Crimewatch

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Crimewatch

Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs

Crime reconstruction

Crime scene reconstruction is the use of scientific methods, physical evidence, deductive reasoning, and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime....
major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC . It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular public television service with a high level of ....
. It was announced on 15 October 2008 that the BBC is to move the filming shows such as Crimewatch

Crimewatch

Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile United Kingdom television programme produced by the BBC, that Crime_reconstruction major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public....
to studios in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the Capital , largest city and most populous Unitary authority#Wales in Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sport institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of Welsh Assembly Government ....
.

The show was first broadcast on June 7 1984, and is based on the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
TV show Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst
Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst

Aktenzeichen XY ? ungel?st is a German television broadcast since October 1967 on ZDF that aims to combat and solve crimes. Until 2003 it was produced in co-operation with the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF and Schweizer Fernsehen, a division of the Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR id?e suisse....
(which translates as File XY...

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Encyclopedia

Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs
Crime reconstruction

Crime scene reconstruction is the use of scientific methods, physical evidence, deductive reasoning, and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime....
major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One
BBC One

BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC . It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular public television service with a high level of ....
. It was announced on 15 October 2008 that the BBC is to move the filming shows such as Crimewatch
Crimewatch

Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile United Kingdom television programme produced by the BBC, that Crime_reconstruction major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public....
to studios in Cardiff
Cardiff

Cardiff is the Capital , largest city and most populous Unitary authority#Wales in Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sport institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of Welsh Assembly Government ....
.

The show was first broadcast on June 7 1984, and is based on the German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
TV show Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst
Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst

Aktenzeichen XY ? ungel?st is a German television broadcast since October 1967 on ZDF that aims to combat and solve crimes. Until 2003 it was produced in co-operation with the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF and Schweizer Fernsehen, a division of the Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR id?e suisse....
(which translates as File XY... Unsolved). It was first presented by Nick Ross
Nick Ross

Nick Ross is a British radio and television presenter across a wide range of factual programmes but is best known for his long-running co-hosting of the BBC TV show Crimewatch which he left on 2 July 2007 after 23 years....
and Sue Cook
Sue Cook

Sue Cook is a United Kingdom broadcaster and author. She lives in North London with her husband, film director Ian Sharp. She has two children, Charlie Williams, son to former husband John Williams , the classical guitarist, and Megan Macqueen, daughter to children's television producer Billy Macqueen with whom she lived for almost fifteen...
. When Cook decided to leave in 1995, she was replaced by the late Jill Dando
Jill Dando

Jill Wendy Dando was an England Journalism and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 14 years until she was murdered in April 1999. Her death sparked a huge manhunt by the Metropolitan Police and led to the trial of Barry George....
. After Dando's murder in April 1999, Fiona Bruce
Fiona Bruce

Fiona Elizabeth Bruce is a Scottish people journalist, Newsreader and television presenter. Since joining the BBC in 1989, she has gone on to present many flagship programmes for the corporation including the BBC News at Ten, Crimewatch, Call My Bluff and, most recently, Antiques Roadshow and Andrew Marr Sunday Show....
took over.

As of 2008, Kirsty Young
Kirsty Young

Kirsty Jackson Young is a Scotland television presenter, actress and radio presenter. She has recently left her position as head newsreader on Five News, the news programme on British television channel Five , where she had worked for most of the time since its launch in 1997....
and Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew Amroliwala

Matthew Amroliwala is a BBC newsreader who presents on BBC News , the corporation's 24 hour rolling news channel, and on BBC One at the weekends....
front the show, following the departures of Ross and Bruce in 2007.

About the show

It started as Crimewatch UK (the name was formally shortened to Crimewatch in 2002) and was regarded as an experiment when it was first shown, partly because of doubts about whether police
Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
would take part, whether witnesses and victims would welcome the idea, whether it would actually lead to arrests, and whether it could be considered to prejudice a jury.

It is one of the largest live factual studio productions. The format of the programme usually involving three or four reconstructions, often followed by interviews with senior detectives and/or relatives or friends. Other briefer appeals use the E-FIT
E-FIT

The Electronic Facial Identification Technique, commonly known as E-FIT, is a computerised method of synthesizing images to produce Facial composites of the faces of wanted criminals based on Witness descriptions....
computer system, CCTV
Closed-circuit television

Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors.It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point to point wireless links....
and photos, usually with two lists, each showing four or five mugshots of Britain's Most Wanted about 15 minutes into the programme and again towards the end of the programme. These photos are, then, shown again during the credits, and this is one of the few programmes in which the BBC do not 'credit squeeze
Closing credits

Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture or television program to list the Cast member and Film crew involved in the production....
'.

Crimewatch airs once a month at peak time with a 15-minute follow-up later in the evening, Crimewatch Update, which reports updates on calls and breakthroughs. From time to time the team airs an extra programme Crimewatch: Solved showcasing cases that resulted in convictions; and sometimes produce a Crimewatch special which reviews an entire high-profile case from beginning to end such as the murder of Sarah Payne
Sarah Payne

The murder of Sarah Payne occurred on July 2000. The victim was Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne who was murdered by Roy William Whiting ....
.

Involvement

Several police officer
Police officer

A police officer is a Warrant employee of a police force. Police officers are generally responsible for apprehending criminals, maintaining public order, and preventing and detecting crimes....
s have also featured in the studio, including David Hatcher, Helen Phelps, Jeremy Payne, Jackie Haymes, Jonathan Morrison, Jane Corrigan and most recently Rav Wilding
Rav Wilding

Rav Wilding is an England television presenter and former police officer who, since June 2004, has been a presenter on Crimewatch and other high profile TV Shows....
. For many years the show also recruited antiques experts John Bly, Eric Knowles and Paul Hayes to help with 'treasure trove' appeals to trace owners of goods that had been recovered and which were assumed to be stolen.

Despite initial concerns about police involvement (only three forces agreed to participate at first) Crimewatch developed a special status with police and was credited with an expertise of its own, notably through Nick Ross' long experience with public appeals. Unlike the American equivalent spawned by Crimewatch, America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted

America's Most Wanted is an United States television program produced by 20th Century Fox, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Broadcasting Company....
, Crimewatch itself usually appeals for unsolved cases, inviting viewers to be armchair detectives. According to the producers about a third of its cases are solved, half of those as a direct result of viewers' calls. Its successes have included some of the Britain's most notorious crimes, including the kidnap of Stephanie Slater and murder of Julie Dart, the M25 rapist, the road-rage killing by Kenneth Noye
Kenneth Noye

Kenneth James Noye is a United Kingdom criminal who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stephen Cameron.Noye was involved in laundering the proceeds of the Brinks Mat robbery in 1983....
, and the capture of two boys for the abduction and murder of James Bulger.

About the Presenters

Presenter Year Additional Information
Nick Ross
Nick Ross

Nick Ross is a British radio and television presenter across a wide range of factual programmes but is best known for his long-running co-hosting of the BBC TV show Crimewatch which he left on 2 July 2007 after 23 years....
1984 - 2007 Known for ending each episode by reminding viewers that violent crime is actually very rare and encouraging them not to have nightmares (due to the show's late air time). His phrase, "don't have nightmares, do sleep well" has been referenced and spoofed in numerous TV shows and stand-up comedy routines.
Sue Cook
Sue Cook

Sue Cook is a United Kingdom broadcaster and author. She lives in North London with her husband, film director Ian Sharp. She has two children, Charlie Williams, son to former husband John Williams , the classical guitarist, and Megan Macqueen, daughter to children's television producer Billy Macqueen with whom she lived for almost fifteen...
1984 - 1995
Jill Dando
Jill Dando

Jill Wendy Dando was an England Journalism and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 14 years until she was murdered in April 1999. Her death sparked a huge manhunt by the Metropolitan Police and led to the trial of Barry George....
1995 - 1999 Her death was reconstructed and shown on Crimewatch, though the appeal did not result in the arrest of Barry George, who was later convicted of the killing but was acquitted on 1 August 2008.
Fiona Bruce
Fiona Bruce

Fiona Elizabeth Bruce is a Scottish people journalist, Newsreader and television presenter. Since joining the BBC in 1989, she has gone on to present many flagship programmes for the corporation including the BBC News at Ten, Crimewatch, Call My Bluff and, most recently, Antiques Roadshow and Andrew Marr Sunday Show....
1999 - 2007 Left the show to host Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow

Antiques Roadshow is a United Kingdom human interest television show in which antiques appraisals travel to various regions of the United Kingdom and appraise antiques brought in by local residents....
.
Rav Wilding
Rav Wilding

Rav Wilding is an England television presenter and former police officer who, since June 2004, has been a presenter on Crimewatch and other high profile TV Shows....
2004 - A professional policeman, who specializes on the criminals 'Caught on Camera'.
Kirsty Young
Kirsty Young

Kirsty Jackson Young is a Scotland television presenter, actress and radio presenter. She has recently left her position as head newsreader on Five News, the news programme on British television channel Five , where she had worked for most of the time since its launch in 1997....
2008 - Former newsreader for channel Five and ITV now main anchor of Crimewatch
Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew Amroliwala

Matthew Amroliwala is a BBC newsreader who presents on BBC News , the corporation's 24 hour rolling news channel, and on BBC One at the weekends....
2008 - Newsreader who presents the how they were caught? section and presents updates on previous cases covered by crimewatch

Featured Cases

Murder of Jill Dando
Jill Dando

Jill Wendy Dando was an England Journalism and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 14 years until she was murdered in April 1999. Her death sparked a huge manhunt by the Metropolitan Police and led to the trial of Barry George....
Murder of Amanda Dowler
Murder of Danielle Jones
Stabbing of Abigail Witchalls
Abigail Witchalls

Abigail Witchalls is an England woman who was left Paralysis after being stabbed in front of her 21-month old son Joseph in Surrey, England, on 20 April 2005....
Fred Lawlor
Fred Lawlor

Fred Lawlor is a convicted child abuser and murderer.He was initially sentenced, on April 6 2006, to a minimum of 15 years in prison for the abuse of a teenage girl....
, child abuser and murderer
Fiona Mont
Fiona Mont

Fiona Mont became known as "Britain's Most Wanted Woman" during a major police and media hunt for her in connection with allegations of corporate fraud....
, formerly Britain's Most Wanted Woman

See also

Traffic Cops
Traffic Cops

Traffic Cops is a real-life documentary series on BBC One which follows traffic officers from various police forces including Cheshire, Hampshire, Humberside, and South Yorkshire....
(also called Car Wars)
Police Report, similar programme in Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted

America's Most Wanted is an United States television program produced by 20th Century Fox, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Broadcasting Company....
, similar programme for the United States of America

External links