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Police Camera Action!

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1994 British TV series or programme
Police Camera Action!
Logo from the current series
Presented byAlastair Stewart (1994–2009)
Adrian Simpson (2007–2009)
Gethin Jones (2010)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series6
No. of episodes95 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducersOptomen Television (all series)
Carlton Television (1994–2002)
Original release
NetworkITV, STV, UTV
Release7 September 1994 (1994-09-07) –
18 August 2010 (2010-08-18)
Related
Police Stop!

Police, Camera, Action! is a police video programme made by Optomen Television, originally broadcast on ITV with repeats airing on ITV4. It was originally commissioned through Carlton Television.

It was presented by Alastair Stewart from 1994 until 2002, until his second drink-driving conviction led to a temporary suspension, before he resumed his role with Adrian Simpson from 2007. In 2010, the programme was presented by Gethin Jones.

About the show

Each episode has a subtitle relating to the type of police video footage such as "Safety Last" or "Driven to Distraction". It typically features police footage and occasional media footage relating to bad driving and road crime. However, this has not always been so, with special episodes "The Liver Run" (featuring the Metropolitan Police undertaking an organ transplant escort) and "The Man Who Shot OJ", focusing on the work of helicopter cameraman and pilot Bob Tur (now known as Zoey) in Los Angeles. This episode also looked at the controversies behind the O.J. Simpson trial. In later series of the show, footage from Bob Tur and the Los Angeles News Service would feature more prominently in certain episodes.

History

The first episode broadcast on 7 September 1994 was known as Police Stop!, which was also the name of a similar police programme available initially on VHS video and later on Sky1. To this date, it is the only episode not to be repeated on Men & Motors or ITV4. A spin-off book of the series was released in 1996 by Ebury Press, which was written by Peter Gillbe with a foreword by Alastair Stewart and which featured police footage of bad driving. The book had some footage stills which were not shown on the TV episodes.

In 2003, the programme was suspended due to Stewart's second drink-driving conviction when he was found to have crashed into a telegraph pole whilst three times over the legal limit. This delayed transmission of some unaired episodes until 17 January 2006. The programme resumed with Stewart introducing the series from a studio on 24 September 2007, joined by Adrian Simpson, who reported from location and provided voice-overs to the clips. A week before the new series began, there was a special 'Ultimate Pursuits/Best of Police Camera Action!' edition, presented by Stewart. 

Logo from the Original 1994 Series.

A new series was aired from 29 July – 18 August 2010, presented by Gethin Jones.

Episodes

Main article: List of Police Camera Action! episodes

Edited versions

Repeats on ITV4 were highly edited (presumably to remove material unsuitable for daytime transmission). It seems highly unlikely that Police Camera Action will be aired in its original, unedited form. The episodes affected were:

  • Danger! Drivers Ahead (although the original Police Stop! version is never aired, but both edited ones are, the second version of Danger! Drivers Ahead being edited)
  • Road to Nowhere (end music changed)
  • A Lorry Load of Trouble (highly edited from original)
  • On the Buses (footage removed for unknown reason)
  • Crash Test Racers (title sequence cut off)
  • Getting Their Man (end music replaced)

This was similar to Shoestring, which was shown in edited form in 2002 on BBC1.

See also

  • Police Stop! - programme released on VHS and later broadcast on Sky1 with a similar format.
  • Road Wars - seen as the replacement to Police Stop! and runs to a similar format to the more recent Police, Camera, Action! episodes.
  • Street Law - also known as Street Wars. Broadcast on Sky1, Sky2, and Pick TV.
  • Police Interceptors - programme following traffic police in Essex and South Yorkshire. Broadcast on Channel 5.
  • Traffic Cops - sometimes broadcast as Motorway Cops or Car Wars. BBC programme with similar format.
  • Brit Cops - a police show broadcast on Sky (originally on Bravo and then Virgin1).
  • Street Crime UK - a similar show broadcast on Bravo.

References

  1. UK Emergency Vehicles > Information > The Liver Run UK Emergency Vehicles Created 8 May 2007, Accessed 6 June 2011
  2. "Drink-driving TV host dropped", BBC News 2003-07-01

External links

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