Crimewatch press comments

Nigel Andrew’s View
I remember, back in 1984, writing in the weekly magazine The Listener, of blessed memory) about a rather dubious-sounding new show that was coming up on BBC1. Inspired by an original on German TV, it proposed to combine reconstructions of crime with appeals for help from the viewing public in solving them. Yes, it was Crimewatch UK (BBC1).

Originally commissioned for just three shows, it nearly didn’t make it beyond that first run. Police forces were reluctant to take part, and it was only on the last show that a crime was finally solved. Duly reprieved and soon establishing itself, Crimewatch UK has been with us ever since (and the ever-youthful Nick Ross still presents it).

The monthly show does a good job, unfussily, and has scored many notable successes over the years in solving crimes that have gone ‘cold’. It has also given out lots of useful crime prevention advice, and reunited thousands of people with their stolen propery. It seems our initial qualms were unfounded – Crimewatch UK is a good thing.
Daily Mail 28 January 2006

Crimewatch and Punishment
Couch potatoes are the trues successors to Miss Marple
The Crimewatch series on BBC television has another conviction to add to its impressive record... Few could cavil at the programme's effectiveness. Often when the investigation of a crime has reached an apparent dead end, exposure on Crimewatch has yielded what the programme likes to call "new and exciting leads"... Clearly television has advantages in marshalling the concern and co-operation of the nation which no other medium can muster. ..The winning combination of audience participation and dramatic urgency has made happy armchair detectives of us all.
The Times editorial

One-third of Crimewatch appeals have been solved and Crimewatch Solved shows just how valuable tip-offs from the public have become.
Mary Novakovich, The Guardian

Nick Ross, whose years in appalled but stoic pursuit of consumer abusers, swindlers and thieves, have brought him to a place in the nation's hearts once occupied by Dixon of Dock Green. He is broadcasting's gently wagging finger.
Giles Smith, The Sunday Telegraph

SOMEWHERE at the back of my mind there has always been a feeling of anxiety over programmes like Crimewatch UK and its imitators. It is not that I do not wish to see villains caught. In last night's Crimewatch UK Solved there were some highly satisfactory examples of criminals being brought to book... Perhaps my suspicion of the genre has something to do with my taste for war stories as a child when 'informing' was something children in the Hitler Youth did... It is also a cause of wonder to me that people prefer to call a television programme and offer vital evidence instead of telling the police directly... (But) Crimewatch UK is entitled to its laurels.
Peter Paterson, Daily Mail