work in the morning, we are reminded to sleep well and not to have nightmares - after all that was seen on the programme that evening! Cheek!

As I am not a wimp, I often stayed up for the update as not doing so would be like having a jigsaw puzzle with a piece missing, even though it is on close to midnight when the studio winds down and closes. Question Time would be a late Robin Day or an early Peter Sissons one - typical guests such as Norman Tebbit, Royal Hattersley, David Steel etc... Before very long, the hour is up and then we go back to the Update, and it seems that no news is good news - the world has not changed too much in just one hour. After around seven or eight minutes of the update, it's time for bed, thank goodness. And I did sleep well, so much that I didn't want to get up for school the following morning as I was obviously so tired as a result. I often used to videotape Crimewatch along with an evening of other programmes on that Thursday to watch later in retrospective, and I did think that the more viewers the programme had, the more chances that the crimes features would be solved once nd for all. Most months, after Crimewatch, another weather forecast; a Public Information Film; a look at the clock; the National Anthem (in the days when we sang "Queen" and not "King") and then blank screen, but Carol Hersee might make an appearance during the night if we were lucky.

Jill Dando did a very good job as a presenter, replacing Sue Cook, and when she was murdered in April 1999 I was just as shocked as everyone else was - the sad and upsetting irony of using Crimewatch to find her killer in May 1999 was a tribute to her as well as a way of finding her killer. And Nick Ross did his final Crimewatch on Monday 2nd July in 2007 - exactly six years to the day after Barry George had been originally found guilty of Dando's murder when it had been reported at the time, and it's a pity that the real person has never been caught and that justice has not been done yet, but I am sure that will will be one day. However, I think that the "golden years" of Crimewatch was during the 1980s and first half of the 1990s. Fiona Bruce was excellent as a successor to Dando for the new millennium, as well as a Question Time presenter. I didn't think much to the weekday "Homes Under the Hammer" daily warm-up spin-offs like the Crimewatch Roadshow which feels artificial compared to its evening counterpart. Thanks to YouTube and I can watch and "enjoy" (if that's the right word) some of the 1980s episodes all over again for old time's sake, and perhaps they will have the irony of solving old and ancient crimes, several decades on?

Don't have nightmares and do sleep well...